Africa Briefs

Sudan's PM survives assassination attempt

Sudanese prime minister Abdalla Hamdok survived an assassination attempt targeting his convoy as he headed to work yesterday morning in the capital Khartoum, officials said.

Hamdok said he was in "good shape" and that what had happened would be "an additional push to the wheel of change in Sudan", where he heads a transitional government following the overthrow last year of long-time president Omar al-Bashir.

Hamdok's government is struggling to manage a severe economic crisis that triggered months of protests against Bashir and continued after his downfall in April.

Three witnesses told Reuters the attack happened near the northern entrance to the Kober bridge, which crosses the Blue Nile from Khartoum North to the city centre, where Hamdok's office is located.

The convoy appeared to have been targeted from above, they said. State radio said it had been hit by gunfire and a projectile, while state television said it had been targeted by a car bomb. – Nampa/Reuters

DRC allegedly signing new logging contracts

Greenpeace has accused the Democratic Republic of Congo's government of signing huge new logging contracts in the country's vast rainforest, a central part of Earth's natural defence against global warming.

The green activist group alleged environment minister Claude Nyamugabo signed at least nine contracts in January covering nearly two million hectares.

The concession contracts were awarded to two Chinese firms, according to Greenpeace, which added that the move came just weeks after DR Congo was given US$12 million in international aid as part of the Programme for the Sustainable Management of Forests.

Officially, the Congolese government has only handed out logging concessions for a little over 110 000 square kilometres of that land.

There is a moratorium on new logging concessions under the central African country's 2002 forestry code.

"No new concessions have been awarded," Nyamugabo told AFP on the sidelines of a forest policy meeting in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday. He said that instead the name of one of the firms awarded an existing contract had changed. – Nampa/AFP

Burkina Faso civil servants protest bonus tax

Thousands of Burkina Faso civil servants took to the streets of Ouagadougou on Saturday to protest against a new tax on bonus payments.

Between 10 000 and 20 000 took part in the demonstrations, some singing the national anthem and chanting "bread and freedom for the people", an AFP reporter saw.

The government in February extended an exceptional tax on civil servants bonuses. According to authorities it was needed to bring civil servants into line with private sector workers.

Of the country's 200 000 civil servants, 190 000 saw their salary in February decrease by 1 000-5 0000 West African CFA francs (US$1.7-US$8.5).

Unions are planning a general strike from March 16-20 with a march to be held on March 17. – Nampa/AFP

Liberia suspends fuel importers' licences

Liberian authorities suspended the licences of fuel importers on Friday to conduct performance reviews after some of the companies drew too much from reserves in state-run facilities, leading to gasoline shortages.

Officials say importers who store their fuel in communal tanks had taken more than their quotas, leaving the government with the sudden realisation in January it only had a quarter of the 4.4 million gallons of gasoline it thought it had.

For four weeks, long queues at pumps brought much of the country to a standstill, raising prices for transport and basic goods and stoking anger against authorities given a backdrop of economic stagnation and high inflation.

The shortages have since been resolved, and the government says there is enough fuel to last several months. But president George Weah's office said in a statement he was suspending importers' licences so authorities could verify they are fit to operate. – Nampa/Reuters