(Xinhuanet 11/17/17)
Sino-African relations have entered a new development stage of win-win cooperation, according to the fifth Biennial Conference of China-Africa Industrial Forum (CAIF) that opened here Thursday. Supporting Africa's industrialization and capacity cooperation are of vital importance in the next five years and Sino-African trade is likely to total 180 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, said CAIF secretary general Cheng Zhigang in the opening speech. Sino-African economic and trade cooperation has great potential, said Cheng. China has been Africa's largest trading partner since 2009. Chinese investments in Africa exceeded 100 billion dollars in 2016, about 50 times as much as in 2010. China's investments in Africa have also diversified in business areas, from construction and mining to emerging industries such as...
(AFP (eng) 11/17/17)
Africa is making only faltering progress towards food and nutrition security, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned. "Multiple forms of malnutrition coexist, with countries experiencing simultaneously high rates of child undernutrition or anaemia as well as high rates of obesity," it says in a new report, Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition. In sub-Saharan Africa, "progress towards the World Health Assembly global nutrition targets has been generally poor," the Rome-based agency says, referring to goals to end hunger by 2025. The annual document came out Thursday at the start of a two-day food and health seminar in Ivory Coast's economic capital, Abidjan. Around 200 people from 47 African nations are gathered to discuss "sustainable food systems...
(APA 11/14/17)
Nigeria, Senegal and Cape Verde dominate the West African hotel pipeline with 77 percent of the total planned hotel rooms. W Hospitality Group’s 2017 Hotel Chains Pipeline report shows that hotel groups need tackle lengthy development periods in West Africa, according to a press release issued by API Events and seen by APA Tuesday. West Africa has been at the heart of the continent’s growth and economic transformation in recent years. Notwithstanding the sharp slowdown experienced in 2016 and 2017, the region’s economy is expected to rebound in 2017 onwards. Commodity-based economies, like Nigeria, are slowly recovering from the fall in oil prices and oil production, while countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Senegal have shown economic resilience and sustained...
(Reuters (Eng) 11/14/17)
KIGALI (Reuters) - The global airline industry has $1.2 billion blocked in nine dollar-strapped African countries, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday. The global commodities price crash that began in 2014 hit economies across Africa hard, particularly big resource exporters such as Angola and Nigeria. Low oil and mineral prices have reduced government revenue and caused chronic dollar shortages and immense pressure on local currencies. The fiscal slump has meant governments have not allowed foreign airlines to repatriate their dollar profits in full. At an aviation meeting in the Rwandan capital, IATA’s Vice President for Africa, Raphale Kuuchi, said that airlines were in talks with “a few governments to unblock airline funds”. He did not specify the...
(AFP (eng) 11/13/17)
Ministers from 13 European and African countries on Monday pledged steps to ease the migrant crisis around the Mediterranean, vowing especially to improve conditions for migrants held in Libya. Interior ministers and other representatives from countries impacted by the ongoing wave of migration up through Africa towards Europe, including Libya, voiced deep concern over the "ongoing human tragedy" along the so-called Central Mediterranean route. "The participants intend to address the challenges posed by the alarming situation along the migration route to North Africa," Switzerland, which hosted the third meeting of the so-called contact group on the crisis, said in a statement. Thousands of migrants and refugees who attempt to travel along this route "find themselves in catastrophic situations," it said,...
(AFP (eng) 11/11/17)
Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe has accused the opposition of orchestrating violence that has killed at least 16 people in massive anti-government protests across the country. Since the first protests began in late August more than 200 others have been injured as the opposition agitates for Gnassingbe to step down and the introduction of a two-term limit for presidents, applied retroactively to prevent him standing for re-election. "Togo is currently disrupted by demonstrations, which, far from being peaceful as permitted by law, have often been extremely violent," said Gnassingbe, visiting the Temedja military camp, about 200 km (120 miles) north of Lome on Friday. "Those who organise these events bear the heavy responsibility for the victims and the damage they caused,"...
