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Tiemoko Diallo A Canadian woman and an Italian man kidnapped in Burkina Faso 15 months ago have been freed and appear to be in good health, the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in neighboring Mali said on Saturday.
Edith Blais and Luca Tacchetto went missing while traveling through Burkina Faso in December 2018. Jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State which are active in the region have kidnapped Westerners in the past.
It is not known who was responsible for the couple’s abduction or if any ransom was paid.
Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the U.N. mission MINUSMA, told Reuters that the pair were found by peacekeepers near the northern Mali city of Kidal on Friday. They were flown to the capital Bamako on Saturday.
Salgado shared photos of a smiling Blais and Tacchetto wearing U.N. human rights t-shirts and sweatpants at the U.N. base in Kidal where they spent the night and later met the MINUSMA head.
Security has deteriorated in recent years across Africa’s Sahel region, a semi-arid band beneath the Sahara Desert, where hundreds of civilians were killed last year by the jihadists and ethnic militias.
Western powers like former colonial master France and the United States have poured money and troops to combat the jihadists, but the violence has continued to get worse.
According to Menastream, a risk consultancy that monitors jihadist activity, 10 foreign nationals from nine different countries, including France and Australia, are still being held in captivity in the region.
Canadian national Kirk Woodman was kidnapped in January 2019 from a mining site where he was working in Burkina Faso and found dead later the same week. While Islamic State claimed responsibility, security sources told Reuters they believed he actually died during a botched attempt by a criminal gang to sell him on to another group.
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A 60-year-old German tourist has died in Egypt, becoming its first fatality from the new coronavirus, the health ministry in Cairo announced on Sunday.
The man was taken to hospital with fever after arriving in Hurghada from Luxor on March 6, and was placed in intensive care but refused to be transferred to a designated isolation hospital, the ministry said.
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Andrea Shalal
Somalia’s 2-million strong diaspora has a huge role to play as the Horn of Africa country rebuilds its economy and resets ties with major international institutions after three decades as a “failed state,” Somalia’s finance minister said.
Long saddled with $5.3 billion in debt, Somalia is in the process of inking debt forgiveness deals with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other big institutions after nearly three decades of clan warfare, famine and sporadic terror attacks by al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabaab.
Somali Finance Minister Abdirahman Duale Beileh, a longtime member of the diaspora himself, will finalize a debt forgiveness agreement on Monday with the African Development Bank in Abidjan, another milestone as Somalia normalizes ties with the rest of the world.
He signed the first of several such deals with the World Bank on Thursday in Washington, paving the way for Mogadishu to receive deeper and broader financial and technical support, and expects the IMF to follow suit later this month.
“It’s a historic moment,” Abdirahman told Reuters in an interview on Friday. “I’m really happy I get to participate in the renaissance, the rebirth of Somalia.”
On March 31, Somalia officials will meet with Paris Club creditors, with non-Paris Club creditors to attend as well.
He said he hoped the creditors would agree to cancel about 75% or 80% of Somalia’s debt, with the remainder to be repaid on strict and closely supervised terms over the next few years.
Those agreements will pave the way for Somalia to receive grants and concessional financing to build new water and energy infrastructure, fund education and expand fisheries and other potential sources of revenue, Abdirahman said.
But he said he is also relying on help from Somalis living in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, who contribute about $2 billion or 40% of Somalia’s gross domestic product in remittances each year, to shore up trust in the government, invest in businesses and move the country forward.
“We need a big perception change, a big cultural shift,” he said, noting that 75% of Somalis were under 30 years old and had no memory of more normal times before 1991. “It is totally a shift of paradigm, a shift of attitude.”
Educated and working in the West, he said he was counting on diasporan Somalis to change the attitudes of their clansmen back home, and support a range of reconstruction projects. Women also had a huge role in rebuilding the economy, he said.
To guide its work, Somalia is now building a database of potential donors and investors among diasporan Somalis.
Abdirahman, who also holds a U.S. passport, plans to do his own outreach during a visit to one of the biggest communities in Minneapolis in May.
“You can’t imagine the feeling of being reclassified from a failed state to a normal country,” he said. “To be classified as a normal country is a blessing for us.”
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2 minutes
PARIS (Reuters) - Cameroon President Paul Biya agreed on Sunday with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, that an impartial probe was needed after gunmen killed 22 people in a village at the heart of a separatist insurgency last month, the French presidency said.
The two leaders spoke by phone about the Feb. 14 attack in a village in western Cameroon, where gunmen in military uniforms and masks shot women and children and burned others in their homes.
“They agreed an impartial probe was needed in reaction to the violence committed against civilians in the village of Ngarbuh in the northwestern province,” the French presidency said in a statement.
