Africa Briefs

Zimbabweans queue outside banksQueues formed outside banks in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on Friday as the central bank opened trading of a new currency, a Reuters witness said.Zimbabwe's central bank announced on Wednesday that it would scrap the peg between its quasi-currency bond note and the US dollar, creating a new currency from the bond notes and notional electronic dollars that will be known as RTGS dollars.The central bank sold banks US dollars at a rate of 2.5 RTGS dollars on Friday morning, governor John Mangudya said. – Nampa/ReutersRussian rocket launches Egyptian telecom satelliteRussia successfully launched an Egyptian telecommunications satellite on Thursday, the Russian space agency Roskosmos announced.A Soyuz rocket took off with the Egyptsat-A satellite at 1647 GMT from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.The satellite will take high-definition images of the Earth's surface, Roskosmos said in a statement.In October a Soyuz rocket carrying a Russian and US astronaut failed just minutes after blast-off, forcing the pair to make an emergency landing.A successful manned flight was launched in December, taking Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency off for a six-and-a-half month mission on the International Space Station. – Nampa/AFPPort Sudan workers strike over terminal transfer dealHundreds of workers in Port Sudan are continuing a days-long strike against the transfer of its vital container terminal to a Philippine company, a union leader said Thursday."For four days now we are on strike and we expect more colleagues to join us," Osman Tahir, member of the port's labour union, told AFP by telephone from the Red Sea city.The strike at the vital economic hub comes amid weeks of anti-government demonstrations that began in December.Protesters have rallied across the country, including in Port Sudan, accusing President Omar al-Bashir's government of mismanaging the country's economy.Workers are opposing Khartoum's decision to transfer control of the port's container terminal to a Philippine company, International Container Terminal Services Inc.Sudan's economic woes have long caused popular frustration, but anger spilt onto the streets in December after the government tripled the price of bread. – Nampa/AFPClimate investment plan for Sahel regionHeads of state of 17 countries in the Sahel region of Africa will hold a summit today in Niamey to approve a climate investment plan worth US$400 billion over 12 years, the Niger government said.The "ambitious" plan for the period 2018-30 will involve "17 nations from the Atlantic Ocean to the Horn of Africa" and will represent the "translation [into actions] of our nations' commitments through the Paris agreement on climate change", environment minister Almoustapha Garba told reporters.The plan focuses on six projects aiming to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to help people adapt to climate change, he added.The Sahel, home to more than 500 million people, is considered especially vulnerable to climate change.In many parts of the region, climate shocks have resulted in recurring droughts with devastating impacts on the region's already vulnerable populations. – Nampa/AFP

Africa Briefs

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