Category Archives: Africa

Government’s Rwanda asylum policy is ‘absolutely shameful’, says Lady Amos

Posted on by

Labour peer who is first black member of Order of the Garter says scheme threatens to undermine UK’s global standing

Sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is an “absolutely shameful” policy that threatens to undermine Britain’s potential to lead in a changing world, the Labour peer Valerie Amos has said.

Lady Amos, who this week became the first black member of the Order of the Garter, said the scheme “sends a message” to other countries about “how seriously we take our responsibilities” to the UN’s security council and charter on refugees.

Continue reading...

‘Farmgate’ threatens Cyril Ramaphosa’s South Africa re-election bid

Posted on by

President is accused of trying to cover up theft of millions of US dollars hidden at his game farm

The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is facing the most serious personal challenge of his four years in power after claims he tried to cover up the theft of millions of US dollars hidden at his game farm.

The scandal – labelled Farmgate by South African media – could potentially derail Ramaphosa’s efforts to win a second term in power and destabilise Africa’s most developed economy.

Continue reading...

‘Marching towards starvation’: UN warns of hell on earth if Ukraine war goes on

Posted on by

Unprecedented food shortages could spark riots in dozens of countries as Black Sea blockade adds to pressures, says WFP chief

Dozens of countries risk protests, riots and political violence this year as food prices surge around the world, the head of the food-aid branch of the United Nations has warned.

Speaking in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday, David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said the world faced “frightening” shortages that could destabilise countries that depend on wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia.

Continue reading...

‘Frankly insulting’: Rwanda resents its portrayal in UK asylum row

Posted on by

Kigali government seeks to shift narrative with managed tours of processing facilities and accommodation for deportees

Rwanda has been caught in the eye of a British political storm this week, and its officials are not happy with how the country has been portrayed.

It was preparing to welcome asylum seekers on Tuesday until a dramatic 11th-hour ruling by the European court of human rights.

Continue reading...

Disabled Kenyan singer goes to court over rejected presidential candidacy

Posted on by

Reuben Kigame’s campaign team claims the Electoral Commission discriminated against him because he is blind

A gospel singer who wants to be Kenya’s first disabled presidential candidate has brought a case in the country’s courts after being barred from the electoral race.

Reuben Kigame, who is blind, filed against Kenya’s Electoral Commission (IEBC) last Tuesday, claiming he had been blocked from entering the 9 August election.

Continue reading...

Raab says court was wrong to block Rwanda deportation flight

Posted on by

Decision by European court of human rights strengthens case for overhaul of UK laws, says deputy PM

A last-minute court ruling that prevented the first asylum seekers being forcibly removed to Rwanda was wrong and has strengthened the case for overhauling Britain’s human rights laws, Dominic Raab has said.

The deputy prime minister urged the European court of human rights (ECHR) to “respect the limits of its mandate”, though rejected calls from some Conservative MPs to cut ties with the Strasbourg-based body.

Continue reading...

‘I’d be scared to be deported’: refugees in Rwanda respond to UK plans

Posted on by

Asylum seekers at Gashora transit centre say they fear reaching UK and ending up where they started after torturous journey

Many have attempted perilous crossings across the Mediterranean to reach the UK in the past. But asylum seekers at Rwanda’s Gashora transit centre say they are now too scared to try again for fear of ending up back where they started.

Zemen Fesaha, 26, from Eritrea, arrived at the sprawling complex of accommodation and leisure facilities in July. The refugee camp, an hour and a half’s drive from Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, houses 249 men, 125 women, and 83 children, who were evacuated from squalid detention centres in Libya.

Continue reading...

Eighteenth-century cockroach found in slave-trading ship ledger

Posted on by

Insect’s journey probably began in west Africa on vessel that sailed from La Rochelle in 1743 to Guinea

An 18th-century cockroach named Peri, discovered in the ledger of a French slave-trading vessel, has become a surprise addition to the National Archives after the book was opened for the first time in more than two centuries.

The insect’s journey began onboard the slave-trading vessel that sailed from La Rochelle in 1743 for the Guinea coast. The crew later boarded a different vessel in modern-day Haiti bound for France, taking the ledger with them. But that ship was seized by British privateers during the war of the Austrian succession and sent into Plymouth.

Continue reading...

UK to challenge court ruling that halted Rwanda deportations, says minister

Posted on by

Thérèse Coffey says she is sure government will go back to European court of human rights over decision

The UK is likely to challenge the European court of human rights ruling that stopped the deportation to Rwanda of people seeking asylum and is already preparing for the next flight, a cabinet minister has said.

Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, played down the idea that the UK could withdraw from the European convention on human rights in response to the court’s decision, which halted the flight on Tuesday night.

Continue reading...

Rwanda asylum flight cancelled after 11th-hour ECHR intervention

Posted on by

First flight to Rwanda grounded after lawyers make successful emergency application

Boris Johnson’s plan to send an inaugural flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda has been abandoned after a dramatic 11th-hour ruling by the European court of human rights.

Up to seven people who had come to the UK seeking refuge had been expected to be removed to the east African country an hour and a half before the flight was due to take off.

Continue reading...

