Africa (except North Africa)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Burundi is pushing ahead with an election on Wednesday that will end the president’s divisive and bloody 15-year rule.

When President Pierre Nkurunziza hands over power, it could be the first truly peaceful transfer of authority in the East African nation since independence in 1962.

OUAGADOUGOU,  May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Burkina Faso prosecutor has launched an investigation after 12 people died during the same night in detention cells, hours after they were arrested for suspected terrorism-related offences in a town in the east of the country.

The case comes weeks after advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it believed Burkina Faso security forces summarily executed 31 unarmed detainees during operations against Islamist militants.

NAIROBI, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — There is a plan for Kenyan troops to leave Somalia by December next year, local newspaper Daily Nation has reported, citing a new book by just retired military chief Samson Mwathethe.

The exit plan includes first ensuring the Somali army can take over security from the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), which is also made up of troops from Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Burundi.

The strategy cites the creation of a buffer zone free of fighters from the al-Shabaab militant group along the Kenya-Somalia border.

PORT LOUIS, May 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mauritius declared wary victory in its first battle with coronavirus, saying it had “zero” active patients and had not documented a single new case in 17 days.

The Indian Ocean island nation initially surged ahead of other eastern African countries in terms of caseload, hitting a peak of 332 just shy of six weeks into its outbreak. Ten people died.

HARARE, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A team of 12 Chinese doctors have arrived in Zimbabwe to help in the fight against coronavirus.

The southern Africa nation has confirmed 36 cases in total and four deaths.

The doctors, from China’s Hunan Province, arrived in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, on Monday with test kits and protective gear, the state-run Herald newspaper reports.

The 12 doctors have “front-line experience in the prevention and control of Covid-19”, Chinese state-owned China Global Television Network reports.

LUSAKA/DAR ES SALAAM, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Zambia temporarily shut its border with Tanzania to enhance measures against the spread of the new coronavirus, delaying its main copper exports via Dar es Salaam, a minister said.

President Edgar Lungu on Sunday directed the closure after the border town of Nakonde recorded 76 cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, the highest number registered by Africa’s No.2 copper producer in a single day.

ABUJA, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) —The authorities in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern Rivers state have demolished two hotels over an alleged breach of lockdown rules intended to contain the spread of coronavirus.

State Governor Nyesom Wike, who supervised the tearing down of Edemete Hotel and Prodest Home on Sunday, said the operators had flouted an order that hotels should be closed.

LOME, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Togo reported an outbreak of African swine fever in a farm northwest of the capital Lome, where 44 pigs have died of the disease since April 18.

“Analyses at the Lome central veterinary laboratory have confirmed the presence of the African swine fever virus in this breeding farm,” said the agriculture ministry in a statement.

It added that the government took a series of prevention and disinfection measures to curb the spread of the disease, including the slaughter of all pigs in the farm area.

JOHANNESBURG, May 11 (Xinhua) -- More than 900 undocumented migrants from Southern African countries were deported to their original nations last week, said a South African official on Monday.

Bongani Bongo, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs of Parliament, revealed this during a visit to the Lindela Repatriation Center for undocumented migrants in Gauteng.

The visit came after 37 illegal foreigners escaped from the center.

9 May 2020; MEMO: Ethiopia has signed a deal to build a new dam along with other works for 2.5 billion Ethiopian birr ($76 million), The New Khalij reported on Friday.

The Ethiopian Irrigation Development Commission has awarded the construction of irrigation facilities to three contractors: Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation, Sur Construction plc, and Afar Water Works Construction Enterprise.