Category Archives: Africa

Ethiopians found in Malawi mass grave thought to have suffocated

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Bodies tentatively identified as adults being secretly transported to South Africa on perilous ‘southern route’

Dozens of Ethiopian people whose remains were found in mass graves in northern Malawi last month most likely suffocated to death while being secretly transported, investigators and campaigners believe.

The tragedy came amid a spate of incidents underlining the dangers faced by tens of thousands of people who entrust their lives to criminal networks that promise passage to South Africa, the most developed country on the continent.

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‘I can’t cut the signal’: DRC radio boss vows to stay on air as rebels seize key city

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His journalists have fled from M23 violence but Patrick Sugira is staying put, saying people depend on his broadcasts

Last Wednesday evening, Patrick Kiroha Sugira sent a text message to a friend via WhatsApp: “The security situation is very bad here. We have nowhere to go. I am at the radio.”

Within days, Sugira, the director of Horizon community radio station in Rutshuru, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was in hiding with his wife and children and other terrified citizens. The town was one of two overrun by armed rebels on Saturday, in a resurgence of violence in the area that is escalating tensions across the region.

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Nothing will change on climate until death toll rises in west, says Gabonese minister

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Before Cop27, Lee White also says broken promises on funding leave sense of betrayal

The world will only take meaningful action on the climate crisis once people in rich countries start dying in greater numbers from its effects, Gabon’s environment minister has said, while warning that broken promises on billions of dollars of adaptation finance have left a “sense of betrayal” before Cop27.

Lee White said governments were not yet behaving as if global heating was a crisis, and he feared for the future he was leaving to his children. He said the $100bn of promised climate finance from rich nations was not reaching poor countries, which was driving distrust in the UN climate process.

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Cop27 protesters will be corralled in desert away from climate conference

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Visitors to Sharm el-Sheikh also face extensive searches and video surveillance in taxis

Across Sharm el-Sheikh, a slim strip of manicured resorts, asphalt and concrete near the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, teams of workers are putting the finishing touches to preparations for the UN’s Cop27 climate conference.

Sparkling new buses are ready to drive down the enlarged highways that cut across desert landscape, flanked by smooth shiny new walkways adorned with angular sculptural arches. A field of glittering solar panels run by a company with ties to the Egyptian military will be online in time for the conference, as well as a new shopping mall.

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Global anger at Sunak’s Cop27 snub that raises fears over UK’s climate crisis stance

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PM accused of ‘washing his hands’ of leadership on international climate action with decision not to attend talks

Rishi Sunak’s decision to snub the Cop27 UN climate talks, and to keep King Charles from attending, has angered and upset countries around the world, risking the UK’s standing on the world stage and raising concerns over his government’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

Several developing countries told the Guardian of their dismay. Carlos Fuller, Belize’s ambassador to the UN, said: “I can understand why the king was asked not to attend – keeping him out of the fray. However, as the principal UK policymaker and the Cop26 president, the PM should have led the summit.

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French-Australian dual citizen released after being kidnapped in Chad

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Jérôme Hugonnot, who ran a wildlife conservation park, was abducted in a restive border region with Sudan

A conservationist with dual French and Australian citizenship has been released two days after being kidnapped in north-eastern Chad, the country’s president said.

Jérôme Hugonnot was working for the Sahara Conservation Fund in Wadi Fara province bordering Sudan at the time of his abduction Friday.

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Somali president vows to continue ‘war’ against Islamic extremists

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Twin car bombs kill at least 100 in Mogadishu, the deadliest attack since more than 500 killed in same spot five years ago

Somalia’s president has said he will press ahead with a major offensive against Islamic extremists despite twin car bombings that killed at least 100 people and injured three times as many at a busy junction in the centre of the capital, Mogadishu.

The toll in Saturday’s attack – the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500 – is expected to rise.

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Thousands attend South Africa Pride march despite terror warning

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US embassy identified Sandton district as potential target, but event went ahead after South African authorities insisted it was safe

Thousands of people gathered for the Pride march in South Africa’s largest city Johannesburg on Saturday despite a warning from the US embassy of a possible terror attack.

The event took place under heavy security in the upmarket district of Sandton, identified by the US embassy as a potential target.

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Mogadishu car bombs leave ‘scores of civilian casualties’

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Two explosions occur at same busy junction where al-Shabaab blasts killed 500 people five years ago

Two car bombs have exploded at a busy junction in Mogadishu near key government offices, leaving “scores of civilian casualties,” police told Somali state media.

The attack on Saturday occurred five years after a massive blast at the same location killed hundreds of people.

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South Africa’s first new Zulu king in 51 years crowned in Durban

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Coronation of Misuzulu Zulu at football stadium follows bitter feuding over royal succession

Tens of thousands of people gathered at a football stadium in Durban on Saturday to celebrate the coronation of South Africa’s Zulu king.

President Cyril Ramaphosa was to hand over the certificate to formally recognise the 48-year-old new ruler of the country’s richest and most influential traditional monarchy.

