Euronews to launch multilingual African news channel

European news channel Euronews said Monday it will launch Africa's first multi-language news channel in the middle of next year in partnership with the state television of the Republic of Congo. The new venture called Africanews will be headquartered in Brazzaville, the Congo capital. It will provide rolling news coverage initially in English and French, before expanding to other widely spoken languages on the continent including Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili, the statement said. "Africanews will have a team of 40 professional journalists and technicians based in Brazzaville, covering sub-Saharan news thanks to its regional offices and a vast pool of correspondents around the continent," Euronews said. "As soon as the channel begins broadcasting, flagship programmes and special reports will help give Africanews its truly African identity." Africanews will provide round-the-clock television braodcasts and live streaming of the channel on the Internet. There will also be a news website and specific mobile applications will be launched later. The agreement was signed on Saturday between Euronews chief Michael Peters and Jean Obambi, the head of TV Congo. "Africanews is different from existing channels because it aims to give Africa its rightful place in the world of news and to give the world the latest news from the continent which is itself a news market, in the same way and at the same level as other regions of the world," Peters said.