TheRepublic.com - East Africa News

Kenya's mental hospital drugs, confines patients

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:31:42 -0400

NAIROBI, Kenya - Patients at Kenya's only psychiatric hospital are often confined and immobilized using drugs that put them in a comatose-like state, factors that may have led to the recent escape of 40 male patients, an advocacy group said Friday.

UN chief challenges African leaders over Congo

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:25:39 -0400

KAMPALA, Uganda - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged African leaders to implement a peace plan that the U.N. hopes will stabilize eastern Congo, a region long plagued by violence and which now is back on edge.

Uganda president ousts army boss amid dispute

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:41:27 -0400

KAMPALA, Uganda - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni fired his top military commander Friday, the ouster apparently linked to turmoil over Museveni's alleged plan to have his son succeed him as head of state.

Attack casts spotlight on radical preachers

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:05:48 -0400

LONDON - The slaying of a British soldier in southeast London cast a spotlight on radical preachers that influenced Michael Adebolajo, the attacker seen in videos with bloody hands holding a butcher knife. It also raised questions about the reach of the terrorist group al-Shabab, after a British government official said one of the two men tried to go to Somalia to train or fight with the group. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the police investigation.

Correction: Mozambique-UN story

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:26:59 -0400

MAPUTO, Mozambique - In a story May 21 about U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visiting Mozambique, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Mozambique became independent in 1974, instead of 1975.

NM media group helping Uganda journalists

Fri, 24 May 2013 05:08:46 -0400

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - A New Mexico-based media advocacy group is helping journalists in Uganda facing a government shutdown of printing and broadcasting outlets.

S. Sudan leader: Int'l court 'humiliates' Africa

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:34:05 -0400

JUBA, South Sudan - South Sudan's president is criticizing the International Criminal Court, saying the court is designed to humiliate African leaders.

Violence in Somalia scares investors, aid workers

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:40:50 -0400

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A spate of attacks by Islamic insurgents in Somalia's capital is forcing investors, businessmen and aid workers to have second thoughts about expanding operations in Mogadishu.

Lawyer wants terror case against Md. man dismissed

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:43:43 -0400

WASHINGTON - A former Army soldier accused of trying to provide support to a terrorist organization in Somalia after he left the military has asked a court to dismiss the case against him, saying he never had any contact with the group.

Lawyer wants terror case against Md. man dismissed

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:52:25 -0400

WASHINGTON - A former U.S. Army soldier accused of trying to provide support to a terrorist organization in Somalia after he left the military has asked a court to dismiss the case against him, saying he never had any contact with the group.

'Boom Town Baby': African stock markets see gains

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:25:37 -0400

NAIROBI, Kenya - The barrage of hourly tweets sent out by Aly-Khan Satchu - East Africa's version of CNBC's Mad Money host Jim Cramer - cheers on what Satchu says is a growing sentiment among investors: If you're not investing in Africa, you should be. Or as Satchu loudly proclaims on his Twitter feed or newspaper column: "ITS BOOM TOWN BABY."

Kenya's truth report: Killings, land grabs, graft

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:55:31 -0400

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya's president received a long-awaited Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report that names the president and his deputy as being among those suspected of planning and financing Kenya's 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died and 600,000 were evicted from their homes.

Polio cases found in Kenya and Somalia, WHO says

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:46:14 -0400

NAIROBI, Kenya - The World Health Organization says the Horn of Africa is experiencing an outbreak of polio with cases confirmed in Kenya and Somalia.

African Union celebrates 50th year

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:38:28 -0400

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - African nations this week mark the 50th year since the founding of a continentwide organization that spearheaded efforts to liberate Africa from colonial masters. Now leaders want to map out the next 50 years of political and economic integration.

Ethiopian corruption watchdog arrests 51 suspects

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:42:05 -0400

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopian authorities have carried out another wave of arrests that brings the number of people detained on suspicions of corruption to more than 50.

Fighting for 2nd day between army, rebels in Congo

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:38:48 -0400

GOMA, Congo - Fighting between the M23 rebels and the army continued for a second day Tuesday near Congo's eastern provincial capital of Goma, in clashes that have so far killed 19 people, all of them either soldiers or rebels, officials said.

Obama to visit South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:25:07 -0400

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will visit three African nations this summer.

51 die in 2 South Sudan clashes; army retakes town

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:05:19 -0400

JUBA, South Sudan - Twenty-four people died in a battle between South Sudan's military and rebel fighters the government believes to be supported by neighboring Sudan, while a tribe-on-tribe cattle-raiding attack elsewhere in the country killed 27 people, officials said Monday.

Somali reaction to al-Shabab sentences mixed

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:33:49 -0400

MINNEAPOLIS - Wide-ranging sentences handed down in the yearslong federal investigation into recruiting and financing for the terrorist group al-Shabab have kindled a mix of outrage, confusion and relief among members of Minnesota's large Somali community.

Kenya police kill "terror couple"

Sun, 19 May 2013 08:22:19 -0400

NAIROBI, Kenya - Police shot dead a couple suspected to be terrorists after they threw four grenades, wounding five officers in an overnight stand-off, a police official said Sunday.

Politics, bribery charges swirl around Ugandan oil

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:37:27 -0400

KAMPALA, Uganda - Even before the first drops flow, Uganda's oil sector is beset by bribery allegations against officials, tax-related cases abroad that cost the government millions in legal fees, and the alleged interference of a president whose firm control of the sector worries transparency campaigners.

S. Sudan: Doctors Without Borders hospital ruined

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:22:53 -0400

NAIROBI, Kenya - The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says one of its medical facilities located in a rural but violent region of South Sudan has been ransacked and destroyed.

Mystical branch of Islam has resurgence in Somalia

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:33:08 -0400

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Hundreds of sweating Sufis chant and sway as the lead sheik moves into the middle of a circle of worshippers and bursts into a chant louder than anyone else's

Rwanda building collapse kills 6, injures 30

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:04:18 -0400

KAMPALA, Uganda - Six people were killed and dozens more injured when a four-story building under construction collapsed in eastern Rwanda, police said Wednesday as the rescue effort ended.

Sentences continue in Minn. Somali terror case

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:02:30 -0400

MINNEAPOLIS - Two men who left Minnesota to join al-Shabab in Somalia were sentenced Tuesday to three years in federal prison, while a man they characterized as a local leader in efforts to recruit them to the terrorist group was sentenced to 12 years.