Category Archives: Africa

DRC says EU’s minerals deal with Rwanda is ‘obvious double standard’

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Brussels urged to impose stronger sanctions against Rwanda, as it has in response to Russia for its war in Ukraine

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has accused the EU of “an obvious double standard” for maintaining a minerals deal with Rwanda to supply Europe’s hi-tech industries when it deployed a far-wider sanctions regime in response to the war in Ukraine.

Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the DRC foreign minister, urged the EU to levy much stronger sanctions against Rwanda, which has fuelled the conflict in eastern DRC, describing the bloc’s response to violations of DRC territory as “very timid”.

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Eswatini confirms arrival of 10 more people as part of US deportation deal

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African kingdom receives second group of third-country nationals in what NGOs and lawyers say is violation of human rights

Ten people deported by the US have arrived in Eswatini, its government said, the second group of third-country deportees to be sent to the southern African kingdom by the Trump administration in what lawyers and NGOs have described as violations of their human rights.

A statement by the Eswatini government posted on social media before their arrival on Monday said: “The individuals will be kept in a secured area separate from the public, while arrangements are made for their return to their countries of origin.”

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Kenyan activists abducted after joining opposition rally in Uganda

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Pair had crossed border to support presidential campaign of reggae singer Bobi Wine

Two Kenyan activists have been abducted in Uganda after attending a presidential campaign event for Bobi Wine, the reggae musician turned politician.

Heavily armed security operatives detained Bob Njagi, the chair of Free Kenya, and Nicholas Oyoo, the movement’s secretary general, at a petrol station near Kampala on Wednesday afternoon.

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‘We are the last hope’: Gen Z Madagascar vows to fight on until president resigns

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Protesting young people reject dissolution of government as insufficient and demand list of reforms

Young protesters in Madagascar have said they will continue their fight for the resignation of the president, Andry Rajoelina, and rejected his dissolution of the government on Monday as insufficient.

Twenty-two people were killed and 100 injured at the demonstrations, according to the UN. The unrest broke out on 25 September when local councillors were arrested for protesting against water and electricity outages in the capital, Antananarivo. The youth-led protests quickly spread to other towns and cities, fuelled by social media and other “Gen Z protests in Indonesia and Nepal, where the government was toppled.

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Former DRC president Joseph Kabila sentenced to death in absentia

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Military court convicts Kabila of war crimes, treason and other offences in verdict that could fuel enduring tensions

A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has sentenced the country’s former president Joseph Kabila to death in absentia after convicting him of war crimes, treason and crimes against humanity.

The case stems from his alleged role in backing the advance of M23 rebels supported by Rwanda in DRC’s volatile eastern provinces. Kabila, who led the country from 2001 to 2019, has denied wrongdoing and said the judiciary had been politicised.

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Wildfire in Namibia is contained, says PM, after criticism of response

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A third of Etosha national park has been burned despite efforts of volunteers, who say troops were sent in too late

Wildfires that raged through one of Africa’s largest national parks have been brought under control, Namibia’s government has said, amid criticisms over the response mechanism and limited resources.

The fire broke out in Etosha national park, in the arid desert nation’s north, on 22 September. The government said it suspected charcoal production next to the park, which is home to 114 mammal species including the critically endangered black rhino, was to blame.

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Namibia deploys army to fight wildfire burning third of Etosha game reserve

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Vast tract of park that is home to 114 mammal species, including critically endangered black rhino, affected

Namibia has begun deploying hundreds of soldiers to fight a fire that has burned through a third of the vast Etosha national park, one of Africa’s largest game reserves, officials said.

The park in the north of the largely desert country is home to 114 species of mammals, notably the critically endangered black rhinoceros, and is a major tourist attraction.

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NoViolet Bulawayo wins the Best of Caine award

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The Zimbabwean writer – who has been twice nominated for the Booker – won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2011, with her story Hitting Budapest

Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo has won the Best of Caine award, an honorary prize celebrating a story from past winners of the Caine Prize for African Writing, to mark its 25th anniversary. The prize was given for a short story praised by judges for its “powerful language, distinctive tone of voice, and bold, compelling storytelling”.

Hitting Budapest, which won the 2011 Caine prize, follows a group of six children who sneak from their shantytown, Paradise, into an affluent neighbourhood, Budapest, to steal guavas. First published in the Boston Review, it examines poverty, social and economic inequalities, and the dreams of children.

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World must deny Israel ‘tools of genocide’, says growing alliance of activist states

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New York meeting of Hague Group warns of shared responsibility to prevent genocide and proposes steps to isolate Israel

The international community has a legal and moral duty to deny Israel “the tools of genocide”, the Malaysian foreign minister, Mohamad Hasan, said at a meeting in New York of the Hague Group, the growing alliance of countries dedicated to coordinating practical economic and legal steps to isolate Israel over the war in Gaza.

The group, co-chaired by South Africa and Columbia, has become a central exchange for practical steps to try to pressure Israel, including stepping up collective action at ports and airports to prevent the transfer of weapons and goods to Israel, including dual-use heavy machinery.