Cameroon’s army since 2017 has been fighting English-speaking militias seeking to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia amid the cocoa farms and forests of west Cameroon.
As fighting has intensified, so have abuses by both sides, witnesses and rights groups say.
The fighting is the gravest threat to stability in the oil- and cocoa-producing country since Biya took power nearly 40 years ago.
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Saliou Samb
Guinea’s President Alpha Conde has delayed Sunday’s constitutional referendum and legislative polls for two weeks because of concerns raised by international observers about the electoral roll, he told state television late on Friday.
Earlier this week, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an organisation of French-speaking governments, withdrew its poll-monitoring mission, citing the presence of 2.49 million “problematic” entries on the electoral register.
The claim increased pressure on Conde, 81, who many fear is holding a referendum on the constitution just so he can extend his rule for 12 more years, despite the risk of mass unrest and a major dent in the health of Guinea’s mining economy.
The new constitution would impose a limit of two six-year terms, up from the current two five-year terms. It does not specify whether terms served under the previous constitution would count, but Conde has suggested they would not.
“We accepted a slight postponement of the date of the elections,” Conde said. “It is neither a capitulation or a retreat but loyalty to what Guinea was yesterday and today.”
At least 30 people have died since October in protests against the proposed constitutional changes. How the vote turns out could be a bellwether for a presidential election before year’s end in the country, the largest African producer of the main aluminium ore, bauxite.
The opposition is boycotting the referendum an legislative elections, which it says will be a sham, and leading members have said they will prevent voting, without saying how.
In the capital Conakry this week, pick-ups full of police and soldiers patrolled the streets past billboards urging people to vote yes. The government ordered schools closed for several days, and residents of opposition strongholds were stocking up on food.
Conde has refused to rule out using the new constitution as a reset button on his mandate, which expires in December, citing other African countries as examples of where leaders have made political manoeuvres to extend their rule.
In neighbouring Ivory Coast, President Alassane Ouattara says a constitutional change in 2016 means he can stand for a third term in October. His opponents dispute that, and Ouattara has not yet said whether he will stand.
Several other leaders in West and Central Africa have altered constitutions to hang onto power.
Conde, who as an opposition leader was sentenced to death in absentia under one president and imprisoned under another, says the new constitution is badly needed to replace a 2010 version that was hastily drafted during military rule and defended his right to stand for a third term if nominated by his party.
His allies have touted progressive reforms, including a ban on female genital mutilation, compulsory education and new environmental laws.
The violence during recent protests has been largely limited to opposition strongholds, but U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned about the risk of wider unrest.
“Ethnic divisions are deepening, with increasing incitement to hatred and violence on social media and at political rallies,” she said in a speech on Thursday.
The opposition boycott all but ensures the new constitution will be approved when the vote does eventually go ahead. However, even some Conde supporters said they hoped he would not run again.
“The president must now think about his succession,” said Mamady Kallo, a diamond broker, who said he would vote yes in the referendum. “He can choose a young person from his entourage to pursue the good work he has done in this country.”
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Omar Mohammed 6-7 minutesCountries in East Africa are racing against time to prevent new swarms of locusts wreaking havoc with crops and livelihoods after the worst infestation in generations.
A lack of expertise in controlling the pests is not their only problem: Kenya temporarily ran out of pesticides, Ethiopia needs more planes and Somalia and Yemen, torn by civil war, can’t guarantee exterminators’ safety.
Locust swarms have been recorded in the region since biblical times, but unusual weather patterns exacerbated by climate change have created ideal conditions for insect numbers to surge, scientists say.
Warmer seas are creating more rain, wakening dormant eggs, and cyclones that disperse the swarms are getting stronger and more frequent.
In Ethiopia the locusts have reached the fertile Rift Valley farmland and stripped grazing grounds in Kenya and Somalia. Swarms can travel up to 150 km (93 miles) a day and contain between 40-80 million locusts per square kilometer.
If left unchecked, the number of locusts in East Africa could explode 400-fold by June. That would devastate harvests in a region with more than 19 million hungry people, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.
Uganda has deployed the military. Kenya has trained hundreds of youth cadets to spray. Lacking pesticides, some security forces in Somalia have shot anti-aircraft guns at swarms darkening the skies.
Everyone is racing the rains expected in March: the next generation of larvae is already wriggling from the ground, just as farmers plant their seeds.
“The second wave is coming,” said Cyril Ferrand, FAO’s head of resilience for Eastern Africa. “As crops are planted, locusts will eat everything.”
The impact so far on agriculture, which generates about a third of East Africa’s economic output, is unknown, but FAO is using satellite images to assess the damage, he said.

