A residential high-rise building under construction in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos collapsed, trapping up to 100 workers under a pile of concrete rubble. The building was in the affluent neighbourhood of Ikoyi, where many blocks of flats are under construction. Building collapses are frequent in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, where regulations are poorly enforced and construction materials often substandard.
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Tigrayan forces’ capture of two towns raises fears for Ethiopian capital
Addis Ababa at risk after fall of Dessie and Kombolcha as PM urges a fight to the death against rebels
The weekend seizure of two key towns on the main road to Addis Ababa has alarmed Ethiopian leaders who fear that the rapid advances by Tigrayan rebel forces may soon threaten the capital itself.
The sudden push into the towns of Dessie and Kombolcha was accompanied by short bursts of intense fighting that had reportedly subsided by Monday evening. While Dessie was confirmed to have fallen to the rebels on Sunday, the fate of Kombolcha was less clear, with accounts of continuing sporadic gunfire.
Continue reading...Dozens feared trapped after building collapse in Nigeria’s largest city
Witness in Lagos says more than 100 people could be trapped under rubble of building that was under construction
A 21-storey apartment building under construction in an upmarket area of Nigeria’s largest city has collapsed, with dozens of workers feared trapped under the rubble.
Construction worker Eric Tetteh, 41, said construction teams were waiting for an excavator to arrive at the site when the building suddenly crumbled into a heap of debris.
Continue reading...‘We are protected by prayers’: the sects hampering southern Africa’s vaccine rollout
With millions of followers, the stance of some Apostolic church leaders threatens to undermine fight against Covid
Hymnal melodies reverberate around the hillside in Kuwadzana, a Harare suburb. On a blisteringly hot Saturday, members of the Apostolic church, dressed in white, hum and sing together.
Songs, long prayers and a little Bible reading punctuate the outdoor service. It’s a spectacle for passersby.
Continue reading...‘The lights went out and the shooting started’: #EndSars protesters find no justice one year on
In the face of government denial, four young people tell their stories. Shot, beaten and terrified, they speak of disillusionment, but also of hope
In October last year, thousands of mainly young Nigerians took to the streets to protest against police abuses, particularly among the now-disbanded brutal special anti-robbery squad (Sars) police unit. –
Yet the several protests across the country were brutally repressed. At least 12 people were killed in the #EndSars protests, according to Amnesty International, and dozens were injured, including at Lekki tollgate in Lagos on 20 October, where witnesses livestreamed soldiers shooting at protesters draped in or waving Nigerian flags.
Continue reading...Sudan coup protesters return to barricades on seventh day of unrest
Militia and police personnel target protesters in south Khartoum a day after deadly crackdown
Sudanese anti-coup protesters gathered behind barricades in Khartoum on Sunday, a day after a deadly crackdown on mass rallies.
Tens of thousands of people turned out across the country for Saturday’s demonstrations, and at least three people were shot dead and more than 100 people wounded, according to medics. Police denied the killings or using live bullets.
Continue reading...Ethiopia: Tigrayan forces ‘seize strategic town in Amhara region’
TPLF fighters say they have captured Dessie, the furthest south they have reached since July
Tigrayan forces said on Saturday that they had seized the strategic town of Dessie in Ethiopia’s Amhara region where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge from an escalation in the conflict.
Fighters with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had pushed Ethiopian government forces from Dessie and were advancing toward the town of Kombolcha, a TPLF spokesman, Getachew Reda, said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
Continue reading...Sudan democracy march: three protesters killed as security forces open fire
Pro-coup forces reportedly use live ammunition and teargas in Khartoum and Omdurman
Sudanese security forces have opened fire on massive demonstrations across the country against last week’s military coup, killing at least three protesters and injuring many more.
According to reports on social media and claims by Sudanese pro-democracy organisations, pro-coup security forces have used live ammunition and teargas in several locations in Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman as well as in the city of Nyala.
Continue reading...My Nigeria: five writers and artists reflect on the place they call home
A curious picture of pride, optimism, despair and frustration emerges as the country’s creatives consider their homeland
- Failed state? Why Nigeria’s fragile democracy is facing an uncertain future
- Read more in our Crisis Nigeria series
Author and journalist
Continue reading...We know who caused the climate crisis – but they don’t want to pay for it | Vanessa Nakate
My country, Uganda, and much of Africa has been battered by climate-related disasters. Cop26 is a chance for the biggest polluters to set up a compensation fund
While walking with a friend through central Kampala last month, we saw a police truck go by, a body in the back.
It’s a sight that has become more common in Uganda. The life of that person, and many others, was taken by a heavy downpour in my home city. Uganda has been battered by floods in recent years, as well as droughts and plagues of locusts. So much has been damaged and lost here as a result of the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Violent abductions target Sudanese civilians in aftermath of coup
Dozens of politicians, journalists and activists have been swept up by army officers since takeover
In the days since Sudan’s military coup, it has become a familiar scene in Khartoum and other cities. At a home or an office, a convoy of vehicles crowded with armed men usually in plainclothes from army intelligence and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces suddenly arrives to make an arrest.
Bundled away, sometimes beaten and hooded, for some relatives it is the last news they have of those detained.
Continue reading...‘Stuck in limbo’: endless wait for justice for those in Nigeria’s prisons
With nearly 50,000 incarcerated on remand, many face years in jail awaiting trial, often on charges for minor offences
In the noisy hallway of Igbosere high court in Lagos on an October Monday morning, people sit on the floor waiting for their cases to be called as lawyers and officials dash between them.
In a faded white shirt, silky joggers and sandals, Tunde Akeem*, 40, is listless, barely listening to his legal counsel.
