Africa (except North Africa)

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Around $1 trillion of debt owed by developing countries should be cancelled under a global deal proposed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Thursday to help them overcome the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The world’s developing economies, which were already struggling with a rapidly growing debt burden, now confront a record global downturn, plummeting prices for their oil and commodities exports and weakening local currencies.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Fourteen members of a religious sect aiming to revive the pre-colonial Kongo kingdom died during clashes with the police and locals in western Democratic Republic of Congo, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The Bundu dia Mayala (BDM) sect wants to restore the kingdom that thrived for centuries around the mouth of the Congo River and includes portions of Congo, Congo Republic, Angola and Gabon.

MAPUTO, April 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A shadowy militant group that has terrorised northern Mozambique killed 52 villagers on April 7 after locals refused to be recruited to their ranks, according to police cited by local media Tuesday.

“Recently, the criminals tried to recruit young people to join their ranks, but there was resistance on the part of the youths. This provoked the anger of the criminals, who indiscriminately killed — cruelly and diabolically — 52 young people,” police spokesman Orlando Mudumane told the state-owned broadcasting service.

YAOUNDE, April 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) —Cameroon has admitted that soldiers acting alongside a militia shot dead 13 civilians, including 10 children, in the restive north-west of the country.

Officials had initially denied the army was involved in the killings in Ntumbo in February.

In a statement, Cameroon’s presidency said three soldiers along with members of a vigilante group had stormed a separatist rebel base.

It suggested the deaths were accidental but soldiers tried to cover them up.

BENI (DRCongo), April 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An Ebola flare-up in eastern Congo may spread again after a patient escaped from a clinic, complicating efforts to contain the disease that has infected six people since last week, the World Health Organization said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo was two days away from declaring the end of the world’s second-largest Ebola epidemic when a new chain of infection was discovered on April 10, following more than seven weeks without a new case.

Since then, health authorities have sought to contain any renewed spread of infections.

JOHANNESBURG, April 21 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday night revealed that 500 billion rand (26.3 billion U.S. dollars) would be devoted to relief and economic stimulus measures to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are announcing this evening a massive social relief and economic support package of R500 billion, which amounts to around 10% of GDP," Ramaphosa said in his TV address.

21 April 2020; AFP: The president of Madagascar Andry Rajoelina has officially launched a local herbal remedy claimed to prevent and cure the novel coronavirus.

"Tests have been carried out -- two people have now been cured by this treatment," Rajoelina told ministers, diplomats and journalists at the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), which developed the beverage.

"This herbal tea gives results in seven days," he said.

MASERU, April 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Following the intervention of South African mediators, politicians in Lesotho have pledged “a dignified retirement” for the country’s embattled prime minister.

Thomas Thabane has been under pressure to step down over allegations he had a hand in the murder of his estranged wife in 2017.

Exactly what has been proposed in order to end the political crisis in Lesotho has not been made public.

KANO (Nigeria), April 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Bandits killed 47 people in coordinated attacks against several farming villages in Katsina State, northern Nigeria, the president’s office and local police said.

Men on motorbikes carried out “organised and simultaneous attacks”, on the villages, Katsina state police spokesman Gambo Isah said in a statement.

The predawn raids Saturday targetted villages in the Dutsenma, Danmusa and Safana districts, he added.

MAPUTO, April 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — One of Brazil’s most wanted criminals has been sent home from Mozambique to face justice.

Gilberto Aparecido dos Santos was allegedly a leader of one of Brazil’s most powerful criminal groups – São Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang.

The alleged drug baron known as ‘Fuminho’, had been on the run for more than two decades.

He is accused of overseeing the flow of cocaine around the world.