PESTICIDE SHORTAGES

In Kenya, the region’s wealthiest and most stable country, the locusts are mostly in the semi-arid north, although some crops have been affected, said Stanley Kipkoech, a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture.
This month, Kenya ran out of pesticide for about a week and a half, he said. Farmers watched helplessly as their families’ crops were devoured.
In Ethiopia, the government can only afford to rent four planes for aerial spraying, but it needs at least twice that number to contain the outbreak before harvesting begins in March, Zebdewos Salato, director of plant protection at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Reuters.
“We are running out of time,” he said.
Ethiopia’s single pesticide factory is working flat out.
The country needs 500,000 liters for the upcoming harvest and planting season but is struggling to produce its maximum 200,000 liters after foreign exchange shortages delayed the purchase of chemicals, the factory’s chief executive Simeneh Altaye said.
FAO is helping the government to procure planes, vehicles and sprayers, said Fatouma Seid, the agency’s representative in Ethiopia. It is also urgently trying to buy pesticides from Europe.

MONEY AND GUNS

Pest controllers in Somalia can’t enter areas controlled by the Islamist al Shabaab insurgency, said Aidid Suleiman Hashi, environment minister for the southern region of Jubbaland.
When the locusts invaded, residents blew horns, beat drums and rang bells to scare away the insects. Al Shabaab fired anti-craft and machine guns at the swarms, Hashi said. Jubbaland forces, not to be outdone, did so too.
Under such circumstances, contractors are reluctant to do aerial spraying, FAO said.
Meanwhile, locusts - which have a life cycle of three months - are breeding. FAO says each generation is an average of 20 times more numerous.
When eggs hatch, as they are doing now in northern Kenya, the hungry young locusts are earthbound for two weeks and more vulnerable to spraying than when they grow wings.
After that, they take to the air in swarms so dense they have forced aircraft to divert. A single square kilometer swarm can eat as much food in a day as 35,000 people.
FAO said containing the plague will cost at least $138 million. So far, donors have pledged $52 million. Failure means more hunger in a region already battered by conflict and climate shocks.
Since 2016, there have been droughts in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, then floods, Ferrand said. In South Sudan, more than half the population already faces food shortages.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The rains that blessed the region with a bumper crop last year after a prolonged drought also brought a curse.
A cyclical weather pattern in the Indian Ocean, intensified by rising sea temperatures, contributed to one of the wettest October-December rainy seasons in five decades, said Nathanial Matthews of the Stockholm-based Global Resilience Partnership, a public-private partnership focused on climate change.
Locusts hatched in Yemen, largely ignored in the chaos of the civil war. They migrated across the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa, then spread to Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. Now they have been spotted in Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania.
The rains awoke the dormant eggs then stronger and more numerous cyclones scattered the insects. Eight cyclones tore across the Indian Ocean in 2019, the highest number in a single year since records began, said Matthews.
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3-4 minutes
Guinea-Bissau’s outgoing president handed over power on Thursday to the declared winner of December’s election, former army general Umaro Cissoko Embalo, even as the Supreme Court considered a new request by the runner-up to annul the vote.
The electoral commission has repeatedly confirmed Embalo as the winner of the Dec. 29 run-off despite complaints by the Supreme Court that the commission has not respected its orders to conduct a full audit of the vote.
Runner-up Domingos Simoes Pereira, whose PAIGC party holds the most seats in parliament, filed a fresh complaint on Wednesday, asking the court to order a re-vote because of what he says were widespread irregularities.
It is not clear when the court will rule.
The bitterly disputed result suggests that, whatever the final outcome, the election is unlikely to end the institutional chaos of the past five years, during which President Jose Mario Vaz cycled through seven different prime ministers while in a protracted dispute with the PAIGC.
Vaz, who was eliminated in the election’s first round in November, attended Thursday’s swearing-in at a hotel reception hall in the capital, Bissau.
So did high-ranking officials from the military, which has launched nine coups or attempted coups since independence from Portugal in 1974.
