Africa

A rise in new cases of deadly Ebola virus disease in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been announced, while authorities say that progress is being made in accessing communities that have been wary of outside help, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond.

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, expressed on Thursday his deepest concern and strongly condemned recent attacks against villages in Mali, including mass-killings last weekend in the Mopti region, which left 160 dead, including some 50 children, according to the UN human rights office (OHCHR).

Activists in Chad are demanding that the government restore access to social media after it was cut a year ago.

Residents in a rural South African community get cheap online access from a network they own and run.

As the full extent of destruction caused by Cyclone Idai across southern Africa continues to be assessed, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Wednesday it was in “a race against time” to protect women who bore the brunt of the storm as they tried to save their households and livelihoods. 

How Asmara in Eritrea unintentionally became a cycling paradise.

The UN’s outgoing Special Envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region on Tuesday said countries there had made “important steps towards durable peace and stability” in the last 20 years, resulting in a region that is now “largely peaceful”.

Mali’s authorities have been urged by the UN to provide justice for the victims and survivors of attacks by so-called self-defence groups, responsible for horrific intercommunal violence in central Mali, after a weekend assault that claimed the lives of more than 150 people, including some 50 children.

Cyclone Idai and the mounting death toll is “yet another alarm bell about the dangers of climate change” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday, warning that vulnerable countries like Mozambique, would be hit the hardest unless urgent action is taken by nations across the world.

A Kenyan writer wanted to conceal a damp patch in his house - and ended up creating a work of art.

The BBC investigates illegal and unsustainable fishing off the west coast of Africa to find out how one of the most fertile ecosystems on earth has been pushed to the brink.

March 23, 2019 (KHARTOUM) - A fire broke out at the old building of the presidential palace in the Sudanese capital on Saturday afternoon, clouds of smoke and flames were seen rising from the building on the banks of the White Nile.

According to the Sudanese presidency, the fire was caused by a short circuit.

"The Civil Defense Forces at the presidency managed to control a limited fire that broke out at the buildings of the old Republican Palace around 3:45 pm (local time)," said a statement issued by the secretary-general of the presidency Mohamed Mohamed-Saleh.

As it was not in use, no casualties were reported so far.

The buildings of the old republican palace are not used as most of the administrations have moved to the new building inaugurated in January 2015.

Built in 1832, the old palace was the seat of the Sudanese government after independence.

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March 23, 2019 (KHARTOUM) - The Islamist Popular Congress Party (PCP) expressed explicit reservations about an initiative led by a government-allied coalition, 2020 Forces, to find a way out of the country's current political crisis following protests to oust President Omer al-Bashir.

The initiative of the 2020 Forces provides to postpone the elections of April 2020, extending for two years the term of the current constitutional institutions (President and Parliament) and forming a transitional national unity government that begins after the end of the current mandate in 2020.

The initiative further provides to form a five-person presidential council chaired by President al-Bashir during the transitional period.

The PCP, which is a member of the al-Bashir-led government, Saturday held a meeting in its premises with a delegation from the 2020 Forces, headed by al-Tayeb Mustafa, to discuss the initiative.

Reached by Sudan Tribune after the meeting, the PCP Political Secretary Idriss Suleiman said that the two-year extension of mandate constitutes a breach of the constitution, as he was referring to the constitutional article that limits an elected president to two terms in office.

"Anything unconstitutional will put us in trouble because we may not be able to agree on it," he stressed.

He pointed out to the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change saying there are the Your groups, political opposition forces and armed movements that cannot be ignored and take any decision without them.

"We underscored that the solution is not as easy as some imagine. If we agree to form a presidential council of five people, how can they be chosen in the presence of 100 parties and dozens of sectarian and tribal movements?"

He added that they stressed the need to reconsider and think about the initiative and create understandings with all actors in the Sudanese arena, whether they are allied to the government or from the opposition.

Furthermore, Suleiman warned that the National Dialogue Conference reached an agreement that to hold elections in 2020.

"Now we tie up the people and want to decide on his behalf to extend or shorten the period," he said.

Recalling their historical difference with al-Bashir in 1999, he stressed that since its establishment his party has been working to restore power to the people while others working actively to postpone the process.

"We call for elections to be held in 2020 as the most effective and safe way out," he said.

Sudanese president suspended plans to amend the constitution to allow his election for a third presidential term. But reports say he seeks to chair a presidential council during a transitional period to ensure the future of the Islamic rule in Sudan.

It is worth mentioning that the opposition groups call for al-Bashir to resign and to form technocrat government with a collegial presidential council to lead the country during four years to end armed conflicts, resolve the economic crisis and prepare for general elections.

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March 23, 2019 (KHARTOUM) - Four Sudanese opposition leaders walked free Saturday after more than three months of arbitrary detention in connection with the nationwide protests demanding the departure of President Omer al-Bashir.

The released opposition figures are Siddiq Youssef, 88, of the Sudanese Communist Pary, Ali Saeed the spokesperson of the Communist Party, Ali al-Rayah the secretary of the Arab Socialist Baath party and Abdel-Jalil Osman.

On 17 March, during his visit to Khartoum, U.S. Congressman Gus Bilirakis called on the Sudanese authorities to release all the political detainees.

On Friday, the Sudanese security apparatus released Badr al-Din al-Sumait, 73, a political activist.

On 5 March, Omer al-Digair the leader of the Sudanese Congress Party was released from jail.

However, opposition groups say dozens of political opponents and activists are still in jail without charge or trial including Mohamed Nagi al-Asam, the spokesperson of the Sudanese Professionals Association.

The security forces launched a widespread crackdown to curb the protests that erupted across the country in December 2018.

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The United Nations has strongly condemned the armed attack on a village in restive central Mali which reportedly left at least 134 people dead and dozens wounded early on Saturday.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the establishment in the Central African Republic (CAR) of a government in line with an early February peace deal struck with more than a dozen armed groups active in the country.

The men who watch over the Atlantic Ocean, saving the lives of the swimmers of Nigeria's main city.

A week after the flooded Mozambican port of Beira was hit by Cyclone Idai, “aid agencies are barely beginning to see the scale of the damage”, the head of UNICEF said on Saturday, as she called for more international support to help quickly get relief to more than a million people across the country and prevent the possible spread of waterborne diseases like cholera.

March 22, 2019 (KHARTOUM) - President Omer al-Bashir has directed to reunify the peace process with the armed groups in Darfur and Sudan's Two Areas, said Presidential Assistant Faisal Hassan Ibrahim

Ibrahim met with al-Bashir on Thursday 24 hours after the cancellation of the armed groups in Darfur of peace talks in Doha that had been scheduled to begin in January.

Following the meeting, he told reporters that the president directed to unify the tracks for peace adding that the issue of peace remains one of the main issues of concern to the state.

The presidential aide further said they would convene a meeting of the Supreme Council for Peace in the next few days to discuss this matter.

The government and the Sudan Call signed the roadmap for peace and democratic changes in March and August 2016 respectively.

Following, the parties' failure to reach a cessation of hostilities agreements by the end of 2016, the mediation proposed last year to review the roadmap agreement and to join a constitutional conference for a permanent constitution in Sudan.

The African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) has been slammed by the government and the armed groups during the past two years.

However in December 2018, the African renewed its mandate for another year and extended it to include issues of the Red Sea area and the Horn of Africa.

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