Army: Separatist gunmen suspected to be members of IPOB kill 11 in southeast Nigeria
IPOB campaigns for the secession of southeastern Nigeria where the majority belong to the Igbo group. The movement’s leader – Nnamdi Kanu, a British citizen arrested in Kenya in 2021 – is now on trial in Nigeria on terrorism charges.
South Africa on course to ‘coalition country’ with fears President Ramaphosa is not sitting pretty in ANC
The ANC has had a clear majority for all 30 years of South Africa’s democracy since the party swept to power in a 1994 election which officially ended the apartheid system of white minority rule, leading Nelson Mandela to become the country’s first Black president. It has been the dominant political force and its slipping below 50 per cent would be a momentous change for Africa’s most advanced economy.
One year-old Ghanaian toddler enters Guinness World Records as youngest male artist ever
The Guinness World Records confirmed the record in a statement and last week declared that “at the age of 1 year 152 days, little Ace-Liam Nana Sam Ankrah from Ghana is the world’s youngest male artist.”
Gold valued at over $10 billion flows illegally out of Africa each year, new report says
An official within the UAE government’s media office said the country has taken significant steps to address concerns around gold smuggling and the risks it poses. The continued growth of the UAE’s gold market reflected the confidence of the international community in its processes, the official said, responding on behalf of the country’s press office without providing further identification.
Nigeria’s new anthem, written by a Briton, raises recolonisation concerns after contentious law is passed
Many Nigerians, however, took to social media to say they won’t be singing the new national anthem, among them Oby Ezekwesili, a former education minister and presidential aspirant who said that the new law shows that the country’s political class doesn’t care about the public interest.
South Africa poll: Zuma’s party gives ruling ANC a run for money as early results show it’s ceding ground
With results in from 16.7 per cent of polling stations, the ANC’s share of the vote in Wednesday’s election stood at 42.5 per cent, with the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) on 25.8 per cent, data from the electoral commission showed on Thursday.
German vaccine maker gets $145 million funding from global coalition for African vaccine plants
BioNTech said in December it aimed to start production at the modular mRNA vaccine factory site in Rwanda in 2025, the first foreign company mRNA vaccine manufacturing site on the continent. It said at the time it had fully funded the facility, committing a total of $150 million.
Long wait for president: Fingers crossed as vote tallyng starts in South Africa and ANC risks ceding majority
The president is elected in Parliament after the national vote’s results are announced. South Africa’s Parliament has two houses and it’s the lower house, or National Assembly, that chooses the president. There, the 400 lawmakers vote for one of them to be the head of state and it needs a simple majority of 201. Because the ANC has always had a parliamentary majority since 1994, every president since then has been from the ANC, starting with Nelson Mandela.
New poll finds South Africa’s ANC support around 42 per cent hours before voting starts
In a Tuesday update of the tracking poll by South African think tank the Social Research Foundation, the ANC’s support was estimated at 42.2 per cent on May 27, the latest day for which data is available, under a scenario modelled for the 66 per cent turnout seen at the last national election in 2019.
History to judge Ramaphosa leader who ruined or remade ANC as South Africa’s political force
If the party loses its majority for the first time in 30 years, as opinion polls predict, some political analysts say 71-year-old Ramaphosa will be unlikely to see out a second term. Ramaphosa was the ANC’s lead negotiator during talks that led to a peaceful end to apartheid, which enabled Nelson Mandela to become South Africa’s first Black president after 1994s historic all-race vote.
