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Hundreds of African migrants launched a hunger strike to protest Israel’s implementation of its controversial policy to expel or indefinitely imprison them, a spokesman for the group said Wednesday. Israel has resolved to expel thousands of Eritreans and Sudanese who entered illegally over the years, giving them an ultimatum to leave or risk being imprisoned indefinitely. As the migrants could face danger or imprisonment if returned to their homelands, Israel is offering to relocate them to an unnamed third country, which the migrants and aid workers say is Rwanda or Uganda. Authorities on Tuesday transferred seven Africans from the Holot detention centre to a nearby prison, prompting the 750 men held in Holot to launch a hunger strike that evening, said Abdat Ishmael, an Eritrean held at the southern Israel open facility. On Wednesday, another five were taken to prison, Ishmael told AFP. A spokeswoman for the Israeli interior ministry confirmed they had begun implementi...

Venezuela protesters marched through Caracas and cities across the country on Saturday, as the government’s ban of Venezuela’s top opposition leader from office breathed life into the disparate opposition and fueled the first sustained anti-government demonstrations since 2014. Thousands of people, some carrying signs reading “No to dictatorship!” and “Capriles for President,” took part in marches against the unpopular leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro. Saturday’s protests continued a week of unrest sparked by last week’s Supreme Court decision in which it assumed the role of the opposition-led congress. The action was quickly overturned, but the global outcry it sparked galvanized the opposition. As during recent demonstrations, authorities on Saturday closed a dozen subway stations across Caracas and set up check points on highways leading to the capital. “The government is afraid. it would not close the streets. … It would not disqualify Capriles,” said 27-y...

Ivory Coast Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan resigned and dissolved the government on Monday, a move that had been expected following elections last month but which was delayed two days by an army mutiny. Duncan had been expected to stand down on Saturday, but held off after dissident soldiers took over army bases in cities across the West African country on Friday demanding bonus payments. It took 48 hours to reach the deal to quell the revolt in an army that is made up of government troops and former rebels and riven with divisions. “I have tendered my resignation and that of the government,” he said after a meeting with President Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara kept hold of his majority in the Dec. 18 parliamentary polls. But legislative elections are usually followed by a change of government as a matter of procedure. The resignations pave the way for the implementation of measures contained in a new constitution. Ivory Coast is French-speaking West Africa’s largest ...

Nigeria’s President, Muhammed Buhari is hosting this years’ West African Leaders Meeting in Abuja, the nation’s capital. The ECOWAS meeting has in attendance, the President of Liberia, Madam Ellen Sheleaf Johnson; Ghana’s John Mahama and the President of Senegal, Macky Sall. The leaders would be discussing the Gambian presidential election outcome, where President Yahya Jammeh is refusing to step aside after losing an election. President Buhari is the chairman of the mediation team to Gambia. A spokesman for the Nigerian presidency, Mr Garba Shehu, said on Friday that President Buhari, as “the chief mediator of the crisis” is committed to “ensuring that the logjam is resolved”. A major decision on the impasse was expected to be taken at a meeting held in Ghana on Saturday on the sidelines of the inauguration of President Nana Akufo-Addo. Jammeh initially accepted his loss in the December 1 election, shocking Gambians who have lived through his rule since he took pow...

West African leaders will take a “major decision” on the political impasse in Gambia at a meeting in Ghana on Saturday, a spokesman for the Nigerian presidency said on Friday. The West African ECOWAS bloc said last month it would take all necessary steps to uphold the result of a December 1 election in Gambia, where veteran President Yahya Jammeh says he will not step down after losing to Adama Barrow. Reuters reports that ECOWAS has placed standby forces on alert in case Jammeh attempts to stay in power after his mandate ends on January 19. Jammeh has called the bloc’s stance “a declaration of war”, and said he will defend himself. “A major decision on the impasse is expected to be taken at that all-important meeting,” said Garba Shehu, spokesman for Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari. “President Buhari is the chief mediator of the crisis and he is committed to ensuring that the logjam is resolved,” he stated. Jammeh initially accepted his loss in the December 1 elec...

Ghana’s new President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has pledged to cut taxes to boost the economy. Mr Akufo-Addo made the promise at his swearing in ceremony on Saturday. He also pledged to protect the public purse by getting value for money on services. The 72-year-old, who contested under the platform of the New Patriotic Party, was elected president on his third attempt to reach the post. He defeated incumbent John Dramani Mahama in peaceful elections a month ago, a rare peaceful transfer of power in a region plagued by political crises. The major cocoa and gold exporter is half-way through a three-year aid programme with the International Monetary Fund to fix an economy dogged by high public debt and inflation. It is not clear how the new president will be able to cut taxes and still stick to an IMF austerity plan that was a condition of a $918 million bailout, Reuters reports. “We will reduce taxes to recover the momentum of our economy,” said Akufo-Addo, wrapped in a tradit...

A car bomb wounded at least four U.N. guards when it exploded near a United Nations compound in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Wednesday, police said. Al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack. “We can confirm that four guards working for the United Nations were injured,” Major Nur Osman, a police officer at the scene, told Reuters. The bomb was planted in a car parked in a garage outside facilities belonging to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Osman said. “We are behind the blast that injured at least three U.N. guards this morning,” al Shabaab’s spokesperson on military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said. The militants often carry out such attacks in the capital in their fight to topple the Western-backed government and impose an strict interpretation of Islam on Somali territory.

Ministers across West Africa are scheduled to provide perspectives to critical energy, finance and infrastructure issues at the Regional Energy Cooperation Summit 2017, holding in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, later in January.     In continuation of the Africa energy forum held in London in May 2016, West Africa’s head of utilities, regulators and industry operators from Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia and Mali, will showcase investment opportunities and project pipelines in the coming event. The Abidjan summit will afford all parties in the public and private sector, the opportunity to explore ownership for network assets, and hear directly from governments on the scale of the opportunities within the region’s integration strategy. Although energy cooperation in West Africa is in progress, not so much has been achieved with the West Africa power poll, with its headquarters in Ghana.