East Africa

An official with the international charity Samaritan's purse said that a plane carrying food aid to South Sudan's Unity State crashed on Tuesday and killed all three crew members. Bikram Rai said that the aircraft operated by Nari air was delivering 2 tonnes of supplies to flood-displaced people in Juba, according to Bikram. Rai confirmed that the three crew members had died. Around 8 am (0600 GMT), the aircraft crashed about 20 km (12 mi) from Leer Airstrip, in the oil-rich Unity State county of Leer near the Sudan border. Nari Air didn't respond to my phone call for comment....

Air India and Akasa Air, two Indian airlines, announced on Tuesday that they would cancel some flights due to ash clouds from an Ethiopian volcanic eruption. Air India announced that it had cancelled 11 flights between Monday and Tuesday in order to conduct precautionary checks on aircraft which had flown above certain locations following the eruption. This was done as a result of a directive from India's aviation regulator. Akasa, a smaller competitor, said that it has cancelled scheduled flights to Middle East destinations like Jeddah and Kuwait as well as Abu Dhabi, scheduled for the two days. India Meteorological...

Air India and Akasa Air, two Indian airlines, announced on Tuesday that they would cancel some flights due to ash clouds from an eruption of a volcano in Ethiopia. Air India announced that it had cancelled 11 flights between Monday and Tuesday in order to conduct precautionary checks on aircraft which had flown above certain locations following the eruption. This was done as a result of a directive from India's aviation regulator. Akasa, a smaller competitor, said that it has cancelled scheduled flights to Middle East destinations like Jeddah and Kuwait as well as Abu Dhabi, scheduled for the two...

A federal court jury in Chicago on Wednesday ordered Boeing to pay over $28 million to a family of a United Nations environment worker who died in the crash of a 737 MAX in Ethiopia in 2019. The verdict given to the Garg family is the first of dozens of lawsuits that were filed following the crash in India and the one in Indonesia in 2018 which killed 346 people. According to the attorneys representing the family, a deal was reached between the parties on Wednesday morning. Garg's parents will receive 35.85 million dollars - the total verdict plus 26%...

Attorneys representing the families said Wednesday that Boeing had reached settlements with respect to three lawsuits filed by families of those killed in the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash in March 2019. The U.S. District Court of Chicago had already selected a jury for one case. Terms of settlements have not been released. Boeing did not respond immediately to a comment request. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed five months after Lion Air Flight 609 Another 737 MAX crashed into the Java Sea. An Automated flight control system Both crashes resulted in the deaths of 346 individuals. According to an...

Air France-KLM said that its French division had suspended flights from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to Madagascar's capital Antananarivo between October 11 and October 13 inclusive, "due the security situation on the ground", the airline stated in an email statement sent on Sunday. Air France stated that the company was monitoring the situation with the authorities in real-time, and "the return of operations would be subject to daily assessments of the situation." Air France said that affected customers would be notified, and offered refund or rebooking options. The Madagascar presidency announced on Sunday, without giving any details, that there was...

Kenya Airways reported a loss before tax in the first six months of the year, compared to a profit for the same period last year, due to a decline in revenue and passengers, with some planes being out of service for maintenance. Kenya Airways, one of Africa's top three airlines, posted a loss in the first six months of the year of 12,17 billion shillings (94.34 millions dollars), compared to a profit of 634 million in the same time period last year. Pretax profit was the airline's first in more than a decade. The operating loss for the first half...

Ethiopian Airlines revenue rose by 8% during the financial year 2024/25, thanks to an increase in passengers and new routes, although there were challenges on certain routes due conflicts, said Chief Executive Mesfin Tassew Bekele on Tuesday. Mesfin, a spokesperson for the state-owned carrier and Africa's largest airline, said that passenger numbers increased by 11%, to 19 millions, in the year ended July 7. Revenue increased 8% compared to a year ago, reaching $7.6 billion. However, growth has slowed down from the 15% in 2023/24. Mesfin cited conflicts in Sudan and the Middle East, as well as the Democratic Republic...

Ibrahima Tall, the chief executive of Namib Minerals, said on Tuesday that it plans to invest $300 million in order to restart two of its gold mines which were mothballed in Zimbabwe. Namib Minerals is the owner of three gold mines, including How Mine, currently in operation. Tall said that the funds will be used to restart production at the Mazowe and Redwing mining operations, which were halted due to economic conditions in 2018 and 2019. Namib Minerals debuted in the Nasdaq market on June 1. It was formed by merging assets owned by Metallon Corporation with Red Rock Acquisition...

