First Independent Mena Newspaper
Unidentified assailants have reportedly shot dead 15 individuals in South Sudan’s Pibor region, including its commissioner, just as a new UN report found that the number of people affected by violence in the country surged by 35% in the last three months of 2023 due to ongoing inter-communal conflict. “The commissioner and his team visited […]
East African central banks are being forced to hike interest rates to contain renewed inflationary pressures emanating from surging shipping and insurance costs due to the disrupted crucial trade routes between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia in the Red Sea. The ongoing Red Sea crisis, involving attacks by the Iran-supported Houthi group based in […]
African countries are watching closely France’s attempt to impose an EU-wide ban on the export of second-hand clothes, popularly known as mitumba, millions of tonnes of which are exported to the continent each year. France’s lower house of parliament has recently approved a new bill that would gradually impose fines of up to €10-per-item of […]
Armed gangs in Nigeria’s northwest have reportedly kidnapped at least 100 people in a new attack, which comes only days after gunmen seized nearly 300 students and staff from a school. The gunmen attacked two communities in Kaduna state over the weekend, residents and state officials told the media. They seized at least 100 people […]
Morocco’s flag carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) announced that it will launch, as part of its plan to strengthen its network and in preparation for the summer season, air routes from its Casablanca hub to Naples, Manchester, and Abuja, from June 22, 2024. The airline will resume direct flights to Naples, Italy, from June 22, […]
Côte d’Ivoire is in the process of meeting the criteria to join the OPEC, the country’s oil and mining minister amadou Sangafowa Coulibaly announced. This came few days after ENI said it found significant reserves of oil offshore Côte d’Ivoire, with a specific well in particular having as much as 1.5 billion barrels of oil […]
Niamey revoked its military cooperation with the United States and ordered US troops to leave the country after senior US diplomatic and military officials recently warned about Niger’s growing ties to Russia and Iran, the Pentagon said Monday (18 March). Niger’s military government on Saturday (16 March) revoked a major accord known as the status […]
The US counter-terrorism strategy in the Sahel is facing a tough test after Niger’s military rulers asked the US troops to leave the country, revoking a military cooperation deal. The Wall Street Journal reported that the revocation came after senior US officials accused the country’s ruling junta of secretly exploring a deal to allow Iran […]
In addition to electricity blackouts, international media is increasingly deploring South Africa’s infrastructure dysfunctions. Financial Times zoomed on water cuts in South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg. “The prolonged outage that has left taps dry across a swath of Johannesburg and the wider Gauteng province signals a deepening crisis in the water system during one of […]
A total of 45 countries and regions worldwide, including 33 in Africa, are in need of external assistance for food, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has warned. The FAO’s latest “Crop Prospects and Food Situation” report indicates that 33 African countries are in dire need of external assistance for food […]