AFRICA

Kenyan boy shot dead as virus curfew enforced

Kenya’s police chief has ordered an investigation into the death of a 13-year-old boy said to have been shot on Monday evening as police enforced a curfew. The child was playing on the balcony of his parent’s house in a slum in the capital, Nairobi, when police fired live bullets …

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Coronavirus: What the world can learn from Ebola fight

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who made history as Africa’s first elected female president, led Liberia for 12 years including during the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak that killed nearly 5,000 people in her country. The BBC asked the Nobel Peace Laureate for her reflections on the current coronavirus crisis. Dear fellow citizens of …

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Give me my daughter, she’ll go and die in my house – Father of coronavirus patient

A Nigerian man who was seen complaining over the poor condition of an isolation center where his daughter with coronavirus is being held has asked them to discharge her so she could go die in his house. In a video that has since been going viral across the internet, the …

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Sierra Leone’s ex-Defence Minister charged with treason 

A Sierra Leonean former minister has been charged with treason for walking into the president’s house with a gun ahead of a meeting on coronavirus preparedness. Ex-Defence Minister Paolo Conteh was charged with 16 counts of treason in a Freetown court on Monday. The charges were read out to him, …

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SA pensioners die waiting for grant payouts

Two pensioners in South Africa died on Monday as they were hoping to collect money from the government in the form of social grants. One reportedly died as they were waiting in a queue in Hammersdale, a suburb of Durban, and the other died in a taxi en route to …

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Pastor charged for denying coronavirus exists in Africa

Ugandan authorities have charged a controversial pastor who is accused of telling his congregation that there is no coronavirus in Africa. Prosecutors accuse Augustine Yiga of making the comments to the Revival Christian Church congregation on Friday, in comments carried by local television stations. He denied the charges. “Claiming that …

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Congo’s ex-president Yhombi-Opango dies of Covid-19

The former president of the Republic of Congo, Jacques Joaquim Yhombi Opango, has died in Paris from complications related to coronavirus. He was 81 years old. His family said he had been ill before contracting the virus. Mr Yhombi Opango led Congo-Brazzaville from 1977 until he was toppled in 1979 …

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Botswana executes duo convicted of murder in 2014

Botswana, one of the few democracies to still enforce the death penalty, executed two men convicted of murder on Saturday, March 28. The latest executions bring to four the number of hangings since President Mokgweetsi Masisi was elected last October. 33-year-old Moabi Seabelo Mabiletsa, and his co-accused 39-year-old Matshidiso Tshid …

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Celebrities tell Egyptians not to kill their cats

There have been calls in Egypt for people not to abandon or put down their pets after false rumours that they could carry coronavirus. A group of Egyptian celebrities has put out a video in which they hug their pets and urge people to look after them as normal. The …

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Zimbabwe doctors and nurses down tools over lack of protective coronavirus gear

Doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe are striking to protest the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers in the nation’s hospitals, their unions said. Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association spokesman Tapiwa Zvakada said doctors will not resume work until the government provides the proper gear they need for their …

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