Africa (except North Africa)

LUANDA, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The leader of Angola's main opposition party UNITA accused the government on Sunday of establishing an undemocratic one-party state, and said contesting the result of this week's election was not off the table.

Angola is gearing up for a vote on Wednesday that is likely to be the tightest since the first multi-party election in 1992. The MPLA, of current President Joao Lourenco, has governed the country since it won independence from Portugal in 1975.

MOGADISHU, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations senior envoy in Somalia on Sunday called for lasting support for the victims in Somalia amid a surge in attacks by al-Shabab militants across the country.

James Swan, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia, urged that the victims and their families be provided both immediate and longer-term support.

BULLA HAGAR, Kenya (AP) — The United States is stepping up to buy about 150,000 metric tons of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by war, the World Food Program chief has told The Associated Press.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamic militants have stormed a hotel in Somalia’s capital, engaging in an hours-long exchange of fire with the security forces that left at least 20 people dead, according to police and witnesses.

In addition, at least 40 people were wounded in the late Friday night attack and security forces rescued many others, including children, from the scene at Mogadishu’s popular Hayat Hotel, they said Saturday.

The attack started with explosions outside the hotel before the gunmen entered the building.

KINSHASA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo has pulled out of one of the largest cities in the country's east after deadly protests against its failure to protect civilians, Congolese and U.N. officials said Thursday.

Butembo, a trading hub of almost a million people, has been one of the epicentres of violent demonstrations since last month that have killed dozens, including civilians, peacekeepers and Congolese police. 

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A U.S. congressional delegation has arrived in Kenya to meet with the new president-elect and the opposition figure likely to file a court challenge to his election loss in the latest electoral crisis for East Africa’s most stable democracy.

17 August 2022; MEMO: Human rights groups asked the Israeli Defence Ministry to stop permitting a company to sell its phone hacking tool to Uganda, claiming it is used for rights abuses, Haaretz reports.

According to the report, Israeli software company, Cellebrite, has sold its UFED phone-hacking software to the Ugandan police and security services.

International human rights groups signed on to the letter sent to the Defence Ministry against arms sales to human rights violators.

NAIROBI/KISUMU, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Kenyan politician Raila Odinga rejected as a "travesty" the result of an Aug. 9 presidential election he was declared to have lost to Deputy President William Ruto and warned on Tuesday of a long legal crisis facing Kenya's democracy.

His first comments on the result came after four of the seven election commissioners said they stood by their decision a day earlier to disown figures announced by electoral commission chairman Wafula Chebukati.

MARIKANA, South Africa (AP) — A somber gathering of about 5,000 people marked the 10th anniversary of what has become known as the Marikana massacre, when police opened fire on striking miners, killing 34 in 2012.

“10 Years of Betrayal,” said T-shirts worn by many at the commemoration, expressing bitterness that those killed have not received justice and that promises of better pay and conditions for the miners have not been fulfilled.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s electoral commission chairman has declared Deputy President William Ruto the winner of the close presidential election over five-time contender Raila Odinga, a triumph for the man who shook up politics by appealing to struggling Kenyans on economic terms and not on traditional ethnic ones.

Ruto received 50.49% of the vote, the chairman said, while Odinga received 48.85%.