Africa (except North Africa)

NAIROBI, March 2 (NNN-Xinhua/KBC) — The Kenyan government urged its citizens not to victimize foreigners in the country due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Health, told journalists in Nairobi that there have been incidences where locals have been mistreating guests from other countries due to racial profiling.

LUSAKA (Reuters) - The United States will give Zambia a new one year bilateral grant of $389 million for AIDS relief starting in October after Congressional approval, Zambia’s ministry of health said in a statement.

The grant under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) follows a meeting on Zambia which was held last week in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“The meeting reviewed key policies, strategies and activities to be undertaken toward the goal of achieving epidemic control of HIV,” the statement said.

PRETORIA, March 1 (NNN-SANEWS) — President Cyril Ramaphosa has directed the repatriation of South African citizens from Wuhan city in Hubei province, China.

KIGALI, Feb 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Women now constitute 55 per cent of cabinet seats, up from 52 per cent. The development follows Wednesday’s cabinet reshuffle which saw eight new faces, including four women, join cabinet.

Members of cabinet have also increased from 27 to 29 following the creation of two new positions at the level of state minister.

The new cabinet line-up includes 16 women.

The constitution requires that either gender must be represented at any decision-making organ at no less than 30 per cent.

NAIROBI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) train service that marked 1,000 days of seamless operations on Tuesday has fueled Kenya's economic modernization, an expert has said.

Sammy Kwinga, a Nairobi-based political scientist said that Kenya's gross domestic product(GDP) and its attractiveness to investors has gone up since the launch of SGR commuter and freight services along the 480-kilometer Mombasa-Nairobi transport corridor.

KAMPALA, Feb 27 (NNN-Xinhua) — Health experts from 17 African countries met here to discuss strategies to eliminate yellow fever epidemic on the continent.

Ruth Aceng, Uganda’s minister of health, told reporters that most African countries are grappling with yellow fever outbreaks.

Among the strategies is to have epidemiological data that will guide the introduction of the yellow fever vaccine into the routine immunization for countries that are interested, Aceng said.

VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Wednesday warned that the recently-launched Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) faces climate change risks that could prevent the continent from gaining maximum trade benefits from the agreement.

The gains from the AfCFTA were not guaranteed due to the impact of climate change, said David Luke, a senior trade expert of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), at a side meeting of the sixth Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in Victoria Falls.

26 Feb 2020; MEMO: In an attempt to win votes in the upcoming elections, current Likud government brought 43 Jews from the Falashmura community in Ethiopia, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday.

The new immigrants travelled from Addis Ababa airport to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport in Israel, where they were reunited with family members who are already in Israel.

LOME, Feb 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Togo President Faure Gnassingbe has won a fourth term in power, according to provisional results declared by the national electoral commission. 

He took 72 percent of the vote share in the first round of the presidential election, the commission said, far ahead of former prime minister Agbeyome Kodjo, with 18 percent, who had also claimed victory after Saturday’s vote. 

MASERU (Reuters) - Lesotho’s Prime Minister Thomas Thabane appeared in court on Monday to hear charges of murdering his estranged wife, a Reuters witness saw.

Thabane had initially been scheduled to hear the charges on Friday, but left to South Africa instead for what aides said was a medical appointment.

He is suspected of involvement in the murder of his then-wife Lipolelo, who shot dead in June 2017, two days before he took office for a second stint as premier.