Category Archives: Africa

Libyan presidential vote will not go ahead on Friday, officials confirm

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Electoral body proposes one-month delay but it is unclear whether idea will be accepted by rival bodies jostling for power

Libya’s chief electoral body has announced a plan to delay elections set for 24 December by a month, but it is unclear if the rival bodies jostling for power will accept the proposal.

With Libya’s political transition in crisis, the proposed new date, set out by the High National Elections Commission (HNEC), is the first attempt to draw up a new roadmap. Bitter unresolved disputes over the legal basis for the elections and who was eligible to stand have been crushing the international community’s hopes that elections would mark a reset after a decade of war and infighting, largely between the east and west of Libya.

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Data appears to support claims that Omicron is less severe in South Africa

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Scientists warn, however, that lower severity of cases is not fully understood and may not occur elsewhere

South Africa has reported data on Covid cases driven by the Omicron variant that appears to give added impetus to claims the country is experiencing a lower severity of disease.

“In South Africa, this is the epidemiology: Omicron is behaving in a way that is less severe,” said Prof Cheryl Cohen of the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), one of the authors of the study.

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Madagascar: minister swims 12 hours to safety after helicopter crash

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Police minister Serge Gelle was one of two survivors to make the marathon swim to shore after ejecting from the stricken helicopter

A Madagascan minister was one of two survivors to have swum about 12 hours to shore after their helicopter crashed off the island’s north-east coast, authorities said.

A search was continuing for two other passengers after Monday’s crash, the cause of which was not immediately clear, police and port authorities said.

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From Grand Theft Auto to world peace: can a video game help to change the world?

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Lual Mayen turned his family’s escape from civil war in South Sudan into a powerful gaming experience – that will have real-life benefits for refugees

It was while fleeing the civil war in South Sudan that Lual Mayen’s mother gave birth to him 28 years ago. She had four children in tow and was near to the border with Uganda, in a town called Aswa. The journey was difficult; Mayen’s two sisters died on the way and he became sick. No one thought he would survive.

“I can’t imagine what she had to go through. There was no food, no water, nothing,” says Mayen. “I remember she said she was not the only woman who gave birth on the way. Other women abandoned their children because they didn’t want them to suffer. But my mother thought: “He is a gift for me, I have to keep him.”’

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Hotel Rwanda hero to terrorist ‘show trial’: Paul Rusesabagina’s daughters on the fight for his freedom

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Tricked into boarding a plane back to Kigali and allegedly coerced into confessing, the high-profile exile faces 25 years in prison, but his family are determined to keep up the pressure

The children of Paul Rusesabagina, the imprisoned Rwandan opposition figure, are only able to speak to their father for five minutes once a week. Even then the Rwandan authorities listen into the phone call.

Tricked into boarding a private plane in Dubai and flown to Kigali, the 67-year-old Rusesabagina – who came to international attention after his life-saving acts were depicted in the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda, set during the country’s genocide in 1994 – was given what his family says was a show trial and jailed over allegations that he had been a founder and leader of a terrorist group.

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Leading activist in Egypt’s 2011 uprising and two others jailed

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Alaa Abd El-Fattah gets five years for ‘spreading false news’ and lawyer and blogger get four-year terms

A leading figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, his lawyer and a blogger have been served lengthy prison sentences in a Cairo court, in a move that observers have branded a further blow to human rights.

An emergency court on Monday sentenced activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false news”. Human rights lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer, formerly Abd El-Fattah’s counsel, and blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim were both sentenced to four years in detention on the same charges.

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New head of Unesco world heritage centre wants to put Africa on the map

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Lazare Eloundou Assomo wants to address imbalance that benefits rich nations and protect sites threatened by climate crisis and war

It covers 9 million sq miles (24m sq km) from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and from the Sahara in the north to Cape Point in the south. And in between lie some of the world’s most ancient cultural sites and precious natural wonders.

However, despite its vast size, sub-Saharan Africa has never been proportionately represented on Unesco’s world heritage list, its 98 sites dwarfed by Europe, North America and Asia.

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Sudan police fire teargas as anti-coup protesters stage mass rally

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Thousands mark anniversary of revolt against Bashir regime with protest over military takeover

Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters have rallied to mark three years since the start of mass demonstrations that led to the ousting of the dictator Omar al-Bashir, as fears mount for the country’s democratic transition.

Security forces fired teargas - leaving several wounded, witnesses said – at a huge crowd of protesters near the republican palace in the capital, Khartoum, chanting slogans against the military chief, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who led a coup on 25 October.

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Sudan: on revolution’s third anniversary, protesters vow not to be silenced

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Millions are still fighting for a democratic government, three years after their protests began

Amany Galal lost her right eye to a tear gas canister fired by security forces as they tried to break up a demonstration in early 2019, making her one of the first casualties of Sudan’s long and faltering revolution.

Three months later, the street movement had toppled the military dictator Omar al-Bashir but, three years later, millions of protesters are still fighting for a democratic government.

