Africanews  

A Guinean opposition group is alleging widescale corruption on the part of President Alpha Condé and his administration.  The Collective for the Transition in Guinea (CTG) filed a complaint on the eve of the nomination of the ruling party's candidate for the upcoming presidential election. The complaint was filed at the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) in Paris.  Bauxite consortium concerns  Jean-Baptiste Soufron, the CTG's solicitor, told a press conference that the concerns date back nearly a decade:  "The complaint targets a set of activities that have taken place since 2012-2013 - partly in Paris, partly in Guinea - and which raise concerns about acts of corruption committed to the advantage of Alpha Condé, his son Mohamed Condé, but also the Minister of Defence Mohamed Diané" The CTG is in particular critical of perceived links between the current regime and an international consortium which bought bauxite mining rights near the city of Boké in west Guinea. "Pure slander"  A presidential official has rejected the claims, describing them as "pure slander" and added that the allegations had been timed because of the approaching presidential election. President Condé’s ruling party, Rally of the Guinean People, is due to choose its presidential candidate for October’s election at a convention on August 5th and 6th. The 82 year old president has already served two terms, beginning in 2010.   Opposition demonstrations  The opposition has been organising demonstrations against a potential candidacy for a third term by President Condé since last year.  Ibrahim Sorel Keita, spokesperson of the CTG, said it was important to communicate their claims to the public:   "This is the best time to hope that the populations wake up and discover the reality of the financial practices of this regime."

BBC News Africa  

The story of Algerian footballer Abdelhamid Salhi, who estimates he played more than 1,000 games yet was never cautioned.

Africanews  

Nigeria's main airline, Air Peace has been affected by the Covid-19 crisis. Faced with "the devastating effects on its operations and financial health", the management of Air Peace said in a statement that it had to take "a painful but legal decision" of dismissing some of its pilots and reducing "the salaries of all staff. Airpeace employs nearly 3,000 employees. Many airlines around the world have had to take similar measures for their survival, as air traffic has been deeply affected by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic. Nigeria has recently relaxed restrictive measures in an attempt to curb the pandemic, but the recovery in economic activity remains partial. Since its first case in February, Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa with 200 million people, has had more than 44,000 cases of coronavirus, including 896 deaths, according to the latest official figures.

Africanews  

Niger, a former French colony, celebrates its sixtieth independence anniversary on Monday.  France mainstains a certain degree of influence in the country. On military grounds; Operation Barkhane is still very much present, although the security situation has deteriorated in recent years. On the economic level, the country is said to enjoy growth through its agriculture, but 40% of its population lives in extreme poverty according to the World Bank. France remains Niger's leading partner. It is therefore a relative independence according to Amadou Bounty Diallo, Nigerien political analyst. Indeed independence has allowed our countries to gain access to international sovereignty, but these are of little significance, since these countries  are still dependent in thindustrial sector.You know that the two leading companies that employ that the higest number of Nigeriens are French companies,"he said. France has somewhat become dependent on the country's uranium resources. In 2010, 30% of the supply of French nuclear power plants came from Niger.

Africanews  

The African Union Mission troop in Somalia ushers a new force commander in Mogadishu. Lieutenant General Diomede Ndegeya who arrived on sunday would lead a force mainly from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The countries have been enforcing order in Somalia for over a decade now. The commander who is no stranger to the country, will have to confront the unending Al shaab attacks and the frequent claims of the presence of non-AMISOM troops in Somalia. With a career spanning 38 years, General Ndegeya, 57, previously served in Somalia from 2007 to 2009, as a member of the Burundi National Defence Forces - AMISOM's pre-deployment team in-charge of supervising and training. In 2012, he was part of a reconnaissance mission to the Bay and Bakool regions of Somalia ahead of AMISOM troop deployment there.    He has also worked as a senior advisor to Burundi's defence minister and published a number of research papers on peacekeeping missions in Africa and professionalisation of the Burundi National Defence Forces, among others.  

