Prince of Wales says he wants to approach engagements differently and to focus on helping people
Prince William has said he wants the monarchy to evolve and for him to carry out his duties with a “smaller r in the royal”.
Speaking at end of a major visit to South Africa where he mixed the informal with traditional elements of the monarchy, the Prince of Wales said he was trying to do things differently.
Continue reading...Military regime considering move after capital punishment abolished in west African country in 2018
Burkina Faso’s military regime wants to reinstate the death penalty after the west African country abolished it in 2018, a government source told Agence France-Presse on Saturday.
The last execution in Burkina Faso was carried out on 19 September 1988, according to Amnesty International. The nation’s final executions killed four leaders accused of an attempted coup d’état to depose the president, Blaise Compaoré, the defence minister, Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, the minister of economic promotion, Henri Zongo, and two unidentified men.
Reintroducing capital punishment to the penal code “is being considered”, the source said. “It’s up to the government to discuss it, then make the proposal to the Transitional Legislative Assembly for adoption.”
Justice minister Rodrigue Bayala said on Friday, after parliament passed a bill introducing community service, that “the issue of the death penalty, which is being discussed, will be implemented in the draft criminal code”.
Bayala also said there could be further amendments to the criminal code “to follow the vision and the guidelines given by the head of state, Capt Ibrahim Traoré”, who seized power in a September 2022 coup.
In May this year, Burkina Faso’s military government announced it would extend junta rule for another five years despite Traoré, the country’s ruler, pledging that he would restore the civilian government by 1 July.
Instead, Traoré’s government passed a bill that month that included plans to ban homosexuality.
Amnesty International has found the use of the death penalty is rising in Africa, “recorded executions more than tripled and recorded death sentences increased significantly by 66%”, it said in October.
Conversely, Amnesty said: “Twenty-four countries across sub-Saharan Africa have abolished the death penalty for all crimes while two additional countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes only.”
“Kenya and Zimbabwe currently have bills tabled to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, while Gambia … has commenced a constitutional amendment process that will … effectively abolish the death penalty,” it said.
Ivory Coast drinks festival aims to champion and change perceptions of alcohol made in the region
At an event in Abidjan in late October, Alexandre Quest Bede noticed someone staring at him. Then the stranger walked up to him with a T-shirt and asked for an autograph.
“He pointed at me excitedly and said: ‘You’re Monsieur Gnamakou, I know you from Instagram!’” recalls Bede at the poolside bar of Bissa, a boutique hotel in the upmarket Deux Plateaux neighbourhood on the eve of Abidjan cocktail week.
Continue reading...Commitment by Mogadishu’s largest single lender is latest in series of deals to forgive ‘unsustainable’ $4.5bn debt
Somalia has announced that more than $1.1bn (£860m) of outstanding loans will be cancelled by the US, a sum representing about a quarter of the country’s remaining debt.
The announcement is the latest in a series of agreements in which Somalia’s creditors have committed to forgiving its debt obligations.
Continue reading...Police accused of killing at least 11 unarmed bystanders since 24 October, amid claims poll was rigged
Silvio Jeremias was on his way home from his job at a petrol station on the night of 25 October, in Mozambique’s capital Maputo, when he and his friends happened upon a group of protesters demonstrating against that day’s election results.
The ruling Frelimo party’s presidential candidate Daniel Chapo secured 70.7% of the vote, according to official results, ensuring the party that has ruled Mozambique since independence in 1975 remained in power, but there were widespread allegations of rigging.
Continue reading...Results show Mokgweetsi Masisi’s Botswana Democratic party on track to lose by landslide
Botswana’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, has conceded defeat in Wednesday’s elections, which his Botswana Democratic party lost by a landslide after nearly six decades in power.
With almost all constituencies counted, the opposition coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) had secured a parliamentary majority, with its leader, the lawyer Duma Boko, on track to become the southern African country’s next president.
Continue reading...Heightened risk Cádiz river could overflow, with yellow and orange rainfall warnings for southern regions
The low-pressure system responsible for Spain’s most devastating floods in decades in Valencia also set new rainfall records across south-eastern Spain. In Jerez de la Frontera, 115mm of rain fell in 24 hours on Wednesday – the wettest day on record for the southern Spanish city. The deluge caused widespread flooding and road closures, and there is a heightened risk that the River Barbate in Cádiz could overflow as more rain is forecast through Friday and into the weekend.
While the rare red warning issued on Thursday for Valencia has expired, Spain’s national meteorological service, Aemet, has maintained yellow and orange rainfall warnings for southern and Mediterranean regions as storms continue to push in.
Continue reading...The international criminal court awarded a record €52.4m to survivors of Dominic Ongwen’s crimes but member states have failed to contribute
Not a single country has contributed towards reparations for the victims and survivors of the Ugandan warlord Dominic Ongwen, despite the international criminal court awarding €52.4m (£44m) in February, according to the ICC Trust Fund for Victims (TFV).
The ICC reparations order – the largest in the court’s history – was issued after a 2021 ruling in which the court found Ongwen, a former commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army militia group, guilty of various war crimes committed between 2002 and 2005, including murder, torture, sexual enslavement, the conscription of children into hostilities, and brutal attacks on four camps for internally displaced people in northern Uganda.
