On a patch of grass beside a mountain track, eSwatini parliamentary candidate Alec Lushaba makes one final push for votes -- addressing an audience of five women and four children. Electioneering is a low-key affair in the country formerly known as Swaziland, which goes to the polls Friday in a ballot that has thrown light on a unique, and much ...

Russian punk group Pussy Riot on Wednesday linked the suspected poisoning of member Pyotr Verzilov with his attempt to investigate the deaths of three Russian journalists in Africa. The journalists were shot dead on July 30 in the Central African Republic (CAR) while probing a shadowy Russian mercenary group for a project founded by Kremlin foe ...

DNA tests on smuggled elephant tusks have identified three major ivory cartels in Africa and are helping investigators bolster the criminal cases against some of the most dangerous traffickers, researchers said Wednesday. Around 40,000 African elephants are killed every year for their tusks, which are illegally traded as part of a multi-billion ...

The share of the people living in extreme poverty around the globe has declined but is falling a slower pace as the challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa become more acute, the World Bank said Wednesday. The slowing decline and uneven success rate raises concerns as more of the world's poor become concentrated in a region beset by conflict and the ef ...

The African Union has called on Italy's far-right interior minister to withdraw comments he made last week in which he referred to Africans as slaves. But Matteo Salvini on Wednesday insisted that his comments had been misinterpreted and that there was no need to apologise. An AU statement issued Tuesday evening expressed dismay at Salvini' ...

The EU must convince Italy, Spain and Greece to back a plan to bolster the bloc's external borders, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Wednesday as European Union leaders met in Salzburg to discuss the politically charged issue. EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has put forward a proposal to widen the mandate of the Frontex (border a ...

The tiny country of eSwatini, until recently known as Swaziland, is ruled by a playboy king with many wives and supreme control over a nation struggling with poverty and HIV. Ahead of parliamentary elections on Friday, here is some essential background about the landlocked kingdom wedged between South Africa and Mozambique. King in contro ...

Political parties cannot be involved, there are no campaign rallies and the king wields absolute power, choosing the prime minister and cabinet: a parliamentary election in eSwatini is a vote like no other. Opposition activists in the tiny southern African country formerly known as Swaziland say Friday's election is a mockery of democracy and re ...

Africa draws just five percent of the world's tourists despite boasting attractions ranging from the Pyramids and Victoria Falls to wildlife safaris and endless strips of pristine beach. But the continent's huge potential can be unlocked by eco tourism, cultural experiences, domestic travel and political stability, said experts at an African tou ...

The tiny West African state of Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday demanded Brazil hand back more than $16 million in cash and luxury watches that border officials confiscated from a delegation accompanying the president's son. Foreign Minister Simeon Oyono Esono Angue denounced the seizure as paltry and unfriendly behaviour and demanded the items be ...

SEATTLE, Sept. 18, 2018 ndash; The Bill Melinda Gates Foundation today launched its second annual Goalkeepers Data Report, pointing to demographic trends that could stall unprecedented progress in reducing global poverty. While 1 billion people have lifted themselves out of poverty over the past 20 years, rapid population growth in the poorest c ...

With a backpack filled with pirated books, Khalid wanders the streets of Rabat peddling cheap reads -- part of a flourishing black market eliciting howls of protest from bookshop owners. It's true that it's not legal, but the price of these books attracts readers, said Khalid, 25, who hawks his wares at cafes in the Moroccan capital. A litt ...

They scale barbed-wire topped fences and cross the sea in inflatable boats or jet skis -- more than 36,000 migrants entered Spain this year seeking a better life in Europe. Almost all of them relied on smugglers to make the crossing. Ousman Umar, who made a five-year journey from Ghana to Spain, said it was impossible to travel thousands of ki ...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday decided to allow 1,000 Ethiopians to immigrate to Israel, his office announced, in a rare intake of the Falashmura community. The Falashmuras claim to be descendants of Ethiopian Jews, and they have long fought for the right to settle in Israel, even though the Jewish state does not recognise them as s ...

Nearly a decade after rubies were first found in northern Mozambique, the discovery has proven a poisoned chalice, says traditional local ruler Cristina Joaquim. Instead of riches and reward, what could have been a windfall has brought harassment, violence and even a local ban on farming. The village of Nthoro sitting atop the ruby deposits h ...

Congolese troops on Sunday were facing an offensive by DR Congo rebels in the eastern province of South Kivu, military and civilian sources said. The sources said the troops were up against a disparate coalition of Yakutumba rebels loyal to a former army general opposed to President Joseph Kabila as well as Malaika ( angel ) allies. The sourc ...

More than $16 million in cash and luxury watches were seized at an airport in Brazil in the luggage of a delegation accompanying the son of the president Equatorial Guinea, local media reported. Teodorin Nguema Obiang, vice president of Equatorial Guinea and son of its longtime president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, arrived Friday on a private plane ...

Four decades ago the leaders of Israel and Egypt reached a deal at an epic summit that led to the first peace treaty between the Jewish state and an Arab nation. The Camp David Accords, thrashed out over days of talks hosted by then US president Jimmy Carter, were signed on September 17, 1978. Here is a look back at that key moment in history ...

Animal conservation in Africa has suffered several setbacks in recent months prompting experts at an African tourism conference this week in Cape Town to warn about the cost to the travel industry. Obviously it's negative, said the African Tourism Association's (ATA) managing director Naledi Khabo, who spoke at the inaugural event organised by ...

Some view it as gainful employment for youths with too much free time, others as a tool to blunt protest movements -- Moroccans are divided over the looming return of military service. Twelve years after conscription was scrapped, the royal palace announced in mid-August that compulsory military service is to be restored. Millions of Moroccan ...