Africa (except North Africa)

BENI (DR Congo), July 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Seven Congolese soldiers were killed in an ambush Tuesday in the Virunga national park famous for its mountain gorillas, monitors said, blaming the attack on the notorious ADF militia.

Army spokesman Antony Mualushayi confirmed the report by the Kivu Security Tracker (KST) but declined to give a death toll or comment further.

The attack took place in Virunga, east of Kididiwe in the Beni area of North Kivu province in the far east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the border with Uganda.

MOGADISHU, June 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Somalia’s parliament ousted Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire in a no-confidence vote, as a simmering power struggle between him and the president came to the fore.

Khaire and President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed have been tussling over whether to delay a national election due in February next year, with the prime minister insisting it go ahead and the president favouring postponement.

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - A Tanzanian opposition leader and potential presidential candidate said on Monday he had started his return journey to the East African nation, days after police warned his supporters against gathering unlawfully to welcome him.

Tundu Lissu, a fierce critic of President John Magufuli’s government, was shot 16 times in an attack by unknown gunmen outside his residence in the administrative capital Dodoma in September 2017.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya’s national police service has arrested two police officers and opened an investigation after “a shooting incident” in the eastern county of Garissa, the police service said on Sunday.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), a body set up to investigate cases of police brutality, has also sent its investigators to Garissa, it said late on Saturday.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s COVID-19 response is marred by corruption allegations around its historic $26 billion economic relief package, as the country with the world’s fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases braces for more.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a wide-ranging investigation into claims that unscrupulous officials and private companies are looting efforts to protect the country’s 57 million people.

“More so than at any other time, corruption puts our lives at risk,” he said in a national address Thursday night.

ACCRA, July 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Some members of the Ghana Union of Traders Associations (GUTA) on Friday clashed with Nigerian traders who are operating illegally at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle despite GUTA’s directive for them to remain closed until they provide legal documents.

The scuffle once again was about the infiltration of foreigners into Ghana’s retail business which by law is a reserve of only Ghanians or foreigners with proper documentation.

23 July 2020; MEMO: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday hailed the mini Africa summit held to discuss the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD).

ABUJA, July 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 23 soldiers have been killed in an ambush in northwestern Nigeria.

Armed militants opened fire on the soldiers as they walked through a forested part of the Jibia district in Katsina State, security sources said.

So far, the bodies of 23 soldiers have been accounted for while some are still missing. The toll could be higher as a search for missing soldiers is under way.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A new snapshot of the frantic global response to the coronavirus pandemic shows some of the world’s largest government donors of humanitarian aid are buckling under the strain: Funding commitments, for the virus and otherwise, have dropped by a third from the same period last year.

The analysis by the U.K.-based Development Initiatives, obtained in advance by The Associated Press, offers a rare real-time look at the notoriously difficult to track world of aid.

21 July 2020; MEMO: The African Union is chairing a virtual meeting between leaders from Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan in the latest attempt to reach an agreement over the Renaissance Dam.

Leaders of the three countries have held multiple talks hosted by various leaders and institutions over the past ten years, but little progress has been made.