Top Africa News

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday assured the white Afrikaner community that it should not view his government’s land reform plans as a threat, but as a way to harness the country’s economic potential and heal divisions from the past. Ramaphosa, who replaced scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma in February, has promised to redistribute land to the black majority to address ...

Thousands of Malians marched through the capital Bamako on Friday against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who will seek re-election next month. A similar protest last Saturday was broken up by riot police firing teargas but this time the demonstrators, blowing horns and waving Malian flags, marched without incident from Place de la Liberté toward Place de l’Independence about 1.5 km ...

The International Criminal Court on Friday overturned the war crimes conviction of Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba on appeal. Presiding judge Christine Van den Wijngaert said that Bemba could not be held responsible for atrocities carried out by troops under his control in neighbouring Central African Republic, and that trial judges had failed to consider the efforts he made to stop ...

Exxon Mobil is seeking buyers for its stake in a large undeveloped gas field off Tanzania, according to three banking and industry sources, as the company focuses on the development of an even bigger project in neighbouring Mozambique. The planned sale is an example of Chief Executive Darren Woods’ strategy of freeing up cash and narrowing the American firm’s focus ...

The top United Nations aid co-ordinator on Monday lent his weight to major powers stepping up sanctions on South Sudanese leaders with possible asset freezes and travel bans, to bring all sides to the negotiating table to end the five-year conflict. Mark Lowcock, U.N. emergency relief co-ordinator, said sanctions should target “military formations and the men with guns”. ‘‘There’s lots ...

Uganda’s finance minister told journalists on Monday that a new tax on mobile money transactions in the country that was approved by parliament last week, is different from what cabinet agreed. Last week, legislators passed the Excise Duty Amendment Bill, which introduced a one per cent tax and varying taxes on other electronic transactions such as airtime and social media ...

Three female suicide bombers blew up a mosque overnight in Niger’s southeastern city of Diffa, killing 10 worshippers who had gathered after the breaking their Ramadan fast, an army spokesman said. The area around Diffa, close to Lake Chad and the borders with Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, has been plagued by two factions of militant group Boko Haram, which have ...

Yaya Toure has questioned whether Pep Guardiola has a bias against African players and accused the Manchester City coach of being “cruel” to him, according to an interview with France Football. Toure, 35, played his final game for City last month after eight seasons at the club, with his farewell match against Brighton his only Premier League start of the ...

Ugandans who use the internet messaging service WhatsApp will be charged a daily tax of 200 shillings ($0.05; £0.04) after parliament approved a controversial new law on Wednesday. It comes into force on 1 July, and will also apply to other social media apps like Facebook. Mobile money transactions will also be taxed, with a 1% levy on the total ...

Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s has once again failed to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating missing diamond revenue. Mr Mugabe had been invited to appear at 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT). A news site which monitors parliament activities has tweeted that MP Themba Mliswa, who chairs parliament’s committee on mines, has said that they will invite the veteran leader ...