Boeing has reached a settlement agreement with a Canadian whose family was killed in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX on March 2019, the lawyer for the man said. Terms of the settlement reached with Paul Njoroge, a Toronto resident, were not disclosed. The crash killed the 41-year-old's wife Carolyne, and his three children, Ryan, Kellie, and Rubi, as well as Carolyne. The crash also killed his mother-in law, who was travelling with them. The trial, scheduled to begin on Monday at the U.S. District Court of Chicago, would have been the U.S. aircraft manufacturer's first in...

On Monday, a group of countries, including France, Kenya and Spain, pledged to tax private jets and premium-class flights in order to raise money for climate action. Despite the fact that many wealthy nations are reducing their official development assistance to developing countries and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, others have looked for new funding sources, such as taxing polluting industry. The announcement made on the first day of the U.N. Development Summit in Seville, Spain was the first from the "Sevilla Platform for Action", which aims to implement the new global financing framework that had been agreed...

On Monday, a group of countries, including France, Kenya and Spain, pledged to tax private jets and premium-class flights in an effort to raise money for climate action. Many richer countries are reducing their official development assistance to developing nations, even though extreme weather events are increasing in frequency. Some of these nations have looked for new sources of funding, such as taxing polluting industry. The "Sevilla Platform for Action", which aims to implement the global financing framework that was agreed upon before the event, made the announcement on the first day of the U.N. Development Summit in Seville, Spain....

A senior official revealed on Wednesday that Uganda was in discussions with credit export agencies and development finance institutions to have 85% a planned rail project funded with debt. This is due to concerns about the already high public debt. In October of last year, Turkey's Yapi Merkezi was awarded the contract for the construction of the 2.7 billion euro ($3.15 billion) rail. Preliminary works have already begun. Perez Wamburu said that some of the potential financiers are the OPEC Fund for International Development (FIDA), the Africa Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, and some European export credit companies. Wamburu...

A U.S. Diplomat said that despite the aggressive spending cuts of President Donald Trump, the United States is committed to funding the Lobito Rail Corridor, which will help transport vital minerals from central Africa's copperbelt into the West. The U.S., through the International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), set up in Trump's first year in office, has pledged $550 million in loan support for Lobito. Lobito is seen as a key component in countering Chinese control of copper and cobalt in the region. Trump's cuts in spending had caused concern for projects like Lobito, which plans to go to Angola and...

South32 has withdrawn its output forecast for its Mozal Aluminium smelter in Mozambique amid postelection civil unrest, the Australian company said on Tuesday. October's challenged election outcomes triggered protests from opposition supporters and there has been intensifying violence considering that. South32, which has a 63.7% stake in the Mozal Aluminium smelter, stated the discontent had actually caused road clogs that have hampered the delivery of raw materials to the plant. It had actually formerly estimated output of 360 kilotonnes from the smelter this. The job contributed about 28%. of South32's overall aluminium output in financial 2024. South African mining business...

Uganda's government and Turkish building and construction company Yapi Merkezi signed a contract to build a 272 kilometre (169 miles) section of railway, in a bid to improve regional trade, a Ugandan authorities stated on Monday. Uganda's Requirement Gauge Railway project planner, Perez Wamburu, stated the arrangement was for the first area of a. prepared 1,700 km electrical railway. The job will increase trade and minimize transport expenses,. Uganda's works ministry permanent secretary, Bageya Waiswa, stated. at the signing event. He stated Uganda will use its own funds and credit from export. credit organisations to fund the task, which will...

Zimbabwe's stateowned railway operator has actually opened its network as much as private gamers, including an unit of South Africa's Grindrod, as it looks for to enhance freight volumes that had actually collapsed after decades of underinvestment, an authorities stated. National Railways of Zimbabwe hauled 12 million lots of cargo yearly at its 1990s peak, now handles less than 3 million loads owing to a lack of engines and bad upkeep of its rail infrastructure. The collapse also followed a sharp decrease in agricultural and mineral output, activated by the violent seizure of white-owned farms promoted by Zimbabwe's former leader...

China, Tanzania and Zambia signed an initial contract on a train job aimed at improving the railsea intermodal transport network in East Africa, Chinese state media said on Wednesday, President Xi Jinping experienced the finalizing of the memorandum of understanding on a Tanzania-Zambia railway project with the Tanzanian and Zambian presidents, who were in Beijing participating in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, said broadcaster CCTV. China is willing to take this summit as a chance to make brand-new progress in the activation of the Tanzania-Zambia railway, work together to improve the rail-sea intermodal transport network in East Africa, and develop...