Category Archives: Africa

‘No power to stop it’: optimism turns to frustration over east Africa pipeline

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Promised an income, those affected by $20bn oil project are losing their land and resources instead

A bumpy, mud-spattered road leads deep into Kakumiro district in western Uganda, where the longest heated oil pipeline in the world will pass through its homes, farms and wetlands.

The villagers in the Kijungu settlements welcomed the project when the route was announced in 2017, hoping that the government and companies involved would buy their land and change their lives for good. Their optimism has since given way to frustration.

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Alliance of Ethiopian factions puts government at risk of overthrow

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Bloc includes Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which has been fighting Abiy Ahmed’s forces for a year

Nine anti-government factions in Ethiopia have said they had formed an alliance amid growing fears that they will attempt to overthrow the government of Abiy Ahmed by marching on the country’s capital, Addis Ababa.

The alliance, the United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces, includes Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and brings together members of previously rival ethnic groups, including the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

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Kenya’s water crisis leaves villagers at risk of violence and disease – in pictures

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As rivers run dry, the desperate search for water has led to a rise in domestic abuse, conflict and illness

All photos by Cyril Zannettacci/Agence Vu for Action Against Hunger

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Gunmen ambush and kill 69 in Niger’s troubled borderlands

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Attack on mayor’s delegation adds to 530 already killed by jihadist groups in southwest Niger this year

Gunmen killed 69 people including a local mayor in a jihadist attack in a remote area of south-west Niger, the country’s interior minister has confirmed, amid a wave of violence against civilians that has swept the country this year.

A delegation led by the mayor of Banibangou was ambushed on Tuesday about 50 km (30 miles) from the town, near the border with Mali. The area is overrun by militants associated with a local affiliate of Islamic State that has killed hundreds of civilians in rural communities this year.

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The British army has serious questions to answer about the alleged killing of Agnes Wanjiru | Gaby Hinsliff

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When the Kenyan woman died nine years ago, the army closed ranks – it’s time to find out what happened and why

The last time 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru was seen alive in public, she was leaving a hotel bar with two soldiers.

Her body was found by a hotel worker two months later, stuffed into a nearby septic tank, naked but for her bra. The mother of a five-month-old baby, Agnes was a hairdresser who turned to sex work to support herself and her daughter, and had gone to the hotel expecting it to be full of partying British soldiers. An inquest later concluded that one or more of them must have killed her.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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Ethiopia-Turkey pact fuels speculation about drone use in Tigray war

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Reports say Ethiopia wants to buy Bayraktar TB2 drones after military cooperation agreement was signed with Ankara

Ethiopia’s government has forged an alliance with Turkey, amid reports that it wants to deploy armed Turkish drones in its bitter war against forces from the region of Tigray.

Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, signed a military cooperation agreement on a visit Ankara in August with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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‘It is what girls need’: the FGM activist hoping to be the Gambia’s president

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Despite inexperience and few allies, Jaha Dukureh is offering people change and a break with the past in December’s election

Jaha Dukureh was a young mother of three with little campaigning experience when she started a movement in the Gambia to end female genital mutilation, backed by the Guardian.

In the seven years that followed she advised Barack Obama in the US, where she was then living, helped have FGM banned in her home country, was nominated for a Nobel peace prize and became a UN ambassador.

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Noma: the hidden childhood disease known as the ‘face of poverty’

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This little known and preventable disease disfigures those it does not kill – and a new campaign hopes to raise awareness and eradicate it entirely

Warning: this article includes graphic images some readers may find disturbing

Fidel Strub was three when the inside of his cheek started to itch. After a few days, it felt like it was burning, then it began to smell as if it was rotting. A splitting headache came next before his whole body started to feel uncomfortably hot.

“I remember darkness came,” he says. “I had a hammering headache and a burning body. When I opened my eyes, any light stung them and it burned like hell. It was easier to close my eyes for less pain. I could do nothing but lie on the floor.”

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Vaccine certificates-for-sale scam undermines Lesotho’s Covid effort

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The documents, necessary for entry into bars and sporting venues, are being sold by unscrupulous health workers for less than £20

The Lesotho government’s plans to implement a Covid passport system this week are being undermined by widespread fraud involving certificates being sold to unvaccinated people.

Covid-19 vaccination certificates are being sold for less than £20 by unscrupulous health workers to the largely vaccine-averse population in Lesotho, where there has been little positive campaigning around the jabs.

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Senegal’s Mohamed Mbougar Sarr wins top French literary prize

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Prix Goncourt goes to 31-year-old’s novel The Most Secret Memory of Men, praised for its ‘stunning energy’

The Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr has become the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to be awarded France’s oldest and most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.

The award, announced on Wednesday at the Drouant restaurant near the Opéra Garnier in Paris, was hailed as “symbolic” by the French literary establishment, 100 years after the prize – presented since 1867 – was first won by a Black author.

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‘We run from men only to meet crocodiles’: Kenya’s drought is deadly for women

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As poverty and lost livelihoods fuel threats in the home, those who have found refuge still risk their lives walking miles in search of water

The setting sun brings a warm glow to the huts in the village of Umoja in Samburu county, Kenya. Christine Sitiyan sits outside her home with her beadwork, carefully running the thin thread through tiny bead holes, hoping she can finish the colourful belt she is making before darkness sets in. The traditional belt can fetch 3,000 Kenyan shillings (£20), enough to cover her needs for a month.

This tranquil scene is very different from her troubled past. Like many girls in her community, Sitiyan never finished school but was married off as a young teenager. Seven years later, with two children, she left her husband, unable to endure the beatings from a man she says could no longer fend for the family in an increasingly harsh environment.

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Objectivity concerns over UN’s report on Tigray civil war

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Scope of UN investigation constrained by Addis Ababa’s involvement, experts say

An international human rights investigation into the brutal civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray province will be published on Wednesday amid concerns that the scope of the UN inquiry has been constrained by both Addis Ababa and the ongoing conflict.

Due to be released almost exactly a year after the conflict began, the joint UN Human Rights Office and government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), will nevertheless be the most authoritative overview of the war and its consequences.

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Life, death and limbo in the Calais ‘Jungle’ – five years after its demolition

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The refugee camp became notorious in 2015, as 1 million people fled war and danger to come to Europe. Years after it was demolished, 2,000 migrants are still waiting there, at the centre of a political storm

A small group of Ethiopian and Eritrean men stand shoeless and shivering in Calais. A few hours earlier, they almost drowned in the Channel, trying to cross to the UK. They got into difficulty when the motor on their boat failed. Their jeans are stiff and sodden with sand and seawater.

“We called the French coastguard to rescue us but they told us to call the English coastguard,” says one man. “Eventually, the French rescued us and brought us back to Calais.

Migrants and police at the ‘Old Lidl’ site in Calais. The police clear the site regularly, evicting anyone living there and seizing remaining belongings.

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‘Many people are inside’: Building collapses in Nigeria, trapping workers – video

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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

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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.

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Dozens feared trapped after building collapse in Nigeria’s largest city

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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.

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‘We are protected by prayers’: the sects hampering southern Africa’s vaccine rollout

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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.

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‘The lights went out and the shooting started’: #EndSars protesters find no justice one year on

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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.

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Sudan coup protesters return to barricades on seventh day of unrest

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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.

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