You are watching Africa 54, your daily news and feature magazine-style program, from the Voice of America. Guest host Vincent Makori and a team of correspondents zero in on the big stories making news on the continent and around the world with context and analysis.

Top Stories:

Vote counting is underway in Ghana following its national election that ended Monday evening. The poll represents a tight battle between President Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party and his rival John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress Party. Key issues among voters include education, health, infrastructure and the economy that has suffered its first quarterly decline in nearly 40 years.

The chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana says her organization plans to declare the outcome of the general elections 24 hours after the polls close. Attorney Jean Adukwei Mensa also says the electoral body has implemented new strategic mechanisms to ensure transparency in the entire voting process. But critics say the commission could be making a costly error by rushing to announce the winner of the presidential vote 24 hours after polls close. We have more on the vote in part-two of VOA's Peter Clottey's interview with Jean Adukwei Mensa.

A United Nations security team seeking to visit a camp for Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region was denied access and shot at on Monday, according two diplomatic sources. The incident occurred when the team tried to visit Shimelba, one of four settlements for Eritreans in the northern Tigray region, the sources told Reuters. They declined to give more details, saying the full circumstances were unclear. Neither Ethiopia’s government nor the Tigray People's Liberation Front, who have been at war since November 4th, immediately responded to requests for comment.

Information from Tigray is hard to verify because communications have been largely down, and access has been tightly controlled. There was no immediate comment from U.N. officials. Meanwhile, in a statement read by his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, the un secretary-general Antonio Guterres expressed concern Monday about the current situation in Tigray.
The United States on Monday placed Nigeria on a religious freedom blacklist, paving the way for potential sanctions if it does not improve its record. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the U.S. ally — for the first time — as a "country of particular concern" for religious freedom, alongside nations that include China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Pompeo did not elaborate on the reasons for including Nigeria, which has a delicate balance between Muslims and Christians. But U.S. law requires such designations for nations that either engage in or tolerate "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom." Other nations on the blacklist are Eritrea, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s order for most U.S. troops to leave Somalia comes as the country prepares to hold a parliamentary election this month and the presidential election in February of next year. Speaking via skype from Mogadishu, the former deputy director of Somalia’s intelligence agency Abdisalam Yusuf Guled says the timing is unfortunate.
Guled says the U.S. decision is good news for al-Shabaab, which he worries will launch fresh attacks against African Union and Somali government targets.

A political crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo deepened Monday as lawmakers trashed parliament after President Felix Tshisekedi moved to scrap the shaky ruling coalition. Tshisekedi's government is in tatters, with members of parliament loyal to his powerful predecessor Joseph Kabila, who command more than 300 seats in the 500-member parliament, increasingly at odds with supporters of the president. On Sunday, Tshisekedi said he planned to form a new coalition and warned he might be forced to dissolve parliament and hold fresh elections in a country wracked for decades by conflict and corruption.

Mekelle #Ghana #Elections #NewPatrioticParty #NPP #NanaAkufoAddo #JohnMahama #NationalDemocraticCongress #NDC #ElectoralCommissionofGhana #JeanAdukweiMensa #Ethiopia #Tigray #Mekelle #Eritrea #Shimelba #UnitedNations #UnitedStates #Nigeria #religiousfreedom #MikePompeo #Muslim #Christian #Somalia #DonaldTrump #Troops #DRC #FelixTshisekedi #JosephKabila #Pfizer #Biontech

свернуть