By Rédaction Africanews Tuesday was the defense pleadings in the Libyan trial appeal in Paris, which will conclude on 27 May with the pleadings of the former president’s lawyers. T he ruling is due to be delivered on November 30. French prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence for former French president Nicolas Sarkozy in an appeal trial on charges that he sought illegal Libyan financing for his 2007 election. Sarkozy, France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, has always denied any wrongdoing in the case, but last year became modern France’s first former president to go to jail, before he…
Author: Montage Africa
Senegal’s former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who was dramatically sacked on Friday by the president, has been elected Speaker of the national parliament setting up a possible source of conflict at the top of Senegalese politics. The West African nation’s current crisis follows months of tension between Sonko and his one-time ally President Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Parliament’s previous Speaker stepped down on Sunday to make way for the former prime minister, who is a popular figure and whose Pastef party has a majority of the seats in the National Assembly. On Monday, Faye appointed economist Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo to…
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has started a legal challenge against a report commissioned by parliament that has paved the way for MPs to consider impeachment proceedings against him once again. In 2022, an independent panel said Ramaphosa might have committed serious misconduct relating to the theft of large sums of cash hidden in a sofa at his private farm. The president denied any wrongdoing. Earlier this month a Constitutional Court ruling said parliament had acted unconstitutionally when four years ago it voted against establishing an impeachment inquiry following the report. At that time Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) party had…
Colombian mercenaries were recruited by a United Arab Emirates-based company and transited through Emirati military bases to support paramilitary troops who committed atrocities in Sudan, a leading rights organisation alleges. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the findings are further evidence of UAE-backing for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been accused of war crimes during the Sudanese civil war. The UAE denies claims it recruited and trained foreign fighters in its territory. “The UAE does not permit its territory to be used for the recruitment, training, financing or transit of foreign fighters to any conflict, including Sudan,” its…
The Democratic Republic of Congo have asked Fifa to refund the cost of 2026 World Cup tickets bought by fans who are now unable to enter the United States because of Ebola-related travel restrictions. The Leopards are returning to football’s biggest stage for the first time since 1974, but the public health emergency declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 16 May is threatening to stop supporters from travelling to the US. Officials say there are more than 900 suspected cases of Ebola in central and East Africa, and 223 suspected deaths, since the outbreak was declared. The vast majority of…
By Rédaction Africanews and AFP Uganda has confirmed three new cases of Ebola, bringing the country’s total to five since the outbreak was first discovered in the country on May 15. “Three new cases of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) have been confirmed in the country,” the country’s health ministry said, naming the patients as a Ugandan driver, a Ugandan health worker and a woman from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the epicentre of a deadly outbreak sowing fear in the region. “The ministry continues to strengthen surveillance, case management, contact tracing and public awareness efforts to contain…
By AP It’s still spring in western Europe, but the region is preparing for a scorching end of May heatwave. People are being urged to take extra care as high pressure traps them under what’s being described as a ‘heat dome.’ Hot weather has already hit Europe, the start of a predicted heatwave. In Whitstable, UK, ice cream vans do brisk business and people head to the beach to cool off by the water. The temperatures being forecast by meteorologists are already causing concern to health professionals. In the UK, The Met Office says temperatures are set to exceed the…
By AP More than a million Muslims are gathering for the hajj pilgrimage, which is taking place in the shadow of the Middle East war, as animosity smoulders across the region despite a fragile ceasefire. Muslim worshippers performed night prayers in Mecca on Friday in the final days before the Hajj, one of biggest gatherings on the Islamic calendar. Pilgrims were seen performing Tawaf, the ritual of walking seven times around the Holy Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction. Once a year, large numbers of Muslim pilgrims converge in Saudi Arabia, uniting in religious rituals and acts of worship as they…
By AFP With Eid-al Adha just days away, customers at a sheep market in Ivory Coast’s capital Abidjan are hoping to buy sheep to sacrifice for the Muslim festival. But supply is significantly down on last year and traders are driving hard bargains. Buyers trudged through a muddy market in Abidjan, looking for the best-priced sheep to be sacrificed for Eid al-Adha, with traders driving hard bargains in the run-up to the Muslim festival. Prices have shot up this year and animals are harder to come by as Ivory Coast’s usual supply from neighbouring Sahel countries has been hit by…
By AFP Ethiopia holds a general election on June 1, with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed all but guaranteed of victory despite multiple armed conflicts and the economic impact of the Middle East war. Who will win? Abiy has been in power since 2018 and his Prosperity Party (PP) won a landslide — 485 of the 502 contested seats — at the last general election in 2021. That ballot was partially disrupted by the devastating civil war between the central government and the leaders of the Tigray region that claimed an estimated 600,000 lives. Abiy was initially feted for improving civil…