East Africa

South Sudan stated on Monday that the U.S. decided to revoke visas for South Sudanese nationals because Juba refused to accept a deportee of another nationality. The U.S. announced on Saturday that it will cancel all visas for South Sudanese passport-holders because South Sudan has refused to accept its repatriated citizen's return. Juba's Foreign Ministry said that the deportee from the Democratic Republic of Congo was denied entry to South Sudan by South Sudanese officials. He claimed in an interview with immigration at the Juba Airport that he had been forced there. "Comprehensive Verification Processes confirmed that this individual was...

The Ugandan President Yoweri Mueveni arrived on South Sudan's border on Thursday. This was the highest-level mission to the country since the clashes in the region and the arrest of the vice president raised fears that civil war could return. Salva Kiir of South Sudan met Museveni at the airport. His administration accused First Vice-President Riek Makar of igniting rebellion and placed him under house arrest. In public remarks made at Juba Airport, the Ugandan leader did not directly refer to the crisis. His military had been invited to South Sudan to assist in securing the capital last month. This...

When South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in 2011 to a chorus of worldwide congratulations and celebrations, rebel-leader-turned-president Salva Kiir promised his people freedom and democracy. He fired his vice president, Riek Makar, two years later. This sparked a civil conflict that splintered his young nation on ethnic lines. The international and regional powers demanded a resolution. Kiir has now detained Machar for a decade, and his administration is threatening to ignite conflict once more in an impoverished nation in the middle of a fragile region. The scandal has highlighted the depth of ethnic and social rifts in the country...

Copperbelt Energy Corp. in Zambia will invest $500m over the next 2 years to double its capacity of an electricity transmission line into the Democratic Republic of Congo and increase the output of solar power, according to a senior official of the company. Copperbelt Energy Corporation owns the only power transmission line connecting Congo with the Southern African Power Pool. CEC's Chief Financial Officer Mutale Mukuka stated that CEC was looking to attract investors in order to finance projects, as the country is emerging from a four-year default on its sovereign debt. Mukuka said that he was looking to invest...

The German Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that the embassy had temporarily been closed in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. This was due to rising tensions which have brought this East African nation to the brink of civil war. Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, sacked this week the governor of Upper Nile State, where escalating clashes between government troops, and an ethnic militia he claims is allied with his rival First Vice President Riek Makar, have taken place. The standoff has raised concerns that the world’s newest nation, which emerged from a civil conflict that claimed hundreds...

Major party in South Sudan’s coalition government announced on Tuesday that it had suspended its participation in a key part of a 2018 deal to end violence and improve relations between Riek Machar, its leader, and President Salva Kir amid clashes. The agreement ended a 5-year war between forces loyal both to Kiir, and Machar who is now the First Vice-President of the SPLM-IO. The two men do have a fractious relation, and it has gotten worse in recent weeks after clashes occurred in the east of the country. Earlier this week, security forces arrested several SPLM-IO leaders, including the...

An official EU Journal publication revealed that the European Union sanctioned nine people, including the leader of Congo’s M23 rebel group and Rwandan army officials, for violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since January, the Tutsi M23 rebels led by the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and the struggle to control Congo's minerals have escalated a long-running war. On the list of sanctions are M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa and commanders from Rwanda's army - the Rwanda Defence Force. Also on the list is the M23 appointed governor for Congo's North Kivu Province. Bisimwa and a Rwandan Government spokesman did not...

Uganda's chief of the military said on Tuesday that his country has deployed special forces to South Sudan's capital Juba in order to "secure" it, as tensions between Salva Kiir's and his First Vice-President Riek Machar stoke concerns about a return to civil conflict. In recent days, tensions in South Sudan have risen after Kiir’s government arrested two ministers, as well as several senior military officials who were allied to Machar. Since then, one minister has been released. The arrests and clashes that took place in the town of Nasir, a northern town, are seen by many as a threat...

