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LUSAKA – Zambian police said on Tuesday they had arrested two senior editors of the country’s largest independent newspaper that was shut last week over alleged unpaid tax. The daily Post newspaper has rejected the tax-collecting agency’s claims that it owes millions of dollars and says the shutdown is an attempt to silence it ahead…

LAGOS – President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday frowned at the decision to devalue the naira, saying devaluation is of no benefit to the country. This is despite the implementation of the flexible exchange rate policy, which has resulted in the devaluation of the nation’s currency. Speaking at the breaking of the Ramadan fast with members…

KINSHASA – An influential grouping of Catholic bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday called for President Joseph Kabila to step down when his second term ends and that elections be held on schedule this year. Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, is mandated to leave office in December. But in…

DAR ES SALAAM – Scientists have discovered a large helium gas field in Tanzania. With world supplies running out, the find is a “game-changer”, say geologists at Durham and Oxford universities. Helium is used in hospitals in MRI scanners as well as in spacecraft, telescopes and radiation monitors. Until now, the precious gas has been…

JOHANNESBURG – The Treasury has determined that President Jacob Zuma must pay back a little more than R7.8m for nonsecurity upgrades at his Nkandla home. This was according to the report by Treasury submitted to the Constitutional Court on Monday. “The reasonable percentage of the estimated costs of the five measures that the president would…

MOGADISHU – An attack by the Islamist group al-Shabab in a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu has left at least 14 dead, police say. Security forces retook the Naso-Hablod hotel after gunmen stormed it and took hostages, officials said. Those killed are reported to include security guards, civilians and some of the attackers. Al-Shabab…

PRETORIA – The High Court in Pretoria has dismissed President Jacob Zuma’s leave to appeal its decision that he should face corruption charges. The National Prosecuting Authority and Zuma’s lawyers wanted leave to appeal the court’s ruling on April 29 that the decision to discontinue the prosecution against Zuma on 783 corruption charges should be…

MALABO – Equatorial Guinea’s veteran ruler, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, on Wednesday named his son Teodorin Nguema Obiang vice president of the tiny oil-rich nation, in charge of defence and security. Obiang, who seized power in a military coup in 1979 and was re-elected again in April with 93.7% of the vote, promoted the 47-year-old second…

KINSHASA – Embattled DR Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who last month quit the country, was sentenced to three years in jail on Wednesday over a real estate dispute. Katumbi was seen as the leading challenger to President Joseph Kabila in elections due to be held this year, but the sentence effectively makes him ineligible…

LUSAKA – Zambia’s biggest independent newspaper has been shut down by authorities over unpaid taxes, the editor said on Wednesday, calling the move an attempt to silence it ahead of August elections. Police and tax officials physically closed the Post newspaper’s offices in Lusaka late on Tuesday, managing editor Joseph Mwenda told AFP, leaving staff…