04 January 2023
Uganda: This Guardian photo essay is about Florence Lugemwa, successful trumpeter and DJ, and about the band she has formed with slum children. The only criterion for participation is that they have to commit to practise, to be there when needed and to be obedient. According to Lugemwa, “(t)he band stops them from straying into the wrong peer groups or into trouble. It gives them structure.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jan/03/musician-florence-lugemwa-kampala-slums
Mozambique/UN: Replacing Kenya, Mozambique will serve as one of the ten non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two years. It has announced that it will focus fighting terrorism and also work towards increasing Africa’s role in the UN institution. The USA, UK, Russia, France and China are the Security Council’s permanent members.
BBC Africa Live 04 January 2023. 5:39
Zambia: Mostly because of Kariba dam’s low water level, with routine annual maintenance of a Maamba Power Plant generator adding to the woes, 12-hour power cuts have been announced by national power utility Zesco.
BBC Africa Live 04 January 2023. 15:02
Algeria: The pharmaceutical industry minister has announced that insulin production is about to start on 15th of January. Half of the insulin needed will then be produced within the country. About 2.8 million Algerians are diabetic.
BBC Africa Live 04 January 2023. 15:42
03 January 2023
Tunisia: Employees of the state transport company were on strike yesterday Monday over salary payment delays. And in late January, the country’s biggest union UGTT will hold a two-day strike (including transport workers) to protest “the government's marginalisation of public companies.”
BBC Africa Live 03 January 2023. 5:06
Mozambique: Herds of elephants desperate for water have destroyed houses, granaries, crops in central parts of the country. Such elephant rampages have become a big problem in the country as the animals leave “conservation areas in search of food and water”.
BBC Africa Live 03 January 2023. 4:34
Ethiopia: EMA, the “state-funded Ethiopian Media Authority”, demands that authorities cease “harassing media workers, particularly investigative journalists”. Of late, the agency says having noted an increase in attempts to halt their work.
BBC Africa Live 03 January 2023. 8:23
Tanzania: After six years, President Samia Suluhu Hassan lifted the ban on political rallies that her predecessor Magufuli had imposed to weaken opposition parties. The latter also want changes to the constitution so as to reduce the power of the President and “to safeguard the independence of the electoral commission and the courts”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64151793