Africanews  

Two American astronauts have splashed down as the first commercial crewed mission to the International Space Station came back to Earth. The capsule came down in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast - carefully avoiding the tropical storm battering Florida's eastern sea border. They'd been up in the International Space station for two months and their ride home was fast and hot, at least on the outside with searing temperatures on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. President Trump who had watched the initial launch back in May sent his congratulations at the safe return of the two men. The aim of the mission had been to test the so-called "astronaut taxi service" the company, owned by tech entrepreneur , will be selling to Nasa from now on. For SpaceX it'll be launching the next crew around the end of September.

allAfrica  

[Nation] Kenyan journalist Yassin Juma, who is being detained at the Sostegna Police Station in Ethiopia, says he has developed health complications amid concerns over his legal representation.

BBC News Africa  

Players and coaches in the Ghanaian Premier League are concerned about the proposed return of football.

allAfrica  

[Nation] First, the Covid-19 billions split the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) and the National Influenza Centre -- two institutions that are at the heart of testing for coronavirus.

allAfrica  

[263Chat] Health workers have vowed to continue with their strike over salaries despite pleas for their return to work from President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

allAfrica  

[Namibian] Over 80 journalists from different media houses have taken a stand against the muzzling of fellow reporters' freedom and rights to practise their trade without influence.

Africanews  

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating in Africa according to the World Health Organization. Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its latest update issued on Monday, said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the continent roseto 957,035 as of Monday. It also revealed the number of deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic rose to 20,288 deaths on Monday. The agency stressed that some 611,957 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far. South Africa has recorded more than a half a million cases of COVID-19, the highest in Africa, with the number of infections continuing to rise rapidly. South Africa has 516,862 confirmed cases and 8,539 deaths, followed by Egypt with 94,483 cases and Nigeria with 43,841 cases according to Africa CDC. Confirmed cases in South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria and Morocco account for about 78 percent of the continent's total. Amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent, the Africa CDC on Tuesday said 34 African countries are under "full border closure" in an effort to stop the spread.

allAfrica  

[Govt of SA] The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) welcomes Eskoms's steps to recoup funds lost to State Capture corruption. Eskom and the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) announced today, that a set of summons has been issued in the North Gauteng High Court to recover funds from former Eskom executives, former Board members, members of the Gupta family and their associates, and others.

allAfrica  

[Unicef] Joint message for World Breastfeeding Week 2020 by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

allAfrica  

[Nation] Plans by the government to turn around the fortunes of State-owned sugar factories involve waiving of debts of struggling millers in Western and Nyanza regions and the leasing out of five millers.

allAfrica  

[The Herald] With COVID-19 aggravating an already severe hunger crisis in Zimbabwe, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing for an additional US$250 million to support a rapidly expanding emergency operation for millions at-risk.

Africanews  

A young Rwadan is offering tourists the chance to visit his country via virtual tourism amid the coronavirus pandemic. Patrick Karangwa is the founder of Kigali 360, a company that creates virtual tours of some of Rwanda's most impressive sights. "I realised that Rwanda as a country and in general also Africa were under-represented on Google Maps, on digital maps, this is where the idea came from, I realised that this technology we could do it our self and it was affordable" Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the tourism industry has collapsed across all African countries. Most African tourism organizations have come up with the concept of providing the continent's digital experiences to casual travelers during the pandemic. Virtual tourism is on the rise. However, Patrick believes traditional tourism will pick up. "This will never replace traditional tourism because nothing really will replace the fact that people can be at places, at locations and see the things with their own eyes. So this is more a different layer of information," he said. Last year, tourism brought more than $490 million in revenues to Rwanda, according to the Rwanda Development Board. This year the pandemic has cost Rwanda $45 million, due to dwindling tourist numbers and after 45 international meetings scheduled to be held in Kingali were postponed or cancelled.

allAfrica  

[Dalsan Radio] Somalia's former heads of state and government warn of catastrophic consequences in the event of election delay.

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[The Conversation Africa] Hundreds of thousands of cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in African Union member countries. In order to mitigate the spread of the virus, and the burden it poses for health in Africa and globally, countries need to deliver evidence-driven interventions.

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[The Conversation Africa] France is presenting its current involvement in the Sahel as a new, and more multilateral, form of intervention.

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[The Conversation Africa] With African football on hold and the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there's plenty of nostalgia to go around. But memories of the Algeria's biggest football wins can offer more than just nostalgia. The 2019 Afcon win in Egypt also offers insights into how governments co-opt the game.