EX-US VP Mike Pence faces ringing criticism for ‘homophobic joke’ at gay minister for taking ‘maternity’ leave

EX-US VP Mike Pence faces ringing criticism for ‘homophobic joke’ at gay minister for taking ‘maternity’ leave

The White House on Monday asked former Vice President Mike Pence to apologise for what it called a “homophobic joke” he made over the weekend aimed at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The former vice president’s homophobic joke about Secretary Buttigieg was offensive and inappropriate, all the more so because he...

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US Secretary of State’s current tour of Ethiopia, Niger makes him most travelled top American envoy to Africa

US Secretary of State’s current tour of Ethiopia, Niger makes him most travelled top American envoy to Africa

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Ethiopia this week singles him out as America’s most travelled foreign affairs diplomat having logged over 68,389 kilometres (42,495 miles) in flying to Africa. Blinken is President Joseph Biden’s representative in face-to-face diplomacy in Africa, which is being aggressively courted by China and...

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Eyes on how Nigeria’s President-elect Bola Tinubu will deal with Boko Haram insurgency

Eyes on how Nigeria’s President-elect Bola Tinubu will deal with Boko Haram insurgency

By the time he is sworn in on May 29, President-elect Bola Tinubu should be fully aware that the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria presents an immense challenge to his government. After being declared winner of the February 25 presidential election, he has likely started working on the transition, including...

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Ukraine war: There’s good reason to worry ugly history is repeating itself today in Eastern Europe

Ukraine war: There’s good reason to worry ugly history is repeating itself today in Eastern Europe

For nearly a decade in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the newly founded Islamic Republic of Iran waged a merciless war against each other. The fighting saw the return of World War I-style human-wave offensives, trench warfare, and chemical weapons attacks. Although it dragged on for years, the Iran-Iraq...

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Who killed Ouko: 23 years since murder of foreign minister, lawyer warns Kenya is again in a rut

Who killed Ouko: 23 years since murder of foreign minister, lawyer warns Kenya is again in a rut

Rising uncertainty and fears that Kenya is sliding back to the dark days of dictatorship, humans rights activists and sticklers for rule of law and constitutionalism have raised the flag that ordinary citizens should be ready to defend freedom of expression and opinion. Human Rights Lawyer and Advocate of the...

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Britain plans to surrender its last colony in Africa – Chagos Islands – to Mauritius in Indian Ocean

Britain plans to surrender its last colony in Africa – Chagos Islands – to Mauritius in Indian Ocean

Could the protracted dispute over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean finally be drawing to a close? Britain steadfastly insisted for decades that it was the rightful owner of what it called the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). But it did an apparent about-turn on November 3, 2022, when...

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South Sudan president meets deputy in capital Juba as fears of slide back into civil war resurface

South Sudan president meets deputy in capital Juba as fears of slide back into civil war resurface

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his first deputy, Riek Machar met on Friday (today) at the State House in the capital, Juba, to discuss the recent dismissal of Defence Minister Angelina Teny. The eagerly anticipated meeting happens a week after Kiir unilaterally sacked the Defence and Veterans Affairs minister...

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UN Security Council votes to retain arms embargo imposed on Sudan over violence in Darfur region

UN Security Council votes to retain arms embargo imposed on Sudan over violence in Darfur region

The UN Security Council on Wednesday approved a resolution to renew an arms embargo and other sanctions imposed over violence in Sudan’s western Darfur region that began in 2004. Thirteen of the 15 council members voted for the resolution. Russia and China abstained, arguing that the Darfur conflict is largely...

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Tanzania President Hassan pitches political tolerance as she marks UN Women’s Day

Tanzania President Hassan pitches political tolerance as she marks UN Women’s Day

Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has said that as the East African country’s first female leader, she has brought a new level of political tolerance to the nation. Hassan spoke at a rally for International Women’s Day, which had been organised by an opposition party. More than 3,000 women were...

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Nigeria elections commission promises to address grievances of presidential poll losers

Nigeria elections commission promises to address grievances of presidential poll losers

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will “redress” the “grievances” of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) regarding the presidential election outcome. Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner for information, spoke while addressing members of the PDP who protested at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja. TheCable had reported how the...

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