Africa (except North Africa)

LUANDA, Jan 10 (NNN-Xinhua) — Heavy rains that struck Angola early this week have left 41 people dead and caused widespread destruction, Interior Minister Eugenio Cesar Laborinho said.

In remarks to the press at the first meeting of the National Civil Protection Commission, the minister said the country has been witnessing heavy rainfall in recent days, which has caused flooding, destruction of infrastructure and crops and above all, the loss of people’s lives.

08 Jan 2019; MEMO: An Egyptian delegation is in Addis Ababa to attend the last of four technical meetings on operating and filling the Renaissance Dam after months of tension between Egypt and Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is building a $5 million dam near the border with Sudan it says will provide the country with much needed electricity and economic regeneration.

KINSHASA, Jan 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 6,000 people died since the start of 2019 as a result of the “world’s worst measles epidemic” raging across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A lack of funding, according to the WHO, remains a major obstacle in the control of the epidemic. Only 27.6 million U.S. dollars have been raised, but around 310,000 suspected cases of measles have been reported since the outbreak of the disease, said the statement.

ABUJA, Jan 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Muhammadu Buhari charged Nigerians to be united in their resolve to fight terrorism and ensure peace reigns in the country.

The president also said that citizens must ensure they do not subscribe to the terrorists’ message of division, adding that doing the contrary would embolden what the terrorists wish, which is for “Nigerians to see their beliefs as a reason to turn against one another.”

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist militant group al Shabaab said it was responsible for a bomb blast on Wednesday near the presidential palace and other government buildings in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu that city authorities said had killed three people.

The attack appeared to be part of an intensified campaign over the past two weeks by the al Qaeda ally in Somalia and neighboring Kenya, which have porous borders and often ad hoc methods for sharing intelligence.

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 7 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — The Ethiopian parliament has approved amendments to the country’s controversial anti-terrorist legislation.

The new version has more concise language as opposed to the old one whose wording was criticised as vague by activists and human rights organisations.

Prior to April 2018, the government routinely used the law to detain and charge activists, journalists and opposition politicians.

PRETORIA, Jan 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A severe drought is threatening South Africa’s wildlife industry, with game farmers keeping fewer animals and tourists visiting game lodges in smaller numbers.

Parts of the country have been affected by consecutive years of abnormally hot weather and below average rainfall that have scorched grazing lands and dried up watering holes since 2015, the driest year on record.

NAIROBI, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan military on Sunday vowed to pursue al-Shabab terrorists after a foiled attack at its airstrip which its soldiers use along with U.S. forces in the coastal region of Lamu.

Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) spokesman Paul Njuguna also confirmed that five al-Shabab terrorists were killed in the 5:30 a.m. attack at Manda Airstrip in Lamu county in which the extremist group claimed responsibility.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Al-Shabab extremists overran a key military base used by U.S. counterterror forces in Kenya before dawn Sunday, killing three American Department of Defense personnel and destroying several U.S. aircraft and vehicles before they were repelled, U.S. and Kenyan authorities said.

The attack on the Manda Bay Airfield was the al-Qaida-linked group’s first attack against U.S. forces in the East African country, and the military called the security situation “fluid” several hours after the assault.

LAGOS, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed and four others injured in a gas explosion in the city of Kaduna, northern Nigeria, on Saturday, local police told Xinhua.

Kaduna police spokesman Yakubu Sabo, who confirmed the casualty figures to Xinhua on the phone, said the explosion emanated from a roadside gas vending shop in the business area of the town of Sabon Tasha, affecting passersby and shop owners.