Breaking News Today – 23 July 2024

Double Landslide Tragedy Hits Ethiopia: There have been two large landslide incidents in rural Southern Ethiopia. The landslides have reportedly resulted in the deaths of at least 50 according to local officials. Two incidents are believed to have occurred on Sunday evening and Monday morning, after heavy rains occurred in the remote mountainous area of Gofa. The local authority said the search for survivors was continuing but that the full death toll could not yet be determined. Video footage showed crowds of people gathered at the scene, digging in the mass of dirt in search of people trapped underneath

Uganda Protest to go ahead despite Government Crack-Down: Soldiers and police sealed off the headquarters of Uganda’s biggest opposition party on Monday (22 July) in what a police spokesperson called a precautionary move ahead of anti-government protests planned for Tuesday despite a ban. In posts on social media, National Unity Platform party chief Robert Kyagulanyi, said that government security personnel had surrounded NUP headquarters in the capital, barring anyone from entering or exiting. There have been further reports of opposition leaders being arrested. Ugandan youth are planning to go ahead with the march to parliament today in defiance of a ban on the demonstration. The protest has been called due to widespread corruption and human rights abuses under President Museveni’s long-time rule. He has been in power since 1986

African Start-ups Gain Funding: The First half of 2024 saw good growth with $1,6 billion in funds raised for African Start-ups and a total of $1,3 billion awarded to African Start-Ups. The Adenia Africa Fund raised an impressive $470 million in funds followed by Partech Africa ($300 million) and TLCOM Capital ($154 million). FinTech funding is still the leading fund raising category in Africa, with Renewable Energy Tech / CleanTech second. Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa are the top investment countries.

Fintech Funding Success: Egyptian Fintech company MNT-Halan has raised USD 157.5 M in capital, with USD 40 M of that coming from the International Finance Corporation. Additional investment came from Development Partners International, Lorax Capital Partners, and other funds managed by Apis Partners LLP, Lunate, and GB Corp.

Fall-out from World-wide Computer Crash: The CrowdStrike crash last week remains a serious issue, with many IT teams around the globe reportedly still struggling to restore full systems and complete recovery. It has raised questions of a single source software being utilised so widely and there is likely to be further investigations and regulatory oversight around this issue. The crash affected 29 000 customers world-wide affecting thousands of businesses and services including Airlines, banks and healthcare services.