Nigeria restarts domestic flights amid easing coronavirus restrictions

Malawi's new President Lazarus Chakwera on Saturday ordered his inauguration ceremony be scaled down amid a surge of coronavirus cases, dampening excitement around his election win.

Egypt will hold inaugural elections for a new second parliamentary chamber on August 11-12,election commissioner Lasheen Ibrahim said on Saturday.

An explosion shook parts of the Somali capital of Mogadishu early on Saturday as a suicide car bomber drove into a checkpoint just outside the port, witnesses said, but police made no immediate comment on casualties.

Botswana is investigating hundreds of unexplained elephant deaths in one of Africa’s premier tourist destinations.

Seven government soldiers were killed in an ambush in central Mali in an area where at least 32 villagers had been killed the previous day by suspected jihadists, authorities said on Friday.

Ghana’s deputy trade and industry minister Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has resigned for violating coronavirus self-isolation measures after testing positive for the virus, President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement on Friday.

Botswana is investigating a growing number of unexplained deaths of elephants, having confirmed 275 had died, up from 154 two weeks ago, the government said on Thursday.

Nigeria will resume domestic flights from July 8, the government said on Wednesday, as Africa’s most populous country relaxes novel coronavirus restrictions despite mounting cases and deaths.

Opponents of Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Wednesday sought to end a political crisis by proposing reforms to neuter his authority and hand executive power to a prime minister, although they abandoned a demand for his resignation.

The Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, have long complained of their exclusion from political power.

Six people were injured on Thursday in scuffles between Ethiopian security forces and mourners trying to attend the funeral of singer Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, whose killing earlier this week sparked protests that killed more than 80 people, a witness said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) does not think there are manifold undetected coronavirus infections in Africa with people dying unreported, the regional director of the organisation said on Thursday.

Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi has gone into precautionary quarantine again after one of his close aids tested positive for the coronavirus.

Egypt restarted international flights and reopened major tourist attractions including the Great Pyramids of Giza on Wednesday after over three months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Burundi’s new president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, has promised steps to combat the spread of COVID-19, a shift from the stance of his late predecessor who dismissed the danger posed by the novel coronavirus.

One person was killed and several others injured during largely peaceful demonstrations in Sudan on Tuesday, a government spokesman said, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets demanding faster reform and greater civilian rule in the country’s transition towards democracy.

At least 50 people were killed in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region in protests following the fatal shooting of a popular singer, a regional spokesman said on Wednesday, laying bare splits in the prime minister’s political heartland ahead of next year’s polls.

Police in Kenya have reportedly killed ten people and used "excessive, arbitrary and unjustified force" while enforcing measures put in place by government in March to stop the spread of COVID-19.

This week on Influential Africans, we look at the life of African academic-historian, Dr Cheikh Anta Diop

Nigeria’s candidate to head the World Trade Organization (WTO) said she feels “strong support” from Africa and expects African leaders to unite behind one candidate as sources following the race said she is gaining broader backing.

Nigeria will let people travel between its states outside curfew hours from July 1, a senior official said on Monday as authorities moved to relax some coronavirus restrictions.

Over 160 stranded Nigerian nationals in South Africa have been successfully returned to their homeland. The operation saw 45 Nigerian nationals landing in Abuja and 122 others in Lagos.

Tens of thousands demonstrated on Tuesday in Sudanese cities despite a coronavirus lockdown to demand greater civilian rule in the transition towards democracy after the ouster of veteran strongman Omar al-Bashir last year.

Kenya has lost 800 million US dollars in tourism revenue due to the COVID-19 crisis, the country's tourism.

Senegalese President Macky Sall on Monday said he had decided to lift a state of emergency over COVID-19 to support the struggling economy.

South Africa has called on the UN Security Council to respect the African Union and continental efforts led by the AU Chairman to find a solution to the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute between Ethiopia, Sudan & Egypt.

Gabon’s Senate voted on Monday to decriminalise homosexuality, the president’s office said, in a landslide result that will make the country one of the few in Africa to reverse an earlier ban on same-sex relationships.

Lesotho’s former first lady, charged with the murder of her love rival, was granted bail on Monday, despite objections from the police that she might use it to escape.

Former insurance executive Felix Mlusu was named Malawi’s new finance minister on Monday, a week after a re-run presidential election that unseated the incumbent.

Mali and Burkina Faso must guarantee at a summit this week that their domestic political problems do not reverse fragile military successes against Islamist militants in the Sahel region, a French presidential source said on Monday.