Africa

Addis Ababa (AFP) – Ethiopia on Thursday passed a law punishing “hate speech” and “disinformation” with hefty fines and long jail terms, despite fears by rights groups it undermines gains in free speech. Nearly 300 lawmakers voted in favour of the bill, with 23 votes against and two abstentions. The new law defines hate speech Read more

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brought the promise of an investment agreement with Ethiopia and $10 million to help empower African women to the table Saturday as he continued his bid to get African votes for Canada’s attempt to win a United Nations Security Council seat later this year. Trudeau also spent Read more

Sudan FILE – In this July 9, 2018 file photo, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir attends a ceremony for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey. A top Sudanese official said Monday, Feb. 11, 2020, that transitional authorities and rebel groups have agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the International Criminal Read more

Ethiopia African Union Summit South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir arrives for the opening session of the 33rd African Union (AU) Summit at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020. Topics on the table for discussion included the situations in Libya and Sudan, as well as President Donald Trump’s Middle East initiative. Read more

February 6, 2020 * The Ethiopia Working Group is a nonpartisan group of experts, scholars, and practitioners who come together with a focus on US policy toward Ethiopia. Ethiopia has announced a provisional date for its general elections, and the United States government has a vital role to play in helping ensure that they are Read more

The challenge was brought by Lazarus Chakwera (left) and Saulos Chilima (centre) against President Peter Mutharika (right)   Malawi’s Constitutional Court on Monday nullified the results of last year’s presidential election, citing “widespread, systematic and grave” irregularities including significant use of correction fluid to alter the outcome. The two leading opposition candidates had challenged the Read more

Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN)A South African judge said she was left with no choice but to issue former President Jacob Zuma with an arrest warrant after he failed to appear in court on Tuesday. Zuma’s legal team said he was receiving medical care outside the country. But Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Dhaya Pillay was skeptical Read more

Nairobi (AFP) – Former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, who ruled the country with an iron fist between 1978 and 2002, has died aged 95, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced Tuesday. Moi’s 24-year rule saw his country become a one-party state where critical voices were crushed, corruption became endemic and tribal divisions were stoked and turned Read more

It’s still up in the air whether the African Union can keep its promise to deliver a continental passport by the end of the year. The travel document would allow visa-free travel between the Union’s 55 member countries. In addition, as Europeans and Asians increasingly travelled to nearby countries, in recent years, African figures remained Read more

Ethiopians are slamming their government for not stopping China flights: With the death toll of Coronavirus now having passed 300, and more than 14,000 infections confirmed, WHO has declared the virus a global health emergency. With countries including Australia, Japan and the US imposing travel restrictions on those who have recently traveled to the country Read more

By Simon Marks and Abdi Latif Dahir Jan. 30, 2020 ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopians are taking to the streets and to social media to protest their government’s failure to find at least a dozen university students and five other people who were believed to have been kidnapped from a bus by masked men in Read more

The United States and The World reportedly standing in guard of Egyptian interest. Their proposals in the negotiation in Washington said to be one that affects the interest of Ethiopia. The Water Ministers and Foreign Ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, as well as experts, have been discussing the final document to be signed regarding Read more

NAIROBI – A student who arrived in Kenya from China Tuesday has been quarantined in Nairobi after exhibiting coronavirus-like symptoms. Kenya Airways, the airline that the patient flew, said the decision to quarantine him was made by health authorities at Nairobi’s Jommo Kenyatta International Airport. A Kenyan student who returned home from China Tuesday is Read more

Tension has been building in The Gambia over Adama Barrow’s decision to stay in office for five years after initially pledging to step down after three (AFP Photo/Seyllou) Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) – The Gambian government on Sunday launched a crackdown on a weeks-old movement demanding the departure of President Adama Barrow, following violent demonstrations in Read more

Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt have moved closer to formalising a water-sharing deal over the Nile after technical teams meeting in Khartoum drew up a draft agreement. At the end of a consultative meeting on Thursday, the technical teams from the three countries said they had included observations reached when the countries’ ministers met in Washington Read more

Lesotho’s prime minister Tom Thabane and his wife are caught up in a murder investigation involving allegations so sinister that they have the makings of a crime novel. Pumza Fihlani tries to unpack the mystery from the capital of the southern African nation, Maseru. People are going about their business in the city, vegetable vendors Read more

Four African nations are targets of a new travel ban by United States president Donald Trump, multiple news sources have reported. An official announcement is expected by next week. Incidentally, only one of the quartet is a Muslim-majority nation i.e. Sudan. The others are Eritrea, Nigeria and Tanzania. During an engagement on the sidelines of Read more

Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan have agreed the filling of the Nile dam should start in the wet season and proceed in stages. But they have delayed making a final agreement until later in January. Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan say they have reached a preliminary agreement aimed at clearing the way for the filling and operation of Read more

Reverend Noah Clement Ninziza, the deputy chair of the Burundi Truth and Reconciliation Commission, speaks during a Reuters interview in Bujumbura NAIROBI (Reuters) – Twenty-six years ago, Prosper saw Burundian soldiers take away his brother and nephew. Neighbors told him soldiers had also discovered his mother in a house where she had been hiding. None Read more

As Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visits the West African country of Guinea , economic partnership agreements are to be activated in a range of areas. In the morning of Ethiopian Christmas on January 7, 2020, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed hosted lunch in Unity Park, a project that was unveiled in 2019 to revamp tourism Read more

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have reached an initial deal on the filling and operation of what will be Africa’s biggest hydro-electric dam. The three nations agreed, following a meeting in Washington DC, that the mega dam on the River Nile should be filled in stages during the rainy season. Ethiopia, which is building the dam, Read more

Ethiopia airlines plans to start building Africa’s largest airport at $5 billion within six months and continue the ascendancy of its national carrier, the most profitable on the continent. The new airport, 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) from the existing Bole International Airport in the capital Addis Ababa, will be able to handle as many as Read more

WASHINGTON – The latest talks hosted by the U.S. Treasury produced some progress but failed to achieve a comprehensive agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Egypt and Ethiopia are still deadlocked over the dam, despite urging from U.S. President Donald Trump that parties reach a “mutually beneficial agreement.” Read more

Scientists predict more rain but less water for the millions of people in the Nile Basin The Nile, the world’s longest river, runs through 11 countries in Africa and has a basin that covers about 3 million sq kms, nearly 10% of the continent’s landmass. About 250 million people are reliant on the Nile’s waters Read more

Israeli firms have finished installing the advanced Spyder-MR air defense system for the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam upstream of the Nile – in the face of discord with Egypt. Cairo has strongly resisted the construction of Ethiopia’s mega-dam as a threat to its water security. It is estimated that the new dam when filled will Read more

The latest talks to resolve the dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over the future of a giant hydropower project on the Nile River are due to resume in Washington later. Last year a deadline of 15 January was set to solve the long-standing impasse but the latest round of talks, last week, ended in deadlock. Read more

River of the Dammed: Ethiopian builders work on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam near the Sudanese-Ethiopian border on March 31, 2015. ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Ethiopia’s continued efforts to dam the Nile could end in war with Egypt. Here’s how to stop that from happening. In October, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Read more

Pretoria, South Africa | AFP | Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Sunday asked South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene in a long-running dispute with Egypt over a massive dam being built on the Blue Nile River. Ethiopia’s ties to Egypt have soured since the east African country launched the construction of the Grand Read more

GERD from space. The essentials: Egypt and Ethiopia failed again to find a compromise on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a massive construction project on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile, which is due to be finished in the coming years. Filling the reservoir and using part of the water for irrigation in Ethiopia would severely reduce Read more