Africa Top10 News
1The Video that Melted Twitter Hearts
When Toronto resident Rebecca Davies posted an adorable video of two Eritrean refugees experiencing snow for the first time, she didn’t expect that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would retweet. The 43-second clip has had more than 2.4 million views on Twitter, and 23,000 shares.
SOURCES: CNN
2Nigeria’s Former Oil Minister to Face the Music
Three years after she was first arrested in London on money laundering charges, Nigeria is finally looking to bring home its former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to face corruption charges. Alison-Madueke has been London since 2015 after being released on bail and having her passport seized following the arrest. She served as minister of petroleum—a key role in Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy—from 2010 to 2015.
SOURCES: Quartz Africa
3Another Grand Discovery in Egypt
A lost collection of short stories by the celebrated Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz has been discovered in a box of the late Nobel laureate’s papers. The 50 handwritten stories were found by the Egyptian journalist Mohamed Shoair at the home of Mahfouz’s daughter Umm Kulthum. While some of the stories were published in magazines while Mahfouz was alive, 18 of them have never been published.
SOURCES: The Guardian
4Somaliland Wants to Make it Official
The self-declared state of Somaliland is stepping up its push for international recognition, warning that the world’s continued refusal to formally accept its independence threatens to plunge the breakaway region back into armed conflict with Somalia.
SOURCES: Ozy
5Getting Mauritania Out of its Slave Mentality
The Global Slavery Index estimates that two percent of the population, or 90,000 Mauritanians, are enslaved. The government rejects international figures, saying cases of slavery exist, but the practice is not widespread. SOS Esclaves runs literacy courses and job training programs, and helps former slaves get identity papers and healthcare.
SOURCES: VOA
6Revered for its Literacy Rate but Teachers in Zimbabwe are Underpaid
Zimbabwe teachers thronged the streets of Harare, demanding salary increases and annual bonuses. It is believed teachers in the country are some of the worst paid in the world. The protest was led by the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe.
SOURCES: eNCA
7Social Media Fuels Africa’s War on Child Marriages
A picture of the 17-year-old, who is from South Sudan, was posted on Facebook on Oct. 25. The post said five men were participating in the auction for her dowry. The highest bidder, a wealthy businessman, reportedly gave the girl’s father over 500 cows, three luxury cars and $10,000 as dowry – and the teenager’s marriage took place on Nov. 3, according to major girls’ rights charity Plan International.
SOURCES: Reuters
8Ivorians Still Waiting for Justice
Seven years after the deadly civil war of 2011, memories still remain fresh for many in Ivory Coast. Fighting between the supporters of rival leaders Alassane Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo had claimed 3,000 lives.
SOURCES: Al Jazeera
9Cashew Wars Bring Tanzanian Army out of the Barracks
Tanzanian authorities have deployed the military to buy cashew nuts from farmers to solve a row over prices. President John Magufuli had given traders a Monday deadline to buy the crops at government-approved rates. Farmers had halted sales of their harvests for weeks, saying offers from private traders were too low.
SOURCES: BBC
10The Canadian Sisters Who Sent Nigerian Gossip Sites Wagging
Jyoti & Kiran Matharoo’s growing notoriety, fueled largely by Instagram, made them particular favorites of Nigeria’s gossip blogs, which tracked their rumored relationships with the sort of savage coverage normally reserved for troubled royals. The sisters were accused of cyberstalking and threatening to kidnap wealthy Nigerians, including one of Kiran’s ex-boyfriends, Femi Otedola, a politically powerful oil tycoon whose net worth was $1.8 billion in 2016, according to Forbes magazine.
SOURCES: New York Times
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