(Voice of America 06/21/17)
WASHINGTON DC — On June 5, Saudi Arabia and its allies, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of funding extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State. In response, Qatar said it was the victim of a policy of “domination and control” by its larger neighbor and that Saudi Arabia was, in fact, the one responsible for backing extremism. So what is the truth? Fundamentalist strains of Islam, including Saudi-born Salafism and Wahhabism, form the ideological bedrock for most terror groups. According to a study by Leif Wenar of King’s College London based on the Global Terrorism Database, three out of four terror attacks...
(RFI(EN) 06/20/17)
Church leaders in Zambia are worried that the country is turning into a dictatorship with challenges relating to governance, restrictions on people’s freedoms and human rights violations. The strongly-worded statement by three church bodies published on Friday calls for the release of opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema who is currently in jail facing treason charges. “We find it hard to find other ways of describing rather than to say, here are signs of a kind of regime which has the tendency of dictatorship,” Cleophas Lungu, Secretary General, Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops, told RFI. Read more at: http://en.rfi.fr/africa/20170616-zambia-becoming-dictatorship-say-church...
(Bloomberg 06/07/17)
Zambia’s copper output will climb by about 4 percent to a record this year as operators near a resolution with government over power prices, according to the Chamber of Mines in Africa’s second-biggest producer of the metal. Production will increase to about 800,000 metric tons, said Nathan Chishimba, president of the lobby group. That would be higher than the 770,600 tons mined last year, and exceed a previous record of about 790,000 tons in 2013. The forecast is less optimistic...
(Bloomberg 06/02/17)
Billionaire Lev Leviev, who made his fortune undercutting De Beers’ former diamond monopoly, has bought half of one of Africa’s biggest emerald mines. Leviev bought into the Grizzly emerald mine in Zambia’s Copperbelt province, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kombadayedu Kapwanga, managing director Leviev’s Namibian unit, said by phone. The operation has been renamed Gemcanton Investments Holdings. A spokesperson for Africa Israel Investments Ltd., a listed company controlled in which Leviev is the biggest shareholder, didn’t return phone...
(BBC News Africa 05/31/17)
African champions Zambia came from behind to beat Germany 4-3 after extra-time and advance to the quarter-finals of the Under-20 World Cup in South Korea. Zambia looked like they had the match won at 3-1 in the 89th minute but late goals from Suat Serdar and Jonas Arweiler ensured the game went to extra time. Shemmy Mayembe was the Zambian hero with a goal early in the second period of the added 30 minutes. Philipp Ochs had opened the scoring...
(Washington Post 05/31/17)
The old man’s house had become a camp for the displaced. In the back yard, groups of women boiled water for rice. Small children skittered across the dirt, running into the bedroom, where they careened around the long, skinny legs of Elijah Karama. “Because of the conditions, they are mine to take care of,” said Karama, 57, more tired than proud. By conditions, he meant Boko Haram’s destruction of vast areas of northeastern Nigeria, and the hunger crisis that has...
(Bloomberg 05/30/17)
Africa’s corn harvest this year is a tale of two extremes as worries about overflowing silos and rotting crops in the south contrast with the east where supermarkets are running short of the staple food. Zambia and South Africa are both predicting record output of the grain, while Zimbabwe may meet its domestic needs for the first time since it began seizing land from white farmers in 2000. Yet in East Africa, 17 million people may be facing hunger, and...
(BBC News Africa 05/24/17)
Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has been in police custody for over a month, facing treason charges after a row over the presidential motorcade. The BBC's Karen Allen asks whether Zambia's reputation as a bastion of democracy is under threat. The man in the red fleece has been shuttling between prison and court for over a month in a country which rarely makes international headlines. But Hakainde Hichilema, leader of Zambia's United Party for National Development (UPND) has now become famous as the man facing treason charges for what appears to be a minor traffic offence. Critics fear it does not bode well for a country
(Bloomberg 05/18/17)
The Bank of Zambia reduced its benchmark rate for the second straight time since its introduction five years ago as good rains improve prospects for lower food prices in coming months. The central bank cut the rate to 12.5 percent, the lowest since 2015, from 14 percent, Governor Denny Kalyalya told reporters Wednesday in Lusaka, the capital. Consumer inflation was unchanged at 6.7 percent in April, the lowest since 2013, after peaking at 22.9 percent in February last year. While...
