The authorities in Burundi have announced rare measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, moving away from a relaxed attitude shown by the previous government.
In a speech before the parliament after the swearing in of ministers, new …
South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters party has called for a return to the strict level-five lockdown in the country as coronavirus cases rise.
The party says the only way to prevent further spread is for people to stay home and the …
The Electoral Commission in the Sissala East Municipality has targeted a 10 per cent increase in the voter population after the registration exercise.
This is expected to increase the current 34,649 voter population in the Municipal's r…
For more than a month thousands of displaced people have been stuck in DR Congo’s Ituri region trying to seek safety in northern Uganda. The government in Kampala finally agreed to give them entry on humanitarian grounds.
They will firs…
The Electoral Commission (EC) has cautioned the citizenry against the use of violence in challenging the eligibility of registrants at the ongoing voter registration exercise.
Mr. Benjamin Bano-Bio, Ashanti Regional Director of the Commis…
Residents of the sprawling Sakumono Estates in Tema West, thronged registration centres on Tuesday to acquire Voter's Identification Cards.
The mass voters' registration exercise, being conducted by the Electoral Commission which comme…
Prospective voters thronged various registration centres of the Electoral Commission in the Greater Accra during the early hours of Tuesday to register for their voter identification cards.
A visit by the Ghana News Agency to some centr…
The nationwide voters' registration exercise has started on a high note in Teshie and Osu.
A visit to some polling stations by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) namely the Teshie Neighbourhood Day Care Centre and the Saint Barnabas Anglican P…
Statement by SRSG Mohamed ibn Chambas on Ghana
As Ghana embarks on nationwide voters registration exercise today, in anticipation of the December 2020 general elections, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of th…
A New York judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's niece from publishing a damning tell-all memoir about the US first family.
Mary Trump's upcoming book, Too Much and Never Enough, How My Family Created the World's Most D…
Hong Kong police have made their first arrests under a new "anti-protest" law imposed by Beijing, as crowds marked 23 years since the end of British rule.
Seven people were held accused of violating the law, including a man with a pro-i…
The EU has decided that from Wednesday EU borders will be reopened to citizens from 15 non-EU countries, including Canada, Morocco and Australia, but not the US, Brazil and Russia.
China is on the list, but subject to a reciprocal agree…
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has launched an ambitious gas pipeline project linking the south of the country with the north.
Nigeria secured a $2.6bn (£2.2bn) loan from the China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, also know…
Forty-seven migrants who were adrift and in danger in a boat in the Mediterranean have been rescued.
They were picked up in waters south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, three days after setting off from Libya.
They had run out of…
Some 111 guests tested positive for Covid-19 after a wedding in India's northern Bihar state. The groom also died a day after the wedding on 16 June, NDTV reported. However, it's not clear if he had the virus as he was not tested.
More …
A whopping majority of infections and deaths in India happened in June - more than 400,000 cases and nearly 12,000 fatalities were reported last month, according to the Times of India newspaper.
To put that into perspective, India curre…
The mass registration of citizens for the compilation of the new voters’ register took off smoothly in the Northern Region on Tuesday albeit late at some registration centres.
Citizens thronged the registration centres and waited patien…
The Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to take into consideration the prevailing COVID-19 environment and peg its threshold for the number of voters at each polling station at 600 instead of…
The leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has unveiled its Campaign Team for the 2020 General Election, with Professor Joshua Alabi as the National Campaign Manager, and Mr Alex Segbefia as his Deputy.
A statement issued …
The United States is not on a “safe list” of destinations for non-essential travel due to be unveiled by European Union governments later on Tuesday, three diplomats said.
The 27-member bloc is expected to give outline approval to leisu…
France's Fessenheim nuclear plant, for years the focus of anti-nuclear protests, has been switched off after more than four decades.
The divisive plant near the borders of Germany and Switzerland produced 70% of the Alsace region's ener…
Volunteers in India will be immunised with a new locally made coronavirus vaccine in July.
An unspecified number of people will have the vaccine, as part of a trial by Hyderabad-based firm Bharat Biotech.
Tests in animals suggest the…
The mayor of what was once a slaving post in Senegal says a local square has been renamed, as protesters around the world challenge symbols of imperialism and racism in public spaces.
Gorée Island's place de l'Europe will now be called …
A fire at a hospital in the Egyptian city of Alexandria has killed at least seven patients and injured seven members of staff.
Egyptian media said a short circuit in the air conditioning system at the Badrawi Hospital triggered the blaze …
Zimbabwe's Central Bank has permitted limited transactions on mobile payment platforms but the stock exchange remains suspended over accusations of economic sabotage.
