Africa

Khartoum - Nine people, including four soldiers, were killed when a civilian plane crashed in Sudan due to technical reasons, the army said. The fighting has left millions trapped in their homes and some without water, particularly in the suburbs of the capital Khartoum where residents were calling for food donations to help them survive. In a war-devastated district of the city, Abbas Mohammed Babiker says he and his family have only been able to eat once a day. Even now that is in doubt, but on Sunday a citizens’ support group issued an urgent appeal for donations to help people like him.“We only have enough for two more days,” Babiker said from Khartoum North. In Port Sudan, on the east coast largely spared by the war, the army said a child had survived the crash of an Antonov...

Soldiers in Niger claimed to have removed President Mohamed Bazoum from power late on Wednesday, hours after members of the presidential guard detained the politician at his official residence. In a statement broadcast on national television, Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane said that “the defence and security forces … have decided to put an end to the regime you are familiar with”. “This follows the continuous deterioration of the security situation, the bad social and economic management.” The soldier said the country’s borders were closed and a nationwide curfew was in place. All institutions of the country were also suspended, he added. Abdramane was seated and flanked by nine other officers wearing fatigues as he read out his statement. The group, which is calling itself th...

The failed weekend mutiny in Russia by the Wagner mercenary group is likely to have repercussions for Africa, where it has several thousand fighters based as well as lucrative business interests. It is unclear whether Wagner's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been told to relocate to Belarus, will still run his private army from there to allow it to service its security contracts in places like the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assured CAR and Mali of the status quo in terms of their crucial security arrangements. Why is Wagner in Africa? Primarily to make money - though as it had tacit approval from the Kremlin, it also bolstered Russia's diplomatic and economic interests. It was a major boon for Russia, for exa...

Egypt's Suez Canal Authority has seen revenues reach a record $9.4 billion in the current financial year, which ends on June 30, up from $7 billion in the previous year, Chairman Osama Rabea said on Wednesday. "For the first time in the canal's history, the authority has achieved revenues of about $9.4 billion," he told reporters. The chairman added that 25,887 ships have passed through the canal so far in the current financial year, the authority's web site cited him as saying at the same conference. He said around 23,800 passed through the previous year. SOURCE: REUTERS

A Kenyan accused of involvement in the deaths of hundreds of members of a starvation cult has died after a 10-day hunger strike in police custody, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. Joseph Buyuka was among 30 people, including self-styled pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church, in custody over the deaths of 337 followers of the church. "The police believe that these individuals... played significant roles in the offences leading to the deaths and illegal disposal of bodies in Shakahola (forest)," court papers said of Buyuka and four others arrested with him. Authorities have exhumed most of the bodies from the forest in southeast Kenya since April. Jami Yamina, senior prosecution counsel, said Buyuka had died two days ago at a hospital in Malindi, about...

Kenya's defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga has rejected as "null and void" the result of the August 9 election and said that Kenya's democracy faces a long criminal disaster. Deputy President William Ruto turned into officially declared the winner on Monday by a narrow margin. Odinga's first remarks on the end result got here quickly after 4 of the seven election commissioners stated they stood with the aid of their decision a day in advance to disown the final results of the presidential poll, announcing the final tallying manner were "opaque". "Our view is that the figures introduced by means of [electoral commission chairman Wafula] Chebukati are null and void and must be quashed through court of regulation," Odinga, who changed into making his fifth bid for the pres...