Category Archives: Africa

Six Nigerians extradited to US over $6m online romance scam

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Alleged members of Black Axe criminal network that swindled US women out of $6m flown from South Africa

Six Nigerian nationals linked to an organized criminal network that allegedly swindled American women out of more than $6m through online romance scams were extradited to the United States on Friday.

South African police confirmed they were to be extradited earlier on Friday, while local news in Africa confirmed that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, facilitated their handover to officials from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Secret Service at Cape Town international airport, in collaboration with Interpol South Africa.

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$15m fund launched to create ‘unstoppable momentum’ to end FGM worldwide

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Her Horizon Fund seeks $100m to stop practice harming 230m women and girls globally

Frontline activists and leaders in the fight against female genital mutilation, which has affected more than 230 million women and girls worldwide, have welcomed an unprecedented $15.5m (£11.4m) fund aimed at creating “unstoppable momentum” to finally end the practice.

The launch of the fund comes as women’s rights are increasingly under attack and donor funding is in sharp decline, particularly for work led by FGM survivors in local communities. It is thought to be the largest single philanthropic contribution to ending the practice of FGM.

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Uganda to withdraw from Invictus Games ‘out of respect for King Charles’, says military chief

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Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba announces decision to pull out in post on X, citing tensions over ‘Harry-Meghan nonsense’

Uganda is withdrawing from the Duke of Sussex’s Invictus Games, the country’s military chief has said, out of respect for King Charles amid division over the “Harry-Meghan nonsense”.

Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of the Ugandan president, made the surprise announcement in a post on X on Wednesday.

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Babies born to anaemic mothers have smaller brains, study finds

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Key regions of the brain linked to movement, learning and emotions were affected and may lead to cognitive problems

Babies born to mothers with anaemia have smaller brains, particularly in key regions linked to movement, learning and the regulation of emotion, according to a study.

Researchers said the differences, first detected at the age of one, could lead to cognitive problems when children started school.

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Egyptian TV presenter among 12 sentenced to death for drug crime

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Sarah Khalifa, 39, charged with forming organised criminal gang to manufacture and traffic drugs

An Egyptian court sentenced a well-known television presenter and 11 others to death for manufacturing and trafficking narcotics in a sprawling drug case, official media reported on Saturday.

The presenter, Sarah Khalifa, 39, is best known for her programme Mission Impossible, which dealt with issues concerning security and crime.

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UN votes to adopt new world map that shows Africa’s true scale

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Togo-sponsored resolution called to phase out traditional map that depicts continent as similar size to Greenland

The United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

In a session at its headquarters in New York, the UN general assembly officially retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design.

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Spain’s PM says no evidence ‘whatsoever’ Morocco behind Ceuta border breach

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Pedro Sánchez continues to defend Rabat after police report claiming border forces helped 70,000 cross border

Spain has seen no evidence “whatsoever” that Morocco planned or facilitated a mass border breach into its north African territory of Ceuta, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has told parliament.

The address on Thursday followed the emergence of a police report, commissioned by a judge and widely quoted in the media, claiming Moroccan border forces had actively aided about 70,000 people to cross the border in late July.

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New constitution in Guinea-Bissau will undermine democracy, opponents say

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Referendum result means fewer seats in parliament and new rules on candidates, ahead of December elections

Guinea-Bissau voters have approved a new constitution, which critics say will undermine democracy, that significantly expands presidential powers ahead of elections due in December.

According to provisional results, 70% of voters approved sweeping changes in the tiny west African state’s first constitutional amendment since revisions that ended the one-party socialist state more than three decades ago.

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South African airline defends dramatic low-level flyby before rugby union clash

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  • Cape Town stunt sparks major debate over safety risks

  • Airlink insists flyby conducted according to regulations

A pre-game stunt involving two passenger jets flying dramatically low over a stadium in South Africa drew huge cheers from the estimated crowd of 56,000 people, but also sparked a major debate over safety risks. The flyby by two Embraer jets, operated by the local airline Airlink, happened on Saturday before the second rugby union Test between South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town.

The flight tracking service Flightradar24 estimated that the lead jet passed just 41-46 feet (12-14 metres) above the roof of Cape Town Stadium, with the crowd and the world’s top-ranked rugby teams below. The second jet, which was very close behind, flew through a cloud of pink dust that shot up from the stadium roof as part of the show.

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Countries legally obliged to consider slavery reparations, says UN committee

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Guidance says states must implement ‘comprehensive measures’ to address legacy of racial discrimination

A UN committee has said countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and take other ⁠measures to address the enduring ⁠legacy of racial ​discrimination.

Guidance published on Monday by the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) said the obligations arose from ⁠a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimination, not from the legal standards that existed when the slave trade took place.

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Morocco not to blame for Ceuta border breach, says Spanish PM

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Pedro Sánchez says two countries cooperating and accuses Israel and Russia of spreading fake news about migration

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said there is no evidence to suggest the Moroccan government was behind last month’s massive border crossing into Ceuta but accused Israel and Russia of spreading disinformation.

