HGE NEWS

Traders are facing big losses after Uganda closed its border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo over Ebola contagion fears. Leah Masika was on the verge of tears as she thought of her valuable consignment of plantain stuck in a long convoy of trucks on both sides of the Uganda-Congo border on Thursday. Her cargo, destined for Uganda, was starting to leak water, and would go bad within hours if there was no movement. The Ugandan trader was awaiting clearance from author

Counting is underway in Guinea after Sunday’s legislative and municipal elections. The vote marks a new step towards the return of democratic rule after the 2021 coup that brought President Mamadi Doumbouya to power. Seven million voters were eligible to elect 147 members of parliament. But turnout was reportedly low in the capital Conakry and the central city of Labe. Most candidates were drawn from the presidential camp after the government dissolved the main opposition par

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has confirmed that her team is investigating more than 40 US-funded pathogen laboratories in Ukraine. Here’s what you need to know about the story that was written off as “Kremlin propaganda” in 2022. In a statement to the New York Post on Tuesday, Gabbard said that her department had identified more than 120 biological laboratories in 30 countries that had been funded by the US taxpayer for decades. More than a third of thes

Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus‑stricken cruise ship MV Hondius began flying home on military and government aircraft after the vessel anchored in Tenerife, with one American testing positive and a French traveler developing symptoms during their separate repatriation flights on Sunday. Evacuations under tight biosecurity after ship docks in Tenerife Seventeen Americans were flown out, and U.S. officials confirmed that one tested positive for hantavirus despite showi

A passenger aboard the MV Hondius has made an emotional appeal from the quarantined cruise ship, as it remains anchored off Cape Verde following a deadly suspected hantavirus outbreak. Jake Rosmarin, speaking from onboard, described the fear and uncertainty facing those still confined to the vessel. “What’s happening right now is very real for all of us here. We’re not just a story, we’re not headlines, we are people — people with families, with lives, with people waiting for

Djibouti began counting votes Friday in a presidential election expected to hand a sixth term to 78-year-old Ismail Omar Guelleh, who faces just one little-known opponent in the small but highly strategic Horn of Africa nation. Guelleh has ruled the east African country of about one million people for 27 years with an iron grip, leveraging its key location to turn it into an international military and maritime hub. Its mere 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) host m

One of the principal figures convicted in an infamous 2009 stadium massacre in Guinea died in custody Wednesday in the capital Conakry, the west African country's prison service said. Aboubakar Sidiki Diakité, known as Toumba Diakité, was serving a 10-year sentence for his role in the September 2009 killing of 156 people and the rape of at least 109 women by pro-junta forces under then-dictator Moussa Dadis Camara. He is at least the second person convicted in connection with

A former holding company of United States-sanctioned Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler is paying $30 billion to settle a Dutch corruption investigation over mining deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Netherlands-registered firm, Fleurette, has been under investigation since 2018. Investigations have been looking at whether Fleurette, which served as the holding company for the Gertler group, and commodities group Glencore paid bribes for copper and cobalt mining righ

Although it is an oil producing country, Nigeria is highly vulnerable to price fluctuations linked to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. But in order to avoid shortages, the nation can rely upon billionaire Aliko Dangote’s refinery in Lagos, which is capable of processing some 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day. On Tuesday, the refinery slashed the price of gasoline and diesel in line with the overall price of crude oil. Prices are now 1,075 naira per liter of gasoline and 1,430

A Sydney-based author could face possible jail time after a court ruled her self-published erotic novel amounted to child abuse material. Lauren Ashley Mastrosa, 34, who wrote under the pen name Tori Woods, was found guilty of possessing, producing and disseminating child abuse material over her book Daddy’s Little Toy on Tuesday. The ruling came at Blacktown Local Court after magistrate Bree Chisholm read the entire 210-page novel, The Guardian reported. The book centres on