The upcoming annual sessions of China’s national legislature and political advisory body provide a prime opportunity for observers to gain a unique vantage point to witness the country’s democracy in action. From group deliberations to discussions with lawmakers and political advisors, President Xi Jinping will be active in China’s democratic policy formulation and decision-making. Xi, acting in his capacity as one of the nearly 3,000 deputies elected to the National People’s Congress (NPC), will join his fellow deputies to review…

“It is not uncommon for a country to create a railway, but it is uncommon for a railway to create a country,” Sir Charles Eliot, then commissioner of British East Africa, made the bold statement in 1903. Eliot, “who initiated the policy of white supremacy in the British East Africa Protectorate (now Kenya),” according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica website, was referring to the meter gauge railway built by British colonialists in East Africa between 1896 and 1901. The railway, emblematic…

On the eve of the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in August, Chinese President Xi Jinping met his South African counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa. After the pomp and ceremony at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the two leaders and their ministers announced a raft of bilateral agreements across many fields.  One of the agreements, signed by South African Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, allowed South African farmers…

Top diplomats of Morocco, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger agreed to boost cooperation at a ministerial coordination meeting held in the southern Moroccan city of Marrakech on Saturday. The meeting focused on an initiative proposed by Moroccan King Mohammed VI earlier in November, who suggested to “launch an international initiative to enable the Sahel countries to have access to the Atlantic Ocean.” The king stressed that “the success of such an initiative hinges on upgrading infrastructure in the Sahel…

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamed Dbeibah said Saturday that he will only transfer power through elections. Speaking at an event in the capital Tripoli, Dbeibah said he would hand over office to “those who deserve it” and let the Libyan people decide through elections. “We would like to establish a constitutional basis for the elections. My job in the government is to support the High National Elections Commission and secure the ballot boxes,” Dbeibah added. Dbeibeh took office in February 2021,…

About 800,000 Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland Afghanistan since October, Afghan caretaker government chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. “Since October, around 800,000 refugees have returned home, with half of them from Pakistan,” the local television channel Tolonews quoted Mujahid as saying. The majority of the remaining 400,000 others have returned from Iran and thousands of others from Türkiye, Mujahid said. More than 2.5 million Afghan refugees reportedly have been living in Pakistan and the same number in Iran.…

Iran hosted an international conference to rally support for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank on Saturday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The one-day Tehran International Conference on Palestine aimed to lift the blockade of Gaza and ensure more humanitarian aid for the coastal territory, said the statement. The conference, as part of Iran’s diplomatic efforts to back the Palestinians, was attended by officials, political, religious, media figures and scholars from more than 50 countries,…

South African firefighters have managed to contain a four-day massive wildfire near Cape Town, the country’s legislative capital, on Saturday as evacuated residents were allowed to return home. The wildfire started on Tuesday on the mountain slopes of Simon’s Town, around 40 km south of Cape Town and part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. It has since swept across thousands of hectares in the area, resulting in scores of residents being evacuated from their homes. “The Joint…

20 killed in attack near Burundi-DRC border At least 20 people were killed in Gatumba, Mutimbuzi district in west Burundi’s Bujumbura province, near the border between Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), by unidentified gunmen on Friday night, a Burundian government spokesman said on Saturday. “The deadly attack targeted nine households around 8:40 p.m. at Vugizo village, quite near the border between Burundi and the DRC. The terrorists killed 20 persons including 12 children, three women and…

MOGADISHU, (Xinhua) — Somali National Army (SNA) and regional Jubaland State forces killed more than 70 al-Shabab militants after conducting an operation at Aboodin area in Lower Jubba region in southern Somalia on Friday evening, local media said. “Over 70 al-Shabab militant fighters and commanders were killed in a joint operation by SNA, Jubaland State forces, and international partners supporting the army in the war on terrorists,” Jubaland State TV reported on Saturday. The latest onslaught came after al-Shabab militants…