Author: Amnewsworld

Senegal’s main opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, has appeared in a Dakar court over rape accusations with his lawyer calling the case a state “conspiracy” that should be dropped. He is accused of raping an employee of a beauty salon where he was getting a massage and his arrest in March 2021 led to deadly riots.  Sonko insists the claims are entirely false and that Senegalese President Macky Sall is attempting to set a trap for him and his supporters. Speaking at a press conference, Sonko, said:  “He (the senior judge) asked me: ‘Do I recognise that I had relations with…

Three people have been killed in scuffles over food aid at a displaced persons’ camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Many people in the Kanyarucyinya camp have fled fighting between the M23 militia and President Félix Tshisekedi has called for support from young people to resist the rebel forces. “In response to the strong demand from the youth, I invite them to organise themselves into vigilance groups in order to support, accompany and sustain our armed forces, our defence forces,” he said M23 rebels have captured swathes of new territory in recent weeks and displaced tens of thousands of people…

Ghana return to the World Cup after missing out in Russia 2018 with few expecting the Black Stars to cause a stir in Qatar. The lowest-ranked (61st) of the 32 teams that will participate at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, it will be difficult for Ghana to stage a repeat of their historic run to the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup. “I believe in the players that we have, I believe in the squad we have, especially if everyone will be there and there are no injuries and we have a full squad. I think we can create surprises,…

The UN climate panel (IPCC) has already written the worst-case scenario: in 2050, “the sea will rise by one meter”. Then it will swallow “a third of the ultra-fertile land of the Nile Delta and historic cities like Alexandria will be flooded”. Every year, the city of Alexander the Great sinks by three millimeters, weakened by the Nile dams upstream that prevent silt from consolidating its soil and by offshore gas drilling. Opposite, the sea is rising as much, due to the effect of warming and the melting of the ice cap. Hundreds of people have already had to leave…

Police in Nigeria has mounted a search for some 21 people abducted by gunmen while working on farmland whose owner is believed to have owed the alleged kidnappers coerced payments. The people kidnapped were teenagers working on a farm in the remote Faskari council area of Katsina state when the gunmen “singled out the farm and abducted them,” Katsina police spokesperson Gambo Isah said on Thursday “According to our investigation, the bandits placed some levies on some of these farmers, and this particular one refused to comply with their demands. … That was why they went to their farm and…

The United Nations has warned that nearly eight million people in South Sudan, or two-thirds of the population, are at risk of food insecurity and famine. “Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise in flood-, drought- and conflict-affected areas of South Sudan, and some communities are at risk of famine unless humanitarian assistance is sustained and climate adaptation measures are strengthened,” the new report released on Thursday said. The joint report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the U.N. Children’s Fund (Unicef), and the World Food Programme (WFP) says the proportion of people facing high levels of food…

The United States has announced that it will pay a total of $36 million to the city and state of New York for the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X. The two men were cleared in 2021 after serving 20 years each for the killing. The lawyer David Shanies, defender of Muhammad Aziz, 84, and the family of Khalil Islam, who died in 2009, confirmed in an email to AFP on Sunday evening that an “injustice (had been) recognised today and a modest step is taken to correct it. The New York Times reported that the city’s legal department had earlier…

Three members of the Central African armed group 3R (Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation) were sentenced to prison Monday. The sentences range from 20 years to life for “crimes against humanity” in a first verdict by the Special Criminal Court (SCC), a hybrid court of local and international judges. Issa Sallet Adoum, Ousman Yaouba and Tahir Mahamat accused of the May 21rst, 2019 massacre of 46 civilians in villages in the northwest, were found guilty of, among other things, “murder”, “inhumane acts” and “humiliating and degrading treatment”. The first was sentenced to life and the other two to 20 years in…

The 33rd edition of the Carthage Film Festival kicked off in Tunisia’s capital and will end on November 5. Guests from all parts of the African continent attended the ceremony Sunday. As the festival celebrated its 60th anniversary, its openness on the Mediterranean and mostly its Arab and African roots were honored. “This event links the north and the south of Africa, and at the same time the Arab world”, Senegalese film critic Baba Diop, journalist and film critic says. “The Sahara has always been considered a border in Africa, separating North Africa and “sub-Saharan” Africa, but today, with this…

The Nigerian army has repelled an attack on a military base in western Nigeria where nearly 1,700 jihadists are being held, killing eight suspected insurgents affiliated with the Islamic State group, two military sources said Monday. Dozens of Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) fighters tried to break into the Wawa military base in Niger state near the border with Benin on Saturday to free hundreds of jihadists, the two officers told AFP on condition of anonymity. The attack is a reminder of Iswap’s ability to strike hundreds of kilometres from its northeastern stronghold, where the army is fighting a…