Category Archives: Africa

Tanzanian investigative journalist in court over money laundering

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Erick Kabendera also faces charges of leading organised crime and failure to pay tax

A Tanzanian investigative journalist has appeared in court charged with organised crime and money laundering.

Erick Kabendera, who was arrested by plainclothes policemen last week, appeared in court charged with leading organised crime, failure to pay tax amounting to 173m Tanzanian shillings ($75,000) and money laundering of the same amount. Press freedom advocates have called the charges “clearly retaliatory”.

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Cairo car bomb kills at least 20 outside hospital

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Interior ministry blames Hasm group for blast that injured dozens near cancer institute

Twenty people have been killed and 47 injured after a car bomb collided with other vehicles, triggering an explosion outside a cancer hospital in central Cairo.

The blast occurred around midnight local time on a road running alongside the Nile River in an area outside Egypt’s National Cancer Institute. Pictures taken just after the incident and published by Egypt’s largest newspaper, Al-Ahram, showed two burnt-out cars, with at least one completely blackened and dented from the force of the explosion.

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‘We lose so many women’: the tragedy of unsafe abortion in Kibera

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With terminations outlawed in Kenya, women and girls in its largest slum have to rely on expensive and unreliable under-the-counter pills, toxic chemicals or other homemade remedies. The consequences can be fatal

Podcast: The women fighting back in Kenya’s biggest slum

Edita Ochieng sashays up in her “This is what a feminist looks like” T-shirt – bright and new in a place where clothes are aged and faded.

“Got them,” she stage-whispers, a flash of silver foil in her hand. Four pills carefully cut from a longer strip. Ochieng has just been attempting to buy abortion pills from among the numerous kiosk-sized “quack” chemists in the Nairobi slum of Kibera. Just to show how easy it is.

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The South African teenagers using radio to fight gun crime – in pictures

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Every week a group of South African teenagers crowd into a studio to play hip-hop and discuss neighbourhood gun crime for their community radio show, Bigger Than Life, on Alex FM. They are determined to help stem the violence that blights their densely populated township of Alexandra in Johannesburg

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The women fighting back in Kenya’s biggest slum – podcast

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Edita Ochieng and like-minded women are taking a stand against endemic sexual violence and police corruption in Kibera. Plus: Angelique Chrisafis on why climate protesters in France are stealing portraits of Emmanuel Macron. Warning: this podcast contains references to sexual abuse

Edita Ochieng, like many women in Kibera, has been a victim of sexual violence. But with police corruption rife, she has banded together with several other women to bring perpetrators to justice as well as providing advice and counselling.

The Guardian’s Tracy McVeigh and Rod Austin spent time in Kenya’s largest slum with Ochieng and describe her extraordinary story to India Rakusen.

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Migrant rescue ship with 40 people arrives in Malta after EU deal

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Vessel allowed entry under agreement that other countries will look after those onboard

A group of 40 migrants rescued by a German charity ship have landed in Malta and will be taken care of by other EU member states after a deal negotiated by Berlin.

The 40 people were rescued on Wednesday from a small boat off the Libyan coast by the ship Alan Kurdi, which belongs to the NGO Sea-Eye. The NGO then sailed them to southern Italy, saying the port of Lampedusa was the closest and safest harbour.

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Italy grants asylum to Eritrean man mistaken for years for trafficker

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Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe was put in deportation centre after acquittal but is now free

Italian authorities have granted refugee status to an Eritrean man who was the victim of one of the country’s most embarrassing cases of mistaken identity.

Last month a judge in Palermo acquitted Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe of being a human trafficking kingpin, confirming he was the victim of mistaken identity when he was arrested more than three years ago in a joint operation by Italian and British authorities.

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Sudanese military and protesters reach full agreement on power-sharing deal

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Constitutional declaration follows the arrest of nine paramilitaries for killing four schoolchildren

Sudan’s ruling generals and protest leaders have reached an agreement to usher in a new period of transitional government, the African Union said.

The agreement came after prolonged negotiations between Sudan’s ruling military council and the Alliance for Freedom and Change, which has been leading the protest movement across Sudan for months.

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Alana Cutland plane death: police investigate possible medication link

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Student, who fell from aircraft, had reportedly suffered severe reaction to prescribed drugs

Police in Madagascar are investigating whether a British student who died after falling from a light plane deliberately opened the doors after suffering a severe reaction to medication.

Alana Cutland, 19, who has been described by her family as a “bright, independent young woman”, fell from the two-door Cessna C168 on 25 July. She had been carrying out research in the remote area of Anjajavy on the island off Africa’s east coast.

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Activist who branded Uganda president ‘a dirty, delinquent dictator’ is jailed

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Stella Nyanzi vows to persist with criticism of Yoweri Museveni after receiving 18-month prison sentence for cyber harassment

Stella Nyanzi, the Ugandan women’s rights activist and staunch government critic who once called head of state Yoweri Museveni “a pair of buttocks”, has received an 18-month jail sentence after she was found guilty of cyber harassment against the president.

