Author: Elidee Mays

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) says that lawmakers were told Egypt had warned Israel of a potential attack from Palestinian militant group Hamas before its deadly strike over the weekend. “We know that Egypt had warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” McCaul said Wednesday following a closed-door intelligence briefing with lawmakers about the ongoing conflict. He did not provide any specific details about the warning, but he noted it appeared there was a failure of intelligence from both Israel and the U.S. government. “We’ve heard from the administration, there seems…

Children in Sudan are dying amid a healthcare system collapse, with up to 80% of hospitals in conflict-affected states not functional and millions of people in need of health assistance. The UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have reported that more than 1,200 children under five have died in camps in Sudan’s White Nile state from a combination of measles and malnutrition. UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi has insisted that the world has “the means and the money” to prevent every one of those deaths, and has called for an end to the fighting and for more…

Nigeria says it will work with Angola to enhance public media cooperation and boost bilateral relations between the two countries. Information minister Mohammed Idris said this when Jose Zau, Angolan ambassador to Nigeria, paid him a courtesy visit on Thursday in Abuja. Mr Idris recalled that the ministry had received a memorandum of understanding on public communication and media exchange programmes from Angola. “We are studying that MoU. It is not stalled. You know that at some point, no minister was in place. Now that there is one, we are studying it and any area that we need to renegotiate.…

Dozens of residents from Aguereb town given prison sentences, some for years, for demonstrating against a massive rubbish dump in a nearby national park. Aguereb, Tunisia – Dozens of environment activists are appealing prison sentences handed down for protesting pollution at a massive landfill site in a national park that they say caused serious health problems among the population. In Aguereb, a rural town of about 40,000 inhabitants, lies one of Tunisia’s biggest nature reserves, El Gonna. However, it was turned into an enormous refuse dump in 2008 that served about one million people in surrounding areas, as well as Tunisia’s…

Twenty-four people have died in Morocco after the minibus they were travelling in plunged down a ravine in a mountainous area, authorities say. The bus was taking people to market in central Morocco, when it overturned on a bend, local media say. The cause of the accident on the road to the town of Demnate, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, is unknown. It is reported to be one of the country’s deadliest accidents. Morocco has a poor road-safety record. A picture of the aftermath shows a battered vehicle on its side at the bottom of a slope. “All…

Rabat – The African Development Bank (AfDB) has unveiled its latest East Africa Economic Outlook for 2023, predicting that the region will lead the continent in terms of economic growth over the next two years. According to the report released in late July, the bank foresees a remarkable growth rate of more than 5% in East Africa, outpacing the rest of the continent. The report attributes this growth to the collective achievements of countries including Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Tanzania. With projected growth rates of 5.1% in 2023 and 5.8 percent in 2024, East Africa stands as a beacon of…

Rebecca Meder provided the highlight for the South African team on the opening day of the swimming competition at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Sunday. The 20-year-old stormed to a new South African record in the 200m individual medley heats, taking almost half a second off the previous mark she set at the SA Swimming Championships in Gqeberha in April by finishing in 2:10.95. That saw Meder qualifying 11th fastest for the evening semi-finals where she swam slightly slower, finishing in sixth place in 2:11.16 to just miss out on the final by two places. “I was very,…

In Nairobi’s Kibera neighborhood residents supported by international NGO the Human Needs Project are making possible what seemed out of reach. They have ventured into urban farming. They had to find solutions to challenegs including a lack of proper sanitation and scarcity of water that make farming a difficult venture in Kibera. David Omari has adapted a soilless medium. He uses pumice, a volcanic rock. “So, we are using what we call the waste products, which are things which come from yoghurt, those cups of yoghurt. So, we are using it, we put in the pumice, which comes from the…

Kampala, Uganda – 30th June 2023 – Members of the Public Health Risk Communication and Community Engagement, Community of Practice for Africa (PH-RCCE-CoPA) have called for countries to prioritize Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) as a key pillar of public health emergency response. The Health Promotion and Risk Communication experts representing 48 African Union (AU) member states emphasized that early community engagement is critical to ensure community ownership of public health intervention during disease outbreaks; therefore, strategies, as well as financial resources for emergency response must be decentralized and extended to cover RCCE activities. They made the call at the closure…

ROME – After spending nine days in the hospital following an abdominal surgery, Pope Francis made his first public appearance Sunday, offering his weekly Angelus address and thanking all those who prayed for him during his recovery. The pontiff also used the occasion to lament the recent sinking of an overcrowded fishing boat off the coast of Greece in which some 500 people are feared drowned, marking one of the deadliest tragedies to ever be recorded in the Mediterranean Sea. He also noted the recent slaughter in Uganda, in which Islamic militants killed at least 41 people and abducted six…