But many senior dignitaries, including the parliament speaker, Supreme Court judges and most foreign diplomats in Bissau, stayed away. While many foreign governments congratulated Embalo when he was first declared the winner, they have mostly kept silent about the subsequent legal wrangling.
In his inaugural speech, Embalo did not mention the electoral dispute as he vowed to tackle widespread poverty in a country dependent on a main export, cashew nuts, for which prices are volatile.
“The record of 46 years of independence is characterized by the total collapse of the dreams of our ancestors,” he said, wearing a sash with the red, yellow and green of the national flag.
The current generation of leaders “will work to have a better health and education system and to pull the country from the slump in which it is mired”, Embalo added.
Pereira, meanwhile, continued to decry on Twitter what he says is an electoral coup and hailed support he has received from party allies in the government and parliament.
“The national assembly, prime minister, government, political parties and legalists are united to prevent the anti-democratic threat (from) the competing candidate’s group,” he said.
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2-3 minutesLesotho’s high court will decide if Prime Minister Thomas Thabane can claim immunity from a charge that he murdered his wife prior to marrying his present spouse in a case that has gripped this tiny southern African country.
Thabane, 80, appeared in court in the capital Maseru in a pre-trail hearing on Monday alongside his present wife Maesaih.
He is suspected of involvement in the murder of his then wife Lipolelo, who was shot dead in June 2017 two days before he took office for a second stint as premier and two months before he married Maesaiah.
He and Lipolelo were going through divorce proceedings.
Maesaiah Thabane, 42, has been charged with the murder, and police suspect her of ordering assassins to do the job.
Both deny any involvement.
Crowds of supporters packed the magistrates’ court and gathered outside for Monday’s hearing. Thabane, wearing a blue striped suit and a powder blue shirt, looked tense. Maesaiah Thabane sat beside him in a floral dress and bucket hat.
No charges were read out and his lawyer argued the case should be referred to the high court to answer a question of possible immunity, which magistrate Phethise Motanyane granted.
Thabane has said he will resign at the end of July, while several members of his own All Basotho Convention (ABC) party have been pressuring him to go sooner to avert political chaos.
A potential plea of immunity would likely raise doubts over how willing he is to step down, further fanning the political crisis in this mountain territory of 2 million people.
Police had initially intended to charge Thabane on Friday, but he left the country for a medical appointment.
Lesotho, which is surrounded on all sides by South Africa, has a history of coups and political instability that has often led its bigger neighbor to invervene and restore order.
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AMSTERDAM/CAIRO: Telecoms operator Veon said on Tuesday it intends to offer 5.30 Egyptian pounds ($0.3005) per share for the 42.3 percent of Cairo-listed Global Telecom Holding it does not already own.
The offer for the stake in Global, formerly known as Orascom, represents a 20 percent premium to its closing price on Monday and is worth $600 million.
Veon, based in Amsterdam, operates telecommunications companies in Russia and in developing countries in Asia and North Africa. It holds a 55.6 percent stake in Global, which operates the Djezzy network in Algeria, Mobilink in Pakistan and Sheba Telecom in Bangladesh.
Veon said in a statement it has not yet submitted the offer to Egyptian financial authorities and it would not comment further. It called off a previous attempt to buy out Global’s assets in October.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund will conduct its final review of Egypt’s three-year $12 billion loan program in June, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said on Tuesday.
The IMF announced on Monday that it was disbursing the fifth out of six $2 billion tranches, after completing its fourth review of the program.
Foreign investors hold $13.1 billion in Egyptian treasuries, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said on Tuesday.
Kouchouk had last put the figure at $14 billion as of end-September, after a turbulent summer for emerging markets with weakened investor appetite.
Foreign investors bought Egyptian treasury bills and bonds worth $900 million in January, Maait said.
The average yield on bonds in the period from July until December was 18.5 percent, and the average yield on treasury bills sold in the same period was 19.5 percent, Kouchouk said.
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Eight Egyptian human rights NGOs have rejected calls to amend the constitution to allow President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to hold a third term in office, meaning he will be in power for more than eight years.

