Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has launched a referendum campaign to prolong his stay in power until 2034, news agency AFP reports.
The push is aimed at adopting a draft constitution that would allow him to serve another two seven-year terms from 2020.
Liberia To Hold Run-Off Vote On December 26
Liberia will hold a delayed presidential run-off vote on Dec. 26, the electoral commission chief said on Tuesday. Former soccer star George Weah faces Vice-President Joseph Boakai in the poll that was held up for several weeks by a court challenge by the candidate who came third in round one. The winner replaces Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president in what will be, if it goes smoothly, Liberia’s first peaceful handover of power in 70 years.
Mugabe Makes First Foreign Trip To Singapore After Ouster From Power
Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe has left the country for medical checks in Singapore, his first foreign travel since the army forced him from office last month, a state security official said on Tuesday.
The 93-year-old, who ruled the southern African nation for 37 years, resigned after the army and his ruling ZANU-PF party turned against him when it became clear that his 52-year-old wife, Grace, was being groomed as his successor.
Knocks For Tanzania's President For Pardoning Child Rapists
Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli is under fire for pardoning persons convicted of raping school girls. According to a child rights activist who heads the Community for Children’s Rights located in the country’s north, the president’s action comes across as a punishment to young children.
South Africa's ANC Prepares To Elect Zuma Successor
South Africa's ruling African National Congress holds an election this weekend to replace Jacob Zuma as party leader in a closely fought contest whose winner is likely to emerge as the nation's next president. The front-runners are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a former trade union leader and one of South Africa's richest people, and Zuma's preferred candidate, his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former minister and chairperson of the African Union Commission.
Fighting In South Sudan's Great Lakes Region Claims 170 Lives
Death toll from inter-clan fighting in South Sudan’s Great Lakes region last week - a new source of violence in a country devastated by a four-year civil war - has reached at least 170, officials said on Tuesday.
The clashes in the province’s Malek county broke out after a group of young men from the Ruop ethnic group attacked rival youth from the Pakam group on Wednesday and Thursday.
Revenge attacks have since taken place.
6,000 ISIS Jihadists May Return To Africa – AU Warns
Close to 6, 000 Africans who participated in the Middle East fights may return to Africa, African Union top security official, Smail Shergi, warned on Sunday and called on countries to prepare for the threat. Smail Chergui, the AU’s commissioner for peace and security, said African nations would need to work closely with each other and share intelligence to counter returning militants.