Shunned for centuries, Voodoo is mutating into a powerful religion Haitians seek solace in to thwart bloody gang violence
The syncretic religion that melds Catholicism with animist beliefs has no official leader or creeds. It has a single God known as “Bondye,” Creole for “Good God,” and more than 1,000 spirits known as the lwa — some that aren’t always benevolent.
Military ruler and son of a former president, Deby Itno, declared winner of Chad’s presidential poll
The oil-exporting country of nearly 18 million people hasn’t had a free-and-fair transfer of power since it became independent in 1960 after decades of French colonial rule. Hours ahead of Thursday’s announcement, Prime Minister Succès Masra published a speech on Facebook accusing the authorities of planning to manipulate the outcome.
South Sudan mediation talks begin in Kenya as world’s youngest nation prepares for elections later this year
The talks are between the government and rebel opposition groups that were not part of an 2018 agreement that ended a five-year civil war that left 400,000 people dead.
UN General Assembly wants UN Security Council to ‘reconsider favourably’ Palestine’s quest for statehood
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly on Friday will act as a global survey of support for the Palestinians. An application to become a full UN member first needs to be approved by the Security Council and then the General Assembly.
High cost of unequal societies: Economic inequality, in effect, normalises immoral and unethical behaviour
The longer we let inequality define our contemporary daily lives, this new research helps us understand, the more unethical behaviour all around us will seem to reflect just the way our world naturally works.
Kenya telecoms operator Safaricom posts $1.07 billion earnings for full year to March
Overall group service revenue grew 13.4 per cent year on year to 335 billion shillings. Safaricom group’s M-Pesa mobile financial services business grew 8.8 per cent to 117.2 billion shillings, while mobile data revenue grew 11.4 per cent to 54 billion shillings, the company said in a statement.
US contractors land in Haiti to build base for UN forces as Kenyan contingent reassembles in Nairobi
The Kenyan contingent that will deploy reassembled this week for the first time since the Kenyan government announced in March that the deployment would be delayed, said a Kenyan security official, who asked not to be named.
Bamako-bound Boeing 737 catches fire, skids off runway at Senegal airport and injures 10 people
The incident has raised scrutiny of Boeing to the highest level since two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. About a dozen relatives of passengers who died in the second crash have been pushing the US government to revive a criminal fraud charge against the company by determining that Boeing violated terms of a 2021 settlement.
AstraZeneca withdraws dangerous Covid vaccines worldwide that cause blood-clots, memory loss
Despite these known dangers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in December 2021 that the AstraZeneca vaccine was “excellent,” adding that “there is no indication to not use it.” The WHO reiterated these claims in June 2022, saying the AstraZeneca vaccine is “safe and effective for all individuals aged 18 and above.”
Haiti’s transitional council rejigs its operations as it navigates political turmoil, gang violence
Instead of having a single council president, four longtime politicians will take turns leading the council every five months, according to two members who were not authorised to publicly share the changes because they had not yet been announced.