In a statement yesterday, the organisations called on “free Egyptian voices to push on against Al-Sisi’s commitment to the provisions of the 2014 constitution and to leave office as soon as his second and final term ends in June 2022”.

The organisations which signed the statement said that the calls to amend the constitution “would have been more appropriate if they had demanded respect for its articles, especially those relating to rights and freedoms, which have been violated on a daily basis since its adoption, rather than seeking to amend it so as to grant special status to Al-Sisi and strengthening autocracy”.

Among those which signed the statement are the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the Committee for Justice, El Nadim Centre, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, The Arab Penal Reform Organisation and Belady Centre for Rights and Freedoms.

The statement added that running for presidency for only two terms “is – almost – the only gain won by the democratic movement on 25 January 2011,” saying that “the violation of this gain represents a real threat to the political and social stability of the country”.

The NGOs also accused Al-Sisi of tightening his grip on the country, closing the public sphere and “convincing the media with nationalization by selling newspapers and private channels to the security services and imposing his control to guide the media discourse”.

The statement also accused Al-Sisi of imprisoning political opponents against the backdrop of fake accusations.

The statement called for respect of the constitution, ending its manipulation for personal purposes, reopening the public sphere and launching a comprehensive reform process. This could be achieved by “creating an environment conducive to social peace based on the principles of equality and non-discrimination and comprehensive national reconciliation among all political, religious, and ethnic parties,” it added.

Parliamentarians and journalists affiliated with the Egyptian government have been campaigning for broad constitutional amendments, including extending the presidential term from four to six years. They have also advocated for extending the presidential term instead of limiting it to two terms, as stipulated by the Egyptian constitution, as well as the formation of a council for the protection of the state headed by Al-Sisi.

The Constitution stipulates that “the President of the Republic shall be elected for a term of four years, beginning from the day following the expiry of his predecessor’s term, and he may be re-elected only once”. The second and last term of Al-Sisi will end in mid-2022, amid a major loss of popularity due to the deteriorating economic and living conditions in Egypt.

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Fearful residents locking themselves in at night with at least 12 killed in unrest as sexual assault reports emerge.

A violent crackdown continued in Zimbabwe as rights groups alleged women had been raped during house-to-house searches, while the government criticised a report by its own rights commission that said security forces had used "systematic torture".

Zimbabweans said on Friday abuses have not calmed since President Emmerson Mnangagwa denounced the violence as "unacceptable". The unrest began last week as people protested a steep increase in fuel prices that made gasoline the world's most expensive. The government accuses the opposition of stirring up trouble.

The army asserts uniformed perpetrators accused of abuses are "bogus elements" out to tarnish its image.

