Tag Archives: Africa

The Washington Post reports: President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to …

The New York Times reports: Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, resigned as president on Tuesday shortly after lawmakers began impeachment proceedings against him, according to the speaker of Parliament. The speaker of Parliament read out a letter in which Mr. Mugabe said he was stepping down “with immediate effect” for “the welfare of the people …

ABC News reports: The Trump administration plans to allow hunters to import trophies of elephants they killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia back to the United States, reversing a ban put in place by the Obama administration in 2014, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official confirmed to ABC News today. Even though elephants are listed as endangered under the Endangered …

The New York Daily News reports: Two male lions photographed while seemingly having sex has fur flying in Kenya, where a local moral leader and censor blames the same-sex behavior on gays who’ve visited the area. “These animals need counseling, because probably they have been influenced by gays who have gone to the national parks and behaved badly,” Ezekiel Mutua, …

That didn’t take long. The New York Daily News reports: The head of the U.N. health agency has revoked his appointment of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a “goodwill ambassador” after the choice drew widespread criticism. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus last week told a conference in Uruguay on non-communicable diseases that Mugabe had agreed to be a “goodwill …

The Associated Press reports: Shock and condemnation continued Saturday after Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was named a “goodwill ambassador” for the World Health Organization by the agency’s first African leader. The 93-year-old Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state, has long been criticized at home for going overseas for medical treatment as Zimbabwe’s once-prosperous economy falls apart. Mugabe also faces …

The Washington Post reports: As lawmakers debated one of the country’s most important bills, Uganda’s parliament turned into an ultimate fighting ring. Parliamentarians hurled chairs at each other and swung microphone stands like swords. Men were torn from the room by their blazers and women by their dresses. Some people wailed and cried. That fight exposed the bitter rift between …

Reuters reports: Makers of generic AIDS drugs will start churning out millions of pills for Africa containing a state-of-the-art medicine widely used in rich countries, after securing a multi-million dollar guarantee that caps prices at just $75 per patient a year. Global health experts hope the deal will help address two looming problems in the HIV epidemic – the rising …

The Week reports: President Trump announced that the nonexistent country of “Nambia” has an increasingly self-sufficient health-care system during a United Nations lunch with African leaders on Wednesday. So far, Trump appears to have failed to impress African leaders — a photo of the Zimbabwean delegation listening to Trump’s U.N. speech on Tuesday went viral and President Robert Mugabe appeared …

Agence France-Presse reports: Tanzania has threatened to arrest and deport those campaigning for gay rights and de-register organisations protecting homosexual interests, local media reported Monday. “I would like to remind and warn all organisations and institutions that campaign and pretend to protect homosexual interests … we are going to arrest whoever is involved and charge them in courts of law,” …

The New York Times reports: At least one million people will die in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, researchers and advocates said on Tuesday, if funding cuts proposed by the Trump administration to global public health programs are enacted. The United States currently spends more than $6 billion annually on programs that buy antiretroviral drugs for about 11.5 million people worldwide …

The BBC reports: Prosecutors in the northern Nigeria state of Kaduna have charged a group of 53 people with conspiring to celebrate a gay wedding. The accused, arrested last Saturday, have denied the allegations, with their lawyers saying they were illegally detained. The court released the group on bail and the case was remanded to 8 May. Homosexual acts are …

Last month the Trump administration proposed slashing the annual budget of the National Institutes for Health by $1.3 billion, $300M of which is earmarked for PEPFAR, former President George W. Bush’s universally praised program to battle HIV/AIDS in Africa. Today Bush writes an eloquent op-ed for the Washington Post which urges the Trump team to spare PEPFAR from the chopping …

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed cutting $1.23 billion this fiscal year from research funded by the National Institutes of Health, according to a White House document sent to congressional appropriators. The reduction is part of $18 billion in cuts that the administration wants in fiscal 2017, which ends in October. Most of the proposed reductions at NIH …

Deutsche Welle reports: Tanzania announced plans on Saturday to publish a list of gay people allegedly selling sex online. This comes just days after the government shut down dozens of AIDS clinics accused of promoting homosexuality. Deputy health minister, Hamisi Kigwangalla [photo], wrote on Twitter that his government was investigating “the homosexuality syndicate” and would arrest and prosecute those involved …

Erasing 76 Crimes reports: The parliament in the north-central African country of Chad has adopted a new penal code that makes homosexual activity a crime. By this blog’s count, that action, assuming that it is not blocked by the country’s president, increases to 77 the number of countries with anti-homosexuality laws. Chad’s new law provides for violators to be fined …

Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, who has vowed to “slit the throats” of any homosexual who refuses to leave his country, has decided not recognize the election which cost him his presidency. The BBC reports: Gambian President Yahya Jammeh must hand over power after defeat in elections, the UN Security Council has said. President Jammeh initially conceded to Adama Barrow in …

Via Gay Star News: A homophobic preacher in Ghana claims to be able to increase the size of a man’s penis using a ‘massage ritual’. Bishop Daniel Obinim says he uses the ‘power of God’ for his enlargement service that is part of his hands-on work. In a video broadcast on Obinim TV, the bishop and founder of the International …

The BBC reports: Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia’s authoritarian president of 22 years, has suffered a surprise defeat in the country’s presidential elections. He will be replaced by property developer Adama Barrow, who won more than 45% of the vote. After his win, Mr Barrow hailed a “new Gambia”. Mr Jammeh, who came to power in a coup in 1994, has …

The Guardian reports: African states have failed to halt the work of the first UN independent investigator appointed to help protect gay and transgender people worldwide from violence and discrimination. The 47-member UN Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, created the position in June and in September appointed Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand, who has a three-year mandate to investigate abuses …