Continue reading...Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, Palestine and Haiti rated at level of highest concern in latest six-monthly analysis
Acute food insecurity is expected to worsen in war-stricken Sudan and nearly two dozen other countries and territories in the next six months, largely as a result of conflict and violence, an analysis by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme has found.
The latest edition of the twice-yearly Hunger Hotspots report, published on Thursday, provides early warnings on food crises and situations around the world where food insecurity is likely to worsen, with a focus on the most severe and deteriorating situations of acute hunger.
Continue reading...Experts fear reports of 124 dead in attack on villages south of Khartoum are significant underestimation
Sudanese militia have been accused of killings, sexual violence, looting and arson during eight days of attacks on villages south of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
The UN said there were reports of “gross human rights abuses” linked to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group, which has escalated attacks on civilians in el-Gezira state since the area’s key commander was reported to have defected to government forces on 20 October.
Continue reading...Ghana’s foreign minister since 2017, Botchwey supports calls for reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonialism
Commonwealth members have appointed Ghana’s foreign minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, as the new secretary general, on the final day of the group’s summit in Samoa.
Botchwey, a former lawmaker who has served as Ghana’s foreign minister since 2017, has supported calls for reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonialism – a position that was also shared by the two other candidates who had vied for the position.
Continue reading...Frelimo presidential candidate Daniel Chapo is said to have received 70% of vote, after claims of rigging
The candidate of Mozambique’s ruling party has won the presidential election with a thumping majority, after two opposition figures were killed by unknown gunmen and amid allegations that the results were rigged.
Daniel Chapo, the candidate of Frelimo, received 70.7% of the vote, the election commission said on Thursday, comfortably clearing the 50% mark needed to avoid a second round.
Continue reading...Just designating key areas will not meet 30x30 target on nature loss, study says, pointing to oil drilling in parks
Biodiversity is declining more quickly within key protected areas than outside them, according to research that scientists say is a “wake-up call” to global leaders discussing how to stop nature loss at the UN’s Cop16 talks in Colombia.
Protecting 30% of land and water for nature by 2030 was one of the key targets settled on by world leaders in a landmark 2022 agreement to save nature – and this month leaders are gathering again at a summit in the Colombian city of Cali to measure progress and negotiate new agreements to stop biodiversity loss.
Continue reading...UN Women says figure doubled in 2023 amid ‘blatant disregard’ of laws that left women and children unprotected
The proportion of women killed in conflicts around the world doubled last year, with women now accounting for 40% of all those killed in war zones, according to a new report by the United Nations.
The report from UN Women, which looks at the security situation for women and girls affected by war, says UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence also rose by 50% in 2023 compared with 2022.
Continue reading...Inquiry preceded controversial migration deal linked to claims of abuse in increasingly authoritarian country
The European Commission is refusing to publish the findings of a human rights inquiry into Tunisia it conducted shortly before announcing a controversial migration deal with the increasingly authoritarian north African country.
An investigation by the EU ombudsman found that the commission quietly carried out a “risk management exercise” into human rights concerns in Tunisia but will not disclose its results.
Continue reading...‘Moral threshold coming down,’ warns Mo Ibrahim, as his index of governance reveals widespread decline in 10 years
The global rise of populism and “strongmen” has led to an increase in authoritarianism in Africa that is holding back progress in governance, the businessman and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim has said.
According to the latest edition of the Ibrahim index of African governance, 78% of Africa’s citizens live in a country where security and democracy deteriorated between 2014 and 2023.
Continue reading...Rapid urbanisation thought to be damaging adolescent health, as researchers say need for medication and diagnostic tests is urgent
Millions of teenagers in Africa are suffering from asthma with no formal diagnosis as the continent undergoes rapid urbanisation, researchers have found.
The study, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, involved 27,000 pupils from urban areas in Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. It found more than 3,000 reported asthma symptoms, but only about 600 had a formal diagnosis.
Continue reading...Warning of ‘lost generation’ in Adré and Farchana camps as Sudan’s civil war drives huge numbers across border
Refugees and aid agencies have warned of deteriorating conditions in overcrowded and severely underfunded camps in Chad, as intensifying violence and a hunger crisis in Sudan drive huge numbers across the border.
About 25,000 people – the vast majority women and children – crossed into eastern Chad in the first week of October, a record number for a single week in 2024. Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, hosts 681,944 Sudanese refugees – the highest number globally.
Continue reading...Greater bamboo lemur births in captivity are extremely rare and park is only UK collection to have bred it this year
Cotswold wildlife park has successfully bred one of Madagascar’s most endangered lemurs.
The as yet unnamed youngster was born to a breeding male, Raphael, and female, Bijou, at the wildlife park.
Continue reading...Lawyer Elvino Dias and official Paulo Guambe shot as their party plans a national strike over disputed election
Attackers killed a Mozambique opposition lawyer and a party official after firing rounds at a car in which they were travelling, ratcheting up tensions before protests against a disputed election result, the EU and rights groups have said.
Mozambique’s new opposition Podemos party and its presidential candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, have rejected provisional results showing a probable win for Frelimo, the party that has ruled Mozambique for half a century. They have called for a nationwide strike on Monday.
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