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China  has announced its plan to exempt some African countries from repaying the zero-interest-rate loans that are due at the end of this year. It is also willing to provide further support, including loan maturing extensions, to free up funds needed to deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This was disclosed by the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, during a video conference with African leaders. This initiative adds to an earlier one by the Group of 20 leading economies to suspend payments for low-income countries that are in deep economic crises due to the coronavirus disease. According to the Chinese President, “ China hopes that the international community, especially developed countries and multilateral financial institutions, will act more forcefully on debt relief and suspension for Africa.” The Chinese President added that China is also willing to give priority to African countries once the COVID-19 vaccines are ready for use....

Forty-six Ethiopians drowned and 16 were missing after a human smuggler's boat carrying at least 100 refugees capsized as it approached Yemen. The vessel left the port of Bossasso in Somalia on Tuesday with 83 men and 17 women on board. They were hoping to find work in Yemen and the Gulf, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a statement on Wednesday, citing information from survivors. IOM's director of operations and emergencies, Mohammad Abdiker, said the Gulf of Aden's migration tragedy was shameful. "Over 7,000 poor migrants take this perilous journey every month; some 100,000 took it just last year. They are treated appallingly and go through horrendous conditions. This has to end," said  Abdiker . The drownings happened just days after IOM helped 101 Ethiopians - including 51 women and 33 children - to leave Yemen for Djibouti, as fighting closed in around Yemen's key port of  Hudaida. They were stranded in Yemen an...

"I may have been one of those involved in the herdsmen/farmers’ clashes if i had not gone to school." President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he may have been one of those involved in the herdsmen/farmers’ clashes had he not gone to school. He stated this in a speech he delivered during his two-day state visit to Bauchi State on Thursday at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi, where he inaugurated  the 261 Nigerian Air Force Referral Hospital, some roads and five tractors and some farm implements. Buhari, while addressing the thousands of Bauchi residents in Hausa who thronged the stadium to welcome him on his first visit to the state since 2015, encouraged them to allow their children to go to school. He said, “Make every effort to put your children in school, plead with them to be patient and read hard. In this generation, you cannot make it except you are educated. “Now, look at the farmers/herdsmen’s clashes in the northern part of this country...

As women around the world stand up to harassing and abusing men, the struggle is alive and well in Africa. Like a baton pass in the world's most painful relay race, revelations that powerful men have - presuming a right to pleasure - sexually harassed their female colleagues have spread around the world. It started in the entertainment industry (the first allegations were against Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein) and then moved to politics, the media and the not-for-profit sector. In the latter, the hashtag #AidToo has shown that despite its noble intentions, the development and humanitarian industry is as susceptible to abuses of power and the violence that most of its organisations campaign against. Despite this groundswell, many have remarked that the African continent seems largely silent on the topic of sexual harassment - and gender-based violence more broadly - pointing to respectability politics (the taboo of speaking out), cultural norms, shame and ...

Seventy-six-year-old former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, is set to marry for the seventh time. His bride-to-be is 24-year-old Nonkanyiso Conco, who confirmed to  TimesLIVE  that she and the embattled former president are set to wed. “Yes‚ we are getting married‚ but that is all I can say. I need to consult before I give any interviews‚” she told the South African website. Conco is a director of the Pietermaritzburg-based Nomkhubulwane Culture and Youth Development Organisation‚ aimed at protecting the cultural practices of young Zulu women. Conco reportedly resides in the plush Ballito Estate Hilltop‚ home to some of the city’s most well-heeled residents. She would be Zuma’s youngest bride‚ at 52 years his junior. Zuma‚ who has always been a proponent of polygamy‚ is currently married to Gertrude Sizakele Khumalo‚ Thobeka Madiba-Zuma and Bongi Ngema-Zuma. He is divorced from Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and separated from Nompumelelo MaNtuli Zuma.