Africa (except North Africa)

CONAKRY, March 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Opposition activists in Guinea say at least 10 people have been killed in street clashes during Sunday’s controversial referendum on a new constitution.

Critics said the vote was a ploy by President Alpha Condé to stay in power beyond his mandate.

The deaths occurred in the capital, Conakry, where police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

CAPE TOWN, March 25 (NNN-XINHUA) — South Africa’s coronavirus cases surged to 554 on Tuesday amid an imminent national lockdown, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.

This was an increase of 152 from Monday’s announcement, the highest rise in a single day since the country reported its first case on March 5.

The majority of these cases are in a “good condition” and most are not symptomatic, the minister said.

Two patients are in critical condition in private hospitals, but there is no reported death so far, the minister said in his latest update.

HARARE, March 25 (NNN-XINHUA) — With demand far outstripping supply, prices for essential products needed to contain the spread of COVID-19 are on the rise as the virus takes its first life in Zimbabwe.

In most supermarkets at the capital Harare, face masks and sanitizers were in acute short supply, and in all the pharmacies they were available they were being offered at exorbitant prices.

MAPUTO (Reuters) - Sixty-four people believed to be migrants from Ethiopia have been found dead in a container attached to a truck in Mozambique, provincial migration authorities and the police said on Tuesday.

Police and immigration authorities stopped the truck en route from Malawi in the early hours of the morning in the province of Tete, bordered by Malawi on one side and Zimbabwe on the other, they said.

DAKAR, Mar 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Senegalese President, Macky Sall, declared a state of emergency, to curb the spread of COVID-19 in his country, where a total of 79 cases have been reported.

“As of midnight tonight, I declare a state of emergency across the national territory,” the president said, in his speech to the nation, adding that, the state of emergency across national territory, together with a curfew, is to raise the level of response to the spread of COVID-19.

23 March 2020; AFP: At least 10 people were killed in clashes Sunday between police and protesters, opposition activists said, as Guinea held a bitterly disputed referendum that critics say is a ploy by the president to stay in power.

Anti-government forces came under fire by security forces who "carried out massive arrests, fired blindly, cruelly molested (and) killed at least 10 people," the FNDC, an umbrella opposition group, said in a statement.

22 March 2020; AFP: Voters in the West African state Guinea were being called to the polls on Sunday for a bitterly-disputed referendum that critics say is a ploy by President Alpha Conde to stay in power.

Conde is proposing a change to the constitution to codify gender equality and introduce other social reforms.

But his opponents fear the real motive is to reset presidential term limits, allowing Conde, 82, to run for a third spell in office later this year -- a scenario that his government has not discounted.

LAMU, Kenya, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan soldiers on Saturday repulsed an attack by suspected al-Shabab terrorists who tried to force their way into a construction camp at Milihoi area, a renowned terror hotspot along the coastal Lamu-Garsen road.

Lamu county police commander Moses Murithi said on Sunday the camp belongs to the H-Young company that is currently undertaking the construction of the 135km stretch road.

Murithi said a group of over ten armed militants was however successfully repulsed by the Kenya Defense Force (KDF) soldiers in a daring raid at around 9 am.

WINDHOEK, Mar 22 (NNN-XINHUA) – Namibian President, Hage Geingob, was sworn in yesterday, for his second and last term, coinciding with the country’s 30th independence celebration.

Geingob underscored the need for unity among Namibians, and also thanked the other presidents from other African countries, who attended the inauguration.

“I am glad you are here to celebrate our triumph over oppression. The independence of Namibia will not have been attained, without the front-line states and Nigeria. I pay tribute to the international community for the support,” he said.

KIGALI, Mar 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Rwanda announced that, it suspended tourism and research activities in three primate-dominated national parks effective immediately.

Tourism and research activities have been temporarily suspended in and around three national parks of primates, namely, Volcanoes, Mukura-Gishwati and Nyungwe, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rwanda Development Board said in a statement.