Africa

Egyptian third seed Mohamed Elshorbagy beats his brother Marwan to win his first World Squash Championships title in Manchester.

Hosts Kenya win the 2017 Cecafa Challenge Cup, beating Zanzibar 3-2 on penalties after the final of the East and Central African Championship ends 2-2.

One of the most important elections in South Africa’s modern history takes place this weekend, with the pick of the new ANC leader.

West African food is tipped by chefs and experts to be big in 2018.

What advice do South Africans have for the ruling party as it prepares to elect a new leader?

Amasa Firdaus was refused entry in Nigeria after insisting on wearing a headscarf under her wig.

Flights at the hub, opened only last week, are disrupted in a stoppage by air traffic controllers.

Dutch judges give Eshetu Alemu a life term for his role in the "Red Terror" purges of the 1970s.

South Africa's ruling party is getting ready to choose a new leader. Here is what you need to know.

The National Museum of Kenya has started a new programme to digitally preserve African artefacts.

Post-election uncertainty in Kenya has affected business.

South Sudan&#39s children are facing a raft of daily horrors and deprivations and urgently require a peaceful, protective environment, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) said Friday, warning that &#8220anything less, places children and women at even greater risk of grave violations and abuse.&#8221

As the conflict in South Sudan enters its fifth year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has encouraged all South Sudanese to end the violence and peacefully resolve the crisis in the country as negotiations are set for next week.

A selection of the best photos from across and about Africa this week.

As the brutal conflict in South Sudan enters its fifth year, the United Nations Security Council on Thursday said it remains deeply concerned over the situation there, and expressed strong support for a regional initiative aimed at salvaging a 2015 peace deal.

The head of United Nations peacekeeping operations on Thursday attended a ceremony in the port city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in honour of the country’s peacekeepers recently killed during their mission in a neighbouring country.

December 13, 2017 (JUBA) – A total of nine aid workers were killed in South Sudan in November alone, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Emergency humanitarian workers attend to children in Pibor, Jonglei, South Sudan, 2 February 2012 (ST)

Six of the aid workers, the UN humanitarian affairs body (OCHA) said, were killed in South Sudan's Jonglei, Eastern Equatoria and Lakes states.

"Incidents of violence, some of which led to the death of aid workers, substantially disrupted aid operations, forcing the suspension of response activities in multiple locations," OCHA said in a report.

More than three million South Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes since conflict broke out in the young nation in December 2013.

According to OCHA, almost half of the South Sudan's 12 million people are hungry, including about 1.7 million on the brink of famine.

"Fighting forced the relocation of at least 47 aid workers in six incidents in Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, and Unity," said the UN.

According to OCHA, 103 humanitarian access incidents were reported in November, compared to 116 in October and that six security incidents forced suspension of aid operations in different locations.

On Wednesday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi appealed for urgent action by all sides to settle the conflict in South Sudan and put an end to its deepening humanitarian crisis and Africa's largest refugee disaster.

The conflict, UNHCR said, has created the largest refugee crisis in Africa, amid estimates the refugee population could exceed 3 million by December 2018.

(ST)

December 13, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has strongly advised Sudan to float the Sudanese pound stressing it is critical for creating the necessary conditions for attracting investors and promoting economic development.

The call is included in an annual report on Sudanese economy released this week providing a roadmap for economic recovery after the secession of South Sudan in July 2011. It also comes after the revocation of U.S. sanctions on Sudan opening the door to "strengthen the outlook and boost the payoff from ambitious reforms".

"Directors agreed that exchange rate unification is critical for eliminating the distortions that hamper investment and growth," said the report which is issued after a visit of IMF delegation to Khartoum.

"Many Directors saw merit in an upfront unification of exchange rates to eliminate multiple currency practices and to bolster the credibility of the authorities' reform agenda," the report further said.

On 13 November 2017, Sudan's Finance Minister Mohamed Osman al-Rikabi denied intentions to float the Sudanese pound. He pointed out that his ministry would take a number of measures to strengthen the price of the pound, stressing that its value would stabilize in the near future.

Several economists, including former Finance Minister Abdel-Rahim Hamdi, recently called on the government to give up the system of managed floating exchange rate and allow the market mechanisms to set the price of the pound. They say the exchange rate unification would allow drawing foreign capital back to the country, improving Sudan's external competitiveness, supporting exports and attracting foreign investment.

However, the IMF experts stressed that successful exchange rate unification will also require appropriate supportive macroeconomic and structural policies

Accordingly, the report included a policy reform scenario proposing that the "Exchange rates are fully liberalized at the beginning of 2018 and remain unified and market-determined thereafter "

Once the pound is floated, the IMF says energy and wheat subsidies should be scrapped between 1019 and 2021. However, this tough measures should be accompanied with an increase of the social spending to from 2018 onward to ease the adjustment pain from the reforms.