Fearful residents in poor and working-class suburbs of the capital, Harare, and second city, Bulawayo, are locking themselves in at night. At least 12 people have been killed in the unrest and more than 300 wounded, scores with gunshot wounds, doctors and rights workers have said.

"We have received very disturbing reports of a number of cases of women allegedly raped by members of security forces," said Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch.

"Beatings, harassment and other abuses have continued after Mnangagwa's return and there are no clear actions from the government to hold accountable those committing the abuses."

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she had not received any reports of rape.

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said a critical report earlier this week by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, a constitutional body, was not based on "thorough investigation" and did not cover the "two most anarchical days" of last week's unrest.

Those with complaints should report them to the police or to military police, he said.
'Lethal force'

Meanwhile, vendors in the city centre were being routinely rounded up by the military, beaten and dumped at police stations, human rights lawyer Doug Coltart said.

Dozens of civil society leaders, opposition figures and activists have gone into hiding, fearing for their lives, Amnesty International said in a statement. It noted reported rapes, "lethal force" against protesters and the targeting of health workers who treat victims.

"Children as young as 11 years old have been detained on frivolous charges," said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty's southern Africa director. "The authorities must immediately stop this merciless crackdown."

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said arrests of suspected protesters continued with many denied bail.

On Friday the High Court in Harare said it would rule on Tuesday on an application by well-known activist and pastor Evan Mawarire to be released on bail. He has been held for a week and is charged with subversion, which carries a 20-year prison sentence. He is accused of inciting the unrest online. His lawyer rejects the allegations.

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Fearful residents locking themselves in at night with at least 12 killed in unrest as sexual assault reports emerge.

A violent crackdown continued in Zimbabwe as rights groups alleged women had been raped during house-to-house searches, while the government criticised a report by its own rights commission that said security forces had used "systematic torture".

Zimbabweans said on Friday abuses have not calmed since President Emmerson Mnangagwa denounced the violence as "unacceptable". The unrest began last week as people protested a steep increase in fuel prices that made gasoline the world's most expensive. The government accuses the opposition of stirring up trouble.

The army asserts uniformed perpetrators accused of abuses are "bogus elements" out to tarnish its image.

Fearful residents in poor and working-class suburbs of the capital, Harare, and second city, Bulawayo, are locking themselves in at night. At least 12 people have been killed in the unrest and more than 300 wounded, scores with gunshot wounds, doctors and rights workers have said.

"We have received very disturbing reports of a number of cases of women allegedly raped by members of security forces," said Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch.

"Beatings, harassment and other abuses have continued after Mnangagwa's return and there are no clear actions from the government to hold accountable those committing the abuses."

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she had not received any reports of rape.

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said a critical report earlier this week by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, a constitutional body, was not based on "thorough investigation" and did not cover the "two most anarchical days" of last week's unrest.

Those with complaints should report them to the police or to military police, he said.
'Lethal force'

Meanwhile, vendors in the city centre were being routinely rounded up by the military, beaten and dumped at police stations, human rights lawyer Doug Coltart said.

Dozens of civil society leaders, opposition figures and activists have gone into hiding, fearing for their lives, Amnesty International said in a statement. It noted reported rapes, "lethal force" against protesters and the targeting of health workers who treat victims.

"Children as young as 11 years old have been detained on frivolous charges," said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty's southern Africa director. "The authorities must immediately stop this merciless crackdown."

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said arrests of suspected protesters continued with many denied bail.

On Friday the High Court in Harare said it would rule on Tuesday on an application by well-known activist and pastor Evan Mawarire to be released on bail. He has been held for a week and is charged with subversion, which carries a 20-year prison sentence. He is accused of inciting the unrest online. His lawyer rejects the allegations.