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Sarkozy says he will ‘sleep in jail but with head held high’ after conviction

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Former French president receives five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy over pact with Gaddafi regime

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he would “sleep in jail but with my head held high” after receiving a five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy – the first time a former head of state has been sent to prison in modern French history.

The verdict and sentencing followed a trial in which he and his aides were accused of making a corruption pact with the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to receive funding for the 2007 French presidential election campaign.

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Former president Peter Mutharika defeats incumbent in Malawi presidential election

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Lazarus Chakwera, who presided over a multi-year economic crisis, concedes election after 85-year-old Mutharika wins 56.8% of vote

Malawians have voted in an 85-year-old former leader over an incumbent who presided over a multi-year economic crisis, high inflation, essential goods shortages, climate disasters and international aid cuts.

Peter Mutharika got 56.8% of the vote compared with 33% for Lazarus Chakwera, according to official results of the 16 September presidential election announced on Wednesday.

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West Africans deported by the US were denied their rights, says lawyer

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Men were sent on from Ghana despite ‘risk of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment’

A lawyer for 11 west Africans deported by the US to Ghana said they had been returned to their home countries despite many fearing for their safety.

Under Donald Trump’s drive to ramp up expulsions, the US has sent migrants to third countries, including Rwanda, Uganda and El Salvador, prompting accusations that deportee rights have been violated.

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Disabled Nigerian man living in UK for 38 years wins appeal against deportation

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Anthony Olubunmi George, who arrived in 1986 and has no criminal convictions, given right to remain

A disabled Nigerian man who has lived in the UK for almost 40 years has won an appeal to stay in the country despite the Home Office wanting to deport him.

Anthony Olubunmi George, 63, came to the UK at the age of 24 in 1986. He has not left the UK since and has no criminal convictions. He had two strokes in 2019 that left him with speech and mobility issues.

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Mass grave reveals scale of unlawful killings by Egyptian army in Sinai, say campaigners

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Human rights group says hundreds of skeletons found exposed or buried just below ground during research into killings of civilians

Hundreds of bodies could have been buried at a mass grave discovered in Egypt’s Sinai province by human rights campaigners.

Bodies lying on the surface and others buried barely 30cm below were found at a burial site near a military outpost by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights.

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Kenya’s arrest warrant is milestone in Agnes Wanjiru case but lengthy UK process awaits

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After 13 years, warrant has been issued for UK suspect, but Robert James Purkiss would need to be extradited to face charges

In the spring of 2012, David Cameron was prime minister and British troops were still fighting in Afghanistan under the stewardship of the then defence secretary, Philip Hammond.

Before deploying, soldiers from the UK would be flown 3,000 miles south-west of Helmand province, to Kenya, for hot weather training. They would train at Batuk, the British army base that still operates today, close to Nanyuki, a poor market town in the east of the country.

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Kenya’s Turkana people genetically adapted to live in harsh environment, study suggests

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Research which began with conversations round a campfire and went on to examine 7m gene variants shows how people survive with little water and a meat-rich diet

A collaboration between African and American researchers and a community living in one of the most hostile landscapes of northern Kenya has uncovered key genetic adaptations that explain how pastoralist people have been able to thrive in the region.

Underlying the population’s abilities to live in Turkana, a place defined by extreme heat, water scarcity and limited vegetation, has been hundreds of years of natural selection, according to a study published in Science.

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Eritrean man is second to be deported to France under UK’s ‘one in, one out’ deal

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Home Office says man left Heathrow for Paris early on Friday after losing high court attempt to block move

An Eritrean man has been deported to France under the UK government’s “one in, one out” deal with the neighbouring country.

The man – the second to be deported under the agreement – was on a flight that left Heathrow for Paris at 6.15am on Friday, the Home Office confirmed after he lost a high court attempt to block the move.

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Who was Agnes Wanjiru, Kenyan woman killed near army base in 2012?

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Relatives remember a dependable, kind and funny woman and remain traumatised by her death

Perhaps the Kenyan market town of Nanyuki’s greatest claim to fame was that it straddles the equator. But now it has become synonymous with something darker. It was here where Agnes Wanjiru was born and lived and where she was brutally killed.

Her family searched for her for months before her body was found stuffed into a septic tank at the same hotel where she had last been seen alive.

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Kenya seeks arrest of former British soldier over alleged murder of Agnes Wanjiru

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High court judge issues arrest warrant, saying a suspect has been charged in relation to 2012 death of 21-year-old

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a British national on suspicion of the murder of the Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru, who was found dead in the grounds of a hotel near an army base in 2012.

The high court judge Alexander Muteti issued the arrest warrant earlier on Tuesday in Kenya, with the prosecution telling the court a suspect had been charged with murder, and his extradition to Kenya was being sought.

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Lesotho villagers complain of damage from water project backed by African Development Bank

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About 1,600 people file complaint to AfDB demanding transparency over forced relocations and compensation

Eighteen rural communities in Lesotho have filed a complaint with the African Development Bank (AfDB) over its funding of a multibillion-pound water project whose construction process they claim has ruined fields, polluted water sources and damaged homes.

About 1,600 people living in the villages in Mokhotlong district in north-east Lesotho are demanding transparency over planned forced relocations and compensation they say they have not been consulted on.

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