Africa

Sierra Leone lifted its ban on pregnant girls attending school this year. Will Tanzania do the same?

A music producer remixes an old classic to correct some injustices of the past.

The measures include a ban on indoor and outdoor gatherings, and a night curfew, until 15 January.

Some 25,000 Eritrean refugees, sheltering in two camps in the unsettled Tigray region of Ethiopia, have received desperately needed food aid for the first time since mid-October.

Kumerra Gemechu's phone and computer have also been seized by police, his family says.

Violence in Cabo Delgado province has continued to escalate throughout 2020.

Ethiopia's leader says Eritrea armed his troops when they first came under attack in Tigray region.

The polls are held in a country where rebels controls key towns and UN troops face deadly attacks.

The United Nations Secretary-General has called on the security forces in Niger to “make every effort” to protect civilians as they take part in Sunday’s elections. 

Catherine Nakalembe won this year's Africa Food Prize for pioneering work using satellite images.

Ikram Abdi Omar was the UK's first hijab-wearing model to feature on the cover of Vogue.

After protests, a strike, and lockdown, Kiki, a student from Lagos, Nigeria, can’t wait for the year to be over.

On the eve of general elections in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations Secretary-General has called on all stakeholders to ensure that the polls are held in a peaceful, inclusive and credible manner. 

The United Nations Secretary-General has strongly condemned Friday’s attacks that killed three Burundian peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR) and left another two wounded. 

A Kenyan entrepreneur is being lauded by the UN for developing a machine that recycles discarded plastic into paving stones for use in construction projects.

A former refugee considers the importance of memory for those who lose everything in the chaos of war.

Days before Sunday’s election, armed clashes in the Central African Republic (CAR) have prompted the “serious concern” of the UN aid coordinator in the country.   

 The UN refugee agency commended Chad on Friday for adopting its first-ever asylum law, which will enhance the protection of the nearly 480,000 refugees it is hosting by providing key elements for their socio-economic inclusion.

December 23, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took part in the Sudanese army's 56th Shooting Festival on Wednesday, marking the militia's first time participating in the annual event.

The festival took place in the North Kordofan capital of El-Obeid and was attended by the likes of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Lt Gen Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Gen Mohamed Osman Al-Hussein.

The festival followed the end of the 2020 armed forces training session which was conducted electronically.

The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemetti”, are integrated into the Sudanese army in January 2017, but their command remained separate from the arm's general staff. and unified command.

The forces' participation in the shooting festival has been as an additional step towards their full integration by the end of the transitional period in the national army together with former rebel groups.

Since the December Revolution, their activities are more and more coordinated with the Sudan Armed Forces, as their first general commander is deputy chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council.

The militia which emanated from the janjaweed groups has been accused of war crimes and grave human rights violations during the counterinsurgency campaigns.

(ST)

December 23, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Minni Minnawi, the leader of a Sudan Liberation Movement group (SLM-MM) revealed on Wednesday that some armed movements have reservations about forming a joint force in Darfur to protect.

The peace agreement, signed between the Sudanese government and the Revolutionary Front organizations on October 3, provides the formation of 12,000 a joint force including the government forces and armed groups of Juba agreement to protect civilians in Darfur region after the UNAMID withdrawal.

"Some movements have reservations about establishing joint forces in the Darfur region," said Minnawi in a joint press conference with the leader of the Sudanese Congress Party Omer al-Digair in Khartoum.

He pointed out that the joint forces will be established to protect civilians and are not a substitute for any group in Darfur or any other region of Sudan, without naming a specific group.

However, he cited the SLM of Abdel Wahid al-Nur, adding they do not intend to replace it or the SPLM-N of Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, two holdout armed groups that for different reasons did not join the Juba peace process.

He also underscored that they were not for the withdrawal of the UNAMID from the Darfur region, but things went too far when they engaged the peace process and it was not possible to reverse the process.

The joint press conference was held after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the SLM-MM and SCoP for a joint action during the transitional period and to prepare for the general elections within three years.

Minnawi recalled their position on the need to hand over the ousted President Omer al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He said that he was aware that al-Bashir would be better treated than in a Sudanese prison but they want his hand over the "symbolism of the gesture" and because he had kept defying the international justice during the past years.

(ST)