Daily News on Issues Affecting Africa for October 28, 2014

Continue reading for a summary of recent news stories relating to some of the most pressing issues on the continent. We draw on a wide range of respected news sources, both from Africa itself and around the world. The themes of today's post are: doctors strike in Zimbabwe, investors eager for African sovereign debt, S. Sudan's rival forces clash over control of oil-rich town, US mandatory Ebola quarantine, ISIS and African jihadi groups, Burkina Faso march against President Compaore and Congolese doctor awarded top EU prize.

Zimbabwe: Doctors Vow to Press On With Strike Till Demands Are Met

JUNIOR doctors who on Monday began an indefinite strike over poor pay and working conditions have said they will only go back to work if their demands are met.

The doctors downed tools at all the major state hospitals across the country.

In a statement on Monday, the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) said "the nationwide strike has attracted overwhelming response from all government hospitals with over 300 doctors withdrawing their services".

Earlier this month, the junior doctors issued an ultimatum to the government demanding that it reviews the salaries and working conditions for all doctors working at government hospitals.
The doctors, among other issues, requested an upward review of their basic salaries from about $282 per month to a minimum of $1,200 per month exclusive of allowances.

To read more from allAfrica, click here.

Investors Are Eager for African Sovereign Debt, Despite Plenty of Risks

Five men in dark business suits gathered before Maria Kiwanuka in a semicircle. They were international bankers and they had a pitch to make.

Ms. Kiwanuka, the finance minister of Uganda, was sitting up on a small riser, her bright pink and gold dress a sharp contrast to the men's suits.

Bankers are jockeying for the next sovereign debt deal in Africa, a continent that foreign investors have long been wary of for its economic woes, rampant poverty and political instability. Now that narrative is changing, and one sub-Saharan nation after another is jumping into the debt market.

To read more from the New York Times, click here.

S. Sudan's rival forces clash over control of oil-rich town

Fresh clashes occurred in South Sudan's Unity state on Monday as rival forces clashed the very day peace talks were meant to commence in Ethiopia.

The incident, in violation of the cessation of hostile deal agreed on in January and re-committed to in May, comes days after the two rival leaders met for talks in Arusha, Tanzania.

"There is a fighting going on now in Bentiu as we are here. The rebels of Riek Machar have launched an attack on the positions of the SPLA forces in the area and we are expecting them to do the same in other areas, especially in Upper Nile state," president Salva Kiir told the opening session of the governors' forum in Juba on Monday.

To read more from the Sudan Tribune, click here.

US mandatory Ebola quarantine measures 'could discourage health workers'

Quarantine measures imposed on travellers to the US from Ebola-affected countries who have had contact with the disease could discourage health workers from going there to fight the epidemic, a medical official has warned.

Florida joined three other US states on Sunday in imposing a 21-day mandatory quarantine period for anyone arriving with a risk of having contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea. They are the three west African countries that have borne the brunt of an epidemic that has killed nearly 5,000 people. The policies were abruptly imposed after a New York City doctor was diagnosed with the disease on Thursday following his return home from Guinea, where he had been treating patients.

To read more from the Guardian, click here.