AFRICA

SpaceX is due to make its second attempt at launching a private, crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday night, South African time. The launch is due to take place at 21:22, SA time. The first attempt, on Wednesday night SA time, was aborted due to weather …

A security guard was shot dead and another injured when they came under attack from armed robbers in Cape Town. The two were ambushed inside their stationary vehicle on Saturday morning. Police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut said the victims were travelling in their vehicle when they experienced a mechanical problem …

Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr said it is hard for his team to win the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations because they are not the best team on the continent. The German tactician recently agreed to a two-and-a-half-year deal to continue his work as the handler of the three-time African champions, …

Nigeria’s Air Force Institute of Technology, based in Kaduna, has unveiled locally made ventilators that it hopes will be a game changer in the country’s fight against Covid-19. “The ventilators will go a long way to help not only coronavirus patients but also others with respiratory illnesses,” the leader of …

The Minerals Commission’s Alternative Livelihood Project on Oil Palm for 2020 planting season, will distribute over 1,057,000 oil palm seedlings freely to farmers in mining districts in the Eastern region. These seedlings are targeted at the youth to discourage them from engaging in illegal mining. This was made known during …

A fire tore through an overcrowded maximum security prison in Cameroon’s port city of Douala on Thursday leading to the hospitalisation of three prisoners with serious burns, a local fire chief said. Firefighters backed up by police were able to contain the blaze and stop it spreading beyond New Bell …

Sex workers living with HIV in Uganda have stopped taking their medication because of a lack of food and income as restrictions have left them with no clients. The government has been giving food aid to some of those who are most affected by the restrictions that have been in …

Two UN peacekeepers in Mali have died from the coronavirus, officials said Friday. Out of the some 100,000 UN troops deployed on about 15 different missions around the world, these two are the first whose deaths were directly linked to the pandemic. “Unfortunately, I also want to say that yesterday …

A Chief Magistrates’ Court in Kafanchan, Kaduna State has jailed a 35-year-old man, Abdullahi Sani, and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Paul, for stealing 64 chickens. The police charged Sani and Paul with criminal conspiracy, housebreaking, theft and mischief, contrary to sections 58, 332, 270 and 312 of the Kaduna State …

An Ethiopian soldier shot a man dead in front of several people after his phone rang during a public meeting, Amnesty International says. It is one of many incidents the rights watchdog recorded from a security crackdown in Oromia regional state at the end of 2018 and 2019. This was …