Africa

Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the country to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus, his office said on Twitter.

A recall of Kenya’s parliament scheduled for Wednesday in the capital, Nairobi, has been cancelled.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has ordered 240,000 diagnostic kits, 240,000 extraction kits, 250,000 viral sample transport equipment, 285,100 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and 120 ventilators, among others, for member states to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Egypt will ban any public religious gatherings during the holy Muslim fasting month Ramadan starting in around two weeks to counter the spread of the new coronavirus, a government statement said on Tuesday.

Photos taken at the bizarre funeral show Tshekede Bufton Pitso in the driver seat of his beloved Mercedes, with the seat belt on and his hands on the wheel, as a number of people struggle to slowly lower the vehicle into the eight-feet-deep grave dug by an excavator on the Pitso family’s burial plot.

The report analyses major developments from the past year including the deposition of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the Zimbabwean government’s response to mass protests, and increasing attacks on civilians in Mozambique and Mali.

The European Union is set to give 15 billion euros’ (16.3 billion dollars’) worth of support to Africa and other regions of the world for their efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Zimbabwean doctors have filed a lawsuit aimed at compelling the government to beef up coronavirus protection for public hospitals and healthcare workers.

The African Development Bank Group, AfDB, has appointed Nourredine Lafhel as acting Chief Risk Officer, effective 6th April 2020.

In a dark ground-floor room in Lagos, dressmaker Kemi Adepoju gazes at a pile of dresses she has made but which cannot be collected due to the lockdown in force to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

The National Centre for Disease Control of Libya’s UN-backed government announced the development after the infected patient tested negative twice.

Chinese billionaire, Jack Ma, has made additional donations, including 500 ventilators to Nigeria and 53 other African countries to help fight coronavirus.

China must do more to help ease the debt burden of African countries facing economic calamity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Ghana’s finance minister said.

Kenya's Health Ministry says a six-year-old child has died of coronavirus complications, becoming the youngest victim of the virus to die in Kenya. As of Friday, more than 120 people in Kenya have been confirmed to have COVID-19.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 10,075 in Africa and the death toll reached 487, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) revealed on Tuesday.

The head of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has been accused by bank staff of multiple abuses and breaches of the bank's code of ethics, charges he flatly denied.

They had received a tip-off that the wedding in KwaZulu-Natal was happening on Sunday despite a nationwide ban on all public gatherings because of coronavirus.

Tedros Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation, has dismissed as “racist” a suggestion by two French scientists that the coronavirus vaccine should be tested in Africa.