After the arrests and tensions escalated, a spokesman of Machar announced that the South Sudanese loyalists to President Salva Kir have released the minister of peacebuilding, a key ally for First Vice President Riek Machar. Security forces have arrested or placed under house arrest, between Tuesday and Thursday, several allies to Machar. These include the Petroleum Minister, the Peacebuilding Minister and a Deputy Head of the Military. This has put at risk a peace agreement that ended the civil war between fighters loyal Kiir and Machar. Stephen Par Kuol, the minister of peacebuilding who was illegally detained by National Security...

Signatories al-Hadi Idris, and Ibrahim al-Mirghani said that Sudan's Rapid Support Forces had signed a charter late Saturday night with allied political groups and armed forces to create a "government for peace and unity". Abdelaziz al-Hilu is one of the charter's signatories. He is a powerful leader in South Kordofan who controls large swathes territory and has troops there. This government is unlikely to be widely recognized, and has already raised concerns from the United Nations. It is another sign of the country's splintering during the civil war, which has lasted for almost two years. RSF has taken over most...

Kenya has actually begun conversations with the United Arab Emirates to secure funding to finish a regional railway, President William Ruto stated, after China cut facilities funding to the task. The railway connecting the Kenyan port of Mombasa with landlocked neighbours, as part of China's Belt and Road Effort, ended in the Rift Valley in 2019, 468 kilometres ( 290 miles) short of the border with Uganda, after Beijing withdrew support. We are checking out a partnership arrangement with the United Arab Emirates to extend the Requirement Gauge Railway to link Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan, Ruto stated on X...

India's benchmark indexes ended largely the same on Wednesday as concerns over slowing corporate revenues and the increasing possibility of fewer U.S. rate cuts balance out a rise in Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Providers. The Nifty 50 shed 0.08% to 23,688.95, while the BSE Sensex was down 0.06% at 78,148.49. Both the benchmarks fell about 0.8% each during the session before paring losses in the last two hours. Recent company updates from business, including Dabur India and Hero MotoCorp, have actually not led financiers to believe that business earnings growth in the 3rd quarter will be any better than...

An industry official said that Madagascar's textile sector could lose around 60,000 jobs due to President Donald Trump’s 47% tariff against the country. The latest U.S. Tariffs were calculated using a formula that meant low-income countries such as Madagascar, which imported small quantities of U.S. products, faced the highest tax rates. According to an ILO report from 2023, the textile and clothing industry in Madagascar employs approximately 180,000 people. It accounts for about one-fifth the gross domestic product of the country. In 2024, the country of 31,000,000 people will export $733 million worth of goods to the U.S. Most of...

He said late Tuesday that the former Congolese President Joseph Kabila would return to central Africa to help solve the crisis in war-ravaged eastern Congo, where Rwandan-backed M23 M23 rebels had seized large swathes. Since January, the M23 rebels have launched a lightning-fast offensive in the mineral-rich eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo. This has resulted in thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of people being forced to flee their homes. It also stoked fears of an escalating regional conflict. Sources from the Congolese government, M23 and other sources confirmed this week that the peace talks between Congo...

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmad appointed Tadesse Worede on Tuesday to lead the interim government in the northern Tigray Region, where divisions within the ruling party has sparked concerns of a new war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Tadesse was a commander of the Tigray People's Liberation Front during the war between Ethiopia's Federal Government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front in 2020-2022, which resulted in the deaths of tens thousands of people, as well as the forced displacement of millions. Eritrean troops fought alongside Ethiopia's Federal army during the conflict. However, relations between the two long-time rivals has soured since...

Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said that he and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had a productive phone call on Friday. The two leaders will meet next month after the Canadian election. Trump posted on his Truth Social social media platform that the call was "extremely productive". We agreed on many points and will meet immediately after Canada's next election to discuss elements of Business, Politics and other factors. He added that the work would be great for both Canada and the United States. Carney's office and Carney himself have yet to comment on this call. It comes a day...

