Move follows almost a decade of division, with no stable government since fall of Gaddafi in 2011
Libya’s parliament has brushed aside allegations of corruption to endorse a new, unified government in which a woman was appointed as foreign minister for the first time.
Libya has been unable to form a stable unified government since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with divisions between the east and west of the country leading to fighting and institutionalised division.
Continue reading...Opening up of defence files from more than 50 years ago may also shed light on 1968 Air France crash
Emmanuel Macron is to allow access to classified national defence documents from more than 50 years ago, covering France’s war in Algeria and other files previously deemed to contain state secrets.
The Élysée said the move, a week after the admission that French troops tortured and killed the Algerian independence activist Ali Boumendjel in 1957, sought to balance “historical truth” with legitimate “national defence issues”.
Continue reading...South Africa’s former president calls for the pandemic to be a turning point in strengthening the rule of law and empowering survivors
Violence and sexual assault have surged across the globe since the onset of Covid-19, in what the UN has called a “shadow pandemic”. Even before the pandemic, one in three women experienced physical or sexual assault globally, the World Health Organization reported this week.
In Africa, the impact has been particularly acute. In the first half of 2020, a rise in reported cases prompted Liberia’s President Weah to declare rape and all forms of gender-based violence a national emergency.
Continue reading...Coastguards were able to save 165 people before rescue called off due to bad weather and nightfall
At least 39 migrants have drowned off Tunisia when two boats capsized, the defence ministry has said, as numbers risking the dangerous crossing to Europe continued to rise.
Rescuers pulled 165 survivors from the foundering boats to safety on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Largest such study finds domestic violence experienced by one-in-four teenage girls with worst levels faced by women in their 30s
One in four women and girls around the world have been physically or sexually assaulted by a husband or male partner, according to the largest study yet of the prevalence of violence against women.
The report, conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners, found that domestic violence started young, with a quarter of 15- to 19-year-old girls and young women estimated to have been abused at least once in their lives. The highest rates were found to be among 30- to 39-year-olds.
Continue reading...James Ibori and his associates stole the money and a failed appeal cleared the way for asset seizure
The UK will return £4.2m of Nigerian government funds stolen by a governor from the oil-rich Delta state who served a jail term in London for fraud – in the first such deal between the two countries.
The money was stolen by James Ibori and his associates. He was jailed in 2012 for fraud amounting to nearly £50m after a drawn-out extradition procedure and his evasion of arrest and prosecution in Nigeria. A failed appeal in 2018 cleared the way for a seizure of his UK assets.
Continue reading...A wide range of issues affecting women, from abortion rights to femicide, were highlighted at rallies and events for International Women’s Day on 8 March
Continue reading...In Cameroon, and across the world, grassroot organisations like mine have been on the Covid frontline. Now we need proper support
When Covid-19 first entered Cameroon, where I live and work, I knew that women would be among the worst affected by the ensuing crisis. Across the world during the pandemic, violence against women and girls has soared, and women are also bearing the brunt of the economic fallout.
These same dynamics are at play in Cameroon, but many women here now find themselves in a doubly difficult situation. As the world has gone online, digital gaps in Cameroon have left the majority of women disconnected, unable to access education or connect with one another. A 2015 report revealed that only 36% of women in Cameroon were internet users – and very little has changed since then.
Continue reading...Hundreds of people also wounded in explosions that president has blamed on negligent handling of dynamite
At least 20 people have been killed and more than 600 wounded in a huge series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea, state television has reported.
The blasts were due to the “negligent handling of dynamite”, according to a statement from the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, read out on TVGE. He said the explosions took place at 4pm in the barracks in the neighbourhood of Mondong Nkuantoma in Bata. He said the impact had damaged almost all the buildings in the country’s main city.
Continue reading...Aid groups warn of collapsed health system as traumatised people displaced by Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado seek help
The insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province is causing a mental health crisis, with a quarter of the region’s population now displaced.
People are struggling with untreated trauma after witnessing extreme violence, including mass beheadings, said humanitarian groups concerned about the strain on those who have sheltered dozens of displaced people in their homes.
Continue reading...Another 30 injured in ‘cruel attack’ and death toll could rise
Ten people have been killed after a rickshaw loaded with explosives was detonated by al-Shabaab Islamists at a popular restaurant in Mogadishu.
