Category Archives: Africa

African Union joins calls to end use of Mercator map that shrinks continent’s size

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Member states back Correct the Map campaign that urges governments and organisations to use more accurate map

The African Union has backed a campaign to end the use by governments and international organisations of the 16th-century Mercator map of the world in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

Created by the cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigation, the projection distorts continent sizes, enlarging areas near the poles like North America and Greenland while shrinking Africa and South America. “It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,” the African Union Commission deputy chair, Selma Malika Haddadi, told Reuters, saying the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was “marginal”, despite being the world’s second-largest continent by area, with more than 1 billion people. The union has 55 member states.

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Mali’s junta arrests generals and French national over alleged coup plot

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Development comes as the military continues to crack down on dissent after a pro-democracy rally in May

Mali’s military rulers say they have arrested a group of military personnel and civilians, including two Malian generals and a suspected French agent, accusing them of attempting to destabilise the country.

The security minister, Gen Daouda Aly Mohammedine, who announced the arrests on the local evening news on Thursday, told viewers an investigation was under way and that the situation was “completely under control”.

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Ancient manuscripts return to Timbuktu 13 years after jihadist takeover

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Malian city welcomes return of hundreds of crates of treasures after more than a decade stored in capital Bamako

Political and religious figures in Malian city of Timbuktu have welcomed the return of ancient manuscripts that were removed to the capital, Bamako, more than a decade ago to prevent them from falling into the hands of militants linked to al-Qaida.

According to a UN expert mission, jihadists destroyed more than 4,000 manuscripts and as many as nine mausoleums after occupying the desert city in 2012. Workers at the state-run Ahmed Baba Institute used rice sacks to smuggle the remaining documents out of the city a number of ways, including by donkey cart and motorcycle.

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Sudan cholera outbreak kills 40 in a week as health centres overwhelmed

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MSF charity calls situation ‘beyond urgent’ as thousands seeking refuge from war rely on contaminated water

The “worst cholera outbreak in years” has killed at least 40 people in the last week in Sudan, according to the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières.

Overwhelmed medical centres are resorting to treating patients on mattresses on the floor, MSF said, as the country’s two-year civil war aids the spread of the disease.

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Thursday briefing: ​How the colonial legacy has created a toxic beauty industry

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In today’s newsletter: Doctors are sounding the alarm over a surge in cancers and irreversible skin damage linked to bleaching creams, as colourism continues to shape beauty ideals from Africa to Asia

Good morning. The slogan “black is beautiful” rang out from civil rights marches in the US and UK during the 1960s and echoed through liberation struggles across the global south. It became a rallying cry against racist beauty standards that had long cast Black skin, facial features and hair as undesirable.

These movements urged pride in what had been denigrated for centuries, and their message was not limited to people of African or Caribbean heritage. Calls to embrace natural beauty resonated across Asia and much of the global south, directly challenging the colonial belief that lighter skin conferred greater worth.

Ukraine | Donald Trump told European leaders on Wednesday he would be seeking a ceasefire in Ukraine at his summit with Vladimir Putin on Friday and gave reassurances that he would not make any territorial concessions without Kyiv’s full involvement.

UK news | David Lammy has referred himself to the environment watchdog after going fishing with JD Vance without the required licence during the US vice-president’s trip to the UK.

Immigration | At least 20 people have died after a boat capsized off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, a United Nations agency and local media reported on Wednesday.

UK politics | Keir Starmer is to formally revive Northern Powerhouse Rail this autumn with an announcement expected before the Labour conference.

Palestine | The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied territories has warned that moves to recognise a Palestinian state should not distract member states from stopping mass death and starvation in Gaza.

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France acknowledges role in repression of Cameroon independence movements

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Emmanuel Macron writes to Cameroonian president with findings of joint commission on country’s colonial past

France has acknowledged its role in decades of violent repression of independence movements in Cameroon, the latest stage in a slow process of reckoning with its brutal colonial past.

In a letter to the Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, dated 30 July, Emmanuel Macron said it was “up to me today to assume the role and responsibility of France in these events”.

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Migrants swim from Morocco to Ceuta as officials say enclave ‘overwhelmed’

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Seven children reach shore as dozens of people intercepted on risky route, which authorities say is now used more often

About 100 people, including several children, risked their lives by trying to swim from Morocco into Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta early on Saturday morning, as the territory’s authorities warned that its overwhelmed reception system was close to collapse.

Recent weeks have seen a rise in the number of people trying to reach Ceuta, with more than 50 children swimming across from Morocco on 26 July alone.

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Prince Harry considers founding new charity after Sentebale dispute

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Duke of Sussex ‘absolutely committed’ to supporting children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana

Prince Harry is considering establishing a new charity after a dispute that led to him leaving Sentebale, a spokesperson has said.

It comes after the Duke of Sussex was criticised by the Charity Commission for allowing a row with the chair of Sentebale, which he co-founded in 2006, to “play out publicly”.

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Assault on Sudan’s Zamzam refugee camp may have killed more than 1,500 civilians

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Guardian investigation finds number killed in April attack by Rapid Support Forces far greater than current estimates

More than 1,500 civilians may have been massacred during an attack on Sudan’s largest displacement camp in April, in what would be the second-biggest war crime of the country’s catastrophic conflict.

A Guardian investigation into the 72-hour attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on North Darfur’s Zamzam camp, the country’s largest for people displaced by the war, found repeated testimony of mass executions and large-scale abductions. Hundreds of civilians remain unaccounted for.

