AFRICA

South Africa’s planned coronavirus vaccination campaign will be launched with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, instead of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine whose effectiveness is currently being questioned. South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced this Wednesday. On Sunday, South African authorities had suspended the start of an ambitious vaccination program, which …

As a nurse in a country battling deadly diseases, Rich Sicina sometimes vaccinates other South Africans, but he says there is no way he will take a COVID-19 shot – he doesn’t believe it will be safe or effective. South Africa’s decision on Sunday to suspend plans to roll out …

Electricity, real estate, Akon goes into mining Senegalese-born American Hip hop artist Akon has launched yet another business endeavour on the African continent. This time the impressive undertaking is in the mining industry in the Democratic Republic of Congo as he has signed a deal to finance a copper and …

President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver this year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) under a significantly altered global and domestic environment. This environment is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to sweep through the world, claiming lives and livelihoods in its wake. The new normal which all of …

Liberia’s Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s guilty verdict against a former Defence Minister, Brownie Samukai, for misusing soldiers’ pension savings funds amounting to nearly $1.2m (£870,000). Samukai and two others working under him were found guilty of unlawfully withdrawing money for unintended purposes. The court has ordered them …

Ethiopia plans to close two camps in the northern state of Tigray that have been caught in the fighting between the state’s formers ruling party and the federal government, according to the country’s refugee agency. Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, head of the Ethiopian Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs …

Davido and Burna Boy are two talented afrobeat artiste that have worked their way into the hearts of many music lovers in Nigeria and other parts of the world. However, the two acts are fiercely competing with each other regarding who is most talented, with their fans hopping on their …

South Africa has put its rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on hold after a study showed “disappointing” results against its new Covid variant. Scientists say the variant accounts for 90% of new Covid cases in South Africa. The trial, involving some 2,000 people, found that the vaccine offered “minimal protection” …

A Sierra Leone, sex workers are often seen as immoral outcasts to be shunned and avoided, even though their profession is legal. BBC Africa Eve investigates an unsolved murder of a sex worker in the country and uncovers a world where women who sell sex are often trafficked, abused, attacked …

A new case of Ebola has been identified near the city of Butembo in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the country’s health ministry has announced. A woman was found with symptoms of the deadly virus in the town of Biena on February 1, who died in hospital in …