Africa (except North Africa)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A stampede during New Year’s celebrations at a popular mall in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, left at least nine people dead, including children, police said Sunday.

The stampede happened at the Freedom City Mall in Namasuba suburb as revelers rushed to watch fireworks.

The Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire, said the incident appeared to have occurred at midnight “when an event emcee encouraged attendees to go outside and watch a fireworks display.”

30 Dec 2022; MEMO: Somalia's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources on Wednesday warned British company Genel Energy Plc against oil exploration in the Somaliland regions in the north of the country, Anadolu Agency reported.

The warning came in a press release issued by the ministry after the British company announced it had concluded an oil exploration agreement with Somaliland.

NAIROBI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - U.S. air safety experts say Ethiopian inspectors investigating the cause of an Ethiopian Airlines' crash that killed nearly 160 people in 2019 did not pay enough attention to crew training and emergency procedures in their report.

The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in dissenting comments included in the Ethiopian report, disagreed with at least two key findings of the investigation into the crash of a Boeing 737-MAX flight.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 26 (Reuters) - The death toll from a gas tanker that exploded in Johannesburg on Saturday has nearly doubled to fifteen, authorities said, adding that they'd arrested the driver and charged him with culpable homicide.

The blast, which tore the roof off the emergency department at the Tambo Memorial hospital, destroyed two houses, several cars and injured bystanders, occurred when the vehicle caught fire while under a low bridge on Christmas Eve.

NAIROBI, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were shot and killed by suspected al-Shabab militants in Kenya's coastal region of Lamu on Sunday evening, a government official confirmed on Monday.

Several houses in the area were also torched by the attackers in the Pandaguo area, Coast Regional Commissioner John Elungata said.

The assailants, who attacked the village at around 8 p.m. Sunday, were repulsed by police reservists after a heavy gunfight, the commissioner said.

LUSAKA, Dec 25 (NNN-ZANIS) – Zambia, on Friday, announced the results of its first-ever electronic national census, which indicated the country’s population stood at 19.6 million, up from 13.1 million in 2010.

The sixth census of population and housing was conducted between Aug 18 and Sept 14, 2022.

According to preliminary results, announced by the Zambia Statistics Agency, out of the 19,610,769 people that were counted, 10,007,713 were female while 9,603,056 were male.

HARARE, Dec 25 (NNN-XINHUA ) – Zimbabwe and China have renewed their extradition treaty with effect from Dec 23, 2022, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Kazembe Kazembe, said.

The two countries first signed the treaty in 2018. Under the treaty, each country undertakes to extradite to the other, those found in its territory and wanted by the other country for trial on criminal charges, for a crime common to both countries, or to serve their sentence, if they have already been tried, the Herald newspaper reported, yesterday.

DAR ES SALAAM, Dec 25 (NNN-XINHUA) – Tanzania’s railway authorities, signed an agreement with two Chinese companies, for the second phase of the construction of the 506-km standard gauge railway (SGR), from Tabora to Kigoma region.

The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, together with the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, signed the agreement, which was witnessed by Tanzanian President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, at the State House, in the port city of Dar es Salaam.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa was coming to grips Sunday with the full extent of the destruction and deaths caused by a Christmas Eve tanker truck explosion near Johannesburg as officials reported the death toll rising to 15.

The truck was carrying gas when it got stuck under a low-lying bridge in the town of Boksburg, on Saturday, sparking flames. As firefighters worked to extinguish the flames the tanker exploded, according to emergency services officials..

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of 10 people died on the scene and approximately 50 others were injured after a gas explosion in Boksburg in South Africa's largest city of Johannesburg Saturday morning, local authorities said.

William Ntladi, a spokesperson for Ekurhuleni Emergency Management Services, told Xinhua that they received a report that a gas truck was stuck under a bridge in Boksburg at around 7:50 a.m.