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‘I wanted the focus to be on their smiles’: Brunel Johnson’s best phone picture

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The London-born photographer on his image of Gambian football fans

There’s a strong Premier League following in the Gambia: just like Brunel Johnson, 14-year-old Musa is an Arsenal fan. The London-born photographer was on his way to lunch when he noticed the teen, in his favourite football shirt, huddled with friends. They were on the grounds of Spot Academy, watching game highlights on one of the older kids’ phones.

Brunel had been living alongside the boys for two weeks, documenting the work of the charity, which serves as a community school while providing boarding places for orphans. He’d left his digital camera in his room and knew the moment would pass if he went back for it. So he reached for his iPhone. The photograph’s angle was a spur-of-the-moment decision, chosen simply to fit as many faces in as possible; he added the black and white “Noir” filter later.

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T-cells in Pfizer Covid jab recipients stay robust against severe illness

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Research in South Africa raises hopes that similar responses may be present with other vaccines

South African researchers examining how the body’s immune system responds to the Omicron variant have identified that T-cells in people who have had the Pfizer vaccine continue to be robust in potentially protecting against severe illness despite Omicron’s ability to evade other defences.

The research raises hopes that similar responses may be present with other vaccines and within unvaccinated individuals who have been infected with coronavirus.

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‘Nothing will help’: Tunisians trapped in poverty lose hope

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Eleven years after the start of the Arab spring, those trying to survive rising prices, unemployment and a pandemic feel little has changed

For a decade, Tunisia’s revolution has been remembered on 14 January, the day autocratic ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia and the political elite declared the revolution complete.

From today, by President Kais Saied’s decree, the event will be marked on 17 December, the day street trader Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest at state corruption and the faltering economy. The self-immolation became a catalyst for Tunisia’s uprising and the wider Arab spring.

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‘All I can think about is the children’s future’: drought devastates Kenya

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Nomads’ herds are dying along with rare wildlife as the longest dry spell in memory edges pastoralists ever nearer starvation

Dahabley smells of rotting flesh. Bodies of starved cows lie in various stages of decomposition, after being dragged to the outskirts of the village in Wajir county, north-east Kenya. They are added to on a near-daily basis and fester in the heat amid multiplying flies.

North-east Kenya is well used to spells of drought, but it is experiencing the worst in living memory. As the region’s short rainy season, which starts in October, draws to an end, parts of Wajir have only seen small showers and other areas have had no rain at all for more than a year.

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Rhino deaths in South Africa from poaching reach 24 in December

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Carcasses found in four provinces, including one pregnant female, with nine arrests made

Poachers have killed 24 rhinos in South Africa during the first two weeks of December after a lull in killings during the Covid pandemic.

On Tuesday, the South African environment ministry said carcasses had been discovered in four provinces across the country since the beginning of the month, with seven rhinos found dead in Kruger national park, six in KwaZulu-Natal and seven in Mpumalanga. Four, including a pregnant female, were shot dead by poachers at a game reserve in the Western Cape last week while a fifth is being treated for gunshot wounds.

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‘They punished me for having books’: schools in Cameroon terrorised by armed groups

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Human Rights Watch says armed separatists in anglophone regions have made schools a battleground, with hundreds of school pupils and teachers attacked, kidnapped or threatened

Armed separatists in Cameroon’s anglophone regions have attacked, kidnapped and threatened hundreds of school pupils in nearly five years of violence that has forced more than 230,000 children to flee their homes, a report has found.

In a detailed analysis of the conflict that has gripped the English-speaking regions since 2017, dozens of students and teachers speak of brutal attacks by armed groups who have made education a battleground in their fight to form their own state.

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Books that explain the world: Guardian writers share their best nonfiction reads of the year

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From a Jacobean traveller’s travails in Sindh to the tangled roots of Nigeria, our pick of new nonfiction books that shine a light on Asia, Africa and South America

• Share your top recommendations for books on the developing world in the comments below

You Have Not Yet Been Defeated: Selected Works 2011-2021
By Alaa Abd El-Fattah

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What burns beneath: the deadly threat of underground coal fires to children in Zimbabwe

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Alisha was eight when she died after being badly burned near a coal mine in Hwange. Families who live in fear of the ground opening up under their children’s feet say more must be done


Alisha Muzvite was out playing when she was caught short and went behind a bush to go to the toilet. But as the eight-year-old crouched down, the ground beneath her shifted, pulling her into one of the underground fires which burn all around her home in Hwange in north-west Zimbabwe.

An aunt pulled her to safety, but Alisha’s legs were so badly burned that they had to be amputated. More than a month after the accident, the little girl died of her injuries.

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Six dead giraffes: Kenya drought horror captured in single picture

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Aerial shot shows devastating effect of drought that has left people and animals without water

Six dead giraffes lie in a spiral on the dry earth, their bodies emaciated and interwoven. The aerial shot, taken by the photojournalist Ed Ram, shows the devastation of Kenya’s drought, which has left people and animals struggling for food and water.

Already weak, the animals had died after they got stuck in the mud, according to Getty Images. They were trying to reach a nearby reservoir, although it had almost dried up, the agency reported.

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