🇺🇸🇲🇷 US to restore Mauritania’s Agoa trade benefits

The US says it will reinstate Mauritania’s benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) programme following an eligibility review.

The reinstatement will be done in January next year after the northwest African country made "substantial and measurable progress on worker rights and eliminating forced labour", the US Trade office says.

The trade benefits were suspended in 2019 following concerns over workers' rights violations in Mauritania.

#USA #Mauritania

@africaintel

🇺🇬 Uganda army says it killed rebels that murdered honeymooning tourists

Uganda's military said on Wednesday it had killed a number of fighters from an Islamic State-linked group who shot dead a honeymooning couple and their guide in a national park last month.

Gunmen from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group ambushed David and Celia Barlow and their Ugandan guide Eric Ayai in Queen Elizabeth National Park near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo on October 17.

"ADF terrorists whom we have been tracking down since the attack on tourists were finally got and a number of them were killed last night on Lake Edward," Ugandan military deputy spokesman said.

"The operation is still on to finish all the splinter groups of ADF," he added.

#Uganda

@africaintel

🇸🇳 Senegal opposition leader will not be able to re-register on the electoral rolls

A department of the Senegalese interior ministry on Tuesday refused to accept the electoral commission's request to reinstate opposition politician Ousmane Sonko on the electoral roll for 2024 elections.

In a response to a letter from the Autonomous National Electoral Commission (Cena), the Directorate General of Elections said that it "has no jurisdiction to take any action on the electoral roll".

The DGE does not specify who has this authority.

In its letter to the DGE, the Cena had written that Sonko should "enjoy his status as a voter registered on the electoral roll with all the rights (that are) attached".

#Senegal

@africaintel

🇰🇵 North Korea closes multiple embassies around the world

North Korea is poised to close as many as a dozen embassies including in Spain, Hong Kong, and multiple countries in Africa in a move that could see nearly 25% of Pyongyang's missions close worldwide.

North Korea's recent closing of its diplomatic missions was a sign that the country is struggling to make money overseas because of international sanctions, South Korea's unification ministry said.

North Korean state media outlet KCNA said the country's ambassadors paid "farewell" visits to Angolan and Ugandan leaders last week, and local media in both African countries reported the shutdown of the North's embassies there.

#NorthKorea

@asianomics

🇳🇬 Suspected Boko Haram kills at least 40 in Nigeria's Yobe state

At least 40 people were killed in Nigeria's Yobe state between Monday and Tuesday after suspected Boko Haram militants shot at villagers and set off a land mine, in the first major attack on the northern eastern state in 18 months, the police said on Wednesday.

The attack happened at about 8:30 p.m. on Monday, at Gurokayeya village, Gaidam local government in Yobe State, the state's police spokesperson Abdulkarim Dungus said.

He said gunmen opened fire on villagers, killing at least 17 people and that on Tuesday a land mine exploded, killing at least 20 villagers who were returning from burying victims of the previous attack.

#Nigeria

@africaintel

🇺🇸🇺🇬 Uganda denounces U.S. plan to exclude it from duty-free trade programme

Uganda on Wednesday criticised a U.S. move to eject it and other African countries from accessing a tariff-free trade programme, saying the action was to punish African countries that are resisting the imposition of the West's cultural values.

Odrek Rwabwogo, special presidential adviser to President Yoweri Museveni, said that with the trade move the U.S. was telling Ugandans that "their already slim prospects for economic prosperity are contingent on whether they vote in line with the values of whoever happens to hold high office in the U.S., not their own".

Ugandan government officials have linked the move to attempts by the United States to press Uganda to quash an anti-homosexuality law that was passed by parliament in May.

#USA #Uganda

@africaintel

🇬🇲 Gambian soldier jailed for failed coup against President Barrow

A junior navy officer named by The Gambia's government as the mastermind of a foiled coup plot in December last year has been found guilty of treason and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

A high court on Tuesday ruled that Lance Corporal Sanna Fadera planned and attempted to unlawfully overthrow the democratically elected government of President Adama Barrow.

The authorities had charged Fadera and seven other soldiers with treason, conspiracy and inciting mutiny for their alleged role in the 2022 coup attempt.

The court acquitted three other military officers on Tuesday.

Another soldier has been on the run since the foiled coup attempt and is considered a fugitive.

The court also acquitted a police officer and two civilians who had been charged with concealing treason and conspiring to commit felony.

#Gambia

@africaintel

🇰🇪 Kenyan outrage over new tax on travellers

Kenyans are protesting about a directive by the revenue authorities seeking to tax personal or household items worth $500 and above from visiting tourists and citizens returning to the country.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) says all goods whether new or used over that amount are subject to taxation.

The directive has sparked a public outcry, with many Kenyans saying that the move would scare away tourists.

A section of MPs said some KRA officials had been taking advantage of the directive to harass tourists, giving the country bad publicity.

Tourism Minister Alfred Mutua described the KRA move as one of the reasons the number of tourists visiting the country had been declining.

#Kenya

@africaintel

🇺🇬🇰🇪 Uganda moves to end oil import deal with Kenya

Uganda's cabinet has approved a bill allowing the state-owned oil company Uganda National Oil Company (Unoc) to source and supply oil to the domestic market.

If approved by parliament, the bill will end the current arrangement of importing oil through Kenyan distributors.

Energy minister said that the change aims to "improve the security of supply of petroleum products to the country".

She criticised the existing arrangement with Kenya, saying that "it exposed Uganda to occasional supply vulnerabilities where Ugandan oil marketing companies were considered secondary whenever there were supply disruptions", subsequently raising oil prices in Uganda.

Currently, Uganda imports more than 90% of its fuel through Kenya.

The energy minister also announced that Uganda has reached a deal with Bahrain energy company Vitol Bahrain EC, under which it will finance the Uganda National Oil Company's move to source and supply oil.

#Uganda #Kenya

@africaintel