(AfricaNews 11/10/17)
The United States Department of State has issued a travel alert for Togo to its citizens in the face of recurring political protests in the west African country. The alert issued at the start of this week’s round of protests is to extend over a period of almost three months. ‘This Travel Alert expires on January 29, 2018,’ the statement issued on November 7 read. It was the same day that the latest round of anti-government protests started. The three-day process was described by the opposition coalition as a success. Speaking at a rally in the capital Lome, Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, a member of this coalition of 14 political parties...
(AFP (eng) 11/09/17)
Togo's opposition on Thursday rounded off its third protest against the government this week amid concern about a loss of momentum after more than two months of action. Demonstrators in the capital Lome repeated promises to march for as long as it takes to force President Faure Gnassingbe to quit and end 50 years of rule by his family. A coalition of 14 opposition parties has organised near weekly protests since late August, calling for the introduction of a two-term limit for presidents and electoral reform. They want the measures applied retroactively to prevent Gnassingbe from standing at the next two elections in 2020 and 2025, and potentially staying in power until 2030.
(AFP (eng) 11/08/17)
Togo's opposition on Wednesday accused the security forces of "savage repression" after nearly 20 of its supporters were injured as they tried to protest against the ruling party. The opposition held the first of three planned demonstrations this week on Tuesday, calling for constitutional reform and the resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe. But it said its supporters were prevented from taking to the streets in the northern cities of Sokode and Bafilo, despite government permission. Heavily armed soldiers with their heads and faces covered positioned themselves at the starting points of the protests...
(AFP (eng) 11/08/17)
A dozen other students look on as Umar Amadu uses a glass pipette to draw a solution from a conical flask as part of a chemistry experiment. It could be a scene from any school laboratory around the world, but until two months ago Amadu and his fellow students had no access to any science equipment. Science subjects at his rural secondary school outside the city of Katsina in northern Nigeria were taught using theory only. But now they have all the kit they need to put theory into practice, thanks to a mobile science lab that tours selected state schools. "It's an exciting experience. We were being taught only the theoretical aspect of science subjects," Amadu, who wants to...
(AFP (eng) 11/07/17)
Thousands of people took to the streets in Togo's capital, Lome, on Tuesday, in the latest protest calling for the long-standing President Faure Gnassingbe to step down. The demonstration is the first of three planned marches this week and comes after more than two months of nearly weekly opposition action against half a century of rule by the Gnassingbe family. "Fifty years of bloody dictatorship must end," read one banner on the streets of the capital, Lome. Another called for the "international plot against Togo" to end. A retired teacher, who his name as Follivi, told AFP: "Why give up after three months? You're never tired when you've started a fight. I'll see the battle through." On Monday evening, the...
(AFP (eng) 11/07/17)
Togo's government on Monday said it was working towards talks with its political opponents after more than two months of protests calling for President Faure Gnassingbe's resignation. The first of three protests this week begins on Tuesday, stoking fears of a repeat of violence between opposition supporters, police and the military in the capital, Lome, and elsewhere. But industry and tourism minister Yaovi Attigbe Ihou said the government was "taking the necessary measures for the opening of a dialogue in Lome with all of Togo's political class". In a statement read on national television, he said it was hoped "that all this will lead the political parties concerned to act with the greatest restraint and responsibility and to work for...
(Reuters (Eng) 11/07/17)
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc. [UBER.UL] is growing rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa and considering moves into more markets, despite sometimes violent opposition from metered taxi drivers, a senior executive said on Tuesday. Uber’s service has triggered protests by rivals from London to New Delhi as it up-ends traditional business models that require professional drivers to pay steep licensing fees to do business. “We are bullish on Africa. The growth here is still substantial and we think that given the right regulatory environment, the growth could be even better,” Justin Spratt, head of business development for the sub-Saharan region, told Reuters. “Africa’s growth thus far has been faster than America and a large part of that is...
