Africa (except North Africa)

MOGADISHU, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations said Sunday it has closed its passenger operations facility (Movcon) at the Aden Adde International Airport in the Somali capital, Mogadishu following a directive from the government.

The United Nations Assistance Mission (UNSOM) said it regretted Thursday's closure of the terminal which was apparently prompted by allegations that have yet to be presented to the UN in detail to permit an inquiry.

OUAGADOUGOU, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Forty-one people had been killed in an ambush carried out on Thursday by armed terrorist groups against a column of civilian fighters from the homeland defense volunteers (VDP), in Burkina Faso's northern Lorum province, government spokesman Alkassoum Maiga announced Saturday in a statement.

According to the same source, the identification of the victims is still underway by the national gendarmerie.

The government strongly condemns this barbarity, and the president has decreed national mourning of forty-eight hours on Sunday and Monday.

BENI, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people have died in a suicide bomber explosion late Saturday, in the middle of the Christmas celebration, in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), said hospital sources on Sunday morning.

In a provisional assessment provided on Saturday night by General Ekenge Sylvain, spokesman for the governor of the North Kivu province, at least six people, including the suicide bomber, were killed and 13 others wounded in this "terrorist attack" in the city of Beni.

26 Dec 2021; MEMO: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and veteran of South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle died on Sunday at the age of 90, the presidency said.

"The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation's farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa," President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

"Desmond Tutu was a patriot without equal."

BENI, Congo (AP) — A suicide bomber attacked a restaurant and bar Saturday as patrons gathered on Christmas Day, killing at least six others in an eastern Congolese town where Islamic extremists are known to be active.

Heavy gunfire rang out shortly after the bomb went off, with panicked crowds fleeing the town’s center.

HARARE, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's largest coal mine Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) said Friday it has contracted German-based company DTM to help extinguish underground coal seam fires.

"DTM is the only company, which offered its services for managing the fires using modern and cost-effective methods among other companies, which HCCL consulted," HCCL Managing Director Charles Zinyemba said in a statement.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, DTM's necessary interventions have been postponed from November to the first quarter of 2022, Zinyemba said.

HARARE, Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Shale clinic in Umzingwane district, Matabeleland South in Zimbabwe has temporarily shut down after nurses complained of being sexually assaulted by invisible creatures at the institution.

The clinic was commissioned in February this year.

Villagers used to walk several kilometers, some to as far as Esigodini to access health services before the clinic was opened.

Teachers at nearby schools are reportedly also being sexually assaulted.

KAMPALA, Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Starting January 2022, the government with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) is set to conduct mass polio immunization across the country targeting an estimated 8 million children aged below 5.

Ministry of Health spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona says the national immunization campaign will be conducted house-to-house from the second week of January to ensure that the targeted population is covered.

LILONGWE, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera on Tuesday announced a comprehensive plan that will cover the period between 2021 and 2023 to help the country's economy recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 Socio-Economic Recovery Plan (SERP) will "stimulate strategic parts of the economy with various interventions" and help the country stay the course with the Malawi 2063 First 10-year Implementation Plan, the Malawian leader said in a national address.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s noticeable drop in new COVID-19 cases in recent days may signal that the country’s dramatic omicron-driven surge has passed its peak, medical experts say.

Daily virus case counts are notoriously unreliable, as they can be affected by uneven testing, reporting delays and other fluctuations. But they are offering one tantalizing hint — far from conclusive yet — that omicron infections may recede quickly after a ferocious spike.