On Monday, EcoCash, the largest mobile payment company announced that…
Senegalese President Macky Sall has said a state of emergency and nighttime curfew imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus will be lifted from Tuesday.
In a televised address, the president also announced the resumption of internation…
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has appointed governors for eight of the country's 10 regional states after sharing them out with his former rival and now the country’s Vice-President Riek Machar.
The president also appointed superin…
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Monday warned non-Ghanaians to stay away from the Electoral Commission organized voter registration exercise.
"The election on 7th December must be a Ghanaian election, not a West African elect…
Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has called for calm ahead of a "million-strong" march to demand the implementation of the "goals of the revolution" that ousted long-serving leader Omar al-Bashir last year.
"You will be hearing con…
Dr. Tina Abrefa-Gyan, the only female candidate in the Bono Region who contested the just-ended New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries on Monday lauded the political maturity and civility exhibited by the party delegates and sup…
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs has repeated the call for Parliament to be involved in the selection of the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC).
Accord…
Torgbui Amenya Fiti V, Paramount Chief of Aflao Traditional Area on Monday called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to call military personnel to treat the people at Aflao with civility.
He also asked the President to ensure that…
The Ghana Union Movement (GUM) has called on all citizens to see the new voters' registration exercise as a national duty and come out in their numbers to register on Tuesday, June 30.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Monda…
Accreditation of seven private laboratories to boost its testing capacity and three private hospitals for case management
The Lagos State government has expanded its COVID-19 response capacity with the accreditation of seven private lab…
As coronavirus spreads in Afghanistan, the cracks in the country's healthcare system - already weakened by decades of war - are starting to show. BBC Pakistan and Afghanistan Correspondent Secunder Kermani reports on the country's worsenin…
The EU has named 14 countries whose citizens are deemed "safe" to be let in from 1 July, despite the pandemic - but the US, Brazil and China are excluded.
Those named include Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco and South Korea.
The EU …
Belgium's King Philippe has expressed his "deepest regrets" to the Democratic Republic of Congo for his country's colonial abuses.
The reigning monarch made the comments in a letter to President Félix Tshisekedi on the 60th anniversary …
China has passed a controversial security law giving it new powers over Hong Kong, deepening fears for the city's freedoms, the BBC has learned.
It is set to criminalise secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces, but will …
President Nana Akufo-Addo has explained that the deployment of a number of soldiers in Ghanaian towns bordering neighbouring countries is solely for security purposes and not for voter intimidation.
The deployment of the armed soldiers …
The Electoral Commission (EC) has expressed confidence in the guarantor system which is expected to be used by persons who do not have the Ghana Card or the Ghana Passport during the mass voter registration exercise starting Tuesday, June …
The Electoral Commission (EC) says more than 44,000 registration officers have been recruited for the mass voter registration exercise beginning Tuesday, June 30, 2020.
The Chairperson of the Commission, Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa who made …
Lesotho's former first lady - who has been charged with murdering her husband’s estranged wife - has been granted bail despite police objections that she might use it to escape.
The deputy police commissioner, Paseka Moketem, said Maesa…
More on those lockdowns coming back in around the world.
India has officially entered the second part of its "unlocking" phase but two states on Monday announced that they were locking down again.
Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have beco…
Mrs Jean Mensa, Chairperson for the Electoral Commission (EC) has said that the Commission has no intentions to disenfranchise any eligible voter in the upcoming new voter’s register compilation exercise.
“We want to assure you that as …
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the re-opening of schools in the country.
But only primary and secondary school students in their final years will be allowed back into classrooms to enable them prepare for crucial exam…
Mrs Jean Mensa, Chairperson, Electoral Commission, has appealed to the public especially, the political parties to direct their energies towards making the voters' registration exercise a success.
“I urge to move forward with the Commis…
French ex-Prime Minister François Fillon and his Welsh wife have received jail sentences in a fake jobs case.
The conservative politician was found guilty of paying Penelope Fillon €1.156m (£1.06m, $1.3m) for work she never did as a par…
A prominent art historian has called on the renowned auction house, Christie's, to cancel the sale of two Nigerian sculptures to be put up for auction shortly.
Prof Chika Okeke-Agulu told the BBC the two objects were "looted" from shrin…
Libya's state oil company says that Russian and other foreign mercenaries have moved into a major oilfield, called El Sharara, where it had been planning to restart production.
Most of Libya's oil facilities are located in areas under t…
After more than a fortnight in detention, a court in Zimbabwe has freed on bail three officials of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) charged with lying to the police.
The three women were arrested after they said …