(Reuters (Eng) 11/06/17)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Africa’s mobile internet connections are set to double in the next five years, a study showed on Monday, thanks to affordable smartphones and the roll-out of high-speed networks. A report by research and consulting firm Ovum in London estimates that mobile broadband connections will rise from 419 million at the end of this year to 1.07 billion by the end of 2022. “Data connectivity is growing strongly in Africa, and there are also good prospects on the continent in areas such as digital media, mobile financial services, and the Internet of Things,” said Matthew Reed, Practice Leader Middle East and Africa at Ovum. “But as Africa’s TMT market becomes more convergent and complex, service providers are under...
(AFP (eng) 11/04/17)
Togo's government has scrapped a ban on weekday marches after a series of anti-government protests defied the order, the country's security minister and the opposition said on Saturday. The restrictions were introduced on October 10 on security grounds following a wave of demonstrations that saw hundreds of thousands of people on the streets calling for the removal of President Faure Gnassingbe. Some protests had resulted in violent clashes with police and soldiers and come amid calls from a coalition of 14 opposition parties for Gnassingbe to step down, and for a limit of two, five-year terms to be introduced for presidents.
(AFP (eng) 11/03/17)
US politicians are voicing concern over America's growing military presence across Africa, where they worry the Pentagon is getting ever more embroiled in a secretive campaign against a shifting enemy. Last month's killing of four US soldiers in a Niger ambush has thrust the issue into the spotlight, with lawmakers calling for greater transparency on what is going on in Africa. "The footprint in Africa is much bigger than the American public understands," Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said this week. The Niger ambush has also rekindled debate over the legal authorities the Pentagon uses to fight jihadist groups overseas, particularly in Africa where about 6,000 US troops are deployed across the vast continent. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis this week faced...
(AFP (eng) 11/02/17)
Five children were killed Tuesday night and two others wounded by a suicide bomber described as a "young girl" in a northern region of Cameroon plagued by Boko Haram attacks, sources said Wednesday. "A suicide bomber blew herself up (on Tuesday) at around 7.45 pm (1845 GMT)" in the village of Zamga, two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Nigerian border, said a security officer responsible for the zone, reached from the capital Yaounde. "Five children were killed and two others wounded," he said on condition of anonymity, adding that the suicide bomber was also killed in the blast. The attack and the death toll were confirmed to AFP by another security source. A group of children was playing when "a...
(AFP (eng) 11/01/17)
West African leaders held mediation talks Wednesday with all sides involved in Liberia's disputed election, following a Supreme Court announcement it would summon the country's electoral commission to explain alleged fraud and irregularities. Liberia's top court has reviewed a legal complaint backed by three political parties and found "constitutional issues raised" by the electoral commission's actions during an October 10 presidential election, it said on Tuesday. A Supreme Court hearing on the issue is set for Thursday at 9am (0900 GMT). The legal complaint was lodged by the opposition Liberty Party but has the backing of the ruling Unity Party and its presidential candidate, incumbent Vice-President Joseph Boakai. The court has also ordered the electoral commission to "stay any and...
(Reuters (Eng) 10/31/17)
HARARE (Reuters) - Economic growth is expected to rise to 3.4 percent in sub-Saharan Africa next year from 2.6 percent in 2017, the IMF said in a report on Monday, but warned that rising debt and political risks in larger economies would weigh down future growth. Nigeria and South African are the biggest economies in Africa south of the Sahara, but both nations have been clouded by political uncertainty linked to the tenure of their leaders. The IMF said a good harvest and recovery in oil output in Nigeria would contribute more than half of the growth in the region this year while an uptick in mining and a better harvest in South Africa as well as a rebound in...
(AFP (eng) 10/27/17)
More than 500 Togolese nationals have sought refuge in neighbouring Ghana because of a government crackdown on opposition protests, the UN refugee agency said Friday. "So far, 513 asylum seekers have been registered by the Ghanaian authorities," UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said in a statement. They crossed the border to Chereponi, Zabzugu and Bunkpurugu-Yunyuo in Ghana's remote northwest and most were staying with local families or in community centres, he added. "Togolese seeking safety, including women and children, told UNHCR staff they had fled on foot, walking from their homes in Togo's Mango region, bordering Ghana," he said.