africanstudies19

Sudanese Police headquarters have ordered their officers to not get involved with the thousands of protests that have been going on in front of the army headquarters. The protesters are demanding the resignation of the President Omar al-Bashir. The United States and the UK have called on the Sudan to try and make it a easy transition to a peaceful government. There gave been many attempts by the police to stop the protests but this has meant that the protesters have been attacked. The soldiers have been protecting the protesters. Two soldiers have been reported dead since the beginning of the protests. The article reads "The country's interior minister said on Monday that seven protesters had been killed and 15 injured, while 42 members of the security forces had been injured. He added that almost 2,500 people had been arrested".  The soldiers have been providing refuge for the protesters inside their compound. I think it is a nice gesture from the soldiers to the protest

Algeria's president Abdelaziz Bouteflika decided to resign after 20 years of being in presidency. He finally decided that he wanted to resign because of the many protests that broke out and also the Army chief demanded he be removed no matter the costs. The announcement that he was quitting left the citizens so happy that they took to the streets to celebrate (as shown in the picture). The reason that the riots started were because the president announced that he was going for a 5th term. The president has not been seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013. He is said to quit by April 28 even though many people want him out of office yesterday. The people are waiting for when they cab actually have a free election but the article mentions that the president Bouteflika had crushed all his oppositions or got rid of them so there really isnt much competition. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/algeria-bouteflika-resigns-state-agency-190402184950678.html

It is said that a couple of men were "playing football" behind one of the Ebola clinics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and then all of a sudden other men came out of the bushes and gave guns to these men. They ran into the clinics throwing petroleum all over the clinic and then proceeded to throw matched into the petroleum setting the whole clinic on fire. When nurses came back they said that the pharmacy and hand washing station was completely gone. The clinic was in Butembo in the Northern Province of Kivu. The article said that this province is no stranger to militia groups that go around terrorizing people and raping their women. It is said that is is home to over 120 militia groups. This province is now also the province of the second largest Ebola outbreak. It was discovered 7 months ago and since then 1,000 people have been diagnosed with Ebola and 600 have died. It is hard for emergency medical services to get to people since the provinces or villages

Zambia decided to ban an energy drink because it has been found to have been adulterated with viagra. This was discovered by the local officials in Zambia. The country's medicine regulator found in December that the energy drink Power Natural High Energy Drink SX was spiked with Viagra. This drink is also exported to Uganda, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. The company that makes the energy drinks cannot be reached ever since Zambia made the announcement that they were going to ban the drink. In Uganda it is also banned since December 28 when a customer complained of heavy sweats and a 6 hour long erection. Zambia has not suspended the production of the energy drink until there can be a way to make it with viagra in it. Malawi has banned the drink since January. It is said that this drink has been very popular with men at bars and at supermarkets. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/20/zambia-bans-energy-drink-found-to-contain-viagra

In the capital of Nigeria, Lagos, a school building collapsed trapping hundreds of children as well as teachers and other staff members under them. The building was 3 stories high with the 3rd story housing a private school. The building collapsed around 10AM this morning, so about an hour ago from the time that I am writing this. It is said that Nigeria always has a lot of buildings that collapse due to the weak infrastructure and the poor way that they are built. Last year 30 people were killed when a church collapsed as well. There is still no estimated injury count but people and authorities are working as fast as they can to help save as many lives as they can. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/13/nigeria-children-feared-trapped-after-building-collapses P.S. On another note BBC reported that this incident left 10 dead.

The President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maado Bio,  has officially declared rape a national emergency. In his doing so he has also announced free hospital care to sexual assault victims, he created a special police and court divisions to deal with the cases that come in, he also established a hotline where victims can call. In this quote from the article it explains the situation, "Sierra Leone's sexual violence statistics are harrowing. According to the country's police service, there were more than 8,500 reported case of sexual- and gender-based violence in 2018 — and a third of these involved a minor. But many activists, and the country's first lady, say the number of actual cases is likely much higher, as many instances go unreported". Most of the victims are under the age of 15. The President then declared that any act of sexual assault is punishable by life imprisonment. Of the 2,900 sexual assault cases that were reported only 1.3% were successfully pros