Africa (except North Africa)

HARARE, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has gazetted the delimitation report presented to him by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which sets new boundaries for constituencies and wards for the 2023 harmonized elections due sometime between July and August.

Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana said on Tuesday via the social media platform Twitter that the new delimitated constituencies and wards have been gazetted.

20 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it would summon the South African ambassador for a reprimand after the ministry's Deputy Director of African Affairs, Sharon Bar Li, was expelled on Saturday from the African Union summit in Addis Ababa at the request of South Africa and Algeria.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The leading contenders in Nigeria’s presidential election have made their last push for support, a week before the West African nation’s key election.

As the campaign period neared its end, both the ruling party’s Bola Tinubu and the main opposition’s Atiku Abubakar on Saturday held rallies in the northeast, where extremists have waged a decade-long insurgency against Nigeria. They both promised to improve the lives of residents in the region.

17 Feb 2023; MEMO: African Union's political affairs, peace, and security commissioner on Friday urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to acknowledge and rectify the "historical injustices" that have affected the African continent.

16 Feb 2023; MEMO: The BRICS group of nations is to decide this year on whether to admit new member states into the bloc, as Saudi Arabia and Iran formally seek to join.

According to South Africa's ambassador to BRICS, Anil Sooklal, the proposal to expand the bloc will be one of its main focuses this year.

ACCRA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Elizabeth Dzokpe is a retired nurse from Kpando in the Volta Region of Ghana. She regained her vision this week thanks to the Chinese medical team in Ghana.

"I could not see well in the right eye, and sometimes, after taking a few steps, it felt like I was about to fall. I came to the hospital and was diagnosed with cataract," she told Xinhua in a recent interview.

15 Feb 2023; MEMO: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the UAE to lift the blanket visa ban it imposed on his country's passport holders in October 2022.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Equatorial Guinea has confirmed its first outbreak of the Marburg virus, a highly infectious and deadly disease similar to Ebola, following the deaths of at least nine people, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — With the prospect of a sixth consecutive failed rainy season in the east and Horn of Africa, Kenya’s president is hoping the heavens will finally open with the help of a national day of mass prayer on Tuesday.

William Ruto announced the plans for the country’s first ever day of prayer on Sunday at a service in the drought-stricken city of Nakuru, some 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the capital Nairobi. It follows a joint call by the country’s spiritual leaders to dedicate an entire day to prayer to ease drought conditions in the nation.

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Zambia's finance minister rejected a call from China for the World Bank and other multilateral lenders to join a restructuring of the country's debt and warned that delays were holding up the economy, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

In an interview with the newspaper, Situmbeko Musokotwane said that "time is of the essence" to finish a restructuring of about $13 billion of external debt this year and signalled that China's demand was a distraction from talks for reducing the loans.