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DAKAR, June 1 (Reuters) - Nine people were killed in Senegal on Thursday in clashes between riot police and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko after a court sentenced him to two years in jail, casting serious doubt on his chances of running for president next year. The justice ministry said the opposition leader could now be taken to prison at any time. Police remained stationed around his home Dakar as unrest flared in the capital and elsewhere after the verdict. But Sall's second term has been particularly turbulent for a country usually viewed as one of West Africa's strongest democracies. Separately, Sonko is appealing against a six-month suspended prison sentence for libel - an offence he also denies.

Persons: Ousmane Sonko, Sonko, Bamba Ciss, Sonko's, Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome, Abdou Karim Fofana, Ndiack Fall, Macky Sall, Sall, Ngouda Dione, Bate Felix, Diadie Ba, Edward McAllister, Sofia Christensen, Alessandra Prentice, Matthew Lewis, Andrew Heavens, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Police, REUTERS, University, Thomson Locations: DAKAR, Senegal, Dakar, Dakar Senegal, West, Lincoln

☆ Senegal president promises fair election as tensions simmer
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Sporadic violent protests have broken out across Senegal since opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was detained for alleged rape in 2021. Sonko's supporters say this is a tactic to bar him from the February presidential poll, which the government denies. Sall on Wednesday welcomed members of various parties, religious leaders and civil society to a multi-day national dialogue aimed at easing tensions and fostering dialogue. As a result, neither was able to run for president in 2019. Khalifa Sall attended Wednesday's dialogue and said he hoped the president's potential third term bid was up for discussion.

Persons: Macky Sall, Ousmane Sonko, Sonko's, Sall, Sonko, Anger, Khalifa Sall, Karim Wade, Abdoulaye Wade, Sofia Christensen, Alessandra Prentice, Ngouda Dione, Bate Felix, William Maclean Organizations: Dakar, Khalifa, Thomson Locations: DAKAR, Senegal, Sonko's, Dakar, Sall

They are among 90,000 people who have escaped to Chad since fighting broke out in Sudan in mid-April - a major extra burden on one of the world's poorest countries. Even before this emergency, Chad was hosting 600,000 refugees from its war-torn neighbours and grappling with a fourth consecutive year of acute food shortages. Overall, around 2.3 million people are in urgent need of food aid, the World Food Programme warned earlier in May. Squeezed into the open-air compound, the women cook together over small braziers in the sand as children play around them. Hamit said she tried to help "even the refugees who have set up shelters nearby .... they come to us for water".

☆ Former tennis pro helps children shine on court in Cameroon
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Amindeh Blaise Atabong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Now she wakes up at 5 a.m. every day to start a round of workouts, practice sessions, and school classes alongside nine other girls and 22 boys boarding at the Oyebog Tennis Academy in the town of Souza. She caught the eye of former national champion Joseph Oyebog when she was in tears after losing a practice match, aged just eight. Since graduating from the academy, some beneficiaries have won scholarships for further training abroad, while more than 20 academy trainees have International Tennis Federation rankings. He won national tournaments and competed in the Davis Cup international men's team competition. It offers tennis training at little or no cost.

☆ World Bank suspends $1 bln worth of project funding in Congo
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Sonia Rolley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The suspension will affect more than 600,000 beneficiaries, including victims of sexual violence, the World Bank told Congo's finance minister last week in a letter seen by Reuters. A World Bank spokesperson confirmed its authenticity. On May 4, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi dissolved the structure, the "Social Fund of the Democratic Republic of Congo", by presidential order and created another public fund. A spokesperson for Congo's finance ministry said he was waiting for the go-ahead from the presidency before he could comment. Four of Congo's main opposition politicians wrote to the leaders of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the African Development Bank last week asking them to conduct an audit of their funds in Congo, saying they suspected misuse.

☆ Ghana's main opposition party picks Mahama as 2024 presidential candidate
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ACCRA, May 14 (Reuters) - Ghana’s main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to retain former president, John Mahama, as its leader for the 2024 presidential election. This is the third time Mahama will run for the top job in Ghana, one of Africa's most stable democracies. The upcoming presidential vote is expected to be keenly contested. Mahama, 64, secured 297,603 votes, representing 98.9% of votes cast, the electoral commission said early on Sunday. "I am humbled by the overwhelming vote of confidence reposed in me by the party," Mahama said shortly after the declaration.

☆ Mali rejects UN report on alleged execution of 500 villagers by troops
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BAMAKO, May 14 (Reuters) - Mali's interim military government has rejected a United Nations human rights office report on the alleged execution of at least 500 people by Malian soldiers and unidentified foreign fighters during an operation last year. The report said Malian soldiers and foreign personnel descended in helicopters on the village of Moura on March 27 last year and opened fire on fleeing residents. Maiga said a state investigation into possible human rights violations during the operation was still ongoing, but repeated previous comments that Islamist fighters were killed rather than civilians. The U.N. report was based on interviews with victims and witnesses in the West African country, as well as forensic and satellite imagery. Malian authorities denied requests by the U.N. fact-finding team to access the village of Moura itself, it said.

ACCRA, May 14 (Reuters) - Ghana expects the International Monetary Fund to approve a first loan tranche of $600 million as soon as Wednesday, paving the way for disbursement within a week, Minister of State in the Finance Ministry Mohammed Amin Adam told Reuters on Sunday. Ghana is seeking $3 billion from the Fund to shore up its battered economy. On Friday, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Ghana's official creditors had provided the necessary financing assurances for the IMF Executive Board to look at signing off on the loan. Adam said he expected negotiations with both sets of creditors to go well once the IMF signs off on the loan. Adam said the government was also in talks with the African Development Bank for over $100 million for the stability fund.

A fresh downpour loosened the earth on a hillside above a village in Vuveyi Lac area, burying the victims as they slept in their houses below, said Alain Kiwewa, Lubero's military administrator. Repeated recent downpours have also raised the water table in the broader region, increasing the likelihood of flooding, said meteorology and hydrology engineer Theodore Lokakao Ilemba. "It's everywhere in the Congo and in Rwanda, it worsens (the impact of) the rainfall and all pre-existing problems like water drainage and land use," he said. Rains also triggered flooding and landslides in neighbouring Rwanda last week, killing 130 people and destroying more than 5,000 homes. Writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by Philippa FletcherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

DAKAR, May 8 (Reuters) - The presidential bid of a popular Senegalese opposition politician was thrown into doubt on Monday after a court of appeal handed him a heavier suspended sentence in a libel case, triggering a small protest in Dakar that riot police quelled with tear gas. But Monday's appeal hearing extended the suspended sentence to six months, said lawyer Boubacar Cissé, who represents the minister. "If this sentence is final, there is a good chance that his candidacy will be inadmissible," Diaw said. He has six days to file an appeal with the Supreme Court. Aside from the latest ruling, Sonko is also charged with raping a beauty salon employee in 2021 and making deaths threats against her.

☆ Burkina Faso interim leader hails Russia as a strategic ally
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

OUAGADOUGOU, May 4 (Reuters) - Burkina Faso's interim President Ibrahim Traore on Thursday said Russia had become a key strategic ally but denied that Russian mercenaries were supporting Burkinabe forces in their fight against Islamist armed groups. "The departure of the French army does not mean that France is not an ally," Traore replied. Russia, for example, is a strategic ally." Traore was asked to comment on reports Wagner forces are also on the ground in Burkina Faso. The violence has since spread into Burkina Faso and Niger and threatens to destabilise coastal countries further afield.

☆ A Sudanese woman's race to the border after giving birth
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Mahamat Ramadane | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Sudanese refugees who have fled the violence in their country gather to receive food supplements from World Food Programme (WFP), near the border between Sudan and Chad, in Koufroun, Chad April 28, 2023. Residents and sources in the western Darfur region have reported looting, ethnic reprisal attacks and clashes between the army and the RSF which evolved from the janjaweed militias. "In our village, armed people came and burned and looted houses and we were forced to flee," said Adam. I cut the child's umbilical cord and we cleaned her up," Adam's sister Souraya Adam, 27, told Reuters. The wave of arrivals places an additional burden on Chad's meagre resources, which were already strained by hosting 400,000 refugees who fled earlier conflict in Sudan.

☆ Rebel attacks deepen displacement crisis in Congo's Ituri
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Paul Lorgerie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Semire said members of the Hema herding community started to abandon Drodro in mid-March ahead of a rumoured advance by CODECO. "There are repeated attacks - this delays the return of people here, because it creates doubts," he said. Its population has nearly doubled to 65,000 since the beginning of 2023, according to camp representative Samuel Kpadjanga. The presence of fighters in the forests and fields around the camp makes attacks on those who venture out a regular occurrence, Kpadjanga said. My life is safe, but they took everything from me, my scythe, my money," she lamented back in a hut at Rhoe camp, as a toddler peeked at her from the doorway.

☆ Pope allows women to vote at bishops meeting for first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Pope Francis leaves following the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 26, 2023. REUTERS/Guglielmo MangiapaneApril 26 (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in a historic move that could lead to more inclusiveness in decision-making in the Roman Catholic Church, will allow women to vote for the first time at a global meeting of bishops in October. The revolutionary rules, announced on Wednesday, allow for five religious sisters with voting rights. The 70 priests, religious sisters, deacons and lay Catholics will be chosen by the pope from a list of 140 people recommended by national bishops' conferences. In another last year, he named three women to a previously all-male committee that advises him in selecting the world's bishops.

☆ Around 60 civilians killed in northern Burkina Faso attack, prosecutor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

OUAGADOUGOU, April 23 (Reuters) - Around 60 civilians were killed on Friday in northern Burkina Faso by people wearing the uniforms of the Burkinabe armed forces, local prosecutor Lamine Kabore said on Sunday, citing information from police in the town of Ouahigouya. Unidentified assailants killed 40 people and wounded 33 others in an attack on the army and volunteer forces in the same region of northern Burkina Faso near Ouahigouya on April 15, according to the government. Unrest in the region began in Mali in 2012, when Islamists hijacked a Tuareg separatist uprising. The violence has since spread into Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands and displacing over 2.5 million people. Reporting by Thiam Ndiaga Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Christian SchmollingerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Hijacked Singapore-registered oil tanker recovered in Ivory Coast
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ABIDJAN, April 15 (Reuters) - A hijacked Singapore-registered oil tanker has been recovered and escorted to Abidjan port in Ivory Coast on Saturday, five days after it was captured by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, the Ivorian military said. On Tuesday, Singapore's port authority said the tanker had been boarded by "unidentified persons" about 300 nautical miles (555 km) off Ivory Coast with 20 crew of various nationalities aboard. A search operation by Ivory Coast's navy backed by a French navy aircraft located the vessel on Saturday, Ivorian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lassina Doumbia said in a statement. "As for the crew, they are safe and sound," he said. Reporting by Ange Aboa; writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Burkina Faso expels two French journalists
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The two are "journalists of perfect integrity, who worked in Burkina Faso legally, with valid visas and accreditations ... We strongly protest against these absolutely unjustified expulsions," Liberation said in an editorial statement on its website. There was no statement from the authorities in Burkina Faso and it was not immediately possible to reach them for comment. The French foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The junta has since ordered French troops to withdraw from the country and suspended broadcasts by France's RFI radio and television channel France 24. Frustrations over authorities' failure to restore security has spurred anti-French sentiment and helped bring about two military takeovers in Burkina Faso and two in Mali since 2020.

☆ U.S. military conducts first maritime drills with West African forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Cooper Inveen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SOGAKOPE, Ghana, March 16 (Reuters) - The West African troops silently pulled their small boats up to a rust-stained ferry and swarmed up its sides on grappling hooks to disarm the mock kidnappers onboard. The drill in Ghana's Volta river on Saturday was carried out during the first ever maritime exercises organised by the U.S. military under its long-running Flintlock programme to bolster the skills of West African forces. Around 350 troops took part in the drills including servicemen from Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea. Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has spread along West Africa's coasts, sapping an estimated $9.4 billion per year through illicit financial flows, according to a 2022 report by the Financial Transparency Coalition of non-governmental organisations. Of the top 10 companies they found involved in IUU fishing in the region, eight were Chinese and a third of all vessels sported Chinese flags, it said.

☆ Survivors of deadly raid in east Congo return to torched village
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Erikas Mwisi Kambale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUKONDI, Democratic Republic of Congo March 11 (Reuters) - Residents of Mukondi village in eastern Congo inspected the burnt-out remains of their homes on Friday and told how they fled for their lives as rebels cut the throats of people around them. Members the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) struck Mukondi and a neighbouring village overnight on Wednesday, torching buildings and killing at least 39 people and wounding many more, according to the local authorities. "They killed with machetes and lit homes on fire," local chief Kasereka Deogratias said near the blackened wreckage of a building in Mukondi. The attackers said, "Don't bother talking because you're no more useful than the people we've just killed here," Kiviko explained. The violence has destabilised swathes of eastern Congo, driving over 5.5 million people from their homes in what has become the largest internal displacement crisis in Africa, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

☆ Nineteen athletes wounded after blasts at race in Cameroon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Amindeh Blaise Atabong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

YAOUNDE, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Nineteen athletes were being treated for blast injuries on Saturday after multiple small explosions during a running race in part of western Cameroon where English-speaking separatists are fighting government forces, a local doctor said. There was no immediate comment from authorities in the town of Buea in South-West Region, where 529 athletes were running up the highest mountain in West and Central Africa as they competed in the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope. "Our primary target was the Cameroon elite forces ... that were providing security for the athletes. Another video showed a different explosion going off near a pack of runners elsewhere on the route. Participants in the race included athletes from East, Central and Northern Africa and France.

☆ Body of Ghana soccer player Atsu arrives home in Accra
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] The body of late Ghanaian soccer player, Christian Atsu Twasam, 31, who died in the earthquake in Turkey, arrives at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana. REUTERS/Francis KokorokoACCRA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The body of Ghana winger Christian Atsu was flown home to Accra on Sunday evening, the day after he was found dead under a collapsed building in southern Turkey. Atsu had been missing since the Feb. 6 earthquake following the collapse of an apartment building in Hatay. "We hoped against hope, every day that passed, we prayed and prayed. "We would like to express our deepest condolences to his wife and children, the family, loved ones and the football community," the Ghana Football Association said on Saturday.

ABIDJAN/OUAGADOUGOU, Feb 20 (Reuters) - France's defence minister pledged on Monday to boost military support to Ivory Coast, as Paris adjusts its strategy in West Africa after neighbouring Burkina Faso ordered French troops to leave and vowed to curb a worsening Islamist insurgency solo. The two jihadist groups have taken over swathes of land and displaced millions of people in Burkina, Mali and Niger. Burkina Faso has denied an allegation that Russian mercenaries are in the country, but its prime minister in December said it would welcome Russia's help in its fight against the insurgents. OTHER PARTNERSThe countries' rejection of French military help could allow other states in the region to put themselves forward as more reliable partners to Western powers. "Ivory Coast and Benin have the will to fight against terrorism," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

☆ Burkina Faso marks official end of French military operations on its soil
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Thiam Ndiaga | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Head of Burkina Faso's army Colonel Adam Nere receives a flag from French Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Lecacheur during a military handover ceremony to officially mark the end of French military operations on Burkinabe soil, at the base of Kamboincin, Burkina Faso February 18, 2023. Burkina Faso's General Staff of the Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERSOUAGADOUGOU, Feb 19 (Reuters) - France and Burkina Faso have officially marked the end of French military operations in the West African nation, the Burkinabe armed forces said on Sunday, after a flag-lowering ceremony at the French special forces' camp a day earlier. In a statement, the General Staff of the Burkinabe Armed Forces said it had participated with the leadership of France's Sabre special forces in "a solemn flag-lowering ceremony marking the official end of the Task Force's operations on Burkinabe soil". The French armed forces ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The departure of the some 400 French special forces from Burkina Faso follows a sharp deterioration in relations that included Ouagadougou asking France to recall its ambassador.

☆ Ghana says domestic debt swap closed with over 80% participation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Christian Akorlie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ACCRA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The Ghanaian finance ministry said its domestic debt exchange programme (DDEP) had closed on Tuesday with more than 80% participation of eligible bonds, taking it a step closer to securing a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. Ghana is fighting its way out of a generational economic crisis by hiking interest rates at record speed, cutting spending, and restructuring debt to secure IMF funds. "Attention will now turn to the eurobonds, where restructuring talks are at a much earlier stage, and which could be even more complicated," Culverhouse said. Ghana became early this year the fourth nation to apply to the common framework platform, an initiative of Group of 20 major economies launched in 2020 to streamline debt restructuring efforts for poorer countries. Its bilateral lenders are discussing the formation of an official creditor committee, a first step needed to engage in debt relief talks, sources told Reuters on Monday.

☆ Five killed in gun attack on Cameroon farm workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Amindeh Blaise Atabong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

YAOUNDE, Feb 10 (Reuters) - At least five banana plantation workers were killed and several wounded on Friday in Cameroon’s Southwest region that is riven by separatist violence, a union leader said. The unidentified assailants shot at a truck carrying employees of Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) - the country's largest state-owned agro-industrial firm whose workers have previously been targeted by Anglophone armed separatists fighting for an independent state. The ambush took place at around 5:30 p.m. local time near the town of Tiko after the labourers finished their work, said Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, president of the Cameroon Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade Union (CAAWOTU). They killed three other workers who were sitting in front before shooting sporadically," Vefonge told Reuters by phone, confirming that five were killed in total. Since then, thousands have been killed in the central African state, and rebels and government troops have taken turns to commit grievous atrocities.

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