Author: Amnewsworld

South Africa must prepare for a prolonged electricity crisis, Eskom warned on Friday, as it struggles to power the continent’s top industrial powerhouse. The state-owned company promised a Christmas Day reprieve from the unprecedented and prolonged blackouts the country has been suffering for months, attributed to sabotage but mostly to outdated coal-fired power stations, as well as problems of incompetence and outright corruption. But the first three months of 2023 are going to be “difficult”, said Jan Oberholzer, chief operating officer, at a press briefing. “This period is going to be really complicated”. Electricity comes mainly from coal but also…

Health authorities in Malawi announced on Thursday that the death toll from the cholera outbreak has passed 400. Since the first cases were reported in March the number of infections has been increasing nearing almost 14 thousand. Malawi’s health minister Khumbize Chiponda urged people in worst-hit areas to get vaccinated. According to official numbers, 13 out of 15 districts earmarked for the cholera vaccine have managed to get 83.6% coverage. Malawi’s largest lakeshore tourist hub, Mangochi, and the country’s second largest city, Blantyre, have recorded high numbers of infections. In November, Malawi received 2.9 million doses of the cholera vaccine…

Tunisia’s powerful trade union, UGTT, has warned the country’s president saying that chaos could follow if the second round of parliamentary elections is not postponed. The union statement released on Thursday said that the new parliament has no legitimacy following a record low turnout estimated at 11,2%. The first round of parliamentary elections took place last Saturday marking the end of a process that started when President Saied suspended an opposition-dominated parliament in July 2021. Since then, Saied changed the constitution in order to weaken parliament making it subservient to the president. The opposition, who boycotted the elections, labelled Saied’s…

In eastern DRC, M23 rebels met soldiers from a regional military force on Friday to hand over a strategic frontline position near the major eastern city of Goma. According to AFP, the hand over follows heavy international pressure on the M23 rebel movement to lay down arms. “We hope that the government in Kinshasa will seize this opportunity with both hands and also work to bring peace to our country. (…) “The fact that we are in the process of withdrawing, that’s what is being done today and at the moment. And the fact that we are fighting, that’s you, and…

Shell will pay 15 million euros in compensation to Nigerian farmers for oil spills that severely polluted three villages in the Niger Delta, the oil giant said Friday. A Dutch court ruled in 2021 that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary was liable for damages resulting from the spills and ordered Shell to pay compensation in the long-running lawsuit brought by four Nigerian farmers. “Shell and Milieudefensie have negotiated a settlement for the benefit of the communities of Oruma, Goi and Ikot Ada Udo in Nigeria, which were impacted by four oil spills between 2004 and 2007,” the oil giant said in a…

The UN office in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, announced that last Tuesday’s heavy rains and flooding had killed at least 169 people. Earlier, Congolese authorities had announced that the floods had caused at least 120 dead. According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs the heavy rains affected an estimated 38 000 people destroying at least 280 houses. A three-day national mourning period was declared from Wednesday. AMN | Reporters | Eyewitness.

In Tunisia, President Kais Saied cast his ballot this morning in a polling station inside a primary school in the capital, Tunis. Tunisians are voting in parliamentary elections to pick their representatives in the 166-seat assembly. Speaking after casting his vote, Saied reminded candidates of their responsibilities. “Let those who will be elected today or in the coming round, in case of a second round, let them remember that they will be under the observation of their voters, so if they go back on those who voted for them and do not work honestly to bring about what they promised…

Tensions are rising between Burkina Faso and neighbouring Ghana following Ghana’s claim that Ouagadougo had invited Russian mercenaries into the country. Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo made the comments last Wednesday sparking a diplomatic row. “These 48 hours were marked by the words of Ghana’s president Nana Akufo Addo on an alleged contract between the transitional government and a private Russian company. Faced with such a situation, the logical thing to do was to urgently summon the Ghanaian ambassador in Ouagadougou, but also our ambassador in Accra for consultation”, said Karamoko Jean Marie Traoré, Burkina Faso’s Deputy Minister for Regional Cooperation. Faced…

Africa is the new terrain of strategic confrontation between the United States, China and Russia. Washington is hosting political and economic leaders from the African continent for three days in a summit with many facets and where some countries are treated with particular attention. “In economic development, we know that a lot is happening, a lot of ferment in the air in Angola, and we ant to be part of that growth story, we want to attract private capital, including US capital, not just in the oil and gas sector which is the traditional area in which there has been…

Sudan has signed a $6 billion agreement with a consortium led by the United Arab Emirates’ AD Ports Group and Invictus Investment to develop a new port and economic zone in the Red Sea. “This mammoth project, estimated to cost around $6 billion, will give a powerful boost to the national economy and bring countless benefits to the country as a whole,” said Sudanese Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim at the signing ceremony. The Abu Amama port, which will be built north of the Port Sudan port through which almost all of the country’s imports and South Sudan’s oil exports pass,…