The three-wheeler rickshaw, fitted to carry a load on the back, had been packed with explosives when it hit the restaurant near the capital’s port, said Somali police spokesman Sadik Dudishe.
Continue reading...Internal reports show projected cuts including 59% in South Sudan, 60% in Somalia and 67% in Syria
Some of the poorest and most conflict-ridden countries in the world will have their UK aid programmes cut by more than half, according to a leaked report of discussions held in the last three weeks among Foreign Office officials.
The cuts include slashing the aid programme to Somalia by 60% and to South Sudan by 59%. The planned cut for Syria is reported at 67% and for Libya it is 63%. Nigeria’s aid programme would be cut by 58%.
Continue reading...Petra Diamonds already faces court action on similar grounds, as its contractors are accused of continued assaults on illegal miners
A Tanzanian mine that produced a flawless pink diamond for one of the Queen’s favourite brooches is investigating claims that security personnel have shot and assaulted illegal miners.
New allegations come months after a lawsuit alleging “serious” human rights abuses was filed against Petra Diamonds, the mine’s British owner, in the high court in London.
Continue reading...The biggest swarms of the insects in a generation have devastated crops and grazing across Africa but are now being turned into sustainable, high-protein animal fodder and fertiliser
Analysis: The world’s poorest country has successfully organised a smooth transition of power. Could other Sahel countries follow?
Niger, the world’s poorest country, has peacefully and successfully organised its first democratic transition of power since regaining its independence in 1960 – a milestone that should have been splashed across the front page of every newspaper.
This underreported counter-trend in a continent that has a host of rich and rabidly authoritarian rulers – and during a global crisis that UN chief António Guterres said had brought about a “pandemic of human rights abuses” – is a historic democratic moment in Niger.
Continue reading...Ojok Okello is transforming his destroyed village into a green town where social enterprises responsibly harness the shea tree
The village of Okere Mom-Kok was in ruins by the end of more than a decade of war in northern Uganda.
Now, just outside Ojok Okello’s living-room door, final-year pupils at the early childhood centre are noisily breaking for recess and a market is clattering into life, as is the local craft brewery, as what has become Okere City begins a new day.
Continue reading...Family suggests case of mistaken identity after Dr Osama AlHasani, 42, detained in Tangier
An Australian citizen facing potential extradition from Morocco to Saudi Arabia was detained just hours after meeting his newborn child, his wife says.
The wife of Dr Osama AlHasani – a dual Australian and Saudi citizen – has also raised fears about his welfare and says the family is confused about the precise nature of the accusations against him.
Continue reading...Group of 67 high-profile figures say they are ‘deeply disturbed’ by recent closure of LGBTQ+ centre in Accra
Some of the UK’s most prominent people of Ghanaian heritage have joined together to condemn their former homeland for its stance on gay rights in what will be seen as an extraordinary show of diaspora power.
The influential names in fashion, film and media, including Idris Elba and the Vogue editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, have signed an open letter in support of Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community. Naomi Campbell, although, not of Ghanaian heritage, has also put her name to the letter.
Continue reading...The world’s poorest are becoming poorer as the impact of Covid compounds existing crises, says Disaster Emergency Comittee
Thousands could starve in the world’s most fragile states as the pandemic comes on top of existing crises, warns a new report today which found aid workers are deeply pessimistic about the coming year.
The survey of aid workers by the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) found that they believed humanitarian conditions were at their worst in a decade.
Continue reading...Though a hundred thousand people have died, initial predictions were far worse, giving rise to many theories on ‘the African paradox’
As Africa emerges from its second wave of Covid-19, one thing is clear: having officially clocked up more than 3.8m cases and more than 100,000 deaths, it hasn’t been spared. But the death toll is still lower than experts predicted when the first cases were reported in Egypt just over a year ago. The relative youth of African populations compared with those in the global north – while a major contributing factor – may not entirely explain the discrepancy. So what is really going on in Africa, and what does that continent’s experience of Covid-19 teach us about the disease and ourselves?
“If anyone had told me one year ago that we would have 100,000 deaths from a new infection by now, I would not have believed them,” says John Nkengasong, the Cameroonian virologist who directs the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Incidentally, he deplores the shocking normalisation of death that this pandemic has driven: “One hundred thousand deaths is a lot of deaths,” he says.
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