The World Bank Wednesday, classified Mauritius as a High-Income country while Tanzania and Benin are now considered Lower-Middle income countries.
Go deeper: According to the World Bank data, Tanzania’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita as of July 1, 2020, is $1,080 up from $1,020 in 2019. Benin’s GNI per capita is $1,250 while Mauritius is now at $12,740. The World Bank Global
Income index is an important tool for investors seeking to gauge the economic viability of a country and it is often referenced in trade deals and other bilateral economic transactions.
South Sudan women activist decry breach of 35% representation in government
South Sudanese women activists are urging President Salva Kiir to revoke the appointments of state governors in order to include women’s representatives in accordance with the provisions of the revitalised peace agreement.
Backstory: Kiir appointed governors for eight of the country’s 10 regional states after sharing them out with his former rival and now the country’s First Vice-President Riek Machar. Only eight of the appointed governors is a woman – Sarah Cleto Rial, who will be the governor for Western Bahr El-Ghazal State.
Only two countries in Africa have achieved gender parity in their higher levels of government.
Go deeper: The women activists want the president to revoke the appointment of three men and replace them with women.
27 killed in Mali attack
At least 27 civilians have been killed in Mali’s central region of Mopti, when gunmen on motorbikes attacked ethnic Dogon farming villages close to the border with Burkina Faso.
Go deeper: Eyewitnesses said the gunmen came from a neighbouring Fulani town. Reprisal attacks between the two communities have escalated over the last year fueled by the perception that jihadist groups have sheltered in and have recruited from Fulani villages. The entire region has suffered decades of civil unrest compounded by religious extremism. The fear now is that pockets of violence do not escalate into Civil war.
Ivorian soldiers ‘made the supreme sacrifice’ – President Alassane Ouattara
A ceremony has been held in Ivory Coast to pay tribute to 14 soldiers who were killed in a jihadist attack on a military camp.
Go deeper: Since 2012 there has been a sharp increase in violence in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and correspondents say countries further south are increasingly worried that the jihadist threat is spreading.
Coronavirus dashboard
Protesters gathered outside the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg Wednesday, against Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccine trial.
A doctors’ strike in Sierra Leone has left Covid-19 patients in some of the main treatment centres without care.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for caution as African airlines begin operations in various countries.
Forty soldiers have tested positive for the coronavirus in Limpopo, the South African National Defence Force has confirmed.
The top United Nations official in South Sudan says 57 workers with the U.N. mission there have tested positive for COVID-19 since April.
