With close to 100 cases reported, COVID 19 is gaining a foothold on the continent that has thus far been lightest hit by the virus.

Burkina Faso’s Health Minister Claudine Lougue says the two cases of coronavirus in her country come from a woman who recently visited France.

Her husband is also infected. They are quarantines in a Ouagadougou hospital. A person who has been in close contact with her is under observation.

South Africa’s seven cases put its third on the continental list behind Egypt, which has 54 cases and Algeria with 19. Cameroon, Senegal, Togo and Nigeria have also reported cases.

Worldwide COVID 19 cases increased by 3994 yesterday, bringing the total to 109 578.

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The social media giant says the company posed as local news organizations to spread fake news about politicians.

R13-million worth of Facebook and Instagram advertisements were posted by the Israeli Archimedes Group targeting Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Niger and Tunisia.

The group, which has more than three-million followers,  was also active in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

According to Facebook it was seeking to influence the outcome of elections.

The company has not responded to requests for comment on assertions that that it has been involved in fake flag operations of the kind that Facebook has pledged to protect consumers against 

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They’re been asked to bring credentials enabling them to sign bilateral air service agreements.

Intra African travelers all to often have to spend time and money flying north to Europe to make continental connections.

It’s an expensive an time-consuming vestige of colonialism.

The Single African Air Transport Market was launched at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa last January.

Twenty five African countries, including South Africa, have signed up to it.

Since Friday their respective aviation experts have been working at achieving a single market.

The ministers have flown in to give it their seal of approval today.

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The run-off poll scheduled for next Tuesday has been delayed by the Supreme Court while allegations of electoral fraud are investigated.

Attempting to head off the political crisis, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf hosted Guinean President Alpha Conde and Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbe .

Conde is currently serving as Chairman of the African Union, while Gnassingbe chairs the Economic Community of West African States.

They met with George Weah and Joseph Boakai , who are in the run-off contest to succeed Johnson Sirleaf as president.

It turns out that Boakai has also backed the claims of electoral fraud in the October 10 poll where he was beaten by Weah.

The Supreme Court has summoned Liberia’s electoral commission to explain any irregularities

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The full extent of medication trafficking to Africa – which is 20 times more profitable that the narcotics trade – has not been determined.

Since 2012, the World Customs Authority , in conjunction with the Institute of Research against Counterfeit Medicine (IRACM), has intercepted more than 750 million illicit drugs in Africa’s ports.

The most significant seizures were made in Nigeria, Benin, Kenya and Togo, but it is the drugs’ countries of origin that is most startling.

97% of fraudulent pharmaceutical products are shipped from China or India.

Fake medications are ineffective, dangerous or, at worse, lethal.

They include treatments for serious illnesses like cancer.

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The 15-year-old tanker Kalamos was awaiting fresh cargo from an oil terminal in Nigeria’s south eastern region.

The Malta-flagged vessel’s operated by ExxonMobil. Most of the crew are Greek.

Pirates boarded it in the Gulf of Guinea, which has overtaken the Horn of Africa as Africa’s epicentre for buccaneers.

In the first nine months last year the area recorded at least 33 incidents of piracy and armed robbery, according to the International Maritime Bureau .

It said the pirates operating off the coast of Nigeria, Togo and Benin are heavily armed and violent, and often hold crews hostage for several days.

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