Africans League

Thousands of teachers and lawyers in English-speaking regions of Cameroon are on strike, because they think the government is trying to marginalise them by imposing the French language on their schools and courts. Areas controlled by Britain and France joined to form Cameroon after the colonial powers withdrew in the 1960s. As a result, the country now has 10 semi-autonomous administrative regions: eight are Francophone, while the North and Southwest regions are home to approximately five million English speakers. Anglophones in the country have long complained that they face discrimination. They often say that they are excluded from state jobs as a result of their limited French language skills. They also complain that official documents are often only published in French, even though English is also an official language. "There are two national school curriculums in English-speaking regions," said Al Jazeera's Catherine Soi, reporting from Bamenda. "But Frenc...

Yahya Jammeh, the longtime president of The Gambia, has conceded defeat to opposition leader Adama Barrow, accepting that the people have "decided that I should take the back seat". Jammeh, who came to power in 1994 as a 29-year-old army officer following a military coup, had won four previous polls. Speaking to the public on Gambian television late on Friday, Jammeh congratulated Barrow for his "clear victory", saying: "I wish him all the best and I wish all Gambians the best." He said: "If [Barrow] wants to work with us also, I have no problem with that. I will help him work towards the transition," he said, confirming that he would not contest the result." Barrow's victory in Thursday's presidential election brings to an end Jammeh's 22-year rule. Gambians voted by placing marbles into drums marked for each candidate. Barrow received 263,515 votes while Jammeh won 212,099, Alieu Momarr Njai, the electoral commission head,...

The ECOWAS Commission, the African Union and the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) have congratulated the President-elect of The Gambia, Mr. Adama Barrow on his stunning victory in the December 1 presidential election. The three bodies, in a joint statement issued on Saturday, also hailed the incumbent Yahya Jammeh for gracefully conceding defeat. Jammeh, who has ruled the tiny West African nation for 22 years, lost the Thursday's election to a property developer, Barrow, who won more than 45% of the vote. The President of the ECOWAS Commission, the Chairperson of the AU Commission and the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General to West Africa and Sahel commended "the people of The Gambia for peaceful, free, fair and transparent presidential election, which was in line with the provisions of the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and the AU Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance." Th...

Six months ago Adama Barrow was unknown in the political field, but he has just been elected president of The Gambia: His victory brings to an end more than two decades of Yahya Jammeh's rule. 263,515 marbles spoke in favour of for him: Adama Barrow, the opposition leader, will be the next president of The Gambia. Barrow was declared winner with 45 percent. He stunningly d Even though his victory came as a surprise, Barrow himself seemed to see into the future when he told DW before the election that Gambia needed a change. "The infrastructure in 1975 is better than now. Road network in the capital is very bad," Barrow said. Six months ago, hardly anyone would have recognized Barrow on the streets. Now his portrait is plastered on car windows, campaign posters and even t-shirts. Barrow entered into politics after top officials from the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) were jailed in July. Under his flag, seven opposition parties and one independent candidate joi...

Yundum, Gambia - The Gambian opposition leader, Adama Barrow, has won the presidential election, ending the 22-year rule of President Yahya Jammeh in the West African country. News of Barrow's victory prompted thousands to take to the streets of the capital Banjul in celebration - some on foot while others rode in cars and trucks and on motorbikes - as confused soldiers looked on. Following his victory, Al Jazeera caught up with Barrow for an interview. The transcript of the interview has been edited for clarity. Al Jazeera: During your address to the nation and during the campaign, you pledged to carry out some electoral reforms, including a two-term limit for president. Can you elaborate? Adama Barrow: We promised to do a lot of things, including electoral reforms. We will look at everything and avoid making any mistake to arrive at a final document. We want the democratic process to be very smooth in the future. We want a level playing field for every politician in the futur...

"The bells of freedoms are ringing in the four corners of the Gambia. We are free at last and the thousands of Gambians who were forced into exile can now return home and help rebuild their country. We shall no longer be afraid to hold political discussions in the open. We can now sleep peacefully at night without the men in black breaking in our homes and take us away in front of our children. We are indeed really free. ... Alhamdulillah, change has happened in the Gambia." - Jollof News editorial, December 2, 2016 This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a round-up of short articles following the surprise election victory of opposition candidate Adama Barrow and the even more surprising concession speech by strongman Yahya Jammeh, who has been in power for 22 years. The first is the editorial from JollofNews quoted above. Others are from the Guardian (UK), African Leadership Magazine (UK), Daily Maverick (South Africa, and Foreign Policy (USA) Also of particular interest are th...

About the project The Bakwena Road consists of a 95km section of the N1 highway running from Pretoria northwards, and a 290km section of the N4 highway running from Pretoria westwards, to the Botswana border. The route was designed to form part of the Maputo development corridor and in turn, stimulate agriculture, manufacturing, mining and tourism by connecting South Africa’s industrial and commercial heartland, the Witwatersrand, with its nearest deep water port in Maputo, Mozambique. The toll road has been fully operational since December 2004, and the blended annual average growth rate from 2004 to 2009 was more than 9%. Financing AFC was approached by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) to co-invest in an equity investment to part-fund the acquisition of Infrastructure Concession South Africa (Pty) Ltd, a special purpose vehicle established to hold 50% of Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concession (Pty) Limited, a toll road concession company that operates t...

