East Africa Niger

THE death toll from flood-related incidents in Kenya has crossed 200 since March, the interior ministry said yesterday, as a cyclone barrelled towards the Tanzanian coast.

Torrential rains have lashed East

Africa, triggering flooding and landslides that have destroyed crops, swallowed homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. More than 165 000 people had been uprooted from their homes, and 90 were listed as missing.

Kenya and neighbour Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding, are bracing for cyclone Hidaya which is expected tomorrow. |

RUSSIA said it was developing its ties with various African countries, including in the military sphere, when the Kremlin was asked yesterday about Russian forces deploying to an air base in Niger which hosts US troops.

A senior US defence official told

that Russian military personnel had entered the air base following a decision by Niger’s junta to expel American forces.

“We are developing ties with various African countries in all areas, including in the military one,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a briefing when asked about the report. “They are interested in it, we are also interested in it. And we will continue to develop our relations with African states.” |

Reuters

Space

CHINA launched a probe yesterday to collect samples from the far side of the moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030.

A rocket carrying the Chang’e-6 lunar probe blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the southern Hainan province just before 5.30pm, AFP journalists near the site said.

Heavy rain fell before the launch began, they said, with hundreds of onlookers gathered nearby to witness the latest leap for China’s decades-long space programme. |

AFP