Africa

The South African rand fell against the dollar in early trade on Tuesday, amid growing concerns over U.S.-China tensions and rising violent protests across the United States.

The first two patients to be diagnosed with COVID-19 in Namibia have been cleared by health authorities after 79 days in the hospital, Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula announced on Monday.

Zimbabwe summoned its US ambassador on Monday over remarks by a senior American official accusing the southern African country of stirring anti-racism protests over the death of George Floyd, the government said.

President Julius Maad Bio of Sierra Leone has assured President of African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, of his support and that of his country.

South Africa partly lifted a two month-old coronavirus lockdown on Monday, letting people outside for work, worship, exercise or shopping, and allowing mines and factories to run at full capacity to try to revive the economy.

The number of coronavirus cases in South Africa now stands at 32,683.

Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi said government forces had engaged in extensive fighting against insurgents after they attacked the town of Macomia in the gas-rich northern region on Thursday.

An armed group in Burkina Faso attacked a cattle market and a humanitarian convoy, killing at least 35 people, the government said on Sunday.

Cameroon’s military says three of five men recently arrested by Togolese police and portrayed by Togolese media as notorious criminals who committed serious offenses against Togolese citizens are Cameroonian soldiers, while the other two are former convicts. The three military men stole weapons from the military headquarters in Yaoundé and went to Togo’s capital, Lomé, where they used the weapons to harass Togolese, according to Togolese police.

At least 15 civilians have been killed in northern Burkina Faso during an attack attributed to jihadists, the government said Saturday.

At least 10 people died and 12 were wounded when an explosive device ripped through a minibus outside the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, the government said.

The victim was a 65-year-old driver who opted to return home from a neighbouring country, where he resided, after falling severely ill, the ministry said in a statement.

Lesotho’s former first lady, Maesaiah Thabane, has left the country a day after a Court of Appeal ordered her rearrest, according to the nation’s police on Saturday.

Eighty-year-old Isobel Simons calmly narrated how she and her late husband lost their 728-hectare Zimbabwe farm two decades ago to Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reforms.

The number of coronavirus cases in South Africa rose past 30,000 on Saturday, Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize said.

Liberian President George Weah, a former international football legend, has released a song to be used by the UN to spread awareness about the new coronavirus (COVID-19), his office said Saturday.

Fifty-eight workers tested positive for COVID-19 at an oil production facility run by Tullow Oil off Ghana’s Atlantic coast, the company said in a statement on Friday.

Admired by some but berated by others for imposing a tight lockdown, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faces a fresh leadership test over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak.