East Africa

Salaam Somali Bank helps small businesses grow MOGADISHU, Somalia - Salaam Somali Bank (SSB) continues to provide free microfinance to small businesses in the country as part of a grant program aimed at improving the start-up economy. On Thursday, the bank's branch in KM5 in Mogadishu provided free microfinance to local retailers, including women, to help improve their small and…

Somali opposition is teaming up with federal states to form a national salvation council MOGADISHU, Somalia - Opposition candidates in Somalia are working with some federal Member States to declare the formation of a National Salvation Council on Thursday. The NSC elected a board of directors consisting of Senate Speaker Abdi Hashi, former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the…

Tanzania's Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to replace late President John Magufuli on Thursday. She announced Magufuli's death on Wednesday, according to a BBC report. Hassan, 61, was Magufuli's board member in 2015. She was re-elected last year and will serve the country for the rest of the five-year period. With the expected takeover, she will become Africa's only current female president - apart from the Ethiopian presidency, which is a largely ceremonial role - and join a small…

Flag on half mast and two weeks in mourning in Tanzania after the death of Head of State John Magufuli. It is the vice president who announced his death on Wednesday, March 17th. John Magufuli was 61 years old and had ruled Tanzania for five years. He was re-elected for another term in October last year. What consequences could his death have? Some answers with Thierry Vircoulon, Coordinator of…

ICJ concludes hearing on Kenya-Somalia's maritime border case HAGUE, Netherlands - The International Court of Justice will on Thursday conclude the hearing on the maritime border dispute between Kenya and Somalia after nearly a week of submissions to the Hague-based court, which has jurisdiction to deal with the cases. In the last week, the court has dealt with the case after…

Officially, Tanzania's President John Maguful has died of heart problems. This was announced by the Vice President on television on Wednesday, March 17, after more than two weeks of unresolved absence from the head of state."Easily re-elected in October last year for another term with 84% of the vote, John Magufuli, 61, appeared for the last time in public on February 27 and points to World Africa, there were persistent…

Speakers on Somalia's resumption of elections next week in Mogadishu's source MOGADISHU, Somalia - The leaders of the federal government and the federal states are expected to meet in Mogadishu next Sunday to discuss the country's long-standing electoral conflict. A source close to the presidency told Axadlethat mediation from international partners has managed to persuade the…

Ethiopia's request for an inquiry into the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in the country's northern Tigray region was approved by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Michelle Bachelet, according to a UN spokeswoman on Wednesday. Tigray residents have told human rights groups and journalists about massacres, widespread sexual violence and indiscriminate killings of civilians by security forces in the region. Aid workers say, however, that Tigray's health system has…

Studies of environmental impact have shown that 10% of the world's electricity is used by computers to power, among other things, the Internet and its networks. Every year, 900 million tonnes of CO2 are generated by “digital waste” - emails, music and photos stored in the cloud. In Madagascar, the environmental association "Let's Do It Madagascar" organized an information meeting on Wednesday, March 1,…

Tanzania's president dies after mysterious illness Tanzania's President John Magufuli, who long denied that Covid-19 posed a threat to his country, has died after a mysterious two-week illness, the vice president said Wednesday night. Magufuli, 61, disappeared from the public eye on February 27, raising speculation that he had signed Covid-19, although Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa…