Author: Amnewsworld

Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has said that Khartoum and Addis Ababa are “aligned and in agreement” on a controversial Ethiopian dam on the Blue Nile which Egypt views as a threat. Burhan’s remarks came during a meeting on Thursday with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who was on a one-day visit to Khartoum, his first since Burhan led a 2021 military coup. “Burhan emphasized… that Sudan and Ethiopia are aligned and in agreement on all issues regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD),” according to a statement by the sovereign council, which he chairs. The dam has…

U.S. special operations forces have killed a senior Islamic State group official and 10 other extremists in remote northern Somalia, the Biden administration announced Thursday. The operation carried out on Wednesday targeted Bilal al-Sudani, a key financial facilitator for the global Islamic extremist organization, in a mountainous cave complex. “This action leaves the United States and its partners safer and more secure, and it reflects our steadfast commitment to protecting Americans from the threat of terrorism at home and abroad,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. One Middle East analyst called Bilal al-Sudani’s killing “a big scalp” in…

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen toured Thursday (Jan. 26) a Ford Motor plant in the South African capital. The plant is one of two in the country. Earlier that day, she met the Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Yellen’s stop to Pretoria is part of her three-country tour of Africa that began in Senegal. South Africa is the United States’ largest trading partner on the continent. “We know that a thriving Africa is in the interest of the United States. A thriving Africa means a larger market for our goods and services. It means more investment opportunities for our businesses, like…

Carnival celebrations are returning to Rio de Janeiro. Samba schools have been rehearsing in the streets ahead of the main event scheduled for February 19th and 20th. Each year samba schools choose a theme for their parade. Themes vary from tributes to artists, countries and cultures to social issues. “I think Salgueiro’s show (this year, Ed.) talks about all these things, people who judge others and say what they are doing is wrong without even looking at themselves first. It’s a thought for everybody”, said 37year old Patrick Carvalho, choreographer at Salgueiro Samba School. Salgueiro Samba School will bring a message…

Africa’s last team in the 28th World Men’s Handball Championship seeks to reach the semifinal on Wednesday (Jan. 25) at 20:30 CET. Since the start of the tournament which kicked off on January 11, Egypt delivered almost a clean sheet. The Pharaohs won 4 of the 5 fixtures of the group stage. They only lost to defending champions Denmark. This year’s World Men’s Handball Championship is taking place in Sweden and Poland. The Egyptians eye a semi-finals qualification for the first time since 2001, when they finished fourth in France. African handball powerhouse During the 27th World Men’s Handball Championship…

Oil drilling began on Tuesday in a Chinese-operated field in Uganda. According to a government official, the East African country expects to start production by 2025. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, operates the field. “It is an exciting moment for us as a national oil company but also an exciting moment for us as a country because there has been a general fatigue within the country on when first oil will come out. Today is not first oil, but it certainly is a big step in the right direction. It’s the day when we commission the drilling of…

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, accused the West of pressuring developing countries to align in favor of Ukraine. Lavrov’s remarks were made in Luanda on Wednesday at another stage of his African tour openly seeking international support. The war in Ukraine was the central theme of talks with the Angolan authorities, who asked Lavrov for an assessment of the situation on the ground. The head of Russian diplomacy pointed the finger at Western allies, accusing them of “transforming Ukraine into the stage of an hybrid war” against Russia. At the United Nations, Angola initially abstained from condemning the Russian invasion.…

Hundreds of opposition activists took to the the streets of Johannesburg in South Africa on Wednesday (Jan. 25) to demonstrate against the energy crisis causing record power cuts in the country. The activists, from the opposition’s Democratic Alliance, marched towards the headquarters of the ruling ANC party. “Enough is enough we want our power back”, demanded web developer Justin van Leeuwen. Pensioner Muriel Balance said “I hope that everything, that they will look into this matter. That they will really look into this matter. So that they can fix this nonsense”. “Let’s comeback to reality, let’s face reality, the country has now…

An attack in Burkina Faso on Thursday has claimed the lives of at least 18 civilians including 16 army volunteers. Both attacks took place in the north of the country, a region that since 2005 has been facing attacks by jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The attacks have recently multiplied. They have left thousands of dead and at least two million displaced. Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the transitional president who emerged from a military coup on September 30th – the second in eight months – has set himself the goal of “reconquering the territory occupied by these…

Microsoft is cutting 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, joining other tech companies that have scaled back their pandemic-era expansions. The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that the layoffs were a response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.” The Redmond, Washington-based software giant said it will also be making changes to its hardware portfolio and consolidating its leased office locations. Microsoft is cutting far fewer jobs than it had added during the COVID-19 pandemic as it responded to a boom in demand for its workplace software and cloud computing services with so many people working and…