Nyanzi, a former researcher at Makerere University, was arrested on 2 November after posting a poem on Facebook that the state deemed abusive towards Museveni and his late mother.

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Mayor of Mogadishu dies as result of al-Shabaab attack

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Abdirahman Omar Osman was a naturalised Briton who once worked as a council housing manager in London

The mayor of Mogadishu has died after being badly wounded in an al-Shabaab extremist attack in his office last week, the government of Somalia has announced.

Abdirahman Omar Osman was a naturalised Briton who returned to Somalia to help rebuild the war-torn country. He spent 17 years in the UK including a stint as housing manager at Ealing council in west London.

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Madagascar police say Alana Cutland opened door of aircraft herself

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British student died following her fall from airplane shortly after takeoff

A British student who died after falling from an airplane flying over Madagascar opened the door of the aircraft herself, according to local police.

Alana Cutland, who was described as a “bright, independent young woman”, was on a research trip on the island. Officers there told the BBC and the Sun newspaper she fell shortly after the Cessna C168 on which she was travelling took off.

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Rwanda closes border with DRC over deadly Ebola outbreak

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Closure follows second Ebola death in densely populated city of Goma, on Rwandan border

Rwanda has closed its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a deadly Ebola outbreak that started a year ago has killed more than 1,803 people.

The closure came after a second death linked to the Ebola virus was confirmed on Wednesday in the densely populated Congolese city of Goma, which is on the porous border with Rwanda.

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Ebola: second death confirmed in Goma

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World Health Organization confirms a second person has died of the disease in a major transit hub in Democratic Republic of Congo

A second death linked to the Ebola virus has been confirmed in the densely populated city of Goma, located at the Democratic Republic of Congo’s porous border with Rwanda.

The first case of Ebola in Goma – an evangelical preacher – contributed to the World Health Organization decision to declare the Ebola crisis in DRC an international public health emergency.

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Abducted Libyan MP’s relatives in US sound alarm over torture fears

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Seham Sergiwa was taken by armed men after she criticised Haftar offensive in Tripoli

The family of a Libyan member of parliament and campaigner abducted by armed men two weeks ago fear she may have been subjected to torture and sexual violence.

Seham Sergiwa, who is also a prominent women’s rights activist, disappeared from her home in the eastern city of Benghazi on 17 July and has not been heard from since.

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Bob Geldof’s firm’s use of tax haven is legal, but the system hurts African nations

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Private equity company 8 Miles channels funds through Mauritius in a ‘depressingly routine’ arrangement

At their closest point, Europe and Africa are just eight miles apart. That’s the inspiration for the name of Sir Bob Geldof’s private equity firm, 8 Miles, set up to channel investment into successful businesses in Africa.

But we learned last week that 8 Miles’ cash travels considerably further than this on its way from one continent to the other. It has established a cluster of companies in Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, which funds pass through.

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British man charged with distributing bleach ‘cure’ to Ugandans

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Four men have been charged with distributing a phoney miracle cure which they claimed would cure HIV, malaria and cancer

A British man and three Ugandans have been charged and held in remand in connection with carrying out illegal clinical trials and administering people with industrial bleach.

Sam Little, 25, from Arlesey in Bedfordshire, Tim Tom, a pastor at Fort portal Christian fellowship, and herbalists Samuel Albert and Samula Tadeo were charged in Uganda for allegedly distributing a liquid called Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) to villagers in poor areas, which they claimed cured HIV, malaria and cancer.

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‘My message is simple: use the toilet’: tackling open defecation in Nigeria

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Regular patrols are helping to ensure villagers in Kano state are practising good hygiene, to improve sanitation and cut disease

When Nasiru Ibrahim goes on patrol around his village, he’s not looking out for criminal activities, or the usual community problems. Instead, Ibrahim is making sure people in Yammawar Kafawa, in northern Nigeria’s Kano state, are using toilets.

Last October, the villagers agreed to stop defecating in fields, bushes and streets, and instead use the newly-built toilets, as part of the Nigerian government’s drive to end open defecation by 2025.

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Four teenage protesters killed by security forces in central Sudan

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Rapid Support Forces opened fire on peaceful protest against shortages in El-Obaid

At least four students were killed when security forces opened fire on a protest in central Sudan on Monday. The oldest was 16, the youngest 14, locals said. The death toll is expected to rise.

Witnesses described how militia from the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fired on teenagers, many of whom were wearing school uniforms and carrying school bags, as they marched peacefully in protest at shortages of water, electricity and public transport in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state. There were also reports of at least one adult casualty.

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Ethiopia plants 350m trees in a day to help tackle climate crisis

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National ‘green legacy’ initiative aims to reduce environmental degradation

About 350m trees have been planted in a single day in Ethiopia, according to a government minister.

The planting is part of a national “green legacy” initiative to grow 4bn trees in the country this summer by encouraging every citizen to plant at least 40 seedlings. Public offices have reportedly been shut down in order for civil servants to take part.

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