Africa (except North Africa)

CAPE TOWN, June 2 (Reuters) - Senior officials from over a dozen countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran were in talks on closer links with the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies on Friday as it met to deepen ties and position itself as a counterweight to the West.

BRICS, which now consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is considering expanding its membership, and a growing number of countries, mostly from the global South, have expressed interest in joining.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Clashes between police and supporters of Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko left nine people dead, the government said Friday, with authorities issuing a blanket ban on the use of several social media platforms in the aftermath of the violence.

The deaths occurred mainly in the capital, Dakar, and Ziguinchor in the south, where Sonko is mayor, Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome said in a statement.

CAPE TOWN, June 1 (Reuters) - BRICS foreign ministers on Thursday asserted their bloc's ambition to rival Western powers but their talks in South Africa were overshadowed by questions over whether Russia's president would be arrested if he attended a summit in August.

South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said her country was mulling options if Vladimir Putin, the subject of a war crimes arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), came to the planned BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

MAPUTO /Mozambique/, May 31. /TASS/: US Ambassador to Pretoria Reuben Brigety, who alleged that South Africa had provided Russia with weapons, should mind his own business, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference on Wednesday.

BUJUMBURA /Burundi/, May 30. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday arrived in the Burundian city of Bujumbura, according to a TASS reporter.

The minister is scheduled to hold talks with the African country’s leadership. Burundi is the second country after Kenya that Lavrov is visiting on his latest African tour.

29 May 2023; MEMO: The ruling Insaf party in Mauritania secured a comfortable majority in the next parliament, winning more than 100 seats, according to the partial results of the second round of the legislative elections, which were held on Saturday.

Insaf won more than 23 seats in the second round in addition to the 80 seats it had already won in the first round.

With at least 103 seats in the next parliament, the party has secured a comfortable and unprecedented parliamentary majority.

NAIROBI, /KENYA/, MAY 29. /TASS/: The process of using national currencies in mutual settlements between Russia and its partner countries will only gain momentum, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Monday.

NAIROBI, May 27 (NNN-KBC) — Saudi Arabia has expressed its commitment to enhance cooperation with Kenya in the health sector.

Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Kenya Khalid bin Abdullah Al- Salman said his country will continue to expand further bilateral relationship engagement in the health sector for the benefit of the two nations.

He was speaking at Kenyatta National Hospital during an impromptu tour of the cardiology clinic where specialist doctors from Saudi Arabia and KNH successfully operated on 25 patients with heart complications.

MOGADISHU, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has condemned Friday's terrorist attack by al-Shabab terrorists against a military base manned by the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) in southern Somalia.

The EU said the latest attack against soldiers conducting peace support operations in Somalia only reinforces its commitment to stand with the region and to hold to account those responsible for these continuously heinous assaults against Somali citizens and those seeking to stabilize the situation in the country.

KAMPALA, May 25 (NNN-GNA) — The Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union (UNMU) President Justus Cherop said engagements are underway to send some of the 3,000 well-skilled nurses who are not employed by the government to work abroad.

His remarks came following ongoing plans by some labour companies in the country to send nurses to work in the United Kingdom and the Middle East.

“We have about 5,000 nurses graduating from institutions and universities every year. The government can absorb around 2,000 every financial year,” Cherop said.