Africa (except North Africa)

YAOUNDE, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon and Sinosteel Cam S.A., a subsidiary of the China's multinational Sinosteel Corporation Ltd., on Friday signed a convention that will enable the company to invest more than 700 million U.S. dollars at an iron ore project in Cameroon's South region.

Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development Gabriel Dodo Ndoke and General Manager of Sinosteel Cam S.A. Zheng Zhenghao conducted the signing at the Congress hall in Yaounde, capital of Cameroon.

HARARE, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe on Tuesday reopened schools for the second term, in hopes of restoring a normal school calendar in which pupils will be attending classes five days a week as COVID-19 infections and related deaths have kept declining in the country over the past few months.

NAIROBI, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government Monday declared a month-long night curfew and security operations in Marsabit County in northern part of the country to enhance security disarmament exercise over rising insecurity.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i also said Komu Sub County in neighboring Isiolo County and Sololo area near the Kenya-Ethiopia border will also be affected by the dusk to dawn curfew.

NAIROBI, May 1 (NNN-KBC) — Education ministers at the 21st Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) in Nairobi, Kenya, have issued a joint statement in which they recognised the urgent need to increase investment in education and skills at all ages, with particular focus on ensuring foundational skills for all.

JOHANNESBURG, April 30 (Reuters) - Indian agrochemicals manufacturer UPL Ltd (UPLL.NS) has applied for permission to flush water contaminated by a toxic pesticides spill in South Africa's city of Durban directly into the sea or the sewerage system, the company said on Saturday.

The municipal authorities have judged the pesticides -- which were being contained in a dam that overflowed during devastating floods that struck the eastern port city earlier this month -- as being "highly toxic to the environment".

LUSAKA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Zambian on Wednesday launched a mechanism aimed at unlocking the potential of the private sector as a driver of economic development and job creation.

The Public-Private Dialogue Forum (PPDF) will act as a structured mechanism for interactions between the public and the private sector in tackling bottlenecks that have hindered the growth of the private sector.

CAPE TOWN, April 26 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday revealed that the government is mobilizing substantial funding to help recovery from recent catastrophic floods in three provinces, including the worst-hit KwaZulu-Natal, while the country's fiscal environment is "severely constrained."

KINSHASA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reported a second case of Ebola in the northwestern part of the country after declaring a new Ebola outbreak over the weekend, confirmed Tuesday the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Health authorities in the DRC confirmed a second case of Ebola in Mbandaka on April 25. The 25-year-old woman, now deceased, began experiencing symptoms 12 days earlier," tweeted WHO regional office for Africa, adding that the second case was the sister-in-law of the first case patient who had also died.

NAIROBI, April 25 (Reuters) - Rebellious Tigrayan forces are completely withdrawing from the neighbouring region of Afar in Ethiopia, a rebel spokesperson told Reuters on Monday, saying he hoped it meant that desperately needed food aid could finally pour into famine-hit Tigray.

"Our forces have left all of Afar," Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for the Tigray People's Liberation Front, told Reuters on Monday.

Reuters could not immediately independently confirm Getachew's statement.

BAMAKO/OUAGADOUGOU, April 24 (Reuters) - Fifteen soldiers and six civilians were killed on Sunday in attacks in Mali and Burkina Faso, neighbouring West African countries struggling with deadly jihadist insurgencies, military and security sources said.

Suicide bombers drove cars packed with explosives into three military camps in central Mali before dawn, the military said in a statement. Six were killed and 15 wounded at the Sevare camp, and five were wounded at two other locations.