The de facto ceasefire that had been agreed between Congolese and Rwandan rebels in Walikale, a town located in eastern Congo, appeared to have collapsed on Monday. The rebels reneged on their promise to withdraw from the area and accused the army of breaking its own promises. The M23 rebels are hopeful about a possible ceasefire in Walikale. Captured last week The hope that diplomatic efforts would be revived to end the largest conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for decades was briefly sparked. This conflict is rooted in the long-lasting fallout of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the...

Angola is stepping down as the mediator for parties in an intensifying Rwanda-backed rebel offensive against eastern Congo. A different African country will now take over to help bring peace talks back to track, announced the presidency on Monday. M23, led by ethnic Tutsi, has escalated its long-running rebellion in this year. They have taken control of east Congo's largest cities since January. Angola President Joao Lurenco, who is currently rotating African Union (AU), has tried to mediate a ceasefire lasting and reduce tensions between Congo, and Rwanda, the neighbouring country, which was accused of supporting M23. Rwanda denies that....

Copper prices fell from their five-month high on Friday as concerns about U.S. Tariffs and disappointing data from China, the world's largest metals consumer, dampened purchasing activity. The benchmark three-month copper price on the London Metals Exchange rose 0.1% to $9,797 per metric tonne by 1030 GMT. It had previously reached $9,850 a metric tonne, its highest level since October 9. Prices fell after the new lending by banks in China in February was lower than expected from its record high of the previous month. Nitesh Sha, a commodity strategist with WisdomTree, said that the price of copper would be...

Alphamin Resources, which has halted its mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has halted the production of tin. Alphamin Resources announced on Thursday the halting of activity at the Bisie Tin Mine in Congo's North Kivu "after insurgent militants groups recently advanced westward toward the mine's position in DRC, occupying Nyabiondo". Shanghai's most actively traded tin contract rose 8.8% on Friday to 288,450 Yuan ($40212.16) per metric ton at 0346 GMT after reaching the upper limit by 10% in the morning Asian trade session. The benchmark three-month tin price on the London Metals Exchange increased 0.6% to $35,110...

Alphamin Resources' shares fell further in Toronto on Friday after the miner announced that it had temporarily stopped its tin mining operations in the volatile eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo as rebels advanced toward the operations. Early trading in Toronto saw a drop of up to 36%. Alphamin shares have fallen 52% this year according to LSEG. The company announced that activities at the Bisie tin mining site in Congo's North Kivu were halted after "insurgent militants groups recently advanced westward toward the mine's position in DRC, occupying Nyabiondo," according to a statement. Alphamin stated that "all...

Alphamin Resources announced that it will temporarily stop operations at its Bisie Tin Mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo because of unrest in North Kivu Province. The London Metal Exchange's (LME) soldering metal prices were up 3.3% to $34,530 per metric ton by 1401 GMT, after reaching $34,815 per ton - the highest price since July. Alphamin produced over 17,000 tons last year of the metal that is used in semiconductors. This represents more than 4% global total supplies, estimated to be around 380,000 tonnes. Alphamin stated in a press release that "this decision was taken after insurgent...

Officials in an Ethiopian region at a centre of tensions warned that Ethiopia and Eritrea, long-time enemies, could be heading towards war. This would risk another humanitarian catastrophe in the Horn of Africa. Analysts said that direct clashes between the two largest African armies could be the death blow to a historic rapprochement, for which Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for in 2019. It may also attract other regional powers. This would likely cause another crisis in the region, where cuts in aid have made it difficult to help millions of people affected...

Angola announced on Tuesday that it will attempt to broker direct negotiations between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda-backed M23 M23 rebels within the next few days. The Congolese government has refused to engage in talks with M23 on numerous occasions and so far, there is no comment. The Southern African nation has been working to mediate for a long-lasting ceasefire, and deescalate tensions with Rwanda. Rwanda has been accused by the Congo of supporting the Tutsi rebel group. Rwanda denies that it has provided arms and troops to the M23 rebels and claims its forces are acting...