As many as 141 people are thought to have died trying to enter the Spanish enclave at the end of July. The influx of about 70,000 men, women and children unleashed a political crisis, a humanitarian emergency and reignited tensions within the EU over immigration.

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Humanitarian crisis worsening in refuge for civilians fleeing Sudan’s civil war

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Conditions are deteriorating in city of El Obeid and camps on its outskirts, with more people arriving every day

Humanitarian conditions in the Sudanese city of El Obeid and two camps on its outskirts are dire and deteriorating, according to people on the ground, as civilians displaced by fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia continue to pour in from the surrounding countryside.

The UN says more than 15,000 families have arrived since mid-July, joining more than 200,000 people who arrived in the first half of the year, according to government figures cited by Save the Children.

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Egyptian queen’s 673-diamond necklace stolen in Vienna smash-and-grab raid

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Police hunt two suspects after historic 200-carat piece is snatched from Austrian museum during opening hours

Austrian police are hunting two men alleged to have stolen a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds that was on loan to a museum in Vienna and once belonged to Egyptian royalty.

Authorities in the capital released pictures of the suspects captured by security cameras during the heist at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), amid a rash of spectacular smash-and-grab thefts from European cultural institutions.

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UK urged to help free British-Egyptian ‘arrested in Cairo over sister’s activism’

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Lawyers claim Eman el-Shazly, from Birmingham, was detained in effort to silence her sister, a critic of Sisi regime

The UK Foreign Office has been asked to intervene to secure the release of a British-Egyptian woman who it is claimed has been arrested in Cairo because of her sister’s political activism.

Eman el-Shazly, a 45-year-old based in Birmingham, was arrested on 16 August while visiting Egypt. Her lawyers say she has been detained in an attempt to silence her sister Mona, a relentless and harsh critic of the Egyptian government on her UK-based YouTube channel.

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South African police arrest two Thai men for allegedly smuggling parrot eggs

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Bird eggs intercepted in homemade incubators at Johannesburg airport as officials try to halt wildlife trafficking

South African police have arrested two Thai nationals in separate incidents for allegedly attempting to smuggle endangered parrot eggs out of the country as authorities try to stem the tide of wildlife trafficking.

A 50-year-old Thai national was arrested at OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg on 20 August, carrying 50 bird eggs in a homemade incubator in a hand-luggage bag, South Africa’s environment ministry said in a statement.

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Mpox is back – and in new countries. How can this outbreak be contained?

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The public health emergencies in 2022 and 2024 saw the virus reported in 145 countries, but in the new cases children appear particularly affected

A fresh outbreak of mpox in Guinea Bissau – the country’s first – means the virus formerly known as monkey pox is back in the headlines. So what has changed?

Since 2022, there have been almost 190,000 lab-confirmed cases of mpox reported worldwide in 145 countries. Before then, outbreaks of mpox tended to be relatively small and in a handful of African countries, where the viral infection was known to be endemic.

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Moringa lattes and tigernut kebabs: the Ghanaians ‘taking back the power’ of their food

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In Ghana, a grassroots movement is championing nutritious, homegrown, climate-resilient produce, rather than western imports

After three years at catering school in Accra, Abiro Wisdom was certain of one thing – he did not want to go into catering. At least not the route that he might be expected to take. His course had prepared students for working in international hotels, focusing on French, Italian and Mexican cuisine. The nutritious, homegrown food that Wisdom had eaten while growing up in Bolgatanga, northern Ghana, did not feature at all.

“I didn’t see myself there,” he says of the big chain hotels. “I felt I wouldn’t be myself working there – I wouldn’t be able to talk about the food from where I come from.”

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Prince Harry quits board of wildlife charity after rangers’ human rights abuses

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Spokesperson for Duke of Sussex says he remains an ‘active and avid supporter’ of African Parks’ mission

The Duke of Sussex has stepped down from the board of a major African wildlife charity that had been at the centre of a human rights controversy.

Prince Harry’s spokesperson confirmed he was no longer a trustee of African Parks, which admitted last year that human rights abuses were committed by its rangers in the Republic of the Congo.

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Landslide at waste mound in Guinea capital kills 30, government says

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Dump site in Conakry, which minister had just promised to move, collapsed after heavy rain in west African state

A ⁠landslide at a huge waste dump in Guinea’s capital has killed 30 people, the government said on Sunday, after heavy rains overnight prompted it to ⁠collapse, engulfing nearby tents and shacks.

The incident occurred less than a week after the government announced plans to close the ⁠site and relocate the waste because of the threat it posed, especially during the rainy season, which causes landslides and fatal flash ⁠floods each year in crowded, underdeveloped cities across parts of West Africa.

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Five Americans among seven killed in safari helicopter crash in Kenya

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Officials say all seven people onboard killed, including Telemundo executive and Ecuador intelligence chief

Seven people, including five Americans, were killed when a safari helicopter crashed on Wednesday morning in a remote part of northern Kenya, according to local police and the state department.

Among the dead were an executive with Telemundo, the US-based Spanish-language network owned by NBC Universal, and the director of Ecuador’s national intelligence service.

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