April, 2021 - The African Mirror

Apr

2021

‘Murder in Paris’ puts fresh focus on assassination

ON the morning of 29 March 1988, Dulcie September, the 52-year-old representative of the ANC for France, Luxembourg and Switzerland, was killed by five bullets fired at point blank range from a .22-calibre pistol fitted with a silencer. She died outside the door of the ANC offices on the fourth floor of the building located at 28 Rue des Petites-Écuries in Paris. September’s death sparked international outrage, particularly in France, where tens of thousands of people lined the streets of the capital for her funeral on 9 April 1988. Almost immediately following what would prove to be the most high-profile…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Gunmen kill 30 people in attack in western Ethiopia

NEWS

GUNMEN killed 30 people in an attack on a village in the west of the Ethiopian region of Oromiya late on Tuesday, witnesses said. Clashes between ethnic groups have become a major challenge to the government in the country, which took its present form from territorial expansions of the 19th century. Regional officials in Oromiya did not immediately comment on who was behind the killings in the western Wollega Zone of Oromiya. In the past they have blamed similar attacks on an armed group called OLF Shane. Wossen Andarege, a farmer in the area, said that those who survived the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

121 years-old Queen’s chocolate found intact

NEWS

A 121-year-old chocolate bar, from a batch commissioned by Queen Victoria for British troops fighting in South Africa, has been found in its original tin in the attic of an English manor. The chocolate belonged to an English aristocrat who fought in the Second Boer War, Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfield, and was found in his helmet case at his family's ancestral home, 500-year-old Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, eastern England. "Although ...you wouldn't want it as your Easter treat, it is still complete and a remarkable find," said Anna Forrest, Cultural Heritage Curator at the National Trust, a heritage charity that…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Niger says it foils coup attempt days before presidential transition

NEWS

BOUREIMA BALIMA and MOUSSA AKSAR A military unit tried to seize the presidential palace in Niger's capital Niamey overnight in an attempted coup but order has been restored, the government said on Wednesday, days before the country's first democratic handover of power. The assailants, from a nearby air base, fled after the presidential guard met their attack with heavy shelling and gunfire, three security sources said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media. Government spokesman Abdourahamane Zakaria said several people had been arrested while others were still being sought, but that the situation was under control.…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Russian contractors accused of abuses

NEWS

U.N. experts expressed alarm yesterday over reports of executions and other abuses by Russian security contractors in the Central African Republic and over their close contacts with U.N. peacekeepers. Russia first sent security contractors to CAR in 2018. It stepped up its support late last year to help the government fend off a rebel advance launched before the December 27 presidential election. Since then, the contractors have accompanied national forces as they retake towns from the rebels, CAR's government has said. The contractors include members of Russia's Wagner Group, the U.N. experts said in a statement. Wagner Group members have…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Sudan pays U.S. $335-million

NEWS

THE United States has received $335 million from Sudan to compensate victims of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the USS Cole in 2000 as well as the 2008 killing of employee John Granville, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement. "We hope this aids them in finding some resolution for the terrible tragedies that occurred," Blinken said about the victims. "With this challenging process behind us, U.S.-Sudan relations can start a new chapter."

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Libya force frees prisoners

NEWS

FORCES in Zawiya in western Libya yesterday released more than 100 captives taken from Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) to solidify a months-long ceasefire and moves towards national unity. The men had been held since April 2019 when Haftar launched an assault to seize control of the capital, Tripoli, and other areas in the northwest, ending with his retreat last summer. Libya's warring sides agreed a ceasefire in October in Geneva, and political talks led this month to agreement on a new unity government to replace the two rival administrations that had ruled in east and west. The…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Thousands find refuge after Moz attack

NEWS

THOUSANDS of people fleeing an attack claimed by Islamic State have made their way to safety elsewhere in northern Mozambique, aid workers said, while a small group of victims arrived by boat in neighbouring Tanzania. Insurgents hit the coastal town of Palma, adjacent to gas projects worth $60 billion, with a three-pronged attack last Wednesday. Fighting continued as recently as Tuesday, security sources involved in rescue efforts and the United Nations said. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the accounts from Palma. Most communications to the town were cut last Wednesday. A U.N. spokesman said that so far…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria aims to get 70 million vaccines

COVID-19

ALEIXIS AKWAGYIRAM NIGERIA hopes to receive up to 70 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine this year through the African Union (AU), its primary healthcare chief told Reuters, amid concerns about delayed deliveries of AstraZeneca shots. Rolling out vaccines in developing nations such as Nigeria, whose 200 million-strong population is Africa's biggest, is seen as key to stemming the global spread of the new coronavirus. Nigeria, which has recorded 2,049 deaths from COVID-19 and began vaccinations this month, plans to inoculate 40% of its people this year and another 30% in 2022. Last week, India - the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

T cells induced by COVID-19 infection respond to new virus variants

COVID-19

JULIE STEENHUYSEN A critical component of the immune system known as T cells that respond to fight infection from the original version of the novel coronavirus appears to also protect against three of the most concerning new virus variants, according to a U.S. laboratory study released. Several recent studies have shown that certain variants of the novel coronavirus can undermine immune protection from antibodies and vaccines. But antibodies - which block the coronavirus from attaching to human cells - may not tell the whole story, according to the study by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases…