Africa (except North Africa)

KAMPALA, June 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) –Uganda’s Agriculture ministry has received donations of 20 tons of pesticides, sprayers and protective gear from the Chinese government to help in fighting locusts.

Uganda had asked the government of the People’s Republic of China for support to fight the invasive pests. Vincent Ssempijja, the Agriculture minister, in a statement applauded the Chinese government for responding to their call for support.

BUJUMBURA, June 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Burundi convened an extraordinary cabinet meeting Thursday to discuss a way forward after the sudden death of long-serving ruler Pierre Nkurunziza left many anxious over the future of the troubled country.

Nkurunziza, who died on Monday aged 55, had been due to step down in August after his surprise decision not to run in an election last month won by the ruling party’s handpicked successor.

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Twelve Ivorian soldiers were killed and seven wounded in an attack at a northern border post near Burkina Faso early on Thursday, a senior officer at the army chief of staff’s office said.

Two other military gendarmes are reported missing, while one assailant was killed. The assailants were believed to have come from Burkina Faso, said the officer, speaking to Reuters by phone.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Collins Khosa was killed by law enforcement officers in a poor township in Johannesburg over a cup of beer left in his yard. The 40-year-old black man was choked, slammed against a wall, beaten, kicked and hit with the butt of a rifle by the soldiers as police watched, his family says.

BUNIA (DR Congo), June 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nine civilians, five of them children, were killed late Tuesday in the eastern DR Congo province of Ituri, where some 1,000 civilians have been massacred since late 2017, local sources said.

The killing was the latest attributed to an ethnic militia called CODECO, the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, in the restive province.

They raided the village of Lenga in Djugu territory where they “killed nine civilians and wounded another,” Charite Banza, the local civil society president, said.

ADDIS ABABA, June 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ethiopia’s upper house of parliament has agreed to extend the prime minster and government’s term in office beyond October because elections have been delayed.

Polls were due to be held in August – the first since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018 – but officials have postponed them because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The country’s nine regional governments have also had their terms extended in a binding ruling by the House of Federation.

BUJUMBURA, June 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Burundi’s outgoing President, Pierre Nkurunziza, died of a heart attack at a hospital in east-central Burundi, a government statement issued here on Tuesday.

Nkurunziza watched a volleyball match in Ngozi Province in the afternoon of June 6, before being taken to a hospital in Karusi Province for treatment, as he felt discomfort in the evening, the statement said.

09 June 2020; MEMO: The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abe Ahmed said that “the decision to fill the Renaissance Dam is irreversible.” He added that Addis Ababa will not go to war with Sudan as the two countries “agree on the settlement of border disputes.”

He added that his country is not seeking to harm others, pointing out that the Renaissance Dam is mainly aimed at the development of Ethiopia, according to statements broadcasted by Al-Arabiya TV channel.

NAIROBI, June 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta has extended a nationwide overnight curfew by another 30 days after warning that ending it risked tens of thousands of additional coronavirus deaths.

But the nightly curfew will be three hours shorter, running from 21:00 to 04:00, and several areas that had been under lockdown will now reopen.

HARGEISA, June 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The self-declared republic of Somaliland has freed controversial Somali journalist Abdimalik Muse Oldon following a presidential amnesty.

Oldon had been behind bars for more than 13 months. He was found guilty of defamation and spreading false news by a court in Hargeisa in July 2019 and sentenced to three and half years in prison.

He has repeatedly denied all the charges and his lawyers termed the judgement as injustice.