The Sudanese pound has weakened against the dollar since the lift of economic sanctions last October. The measure increased the demand for dollar in the black market from the business community putting pressure on the meagre hard currency.

The IMF estimates in its report that Sudan's external debt reached $ 52.4 billion or 111 percent of GDP at end-2016 and, because of the large exchange rate depreciation, rose by 29.5 percent of GDP in 2016.

The international body repeatedly underscored the need to remove Sudan from the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list to benefit from debt relief.

(ST)

December 13, 2017 (JUBA) - The members of the Troika (Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States) have called on all parties to participate in the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) for the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS).

President Salva Kiir pose with the IGAD FM after a meeting held at the South Sudanese presidency in Juba on 13 Oct 2017 (ST Photo)

The HLRF, the Troika said in a statement issued on Wednesday, is a unique and critical opportunity to make progress towards peace.

The statement comes days before the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) convenes the HLRF for the agreement on the resolution of the civil war in the war-torn East African country.

“The humanitarian, economic, security, human rights, and political situation continues to deteriorate with devastating consequences for the people of South Sudan,” partly reads the Troika's statement.

Over half the South Sudanese population, aid agencies say, now lacks enough food to feed themselves and a third of the population has fled their homes, causing the largest refugee crisis in Africa.

“This situation is intolerable to the region and the international community,” the Trioka further stressed, adding “It cannot continue”.

In recent months, however, the region and the international community have repeatedly called on all parties to the conflict to participate in the HLRF constructively and in a spirit of compromise and inclusion.

The members of the Troika, in their statement, said they fully expect the Government of South Sudan to adhere to its repeated public and private commitments to participate in the HLRF in good faith, and with the immediate goal of stopping the fighting in the country.

The group said although South Sudan is a member of the regional bloc, its government is also a party to the conflict and that to achieve a sustainable peace, no party to the conflict can have undue influence or a veto on the process, including the government.

“The opposition also bears responsibility for coming to the table without preconditions,” further noted the Troika's statement, adding that “All parties must engage sincerely and make concessions in the national interest; otherwise, the conflict and suffering will continue”.

Meanwhile, Norway, the US and UK vowed to fully support IGAD's continuing effort to build peace saying they view the HLRF as the essential and inclusive forum to advance peace in the war-torn nation.

“IGAD's ability to solve this crisis depends on unity of purpose amongst its members, and we urge the IGAD countries to speak with one voice,” the statement added, and further called for a “genuinely inclusive” HLRF that reflects the political reality of South Sudan.

The revitalization process, being supported by regional countries, seeks to revive the implementation of the 2015 peace accord and bring all the warring parties together.

(ST)

December 13, 2017 (JUBA) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi has urged urgent action by all sides to settle the conflict in South Sudan and put an end to its deepening humanitarian crisis and Africa's largest refugee disaster.

South Sudanese refugees carrying Core Relief Items walk down a road in Bidibidi refugee settlement, Yumbe District, Northern Region, Uganda. (UNHCR/David Azia)

“The world cannot continue to stand by as the people of South Sudan are terrorized by a senseless war,” Grandi said Wednesday.

The official said the devastating effects of the fighting were a direct consequence of “tragic failures” in the country's political leadership.

Most of the refugees, according to Grandi, were children under the age of 18, while the women who arrived as refugee in neighbouring countries reportedly complained of having either been repeatedly raped, their husbands killed or their children abducted.

South Sudan's neighbouring countries currently host two million refugees, while nearly seven million citizens inside the country are in need of essential humanitarian assistance, the refugee agency said.

“Two million of these [refugees] are internally displaced,” said Grandi.

“Pressure must be brought to bear on those driving this deadly conflict, which has uprooted a third of South Sudan's people in just four years, and killed and maimed countless more. Urgent, concerted action by regional and international actors is needed before it is too late,” said the top UN official.

Grandi said failure to protect South Sudanese refugees and other civilians would make the crisis even more complex and destabilize the region for decades to come, a possibility the world can ill afford.

He called on the parties to the conflict to find a political solution.

“The success of the High Level Revitalization Forum is key to ending the suffering of South Sudanese refugees and the killing of innocent civilians,” he said.

The peace initiative in South Sudan, brokered by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), intends to revive the stalled peace accord, which was signed in August 2015.

The South Sudan conflict, the UN refugee agency says has created the largest refugee crisis on the African continent. UNHCR estimates the refugee population could exceed three million by December 2018.

“The situation is no longer sustainable - for the governments of asylum countries, humanitarian agencies and, most importantly, the South Sudanese people,” stressed Grandi.

“The cycle of violence must be brought to an end,” he added.

(ST)