African press review 27 September 2016

 Recession-hit Nigeria contracts a budget serving loan of one billion dollars from the African Development Bank while  the #FeesMustFall Campaign turns violent in South Africa.

We begin in South Africa where the papers lead with a violent twist taken by the students protest action for fee-free education at universities across the country.

BusinessDay reports that the protest has claimed the first life, a campus worker at the University of the Witwatersrand affected by a fire extinguisher released by students in an on campus residence where she was working.

Mail and Guardian also reports that six vehicles, including three buses, were torched on Monday night at the University of Zululand campus which has been on strike since August 15 protesting over low pay.. The paper quotes sources close to the university, as saying that the damage is expected to run into several million Rand.

Meanwhile The Sowetan says classes were disrupted at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus on Monday when angry protesters stormed into lecture rooms and forced fellow students to leave.

For its part, the Johannesburg Star speaks to a collective of students claiming to be a silenced majority that believes in and supports the #FeesMustFall movement, but who don’t agree with violent protests on campuses.”

They tell the paper that out of the 36 300 students at Wits, only about 1 000 are protesting. The majority of students argued that while they support the campaign they shouldn’t be held to ransom by a minority.

The protest by South African students broke out last week following an announcement by the Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande that fees would rise by a maximum of 8 per cent. However‚ Nzimande said fees for students qualifying for funding under the National Student Financial Aid Scheme‚ as well as the so-called missing middle‚ would not increase in 2017.

In Nigeria, The Nation welcomes the approval by the African Development bank of a one  billion dollar loan to help cover the deficits in the 2016 federal budget.

The paper says that the AFDB's President Akinwunmi Adesina announced the package after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Monday. The interest rate of the loan is 1.2 percent, according to The Nation.

Meanwhile, Punch reports that on top of the 1 billion dollar loan, the Bank is working on giving Nigeria loan facilities of $4.1bn between now and next year for critical sectors of the economy including a job creation schemes for 185,000 youths, the development of the terrorism -ravaged north east, the management of internally displaced persons fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency among other projects.

Kenya's Daily Nation joins millions of their countrymen bidding safe journey to the Kenyan woman who had her two hands chopped off by husband over her failure to bear children.

The Nation says that 27-year-old Jakline Mwende, flew out of Jomo Kenyatta International airport on Monday for a 10-day trip South Korea and the Prosthetic Labs Hospital in Seoul, where she will be fitted with electronic prosthetic limbs.

Ms. Mwende, who was a shopkeeper in Machakos County prior to her husband's barbaric attack, expressed her deep gratitude to the doctors and benefactors whose actions enabled her to survive, saying the one thing she wishes for is to be able to live a normal life again.

South Korean electronics giant LG Electronics is footing the bill of Jackline Mwende's treatment. Leading Kenyan orthopedic surgeon Dr Michael Maru, told Daily Nation that the prosthetic limbs will enable Mwende to regain 80 per cent of the use of her hands.