‘Please stop the plane’: asylum seekers plead before Rwanda deportation flight

Posted on by

‘Mentally exhausted’ expected deportees launched last-minute legal bids to avoid removal from UK

An Albanian asylum seeker and suspected victim of trafficking has told the Guardian he is in a “very bad mental state” as he expects to board a deportation flight to Rwanda, a country of which he knows “nothing”.

The 26-year-old Albanian man is one of seven asylum seekers who have launched last-minute legal challenges to avoid being forcibly flown to the east African country. Others include three Iranians, one Iraqi and one Vietnamese asylum seeker. All arrived in the UK on small boats in the middle of May.

Continue reading...

Journalist conviction in Zimbabwe a ‘travesty of justice’, say campaigners

Posted on by

Media freedom groups say New York Times reporter’s verdict reflects press clampdown as election looms

Media freedom campaigners have criticised the conviction of a journalist in Zimbabwe for allegedly breaking immigration laws, describing the decision as “a monumental travesty of justice” that raises concerns for the press in the lead-up to elections next year.

Jeffrey Moyo, a freelance correspondent for the New York Times, was given a suspended prison sentence of five years and fined $615 by a court in Bulawayo after being found guilty on Tuesday of helping to obtain press accreditation needed by two reporters from his news organisation to enter Zimbabwe.

Continue reading...

Maasai leaders ​arrested in protests over​ ​Tanzanian game reserve

Posted on by

Dozens wounded in clashes with police over eviction from ancestral lands to make way for hunting and safaris

Ten Maasai leaders were detained and more than 30 people wounded during violent clashes with police in northern Tanzania on Friday, as they protested against eviction from their land to make way for a luxury game reserve.

One police officer was reportedly killed in the clashes and hundreds of people are in hiding after the protests in Loliondo, which borders Serengeti national park.

Continue reading...

Millions at risk in South Sudan as Ukraine war forces slashing of aid

Posted on by

Drastic cuts to World Food Programme assistance will leave people ‘looking death in the face’ unless global donors offer support

The World Food Programme has said it is suspending food aid to 1.7 million people in South Sudan, as the war in Ukraine sucks funding from the world’s crisis-plagued youngest country and causes the price of staples to soar.

The UN’s emergency food assistance agency said it had planned to deliver aid to more than 6 million acutely food-insecure people in South Sudan this year, as it did in 2021, albeit with smaller rations.

Continue reading...

Africa must forgo gas exploration to avert climate disaster, warn experts

Posted on by

Call comes after former UN climate envoy urged African countries to exploit their natural gas reserves

Africa must embrace renewable energy, and forgo exploration of its potentially lucrative gas deposits to stave off climate disaster and bring access to clean energy to the hundreds of millions who lack it, leading experts on the continent have said.

Their call came as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned that exploring for gas and oil anywhere in the world would be “delusional”.

Continue reading...

UN refugee chief accuses Truss of ‘untrue’ statements on Rwanda policy

Posted on by

Filippo Grandi says foreign secretary is wrong to claim critics had not offered alternatives

Liz Truss has been accused by the UN’s refugee chief of making “untrue” statements after claiming that critics of the UK government’s Rwandan removals policy have failed to come up with alternative policies.

Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said the foreign secretary was wrong because the UN had offered “many, many suggestions” instead of sending people to the east African state, which he said “violates the fundamental principles of refugees”.

Continue reading...

At least 55 killed by militants in latest attack in Burkina Faso

Posted on by

Mounting violence in the north of the country linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group

Gunmen killed at least 55 people over the weekend in northern Burkina Faso, in the latest attack in the west African country, which is seeing mounting violence blamed on Islamic extremists.

Suspected militants targeted civilians in Seytenga in Séno province, government spokesman Wendkouni Joel Lionel Bilgo said at a news conference. While the government put the official toll at 55, others put the figure far higher, with some saying as many as 100 had died.

Continue reading...

Rwanda deportation flight at risk despite loss of two late appeals

Posted on by

Home Office source says individual legal cases mean too few people may be able to board plane anyway

Two last-ditch legal challenges that attempted to halt the inaugural flight carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda have been rejected by judges.

The court of appeal upheld a previous decision to reject an injunction blocking the first flight, which was due to take off for the east African state on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Children deemed adults by Home Office could be deported to Rwanda

Posted on by

Children’s and refugees charities raise concerns after detention of three children misjudged as adults in offshoring programme

Concerns are mounting that children wrongly assessed as adults by the Home Office could end up being offshored to Rwanda.

The Guardian understands that three age-disputed children who the Home Office declared to be adults and detained in preparation for offshoring to Rwanda have now been released. It is understood that concerns have been raised about whether at least three more detainees threatened with removal to the east African country are children rather than adults.

Continue reading...

Growing numbers of young Africans want to move abroad, survey suggests

Posted on by

Covid, climate, stability and violence contributing to young people feeling pessimistic about future, survey of 15 countries suggests

African youth have lost confidence in their own countries and the continent as a whole to meet their aspirations and a rising number are considering moving abroad, according to a survey of young people from 15 countries.

The pandemic, climate crisis, political instability and violence have all contributed to making young people “jittery” about their futures since the Covid pandemic began, according to the African Youth Survey published on Monday.

Continue reading...