Content about Africa
DJEMA, Central African Republic — An Internet campaign that’s gone viral aims to capture notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony, but Ugandan foot soldiers who have spent years searching for the man are starting to ask a question their top commanders prefer to ignore: Is it possible he is dead?
CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Tuesday upheld a conviction against one of the Arab world’s most famous comedians, sentencing him to jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films.
The case against Adel Imam and others like it have raised concerns among some Egyptians that ultraconservative Muslims who made gains in recent elections after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year are trying to foist their religious views on the entire country. Critics say the trend threatens to curb Egypt’s vibrant film industry and freedom of speech.
RUBKONA, South Sudan — Sudanese warplanes bombed a market and an oil field in South Sudan on Monday, killing at least two people after Sudanese ground forces had reportedly crossed into South Sudan with tanks and artillery, elevating the risk of all-out war between the two old enemies.
The international community urged Sudan and South Sudan to talk out their disputes, which include arguments over where the border lies and over ownership of oil resources.
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s president said Thursday that the nation will not withdraw its troops that this week entered a disputed border region with Sudan.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir spoke to parliament in the midst of escalating clashes along the border with Sudan. He said the country’s military would also re-enter another disputed area, Abyei, currently occupied by Sudan if the United Nations does not urge Sudan to withdraw.
CAIRO — The head of Egypt’s constitutional assembly said Wednesday the committee will forge ahead with its work despite appeals from liberals, Christians and others who walked out in protest against the Islamist domination of the panel.
A UT student empowering others through her work against poverty is vying for a chance to take her cause to Africa.
We all have a purpose. Whether it is to discover the cure for cancer or to teach a high school class, everyone was created to make a difference. Oftentimes, we underestimate the difference that we, as students, could be making.
CAIRO — Egyptian security officials say they have thwarted an attempt by a British man and his wife to smuggle 19 artifacts out of the country.
Police say the couple were stopped in Luxor International Airport on Sunday with pieces in their luggage ranging from Pharonic statues and pottery to a Greco-Roman bronze coin.
Security officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with police rules. Security around the country has deteriorated since last year’s uprising when several pieces went missing from the Egyptian museum.
CAIRO — Stoking tensions with Washington, an Egyptian Cabinet minister has accused the United States of directly funding nonprofit groups to create chaos in the country following last year’s ouster of longtime leader and U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, according to comments published in state-owned newspapers on Tuesday.
International Cooperation Minister Faiza Aboul Naga made the remarks in a testimony she gave in October to judges investigating allegations the groups used foreign funds to foment unrest.
CAIRO — Egypt refused to back down Wednesday in a dispute with the U.S. over Cairo’s crackdown on nonprofit groups despite Washington’s threats to cut aid, while the military deployed troops to the streets after violence and protests.
BENGHAZI, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi loyalists seized control of a Libyan mountain city in the most serious challenge to the central government since the strongman’s fall, underlining the increasing weakness of Libya’s Western-backed rulers as they try to unify the country under their authority.
CAIRO — Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt’s first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.
CAIRO — Shaking off years of political apathy, Egyptians turned out in long lines at voting stations Monday in their nation’s first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, a giant step toward what they hope will be a democracy after decades of dictatorship.
Some voters brought their children along, saying they wanted them to learn how to exercise their rights in a democracy as they cast ballots in what promises to be the fairest and cleanest election in Egypt in living memory.
DOLO, Somalia — Lush patches of green dot this once-barren land, allowing goats and camels to graze. A nearby field is full of large, purple onions thanks to a U.N.-funded project.
Four months after the U.N. declared famine in much of Somalia, some regions are beginning a slow recovery from a disaster that has killed tens of thousands of people.
CAIRO — Egyptian soldiers and police set fire to protest tents in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and fired tear gas and rubber bullets Sunday to drive out thousands demanding that the military rulers quickly transfer power to a civilian government. At least 11 protesters were killed and hundreds were injured.
JERUSALEM — Israel has identified eastern Africa as an important strategic interest and is stepping up ties with nations in the region in a joint effort to control the spread of Islamic extremists, officials said Thursday.
In effect, Israel would become a player siding with Christian-led African nations in conflicts with Muslim movements, a fault line that has sharpened around the continent in recent years. Israeli moves come as the United States as well has hiked up military support for African governments, in large part to combat al-Qaida-linked groups.
NAIROBI, Kenya — The presidents of Sudan and the new nation of South Sudan are both predicting the possibility of a new war in an oil-rich region that has seen a spike in cross-border attacks.
Troop build-ups are being reported on both sides of the Sudan-South Sudan border, the world’s newest international boundary, and rebels in Sudan announced a new alliance with the aim of overthrowing their own government, which is seated in the capital, Khartoum.
KINSHASA, Congo — A national park in Congo best known for its endangered mountain gorillas is now inviting tourists to go on overnight treks to see a volcano spurting fountains of lava nearly 1,000 feet into the air.
Mount Nyamulagira began erupting on Nov. 6 and could continue to do so for days, or even months.
“Last night’s was the most spectacular yet,” spokeswoman LuAnne Chad said Monday from Virunga National Park.
MONROVIA, Liberia — Violence broke out at opposition headquarters, killing at least one person hours before Liberia’s presidential runoff on Tuesday, a vote that tests the West African nation’s fragile peace after a devastating civil war.
Despite sharp criticism from the United States, the U.N. and election monitors, opposition leader Winston Tubman kept urging supporters to boycott Tuesday’s runoff.
CAIRO — Growing in confidence after eight months in power, Egypt’s military generals appear more determined than ever to crush the protest movement that ousted Hosni Mubarak and has turned critical of their rule.
This week, they detained Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a blogger whose activism made him an icon of the anti-Mubarak uprising, and — in an accusation that was derided by fellow activists — said he was to blame for stirring up violence at an October protest where 27 people were killed when soldiers cracked down.
Officials testify that operations in Africa would only last for months
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military operation against the Lord’s Resistance Army in Africa is a short-term deployment, Obama administration officials insisted on Tuesday.
CAIRO — Thousands of Egyptian police launched a nationwide strike on Monday to demand better salaries and a purge of former regime officials from senior security posts.
About 3,000 lower ranking police rallied in front of the Interior Ministry in central Cairo to push their demands, including a 200 percent pay raise. They also called for an end to military trials for lower ranking police.
Police said they would hold an open ended sit-in until their demands were met, as around 12,000 went on strike. Egypt has 350,000 police altogether.
SIRTE, Libya — Dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, a wounded Moammar Gadhafi raised his hands and begged revolutionary fighters: “Don’t kill me, my sons.” Within an hour, he was dead, but not before jubilant Libyans had vented decades of hatred by pulling the eccentric dictator’s hair and parading his bloodied body on the hood of a truck.
TRIPOLI, Libya -- During nearly 42 years in power in Libya, Moammar Gadhafi was one of the world's most eccentric dictators, so mercurial that he was both condemned and courted by the West, while he brutally warped his country with his idiosyncratic vision of autocratic rule until he was finally toppled by his own people.
At approximately 3 p.m. on Oct. 9, my dad received a frantic phone call from a family member in Egypt. All my family could hear was my dad saying, “Hello? What, Michael?! I can’t understand what you are saying! What massacre happened?!”
