Across the 54 Countries in Africa, these are the 5 top stories you may have missed:
Ivory Coast: France pledges support in metro construction
Minister of Economy and Finance in France, Bruno Le Maire, in a visit to a portion of the future route of the Abidjan metro and the reconstruction site of the Felix Houphouet Boigny bridge, has disclosed his country’s support in the construction – Africa News reports
The construction has been entrusted to a group of companies led by the French company Bouygues for 1.36 billion euros.
“The cost is still under discussion, I cannot give you a precise figure. But Ivory Coast knows that it can count on France’s financial support to help it carry out a number of infrastructure projects that are essential to its economic development” said Bruno Le Maire, French Economy Minister.
Kenya to shut two refugees camps by 2022
The Kenyan Government has said on Thursday, 29th April, that it had told the United Nations it will shut some refugees camps holding over 430,000 refugees by June 2022 – Reuters Africa reports
The announcement was made by the Interior Ministry via a tweet about five weeks after ordering the closure of the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps and giving the United Nations two weeks to present a plan to carry this out.
Judge revokes charges against prominent Zimbabwean Journalist
Justice Jester Charewa, a Zimbabwean High Court Judge has nullified charges of communicating falsehoods against prominent journalist Hopewell Chin’ono – News Central Africa reports
Charewa ruled that section 31 of the Criminal Code used to charge Chin’ono, is no longer part of Zimbabwean law.
The judge set aside a decision by a Harare magistrate to place the journalist, who was arrested on January 9 for tweeting that a police officer had allegedly beaten an infant to death while enforcing Covid-19 lockdown regulations, in custody.
COVID-19 Varient found in India now in Uganda
The deadly COVID-19 variant causing havoc in India has been found in Uganda – eNCA reports
Uganda’s Health Ministry, in announcing this, stated that this should serve as a wake-up call as they urged citizens to continue exercising safety measures.
The variant spreads faster and causes more severe illness in younger people.
Namibia: 84 Doctors linked to fraud
The Ministry of Finance in Namibia has identified 84 doctors accused of stealing millions of dollars through the government’s medical aid scheme – All Africa reports
The ministry has also initiated a civil action against some health providers abusing the scheme and is also contemplating striking the alleged culprits with criminal charges.
