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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Cutting aid budget to 0.3% of national income will hurt many African countries, says FCDO impact assessment
Labour’s deep aid cuts will hit children’s education and increase the risk of disease and death in some African countries, according to the government’s own impact assessment.
Keir Starmer announced earlier this year that he would reduce the aid budget to 0.3% of national income, from 0.5%, to fund increased spending on defence.
Continue reading...Family in yacht pulled young man from the sea off Costa del Sol
A man who was apparently trying to reach Spain from Morocco using a rubber ring and flippers has been rescued after he was spotted by a family sailing to the Balearic islands.
The family were on their yacht 13 nautical miles south of the Andalucían town of Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol, on 16 July when they manoeuvred around the stern of an oil tanker and saw something moving on the waves.
Continue reading...Mwangi accused of ‘facilitation of terrorist acts’ during last month’s protests against government of William Ruto
The Kenyan rights activist Boniface Mwangi is accused of “facilitation of terrorist acts” during protests that rocked the country last month, investigators said on Sunday, a day after he was arrested.
At least 19 people were killed during the 25 June demonstration against President William Ruto’s government, which was itself called to pay tribute to victims of police violence at another protest on the same date last year.
Continue reading...As part of president’s end to foreign aid, destruction of the long-acting contraceptives will cost US taxpayers $167,000
The Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7m worth of contraceptives rather than send them abroad to women in need.
A state department spokesperson confirmed that the decision had been made – a move that will cost US taxpayers $167,000. The contraceptives are primarily long-acting, such as IUDs and birth control implants, and were almost certainly intended for women in Africa, according to two senior congressional aides, one of whom visited a warehouse in Belgium that housed the contraceptives. It is not clear to the aides whether the destruction has already been carried out, but said they had been told that it was set to occur by the end of July.
Continue reading...The country, beset by war, has the world’s lowest rates of vaccination, says the World Health Organization, as global immunisation drive also stalls
Children in Sudan, caught up in what aid organisations have called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and threatened by rising levels of violence, are increasingly vulnerable to deadly infectious diseases as vaccinations in the country plummet.
In 2022, more than 90% of young children in Sudan received their routine vaccinations. But that figure has nearly halved to 48%, the lowest in the world, according to the World Health Organization.
Continue reading...Exclusive: French government says it is open to dialogue but does not acknowledge responsibility in letter seen by the Guardian
More than a century after its troops burned villages and looted cultural artefacts in the quest to include Niger in its west African colonial portfolio, France has signalled willingness over possible restitution, but is yet to acknowledge responsibility.
“France remains open to bilateral dialogue with the Nigerien authorities, as well as to any collaboration concerning provenance research or patrimonial cooperation,” the office of France’s permanent representative to the UN wrote in a document seen by the Guardian.
Continue reading...Leader who ousted Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 three decades after brief stint as military ruler dies after ‘prolonged illness’
Nigeria’s former president Muhammadu Buhari, who led Africa’s most populous country from 2015 to 2023 and was the first Nigerian president to oust an incumbent through the ballot box, died in London on Sunday, a presidential spokesperson has said.
President Bola Tinubu’s spokesperson said in a post on X: “President Buhari died today in London at about 4.30pm [1530 GMT], following a prolonged illness.”
Continue reading...Men from Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar were removed from the US and flown to the war-torn country
Tom Homan, the US border czar, has said he does not know what happened to the eight men deported to South Sudan after the Trump administration resumed sending migrants to countries that are not their place of origin, known as third countries.
“They’re free as far as we’re concerned. They’re free, they’re no longer in our custody, they’re in Sudan,” Homan told Politico on Friday. “Will they stay in Sudan? I don’t know.”
Continue reading...ECHR rules South African runner did not have fair trial on need to lower testosterone levels to compete in women’s sport
The South African runner Caster Semenya has called for athletes’ rights to be better protected after Europe’s top human rights court ruled that she had not been given a fair trial when she contested a policy that required her to lower her testosterone levels in order to compete in women’s sport.
The decision, handed down on Thursday by the European court of human rights, was the latest twist in the two-time Olympic gold medallist’s extraordinary legal battle.
Continue reading...Curbs on LGBTQ+ rights and a halt to US funding may reverse decades of progress in fight to end Aids epidemic, warns UNAids
People at higher risk of HIV, such as gay men and people who inject drugs, are facing record levels of criminalisation worldwide, according to UNAids.
For the first time since the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids began reporting on punitive laws a decade ago, the number of countries criminalising same-sex sexual activity and gender expression has increased.
Continue reading...Somalia, DR Congo and Yemen among states forced to sign deals and barter their minerals for aid or military support
Some of the world’s poorest countries have started paying millions to lobbyists linked to Donald Trump to try to offset US cuts to foreign aid, an investigation reveals.
Somalia, Haiti and Yemen are among 11 countries to sign significant lobbying deals with figures tied directly to the US president after he slashed US foreign humanitarian assistance.
Continue reading...At least 10 people killed and 100 young people arrested since protests began in west African country in June
On the night last month that he and 34 other young people were arrested in the Togolese capital, Lomé, for coordinating an anti-government demonstration, Bertin Bandiangou said gendarmes beat him with ropes and slapped him. The next morning he was tortured while a commanding officer filmed proceedings.
He was lucky to get out alive: at least 10 people have been killed by security officials since protests began in June calling for the resignation of the small west African country’s president, Faure Gnassingbé.
Continue reading...Trump inquired where Liberian president Joseph Boakai got his language skills during meeting with African leaders
Donald Trump was basking in the praise of a group of African leaders on Wednesday, when the Liberian president took the microphone.
“Liberia is a longtime friend of the United States and we believe in your policy of making America great again,” President Joseph Boakai said in English at a White House meeting before advocating for US investment in his country. “We just want to thank you so much for this opportunity.”
Continue reading...Judges praised the Sudanese author for centring Muslim women, describing her writing as “a balm, a shelter, and an inspiration”
Leila Aboulela has won this year’s PEN Pinter prize for her writing on migration, faith and the lives of women.
The prize is awarded to a writer who, in the words of the late British playwright Harold Pinter, casts an “unflinching, unswerving” gaze on the world, and shows a “fierce intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and our societies”.
Continue reading...William Ruto accuses protesters of terrorism and violence two days after 31 people killed in anti-government demonstrations
Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has ordered police to shoot protesters targeting businesses in the legs, in a sharp intensification of his rhetoric days after 31 people were killed in nationwide anti-government demonstrations.
“They shouldn’t kill them but they should shoot their legs so they break and they can go to hospital on their way to court,” Ruto said in the capital, Nairobi.
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