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US destruction of contraceptives denies 1.4m African women and girls lifesaving care, NGO says

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Incineration of $9.7m of contraceptives to lead to 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions, IPPF says

A decision by the US government to incinerate more than $9.7m (£7.3m) of contraceptives is projected to result in 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries.

More than three-quarters of the contraceptives (77%) were destined for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an NGO global healthcare provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive rights.

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US hunter reportedly killed by buffalo during expedition in South Africa

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Asher Watkins, 52, of Texas died while tracking 1.3-ton Cape buffalo on a hunting trip in the country’s Limpopo province

An American game hunter was killed by a buffalo he was stalking during a hunting expedition in South Africa over the weekend, according to multiple reports.

Asher Watkins, 52, of Texas, died on 3 August while tracking a 1.3-ton Cape buffalo in South Africa’s Limpopo province, according to a statement from Coenraad Vermaak Safaris (CV Safaris), the company that organized the hunting trip.

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Prince Harry among those criticised in report on dispute at Sentebale charity

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Watchdog says all parties, including trustees, patrons and chair Sophie Chandauka, should not have had row in public

The Charity Commission has criticised Prince Harry for allowing a row with the chair of his African charity to “play out publicly”, as the watchdog cleared him of racism.

The prince was engaged in a public war of words earlier this year with the chair of the Sentebale charity, Dr Sophie Chandauka, after his resignation as a patron.

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Rwanda agrees to take up to 250 migrants from the US

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Deal follows deportations to South Sudan and Eswatini despite concerns about international law breaches

The Rwandan government has said it would accept up to 250 migrants from the US under a deal agreed with Washington but gave no details on who could be included.

The Trump administration’s deportation drive has included negotiating arrangements to send people to third countries, among them South Sudan and Eswatini.

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Scores dead as boat carrying more than 150 people capsizes off Yemen

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Shipwreck in Gulf of Aden leaves only 32 survivors so far, with the rest missing and presumed dead, says UN agency

A boat has capsized off Yemen’s coast leaving 76 people dead and 74 others missing, the UN’s migration agency said.

Yemeni security officials said 76 bodies had been recovered and 32 people rescued from the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aden in what a senior official from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) described as “one of the deadliest” shipwrecks off Yemen this year. The UN migration agency said 157 people were onboard.

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Gunmen kidnap more than 50 people in north-west Nigeria

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Latest ‘mass capture’ in Zamfara state shows banditry crisis shifting from land conflict to organised crime

Gunmen have kidnapped more than 50 people in north-west Nigeria in a mass abduction, according to a private conflict monitoring report created for the UN and seen by Agence France-Presse on Sunday.

“Armed bandits” targeted the village of Sabon Garin Damri in Zamfara state Friday, the report said, the latest attack in a region where residents in rural hinterlands have long suffered gangs who kidnap for ransom, loot villages and demand taxes.

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Family of Kenyan woman allegedly murdered by UK soldiers criticise defence secretary

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Niece of Agnes Wanjiru says she thinks John Healey is ‘taking us for a ride’

The niece of a Kenyan woman who was murdered more than a decade ago, allegedly by British soldiers, has said her family now believe the defence secretary “just made a promise for his political gain” when he met them in April.

John Healey told the family of Agnes Wanjiru of his “determination to see a resolution” in the case of her murder, pledging the UK’s full support for the investigation.

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Kemi Badenoch says she no longer sees herself as Nigerian despite upbringing

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Conservative party leader, who grew up in Nigeria and US, says she has not renewed her Nigerian passport in decades

​Kemi Badenoch has said she no longer considers herself Nigerian and does not possess a Nigerian passport.

The Conservative party leader, who was born in London, but grew up in Nigeria and the US and did not return to the UK until she was 16, said she had not renewed her Nigerian passport in two decades.

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Mass rape, forced pregnancy and sexual torture in Tigray amount to crimes against humanity – report

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Warning: this article contains graphic and distressing testimony and images

Research documents ‘horrific and extreme’ attacks by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces and warns that impunity has meant such atrocities are expanding to new regions

Hundreds of health workers across Tigray have documented mass rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and sexual torture of women and children by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers, in systematic attacks that amount to crimes against humanity, a new report has found.

The research, compiled by Physicians for Human Rights and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH), represents the most comprehensive documentation yet of weaponised sexual violence in Tigray. It reviewed medical records of more than 500 patients, surveys of 600 health workers, and in-depth interviews with doctors, nurses, psychiatrists and community leaders.

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Gorilla habitats and pristine forest at risk as DRC opens half of country to oil and gas drilling bids

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Government launches licensing round for 52 fossil fuel blocks, potentially undermining a flagship conservation initiative and affecting an estimated 39 million people

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is opening crucial gorilla habitats and pristine forests to bids for oil and gas drilling, with plans to carve up more than half the country into fossil fuel blocks.

The blocks opened for auction cover 124m hectares (306m acres) of land and inland waters described by experts as the “world’s worst place to prospect for oil” because they hold vast amounts of carbon and are home to some of the planet’s most precious wildlife habitats, including endangered lowland gorillas and bonobo.

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Christopher Nolan criticised for filming in occupied Western Sahara city

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Organisers of local film festival warn production of The Odyssey in Dakhla could normalise repression by Morocco

The organisers of the Western Sahara international film festival (FiSahara) have criticised Christopher Nolan for shooting part of his adaptation of the Odyssey in a Western Saharan city that has been under Moroccan occupation for 50 years, warning the move could serve to normalise decades of repression.

The British-American film-maker’s take on Homer’s epic, which stars Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o and Anne Hathaway, is due to be released on 17 July 2026.

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