The Henri Konan Bedie Bridge is a US$365 million public private partnership (PPP) project in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and consists of a 6.4km highway and 1.9km bridge with three lanes in each direction across the Ebrié lagoon, connecting Abidjan’s residential Riviera district directly with the commercial district of Marcory. The new bridge eliminates the need to use the heavily congested 9km route via existing bridges and includes a toll station on the north side of the lagoon and footbridges for pedestrians. The project involves the design, construction, financing, commissioning and operation of the bridge. Bouygues Group is the main project sponsor and has a 30 year concession with the Ivorian Government to design, construct, develop and operate the new bridge. The bridge was opened to the public in December 2014. Financing AFC was the mandated lead arranger of the mezzanine tranche of the financing and provided an aggregate commitment of US$55 million comprising commitments to...

About the project Ethiopian Airlines is the flag carrier of Ethiopia. The company was founded in December 1945 and started operations in April 1946. During the past sixty plus years, Ethiopian Airlines has become one of the continent’s leading carriers. Ethiopian Airlines aims to ensure that its fleet continues to reflect latest developments in passenger aircraft technology and the airline decided to acquire five Boeing 777-200 LR, for a total cost of US$668 million. Financing The overall financing comprises of senior debt capital of US$568 million, subordinated debt of US$85 million and an equity investment of US$15 million. AFC(Africa Financial Corporation)invested US$23 million alongside Citibank Limited, African Development Bank and PTA Bank.

NAIROBI, Kenya — A suicide bomb rocked the Somali town of Galkayo on Sunday, killing at least 20 people and showing that Islamist militants, despite recent setbacks, can still plan and execute deadly attacks anywhere in the country. Galkayo, a mid-sized town in central Somalia, had been quiet in recent months. Yet that suddenly changed at 10 a.m. on Sunday when militants detonated a deafening bomb in a market, sending a column of black smoke shooting into the sky. A squad of militants stormed a nearby government building, engaging in gun battles with security forces. “One of the blasts was so huge, I was really shocked,” said Abdirahman Abdweli, a student in the city. The explosion ripped the roofs off several buildings, scattering sharp pieces of corrugated metal and debris across the area. The death toll was not immediately clear. The Shabab militant group, which took credit for the attack, said 30 people had been killed. Somali health officials and residents said the number was...

A vaccine against HIV will be trialed in South Africa later this year after meeting the criteria needed to prove it could help fight the epidemic in Africa. In 2015, 2.1 million new infections were reported -- two-thirds of which occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. A small trial, known as HVTN100, took place in South Africa in 2015 to test the safety and strength of immunity the vaccine could provide, ahead of any larger-scale testing in affected populations. Are we on the road to an HIV vaccine? Are we on the road to an HIV vaccine? Two-hundred and fifty-two healthy volunteers were enrolled to receive either the vaccine, known as ALVAC-HIV/gp120, or a placebo to compare the extent of immune response generated. The results were presented Tuesday at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. "This was precautionary to see if the vaccine looks promising," said Linda Gail Bekker, deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, and pre...

They were taken from their homes, workplaces and places of worship, placed in unmarked cars or vehicles linked to security services and never seen again. In the midst Kenya's counterterrorism operations to eliminate the threat of the al Qaeda-linked terror group Al-Shabaab, the country's security services have been behind at least 34 enforced disappearances of terror suspects, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released Wednesday. In another 11 cases, investigators found remains of people who were last seen in the custody of security agents, their bodies found often miles from where they had been arrested. Witnesses interviewed in the report said those who were behind the operations often carried military or police identification, drove cars with government insignia, and in many cases drove those who were arrested to military bases and police stations. This has lead witnesses and the rights group to believe security forces were behind the disappearances. Disapp...

The first commercial planes in Africa to use biofuels carried 300 passengers between Johannesburg and Cape Town on July 15. The Boeing jets, operated by South African Airways (SAA), were partly powered by nicotine-free, high-energy "Solaris" tobacco plants cultivated by farmers in Limpopo Province. The flights represent a major step forward for "Project Solaris," a partnership between biochemists Sunchem SA, fuel specialists SkyNRG, SAA, and Boeing, which launched in 2014 with the aim of delivering "local, sustainable jet fuel production" at large scale. "This is very significant as it proves we can use this biofuel," says Ian Cruickshank, SAA Group Environmental Affairs Specialist. "It shows the industry is really changing. Four or five years ago biofuel was seen as futuristic, and today it's here." New industry Cruikshank says the flights will build confidence among investors, including the South African government, which will...

One of Africa's veteran music stars has issued an apology after he was filmed appearing to kick a woman said to be one of his dancers. Congolese star Koffi Olomide called the incident a "moment of madness" and posted a statement to his Facebook page saying: "Once again I would like to apologize to my friends, brothers, sisters, fans and especially to the woman." He later appeared on a local television station in DR (Democratic Republic) Congo where he told a interviewer: "I deeply regret what happened. It was a moment of madness." Olomide has faced widespread condemnation and outrage since video of the incident which happened at Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta International airport on Friday surfaced. Kenyans on Twitter, popularly known as #KOT, immediately called for the arrest and deportation of the singer.

Over the past decade, the rate of new HIV infections has increased in 74 countries, according to a new study presented Tuesday at the 21st International AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa. While the total number of new infections declined globally from 2005 to 2015, certain countries saw a rise in numbers of people becoming infected, calling for better targeting of prevention programs in order to end AIDS by 2030. The greatest increases in infections were seen in Pakistan, Panama, Qatar and Afghanistan, respectively, but countries across four continents were highlighted, including Russia and Mexico. "We must slow down the risk of new infections," said Haidong Wang, assistant professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, who led the study. New HIV vaccine to be trialled in South Africa HIV vaccine trial gets go ahead in Africa at AIDS conference The rate at which infections have declined globally over the d...