BBC

Two journalists who’d been interviewing alleged victims of state torture are among the 40,000 people that Zimbabwean police say they’ve arrested. Most of those people were arrested for breaking the rule on not moving more than 5km (3 miles) from their homes. Others failed to wear masks or kept their businesses open. Most informal trading […]

Two Zimbabwean journalists who’d been charged with violating lockdown regulations have now been freed on bail, amid accusations the government is using the lockdown to silence dissent. Frank Chikowore and Samuel Takawira were arrested on Friday, as they interviewed three opposition officials who said they were abducted, sexually assaulted and tortured by state agents after […]

Zimbabwe’s deputy information minister has been fired, hours after dismissing the abduction of a female member of parliament and two of her colleagues as a row over payment for sex. The government gave no reason for the dismissal of Energy Mutodi. A tweet by Mr Mutodi about the opposition MP, Joana Mamombe, has been deleted. […]

United States President Donald Trump has criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for not responding strongly to reports of racism and discrimination against Africans living in southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. President Trump has also called the WHO a “puppet of China” and is threatening to permanently freeze […]

More than half a million people in Africa could die between now and next year from Aids-related illnesses amid the Covid-19 pandemic – unless governments move to address the issue. A modelling analysis done by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAids shows that the impact of a six-month disruption of antiretroviral (ARV) therapy could […]

As many as 190,000 people across Africa could die in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic if crucial containment measures fail, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns. The new research also predicts a prolonged outbreak over a few years. “It likely will smoulder in transmission hot spots,” says WHO Africa head Matshidiso Moeti. This […]

Zimbabwe has granted clemency to more prisoners, broadening the conditions for release in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a government notice, those who are facing life sentences and who have served at least 20 years of that sentence could be released. Some 1,500 prisoners were released in March but prisons remain overcrowded, […]

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has announced plans to construct more than 90 hospitals to beef up Ghana’s health system in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. According to the president, the pandemic has exposed the weakness in the country’s health system following years of under investment. But critics have questioned how the government intends to […]

World leaders have launched a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative to speed up the research, development and distribution of vaccines, drugs and tests against the coronavirus. “Our shared commitment is to ensure all people have access to all the tools to defeat Covid-19,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Speaking via video link at the […]

The European Union has described as “astonishing” the extent of vote-rigging in last October’s elections in Mozambique. In their final report, published on Wednesday, EU observers gave a withering assessment of the polls saying they found fraud at almost every stage of the process. The election – meant to help cement a peace deal in […]

Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe died with $10m (£7.7m) cash in the bank, a legal letter from his daughter quoted by state media says. But he appears not to have left a will, according to the family’s lawyer, Terrence Hussein. Mugabe, who died in September aged 95, was ousted in 2017 after 37 years in […]