Africa updates: South Sudan seeks loan to pay salaries

Nigeria’s Buhari warns of Boko Haram change of tack

Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari has asked security agents to enhance surveillance against the unconventional methods being used by Boko Haram terrorists on soft targets.

The plea by Buhari, the second in as many weeks, follows the killing of 30 people and injuring of 42 others in triple suicide attacks at a sports arena in Mandarati, Borno state.

The deaths bring to more than 30,000 people killed by the insurgents who are getting desperate after being forced out by the military from the 18 local governments they controlled in the north east Nigeria states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

South Sudan seeks $500 million loan to pay salaries

South Sudan says it intends to borrow more than $500 million from the Afri-Exim Bank to pay salaries for public servants and fund infrastructure projects.

The Minister of Information and government spokesperson, Michael Makuei Lueth, said the cash would also be used to bolster agriculture and fund the peace process.

South Sudan has struggled for revenue after renewed fighting erupted in 2013 before the Sudan uprising disrupted oil sales with civil servants going for as many as four months without salaries.

More than 7.1 million South Sudanese also face famine, the United Nations reported last week.

36 political parties to run in Mozambique elections

Thirty-six parties registered to field candidates in the October 15 general elections in Mozambique when the window closed on Monday.

National Electoral Commission member Rodrigues Timba was quoted on Radio saying this represented an increase of four parties over the 2014 elections won by Frelimo, the ruling party since independence in 1975.

The constitutional court will now verify their eligibility while presidential candidates have up to July 15 to document interest.

President Filipe Nyusi of Frelimo and Daviz Simango of MDM have filed their candidature but Renamo leader Ossufo Momade, who was this week threatened with death by a militant wing of the party, has not yet.

Biya intends to delay parliament, local elections again

Cameroon President Paul Biya intends to delay legislative and municipal elections which were pushed from last year because of deteriorating security and political situation in the country.

In letters to the speaker of the National Assembly, Biya, 86, seek to extend the term of the current bademblies to February 2020 “in order to harmonise the deadline for the organisation of a twin municipal and legislative poll.”

Cameroon, especially the western English-speaking region has become a battleground between government forces, Boko Haram extremists and separatist militias.

On Monday Biya declared Friday a national holiday to mourn 17 soldiers and 7 civilians killed in a Boko Haram attack on Darak Island near Lake Chad. The government says 84 insurgents were killed and eight captured in the exchange.

Run off seen in Mauritania presidential election

Voters in Mauritania will choose Saturday among six candidates vying to succeed President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who is standing down after a decade in power.

The frontrunner is former general Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, a long time ally of Abdel Aziz, whose main challenger is Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar.

The election could go to a run-off on July 6 with a recent poll showing Ghazouani at 30 per cent and Boubacar at 23 per cent.

Chad rebel chief held in France over atrocities

One of Chad’s main rebel leaders was detained at his home in western Paris on Monday over alleged crimes against humanity committed in Sudan.

The rebel group Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) said its exiled leader General Mahamat Nouri was detained over “his activities in Sudan between 2005 and 2010.”

Paris prosecutors said he was arrested together with his half-brother Abderahman Khalifa Abdelkerim and former rebel spokesman Abakar Tollimi as part of an investigation opened last month into the crimes.

Senior DR Congo election official resigns: official

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission (CENI) vice president Norbert Basengezi resigned on Monday as he faced US sanctions following last year’s delayed presidential ballot.

The US threatened sanctions on Basengezi and two other CENI officials over diverting funds for the December vote to their personal use but they deny the charges.

President Felix Tshisekedi beat MP Martin Fayulu in what was the country’s first peaceful transfer of power.

The resignation of Basengezi, a close ally of former president Joseph Kabila, was confirmed by poll officials but it must be accepted by the President and the CENI chief to take effect.

DR Congo court charges army officer in murder of UN experts

A DR Congo military tribunal on Monday charged an army colonel with the murder of two UN experts who were killed two years ago while investigating violence in a restive central Kasai region.

Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni, who was arrested in December, will face charges including criminal conspiracy and murder as a war crime, according to court orderlies.

Authorities had initially said the victims, Zaida Catalan, a Swedish woman, and American Michael Sharp, were killed in March 2017 by “terrorist” militiamen in central Kasai region.

Turkey, Qatar blame Egypt’s Sisi over Morsi death

Turkey and Qatar led tributes to Egyp’s and the Arab world’s only democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi who died in Cairo after fainting during a court session on Monday.

Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed “tyrants who led to his death by putting him in jail and threatening him with execution” for the death while Qatar ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani extended “brotherly condolences.”

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party accused Egyptian authorities for Morsi’s deliberate slow death saying “they did not give him the most basic human rights.”

Bouteflika-era tycoon jailed for six months in Algeria

Algeria’s top businessman Ali Haddad was jailed for six months on Monday for holding two pbadports, in the first conviction in a string of corruption probes.

Haddad, who owns Algeria’s largest private construction company, is the first high-profile figure with ties to Abdoulaziz Bouteflika to be jailed since the president stepped down on April 2 after two decades in power.

He was also fined 50,000 dinars ($420) despite saying he obtained his second pbadport legally after seeking an interview with then prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal.

The official who issued the pbadport in 2016 was given a two-month suspended sentence and fined 20,000 dinars.

Population of Earth to reach 9.7 billion in 2050: UN

The world population is expected to climb to 9.7 billion in 2050 from 7.7 billion today, with the population of sub-Saharan Africa doubling.

A United Nation’s World Population Prospects report released Monday projects that by 2050 more than half of the world’s population growth will be concentrated in just nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt and the United States.

That of the world’s most-populous country China and 26 other countries will drop because of low fertility estimated at 2.2 births per woman, a whisker from the 2.1 level required for natural replacement.

Amazon synod to debate ordination of married men

An upcoming Vatican global synod dedicated to the Amazon is set to discuss allowing married men in remote areas to be ordained as priests.

A preview of the October 6 to 27 synod says the inclusion is aimed at boosting the stock of potential clergy in far-flung areas where they are currently scarce.

“Elders in the most remote areas, preferably indigenous people, respected and accepted by their community, even if they already have a stable and established family” would be the targets according to the working paper.