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CAIRO: Egypt’s president said Wednesday that the most painful part of his ambitious economic reform program was over, but cautioned there was still some way to go before it’s completed.
The reforms included floating the currency, substantial cuts in state subsidies on basic goods, and introducing a wide range of new taxes. The measures led to a significant rise in prices and services, something critics say has hurt the poor and middle class the hardest.
The reforms were agreed on with the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a $12 billion loan.
In televised comments aired live, Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi said Egypt has gone through the worst of the fallout from the reforms. “Not too much is left and it won’t be harsher than what we had already gone through. We are determined to finish it.”
El-Sisi thanked Egyptians for “enduring the harsh and difficult (economic) measures,” something that he has often done since the reforms began in 2016 with the floatation of the currency that cost the Egyptian pound more than half of its value.
His thanks and implicit warning that more reforms were to come appeared designed to prepare Egyptians for a widely anticipated wave of price rises this year that could include fuel and electricity.
He said his government had no choice but to embark on the reform program.
“Anything else would have led to the collapse of the state,” he said in an address marking Police Day, a national holiday that falls on Jan. 25.
Years of political turmoil and violence following a 2011 uprising that toppled the 29-year regime of autocrat Hosni Mubarak has crippled the economy, keeping foreign tourists and investors out and reducing productivity. El-Sisi’s reforms and improved security have improved economic indicators, winning praise from Cairo’s Western backers but they are yet to filter down to most Egyptians.
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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has picked Mr Meles Alem as Ethiopia’s next ambassador to Kenya.

He replaces Dina Mufti Sid, who has been redeployed to Egypt in the same capacity.

An alumnus of the University of Nairobi, Mr Alem previously served as head of diaspora affairs at the embassy in Nairobi between 2011 and 2015.
It is during this time that he enrolled and graduated with a Masters degree from the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies in 2015.

An elated Mr Alem told the Nation from Addis Ababa on Monday that he was grateful to the Ethiopian government for his appointment and said he will work hard to strengthen and deepen ties with Nairobi when he formally takes over.

“The relationship between the countries is exemplary in the region and my task will be to strengthen and deepen these ties further,” he said.
Describing Kenyans and Ethiopians as one people living into two different places, the incoming envoy said they have a lot in common because of strong historical ties stretching back to the regime of presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Haile Selassie.“It is this passion that I will bring to Kenya when I finally take over.”​
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A court in Zimbabwe on Monday ordered for the restoration of internet access, saying the government exceeded its mandate in ordering an internet blackout during civilian protests last week.

In his interim ruling, High Court Judge Owen Tagu told mobile operators to immediately and unconditionally resume full services. The biggest, Econet Wireless, compiled with the order late on Monday, it said in a message to subscribers.

The sporadic blackout began on Tuesday following the start of protests against a rise in fuel prices that turned violent.

With evidence growing that the country is slipping back into authoritarian rule, critics of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government had accused it of shutting off the internet to prevent a security clampdown being broadcast to the world.

Mnangagwa was due back in Zimbabwe late on Monday after cutting short a foreign trip.

There was no immediate comment from the government’s lawyer on whether it would appeal the court judgement.
Containing the protests

On Monday police arrested Japhet Moyo, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which called for a stay-at-home strike last week in conjunction with the fuel protest.

He faced subversion charges, his lawyer said, while the organisation’s president was in hiding.

Police say three people died during the unrest, but lawyers and human rights groups point to evidence suggesting at least a dozen were killed, while scores were treated for gunshot wounds and hundreds have been held on public order charges.

They include six opposition lawmakers, of one whom was detained on Monday, as well as pastor Evan Mawarire, a rights activist and critic of former leader Robert Mugabe held on subversion charges for urging support for the union strike.

His application for bail will be heard on Wednesday, his lawyer said.

The spokesman for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said several of its leaders were also in hiding, and accused the president – - nicknamed “Crocodile” during his time as a high-ranking official in Mugabe’s strong-arm administration – of seeking to “dismantle” the party.

A spokesman for Mnangagwa, who became leader after Mugabe was forced out in November 2017, said on Sunday that the crackdown was a foretaste of how authorities would respond to future unrest.
A desperate economy

With high inflation and a shortage of cash in circulation eating into ordinary Zimbabweans’ spending power, the fragile state of Zimbabwe’s economy was also in focus on Monday.

