AFRICA

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has said that as a beneficiary of free, fair elections, he will ensure the 2023 general elections are free and fair to all parties. He said this was a legacy he eagerly wanted to bequeath to Nigerians, adding that he could not wait …

Police in Lesotho are appealing for help to trace Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s current wife who they want to question over the 2017 murder of his estranged wife. Maesaiah Thabane has not been charged, but police want to speak to her about Lipolelo Thabane’s killing, a government spokesman told the …

Countries across the coast of West, Central and southern Africa are suffering an internet outage that started on Thursday. The situation remains unstable as at Friday (January 17). Reports indicate that mobile phone access is also partly impacted by the outage which was triggered by a fault to a main …

Seven people were killed in a bizarre religious ritual in a jungle community in Panama, in which indigenous residents were rounded up by about 10 lay preachers and tortured, beaten, burned and hacked with machetes to make them “repent their sins”. Police freed 14 members of the Ngabe Bugle indigenous group …

A Ugandan Imam who married man dressed as a woman has been arrested and charged. Sheikh Mohammed Mutumba was charged with having carnal knowledge with a person against the order of nature, according to Daily Monitor newspaper. His charge was read out at a magistrate court in Kayunga district in …

Five English-speaking West African countries and Guinea have criticised a move to change the name of the regional currency from CFA franc to the eco. The West African Economic and Monetary Union, made up of eight former French colonies and former Portuguese colony Guinea Bissau, said in December that it …

A huge diamond unearthed in Botswana in April has been sold to French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed sum. The 1,758-carat stone is reportedly the second-largest found in a century. It has been named Sewelô meaning “rare find” in the Setswana language, and came from the Karowe …

A popular stand-up comedian in Akwa Ibom State has been arrested by the police allegedly on the order of an Akwa Ibom government official. The comedian, whose stage name is Sir James, was arrested on Wednesday in Uyo. He is accused of posting “injurious” comments on Facebook against the commissioner …

The Department of Home Affairs has limited work and study options for refugees and asylum seekers, and discouraged political activity in contravention with the Constitution. Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi has defended the new amendments to the Refugees Act that came into effect at the beginning of the year, …

There are reports from central Mali that at least 15 people have been killed in an overnight attack on a Fulani village. A security official told the French news agency that some of the victims had their throats slit during the attack on Sinda village near the town of Douentza …