African Spotlight Spotlighting Africans at Home and Abroad

Two girls have committed suicide in separate incidents after receiving their KCPE exam results. The two girls, Sylvia Wanjiku from Kathiani Constituency and Mercy Chebet from Kericho County, both aged 14 years, claimed they had performed poorly in the national exams. Sylvia Wanjiku who scored 303 marks left a suicide note to her mother which read “Dear mum, I have ...

Tim Cocks/Reuters – President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Saturday on parts of northern Nigeria plagued by a by a violent Islamist insurgency, and said he would shut any borders with other nations in those areas covered by the decree. “I have in the exercise in the powers conferred on me declared a state of emergency in ...

(By SAPA)-FORMER South African president Nelson Mandela is in good health, the country’s Presidency confirmed on Friday. This follows earlier rumours that he was readmitted to hospital. Government said Madiba is enjoying the festive season at his Qunu home in the Eastern Cape. “Former President Nelson Mandela is in good health, good spirits and enjoying the festive season at his ...

The United Nations has reinforced its peacekeepers in the flashpoint South Sudan town of Pibor and is airlifting food to the region, where tribal violence has prompted thousands to flee, a senior UN official said Saturday. “We have deployed a battalion-sized force in Pibor to support the government to protect civilians,” Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, ...

Guinea’s defence minister has announced that the west African state will on Saturday lay off some 4 000 troops, in a joint programme undertaken with the help of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). “In all, it’s 4006 soldiers of all ranks and from all corps in the army, recruited to serve the country between 1952 and 1975, who will be ...