Author: Amnewsworld

At least 14 migrants died in a fire that broke out on Monday on a pirogue in a southern Senegalese town, the mayor of the commune and a medical official told AFP on Tuesday. “As I speak, we have been able to fish out 14 lifeless bodies,” David Diatta, mayor of the Casamance town of Kafountine, said by phone. “It is likely that the toll will rise,” he added. “We also have 21 injured, including four with second-degree burns,” said Bourama Faboure, the town’s chief nurse. About 140 people were on the pirogue. About 90 of them survived and were…

It has been a long and challenging path for Angella Okutoyi to reach the grass courts of Wimbledon but the 18-year-old is in no doubt about her ambition. She spends hours training on the court, five days a week. She credits her success to her grandmother and is inspired by legend Serena Williams. Angella Okutoyi may just be 18 yet she’s already a tennis sensation. In January she became the first Kenyan woman to win a Grand slam juniors match and the first Kenyan to reach the third round in singles of any event at a Grand Slam. Since then she…

A new strategy for the Senegalese opposition. The Yewwi Askan Wi coalition urged its supporters Wednesday to express their discontent with president Macky Sall through the ballot box. Opposition leader Ousmane Sonko also added during a press briefing in Dakar that anti-government demonstrations initially scheduled on June 29 were postponed. “We have nothing to gain if we go on with this strategy. What remains to be done? We must move resolutely towards the legislative elections and the Senegalese must disavow Macky Sall over his economic and judicial leadership, Sonko said. The Senegalese disavow him in relation to his unhealthy political practices tending to…

An Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced to death the murderer of a student who was killed outside her university because she refused his advances, a court source said. The verdict in the case, which has sparked outrage in the country and beyond, was handed down in Mansoura, north of Cairo, just two days after the trial began. The ruling will be sent to Egypt’s grand mufti, a senior religious authority who almost always confirms death sentences. The Mansoura court found the defendant Mohammed Adel guilty of the “premeditated murder” of student Nayera Ashraf, saying he had confessed to the crime…

Spain’s prime minister is defending the way Moroccan and Spanish police repelled migrants last week as they tried to cross the shared border into the north African enclave of Melilla, depicting the attempt in which at least 23 people died as “an attack” on Spain’s border. Sánchez, whose left-to-centre government is trying to improve ties with Morocco following an acrimonious diplomatic dispute over Western Sahara, has refused to criticize the crackdown. “…I regret the death of these people, as it could not be otherwise. Of course, a very special remembrance to the families of the deceased, but also recognition of…

Oil-rich Libya has been plunged into chaos for the last decade, throughout which public utilities like Tobruk’s desalination plant were largely neglected. It has become a struggle for the residents of the Libyan city of Tobruk to gain access to water with the only sea water desalination plant in need of massive repairs. Bashir al-Qatani, Tobruk resident: “As for drinking water, I fill up containers from water treatment shops. Honestly, I buy it from the shops. We cannot understand where the state is taking us. With projects that they (authorities have) started to implement, such as roads, it was more…

Embellished with thousands of beads, clothes by Nigerian designer Lisa Folawiyo twinkle under the lights. The prints on these fabrics may echo traditional African designs, but there is a distinctive modern twist. These are on display at the new ‘Africa Fashion’ exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. It retraces clothing from the liberation years of the 1950s and ’60s when 24 African nations freed themselves from colonial rule, up to modern day designers. It’s billed as the UK’s most extensive exhibition of African fashion ever. “We really see fashion as a catalyst with which to tell deeper, richer, expanded…

” Where I’m from, Lagos, Nigeria. This is this is a dream. And as you are watching me, I want you to imagine yourself as me, because you are …

At least 14 civilians were killed on Saturday in two attacks attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where operations by the Congolese and Ugandan armies are struggling to impose peace. “The ADF attacked the locality of Mamove on Saturday morning. The toll is nine civilians killed: six women and three men, two other people are wounded and two houses are burned,” said Kinos Katuo, president of the local civil society. “We have alerted the army, but so far no offensive has been launched, leaving the enemy free to roam around looting…

The Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) on Monday warned to declare a “force majeure” on its facilities in the northern Gulf of Sirte within 72 hours, as it is unable to meet its contractual obligations due to their forced closure. “We are considering declaring a state of force majeure in the next 72 hours if oil production and exports do not resume at the Gulf of Sirte terminals,” NOC boss Mustafa Sanalla warned in a statement, calling on “all parties” to work for “the reopening of the oil fields and the resumption of exports”. Invoking a “state of force majeure”…