(Bloomberg 05/18/17)
Steinhoff International Holdings NV plans to list its African assets separately as the acquisitive retailer seeks a new prize for shareholders following this year’s failed merger talks with Shoprite Holdings Ltd. The company said Wednesday it will seek to list businesses including clothing retailer Pepkor and furniture chain JD Group Ltd. on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, about 18 months after moving its primary listing to Frankfurt from the South African commercial hub. The new business could be worth as much...
(Dw-World 05/16/17)
A Lusaka Magistrate has acquitted Zambia's main opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema on the charge of use of insulting language towards law enforcement officers. Hichilema remains in custody facing treason charges. There was heavy police presence at the Lusaka Magistrate's Court as hundreds of people flocked the area. Entry to the courtroom was restricted and many people were turned away. Magistrate Greenwell Malumani delivered his ruling by saying that the state failed to prove that the opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema used insulting language towards police officers. Hichilema was arrested at his home on April 11.
(Bloomberg 05/11/17)
Zambia will conclude a deal with the International Monetary Fund for as much as $1.6 billion by the end of June, Finance Minister Felix Mutati said. “We will conclude by the end of the second quarter,” Mutati said in an interview Wednesday in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. “There is no question on whether the deal comes through or not. The deal is coming through.” The country has been talking about getting IMF aid since 2014 but an agreement has been...
(Fox News 05/10/17)
After five years of no major attacks on merchant vessels, piracy around the Horn of Africa seemed to be on hiatus. Acts of piracy in those treacherous waters have fallen sharply since 2012, according to statistics released by the United States Navy. The Navy credits aggressive patrolling by international forces and increased vigilance by the commercial shipping industry for the decrease. However, in the past month, Somali pirates have intercepted five ships, raising concerns that piracy has returned to the...
(Voice of America 05/05/17)
As Africa grapples with a severe drought, and famine threatens millions of people, experts at the World Economic Forum on Africa this week in the South African city of Durban say food security needs to be a major part of discussions on advancing the continent economically. The annual World Economic Forum in Switzerland is usually a high-powered event, but at this week’s Africa meeting of the international organization, the continent’s big players are welcoming the humble farmer, now known as...
(Voice of America 05/03/17)
African military expenditures have finally slowed down after more than a decade of steady increases, according to a new report on global defense spending. The main reason, the report found, is a drop in oil prices. “The sharp decreases in oil prices has affected quite a number of African countries, namely South Sudan and Angola. This has kind of driven almost the entire regional trend,” said Nan Tian, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Arms and...
(Bloomberg 05/02/17)
Saudi Aramco is seeking to boost its fuel-trading volume by more than a third as the world’s biggest crude exporter expands its capacity to refine oil to grab a bigger share of growing markets in Asia and Africa. Aramco, as Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is known, is building refineries in the kingdom and in Asia to help it increase sales and purchases of gasoline, diesel and other products to more than 2 million barrels a day, said Ibrahim Al-Buainain, chief...
(Bloomberg 04/28/17)
The International Monetary Fund will send a mission to Zambia in May to continue talks over as much as $1.6 billion in aid the government is seeking after they failed to reach a deal in Washington this month. “Progress was made but program discussions have not yet been concluded,” Alfredo Baldini, the fund’s representative in Zambia, said Friday in response to emailed questions. “The authorities and IMF staff have agreed that a mission will return to Zambia at the end...
(Voice of America 04/28/17)
A low-cost and widely available drug could save the lives of 1 in 3 mothers who would otherwise bleed to death after childbirth, according to a new study. Severe bleeding, known as postpartum hemorrhage, or PPH, is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide, killing more than 100,000 women every year. Even for mothers who survive, it is a painful and traumatic experience. The world's poorest countries, especially in Africa and India, are the worst hit. Drug from 1960s But...
(Bloomberg 04/27/17)
Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema will remain in custody until next week when his treason trial will resume, the Union Party for National Development said. Magistrate David Simusamba on Thursday adjourned the case until May 4, the party, which Hichilema leads, said in a statement on its Twitter account in the capital, Lusaka. Political tensions in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer, which have been high since presidential elections last year that Hichilema lost to Edgar Lungu, escalated when police detained the...
(Bloomberg 04/26/17)
Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, expects its production of the metal to jump about 10 percent this year to a record. The country, home to mines owned by companies including Glencore Plc, Barrick Gold Corp., First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Vedanta Resources Plc, will produce about 850,000 metric tons of copper this year, Mines Minister Christopher Yaluma said in an interview in London on Tuesday. “Improved and modernized mining through the same infrastructure” will enable output to expand, he said. Production from First Quantum’s Sentinel operation will account for much of the nation’s increase, which would top a previous record of about 790,000 tons in 2013, he said.