Continue reading...Trail’s end: the days of roaming free are numbered for Nigeria’s herders
Government reserves are replacing a way of life that spanned generations but culminated in deadly conflict with farmers
The still of the vast Damau grazing reserve is broken by the gentle noises of Abubakar Umar’s cattle as he herds them a few kilometres from the clusters of brick huts that house his steadily growing community of pastoralists from across northern Nigeria. For many of them, settling here in Kaduna has meant turning their backs on a nomadic way of life that has spanned generations. That lifestyle is increasingly fraught, with tensions over land and water leading to often violent conflict with farmers.
The government-created reserve is an area where they can peacefully feed their livestock. Umar, 60, says: “For over 50 years, since I was a very small boy, we would move for three or four months then wait, then move again for three or four months. That has been the life. And my father too, and his father, for generations and generations.
Continue reading...Despite Nigeria’s problems, President Buhari is building a legacy of hope | Tolu Ogunlesi
Investment in infrastructure will underpin a stronger economy, improved security and the country’s fight against corruption
Nigeria has faced challenges for as long as anyone can remember. But one problem Nigerians don’t talk about is our collective inability to acknowledge where progress is being made.
Fixating only on what is not working robs us of the chance to analyse and replicate our successes, and demoralises a populace in dire need of optimism.
Continue reading...Sudan coup: deposed PM allowed home as general says politicians ‘stir up strife’
Some ministers remain in detention and could face trial for inciting rebellion, says Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan
Sudan’s deposed prime minister and his wife have been allowed to return home “under heavy security” a day after they were detained in a military coup, as the African Union suspended the country from its organisation citing the “unconstitutional” seizure of power.
The release of Abdalla Hamdok and his wife late on Tuesday to effective house arrest followed international condemnation of the power grab and calls for the military to release all the government officials who were detained when Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan seized power on Monday.
Continue reading...Covid live: UK records 40,954 new cases; Belgium brings back restrictions weeks after ending curbs
UK also reports 263 further deaths; Belgium reinstates curbs after 75% jump in daily cases in a week
- African Union vaccine deal arranged in part by the White House
- EU medical body approves Moderna Covid booster vaccine for all adults
- Papua New Guinea approves mass burial to relieve morgue as cases surge
- China to vaccinate children as young as three
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Headteachers have described the “sinister” intimidation tactics being used by protesters against the vaccination against Covid of teenagers in schools.
“It started with a few emails from a group calling itself Lawyers for Freedom,” the Guardian was told by the headteacher of one of a number of Liverpool schools that have come under pressure from anti-vaccine activists. “An email is relatively easy to ignore.”
Continue reading...Sudan’s PM detained at home of coup leader ‘for his own safety’
Abdalla Hamdok and other ministers have not been seen since Abdel Fattah al-Burhan took power in bloody coup
The Sudanese military leader who took power in a bloody coup has said he is keeping the deposed prime minister detained at the general’s personal residence “for his own safety”, as concerns mount over the wellbeing of senior arrested officials.
The prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, and other ministers have not been seen since their detention and there have been international demands for their immediate release. They were seized by security forces loyal to general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan early on Monday and remain missing.
Continue reading...Boom time for Cape Verde’s sea turtles as conservation pays off
The number of nesting sites on the archipelago has risen dramatically, but global heating sees male population plummet
It’s nearly midnight as Delvis Semedo strolls along an empty beach on the Cape Verdean island of Maio. Overhead, the dense Milky Way pierces the darkness. A sea turtle emerges from the crashing waves and lumbers up the shore. Then another. And another.
Semedo is one of about 100 local people who patrol Maio’s beaches each night during nesting season to collect data on the turtles and protect them from poachers. This year has been busier than usual. Sea turtle nests on the islands of Sal, Maio and Boa Vista – the primary nesting grounds for loggerheads in Cape Verde – have soared in the last five years. Cape Verde’s environment ministry puts nest numbers in 2020 across all 10 islands at almost 200,000, up from 10,725 in 2015.
Continue reading...The Nigerian fish market where gods and commerce meet
The all-women market appoints a ‘mother of wealth’ to pray for their good fortune – and in this recession-hit country the role is more important than ever
Folasade Ojikutu wears a traditional white lace dress for her work at the lagoon dock behind Oluwo market in Epe. The small town is home to one of the largest and most popular fish markets in Lagos – and almost all 300 traders are women. Many are from families who have sold fish here for generations, and Ojikutu, 47, is their “Iya Alaje”, meaning the mother or carrier of wealth.
As she strides past a small waterfront shrine, dozens of women fishing waist-deep in the water chant and hail her, calling out “Aje”- in part a reference to the Yoruba goddess of wealth. Every day, hundreds of people travel, sometimes for hours, to buy fish at Epe market, as it is commonly known, where the spiritual and commercial merge. And the mainly women traders look to Ojikutu– who acts as an intercessor, praying for good fortune, alongside managing affairs at the market.
Continue reading...Seeds of Sudan coup sown after fall of Omar al-Bashir
Analysis: democratic transition that followed 30 years of military rule only papered over faultlines
In 2019, in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Sudan’s authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir – who had himself seized power in a military-backed coup in 1989 – the potential for fissures in the country’s nascent political settlement were already obvious.
As representatives of the country’s rebel movements sent delegations to the huge and sprawling public protests in Khartoum and students discussed the possibilities of democracy at coffee stalls set up on the pavement outside universities, the military – which had removed their backing from Bashir – was keeping a watchful eye with its soldiers manning checkpoints.
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