The president of South Africa, Mr. Jacob Zuma, has replaced the country’s finance minister for the second time in four days, following criticism and market turmoil. Pravin Gordhan, who previously served as finance minister from 2009 to 2014, was appointed as the minister of finance on Sunday, replacing David van Rooyen, who had only been sworn in on Thursday. In a statement, President Jacob Zuma said he received many proposals to reconsider his decision to install van Rooyen, a relatively unknown member of parliament. “As a democratic government, we emphasise the importance of listening to the people and to respond…
Author: AMA
At least two people have been killed and 20 others wounded when heavy fighting broke out in a Muslim enclave of Central African Republic’s capital Bangui as people voted in a constitutional referendum. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Sunday that it treated 12 people for gunshot wounds. Gunfire and the explosion of rocket-propelled grenades were heard in the PK5 neighbourhood, witnesses told the Reuters news agency. Residents of the isolated enclave, which was visited by Pope Francis during a trip to Bangui last month, marched to the headquarters of the country’s UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, to complain they…
Libya’s rival factions have agreed to sign a United Nations-backed deal for government of national unity, but questions over whether the main political and military actors are backing the agreement have raised serious concerns over the forthcoming process. Representatives from Libya’s two rival parliaments – Salah Makhzoum of the General National Congress (GNC) based in Tripoli, and Mohammed Shoaib from the Tobruk-based House of Representatives – announced in Tunis that the signing of the deal will happen on Wednesday. But that is not the reality. What Al Jazeera understands is that Makhzoum no longer represents the GNC. In fact, one…
Burundi’s political violence escalated on Saturday with dozens of people found shot dead in the capital, a day after the government said an unidentified group carried out coordinated attacks on three military installations. A climate of fear has engulfed Bujumbura after the sound of battle could be heard throughout Friday and sporadic gunfire overnight. Residents hid in their houses leaving only security personnel patrolling the streets. “Residents say people wearing police uniforms came into residential areas that have been hotbeds of protest. Residents believe these killings were a response to Friday’s attacks on the military,” reported Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb,…
An unidentified attacker has reportedly thrown a hand grenade into the largest mosque in Ethiopia’s capital, injuring at least 16 people, officials said. Information Minister Getachew Reda told Al Jazeera that no one died in the attack, which occured at the Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa after Friday prayers. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Police and security officials quickly descended to the scene and prevented an Al Jazeera camera crew from filming at the mosque. Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Addis Ababa, said tensions were high in the city on Friday night. “It’s important to recognise…
Rival Libyans have agreed to sign a UN-backed national unity government deal following months of negotiations, the UN special envoy for Libya announced in Tunis. Speaking in the Tunisian capital at a UN-facilitated meeting on Libyan political dialogue on Friday, Martin Kobler, a German career diplomat and United Nations (UN) representative, said: “I’m very happy to have this agreement around the table. I’m convinced that human suffering has to end in Libya.” The agreement is due to be signed on December 16. “Those who agree to sign must put the interest of the Libyan people above personal interest,” said Kobler,…
Two Burundi army posts was stormed by heavily armed assailants in deadly overnight attacks in coordinated attacks. The attacks which happened in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura in the early hours of Friday sparked clashes with troops that left at least 12 fighters dead, an army spokesman said. Gaspard Baratuza told state radio that 20 other fighters were arrested after the attacks on a base at Ngagara in the north of Bujumbura and a military training college in the south. Presidential media adviser Willy Nyamitwe wrote on Twitter: “Sindumuja [a name for armed opponents] tried to attack military camps but they failed,”…
Six years ago local hunters stumbled on one of the world’s largest deposit of rubies in the northern province of Mozambique, a potential source of riches for a country in which much of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. The deposits are now being mined by a local company, Mwriti, in partnership with a British company, Gemfields, which owns the luxury Fabergé brand and prides itself on the ethical sourcing of precious stones – “completely traceable from mine to market”. Their joint venture, 75 percent owned by Gemfields, controls a concession that covers 340 square kilometres…
A middle-aged American citizen who had been fighting for al-Shabab in Somalia has fled the group after angering its leadership with a pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Abdul Malik Jones surrendered himself to an African Union military base in Barawe in southern Somalia on Monday morning, senior al-Shabab sources and government officials told Al Jazeera. “No one expected him according to officials, and he has now been airlifted and is being kept [by the government] in Mogadishu,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow said. Al-Shabab is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s government and establish a…
The Seychelles will go to an unprecedented presidential election runoff after all six candidates in the first round failed to secure a 50 percent share of the vote, the electoral commission said on Sunday. “We will have to go into a second round,” said Hendrick Gappy, chairman of the Seychelles Electoral Commission. The next vote begins on December 16. The Indian Ocean archipelago nation of 115 islands and 93,000 people went to the polls to pick a new president on December 3 in the three-day vote. The incumbent President James Michel, 71, won 47.76 percent of the 62,004 votes that…