The main teachers union said after a weekend meeting that its members remained “incapacitated” until the government made a meaningful adjustment to their salaries.

The president broke off a foreign trip during which he had been expected to pitch for investments at the World Economic Forum in Davos. A foreign ministry source said he was now due back in Harare on Monday night.

Earlier in the day, South Africa said it had last month turned down a request from its northern neighbour for a $1.2 billion loan.

As many businesses, including banks, shops and government offices re-opened in Harare on Monday, the government introduced subsidies for bus travel after public taxis increased prices in response to the fuel price hike.
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Italy has pledged to finance a feasibility study for a planned rail line linking the Eritrean port city of Massawa and the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed disclosed on Monday.

Abiy, who arrived in Rome on official duty said Italy had agreed to fund the first phase of the study. He was speaking during a joint press briefing with his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte.

Financing would be the first step to a route which would be crucial to trade between the two countries. No further details have been given as to how much the project will cost or a time line.

An analyst commenting on the development said Italy had only agreed to finance the study. Biruk Terrefe added that the route will go through Mekelle, capital of the northern Tigray region then through to Awash (via Kolombocha) and to Addis Ababa (via Adama.)

Ethiopia’s most crucial rail line is the line that links Addis Ababa to Djibouti. The Chinese-built line launched in 2016 is the main import and export channel for Ethiopia. Majority of the landlocked nations’ trade comes via Djibouti.

Abiy had earlier met with the Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace with both leaders discussing historical relations and bilateral cooperation in key areas.

The PM’s very busy day saw him hold meetings with other international development partners. He visited the St. Stephen of the Abyssinians Church located in the Vatican City State before meeting with the Holy Father Pope Francis.
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Former South African president Jacob Zuma has signed a record deal with the eThekwini Municipality’s Parks, which will see him record a number of liberation songs.

The Durban initiative is aimed at memorializing the role liberation songs played in the anti-apartheid movement.

But the only concern, the choice of lead singer Jacob Zuma.

"It might actually be a better career choice for him so I might actually buy an album from him." "With the money he makes he can, not give it to his wives but pay back the taxpayers money."

Derick and Ben are two Johannesburg residents

“It might actually be a better career choice for him so I might actually buy an album from him.”

“With the money he makes he can not give it to his wives but pay back the taxpayers money.”

Zuma’s nine years in power were marked by corruption scandals and economic stagnation, but some citizens still believe in his personality.

One of such is Thembinkosi Ngcobo, the head of the Ethekwini parks, recreation and culture.

“There’s quite a very wide popular support for the initiative out there and our creative team is currently sitting down and is looking into a number of possible groups or individuals that will be part of this project, but yes the main person who will be at the center of the project will be the former President Mr Zuma and then, will then get quit a substantial number of people either individuals or in form of choirs who are also going to be part of the project.”

In a previous interview, Ngcobo said nothing will be paid to Zuma adding that the former president has not asked for anything in return.
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Burkinabe President Marc Christian Kaboré on Monday appointed Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré as the new Prime Minister. It follows the resignation of Paul Kaba Thieba and his cabinet last week.

Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré was announced as the new Prime Minister through a presidential decree by government Secretary-General Stéphane Sanou on state television.

Dabiré, a former commissioner representing Burkina Faso at the West African Economic and Monetary Union, served as minister under former president Blaise Compaoré, with Roch Marc Christian Kaboré as prime minister between 1994 to 1996.

He led the country’s Department of Health between 1992-1997, and oversaw the Department of Secondary, Higher Education and Scientific Research between 1997-2000.

Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré was also a member of the National Assembly from 1997 to 2007 under the former ruling party, the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP).

The resignation of the previous government led by Paul Kaba Thiéba was announced on Friday evening in a statement from the presidency.

The former Prime Minister did not give reasons for his resignation, but growing concerns over terrorists threats and social uneasiness was speculated to be behind his exit.

Social actors and opposition political parties had for months called for his resignation including several members of the government for failing to address terrorists threats.
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