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Goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C ‘more fragile’ than ever, says Cop27 chair

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Exclusive: in a rare interview, Egyptian minister Sameh Shoukry says global tensions are making talks harder

• Windfall tax must change in face of ‘excessive’ oil profits – Cop26 chief

The goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is “more fragile” than ever, as world leaders prepare to meet for crucial climate talks, the president-designate of the negotiations has warned.

Sameh Shoukry, the foreign minister of Egypt, who will chair the UN Cop27 climate summit next month, said in a rare interview that forging agreement would be harder than at any other recent climate talks, owing to the “turbulent” global economy and “difficult” geopolitical tensions, stoked by the Ukraine war.

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Kenyan police charged with crimes against humanity over 2017 crackdown

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Twelve officers face charges including rape, murder and torture over response to post-election protests

In a landmark decision, 12 Kenyan police officers will face charges of crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on post-election protests in 2017, prosecutors have announced.

The charges include rape, murder and torture and the case of a six-month-old girl whose death became a symbol of police brutality during the election aftermath.

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Foreign secretary urged to act over jailed British–Egyptian hunger striker

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MPs and peers say Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s life is seriously at risk and his sister is being ignored

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has been accused by MPs and peers of ignoring the case of jailed British-Egyptian hunger striker Alaa Abd El-Fattah.

He has also been accused of failing to engage with the activist’s sister, Sanaa Seif, who has camped outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office for 10 days in an effort to force the British government to act.

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Climate crisis funds not reaching countries in need, senior UN official says

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With famine in Somalia almost inevitable, Martin Griffiths criticises opaque handling of $100bn a year promised to poorer countries

The UN’s humanitarian chief has questioned why billions of dollars pledged to tackle the climate crisis have not been used to fight famine in Somalia.

Martin Griffiths said he did not know where the promised $100bn (£87bn) a year to fight the impact of global heating in poorer countries had gone, and called for greater transparency around climate finance.

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‘Monstrous’ east African oil project will emit vast amounts of carbon, data shows

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Experts say crude oil pipeline from Uganda to Tanzania will produce 25 times host nations’ combined annual emissions

An oil pipeline under construction in east Africa will produce vast amounts of carbon dioxide, according to new analysis. The project will result in 379m tonnes of climate-heating pollution, according to an expert assessment, more than 25 times the combined annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania, the host nations.

The East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil drilled in a biodiverse national park in Uganda more than 870 miles to a port in Tanzania for export. The main backers of the multibillion dollar project are the French oil company TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

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Researchers reveal secret of aye-ayes’ long middle finger

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Video shows captive Madagascan primates using elongated finger to pick nose and eat the mucus

With its big eyes, bushy tail and sensitive ears, the aye-aye may appear a cute, if quirky, creature. But now researchers have discovered it has a less endearing trait: it uses its long middle finger to pick its nose – and eat the mucus.

Aye-ayes are – like humans – primates, but they are nocturnal, endangered and only found in Madagascar. An object of superstition, they have a number of unusual features, including rodent-like teeth and a skinny, elongated finger with a ball-and-socket joint.

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At least 230 Sudanese villagers killed in tribal attacks over disputed land

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Minister says more than 30,000 people forced to flee in Blue Nile state as tensions between rival communities erupt into violence

At least 230 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in attacks on villages in Sudan’s Blue Nile state over the past few days, according to authorities.

Gamal Nasser al-Sayed, the health minister in the southern state, which borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, told the Guardian that more than 30,000 people in eight villages in the Wad al-Mahi area had had to flee as their homes were torched and villagers were attacked.

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Tigray peace talks begin in South Africa but hopes low for halt to fighting

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Violence has intensified recently as Ethiopia and TPLF seek to bolster their negotiating position

Peace talks aiming to end the nearly two-year-old war in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia have started in South Africa, although the chances of bringing the conflict to an immediate stop are believed to be low.

Representatives of the Ethiopian government and a team sent by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political organisation that has ruled the northern region for decades, are to spend five days together in the most serious effort yet to find a negotiated solution to the conflict.

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Pakistani journalist killed by police in Kenya ‘was case of mistaken identity’

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Police say Arshad Sharif was shot after his car failed to stop at a roadblock near Nairobi

Kenya’s national police service has said it regretted the killing of a Pakistani journalist who had been living in hiding in the country and was shot dead in Nairobi in an incident it described as a case of mistaken identity.

Officers opened fire on Arshad Sharif, 50, and a friend on Sunday after they allegedly drove through a security roadblock outside the Kenyan capital.

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Egypt shuts down event spaces on first Monday of Cop27 in blow to NGOs

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Groups say cancellations could restrict debate as host country tightens security for opening days

Civil society organisations and governments may have to cancel events at the UN climate summit in November as the Egyptian hosts have tightened security for the opening days.

Cop27 will open on Sunday 6 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, and on the Monday and Tuesday world leaders are due to descend on the conference centre for talks to direct their negotiating teams.

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