Recommended articles
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari appeared before the International Criminal Court while Democratic Republic of Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, did little to end speculations about his future, and that of his country.
Here's a roundup of some of the notable stories about Africa this week:
- Barack Obama arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, last weekend to meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta and hold talks with opposition leader, Raila Odinga.
ADVERTISEMENT
- The former US president also paid a visit to his extended family on Monday and helped in the launch of Sauti Kuu, a youth centre set up by his half-sister Auma Obama.
- The next day, he was in South Africato address a crowd of more than 10,000 people at a cricket stadium in Johannesburg in the centrepiece event of celebrations of 100 years of former president, Nelson Mandela's birth.
- The Nigerian Army was forced to dismiss reports that 23 soldiers were missing after an ambush attack by terrorist group, Boko Haram, in Borno State.
- On Tuesday, July 17, the Kumasi Police Command in Ghana killed seven suspected armed robbers that killed one of its officers last week. It was later revealed that three of the suspects killed were members of the country's notorious vigilante group, Delta Forces.
- Nigeria's President Buhari delivered a keynote address at the occasion of the 20th anniversary celebration of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday. He urged all non-member states to accede to the court's Rome Statute so that it can become a universal treaty.
ADVERTISEMENT
- During the arraignment of Kenya's top power bosses, who were charged with corruption, at the Milimani Law Courts on Tuesday, the magistrate presiding over the case was forced to adjourn the bail application hearing for a few minutes after the courtroom was plunged into darkness due to loss of electric power. Some jokes write themselves.
- At the Farnborough International Public Airshow in London on Wednesday, July 18, Nigeria's Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, unveiled Nigeria's new national carrier to mixed reviews from Nigerians.
- The Nigerian Police Force paraded eight suspects who participated in the infamous abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok four years ago. A suspected commander, Mayinta Modu, said he received N30,000 as payment for coordinating and participatiing in the abduction.
- The Gambian government released a statement to condemn former president, Yahya Jammeh, for hinting at a return to the country over a year after he went into exile at the end of his 22-year rule which was marked by numerous human rights violations.
- A raid by Kenyan Police authorities on Nairobi strip clubs on Thursday, July 19, resulted in the arrest of 21 Nepalese girls who are being treated as victims of human trafficking.
ADVERTISEMENT
- ICC judges ruled that five children born after their parents were victims of a brutal 2003 attack on a Congolese village were not eligible to receive compensation from convicted warlord, Germain Katanga.
- Nigeria's former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was appointed as an independent director on the Board of Directors of social media giant, Twitter Inc.
- A Zimbabwean court on Friday, July 20, handed a four-year jail term to a former energy minister, Samuel Undenge, after he was found guilty of corruption. Undenge served in the last cabinet of the deposed Robert Mugabe.
- According to a poll released by Afrobarometer, Zimbabwe's current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has only a narrow lead over opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, ahead of the country's landmark elections on July 30.
- In a state-of-the-nation address he delivered on Friday, DRC's President Kabila, kept the whole country guessing as he remained mute on his political future just five months ahead of crucial elections.
ADVERTISEMENT
- Ghanaian internet users expressed outrage at a leaked video showing a police officer mercilessly assaulting a woman, with a child, in the banking hall of a Midland Savings and Loans branch in Accra. The officer has been identified as Frederick 'Skalla' Amanor.
