Category Archives: Africa

Suspected outbreak of deadly Marburg virus disease kills eight in Tanzania

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Healthcare workers among suspected cases of Ebola-like disease as WHO issues warning of high risk to the country and its neighbours

A suspected outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) in Tanzania has killed eight people and poses a high risk to the country and its neighbours, global health leaders have said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said nine suspected cases of the Ebola-like virus had been reported as of 11 January, in two districts of the Kagera region in the north of the country, including the eight deaths.

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Halt illegal imports of conflict minerals from DRC, campaigners urge EU

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Law to stop armed groups profiting from trade in gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum is being breached, rights groups say

The European Union has been urged to clamp down on illegal imports of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after evidence was found that current regulations had been breached.

The advocacy group Global Witness (GW) said there remained a “high risk” of the EU’s mineral imports being used to fund militias and state repression in several countries.

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South Africa launches operation at illegal gold mine amid fears many dead

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Phone video shared by mining NGO appears to show dozens of wrapped bodies in underground tunnel

The South African government has launched a mission to bring to the surface potentially hundreds of people in an illegal mine who last year had supplies of food, water and medicine blocked by police in an attempt to force them out.

The government agreed to the attempt on Friday after the sister of one of those underground initiated a court case in response to letters from miners brought to the surface on Thursday.

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Cyclone Dikeledi kills three in Madagascar, and Mayotte is hit again

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Tropical storm batters eastern parts of Africa, including French territory still recovering from Cyclone Chido

Over the weekend, eastern parts of Africa were threatened by Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi. What started as a slight tropical disturbance between Indonesia and Australia on 2 January progressed westwards while developing into a depression over the week that followed.

The depression strengthened into a moderate tropical storm with heavy downpours and gusty winds exceeding 39mph (63km/h) across central parts of the Indian Ocean. At this time, the system was named Dikeledi. It continued westwards and deepened into a tropical cyclone on the evening of 10 January as maximum sustained wind speeds hit 74mph – the equivalent of becoming a category 1 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.

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Somalia and Ethiopia agree to restore diplomatic ties after year-long rift

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Somalia severed relations over sea access agreement Ethiopia signed with separatist region of Somaliland

Somalia and Ethiopia have agreed to restore diplomatic representation in their respective capitals, more than a year after Somalia severed ties over a sea access agreement landlocked Ethiopia signed with the separatist northern Somali region of Somaliland.

In a joint statement after an unexpected visit by Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, both countries committed to “restore and enhance bilateral relations through full diplomatic representation in their respective capitals”.

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Court ruling on Belgium’s conduct in colonial Africa hailed as turning point

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Verdict of crimes against humanity for kidnap of mixed-race children could pave way for wider justice, activists say

A historic court ruling that found Belgium guilty of crimes against humanity during its colonial rule of central Africa has been hailed as a turning point that could pave the way for compensation and other forms of justice.

Belgium’s court of appeal ruled last month that the “systematic kidnapping” of mixed-race children from their African mothers in Belgian-ruled Congo, Rwanda and Burundi was a crime against humanity. The case was brought by five women who were removed from their Congolese mothers as small children between 1948 and 1953, and who now live in Belgium and France. Each was awarded €50,000 (£42,000) in damages.

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Sudan’s army recaptures Wad Madani from rebel Rapid Support Forces

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Strategic city fell into control of RSF, which has been accused of genocide by the US, in December 2023

Sudan’s military and its allies have taken back a strategic city from the rebel Rapid Support Forces, officials said.

The recapture of Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira province, took place more than a year after it fell to the RSF. Wad Madani had previously been a haven for displaced families in the early months of the war.

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South Africa police find 26 naked Ethiopians held by suspected traffickers

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Three people arrested after group escapes Johannesburg house by breaking a window and burglar bar

South African police have rescued 26 Ethiopians from a suspected human trafficking ring in Johannesburg after the group broke a window and burglar bar to escape from a house where they were being held naked.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of people trafficking and possessing an illegal firearm on Thursday night after neighbours in the Sandringham suburb heard the commotion and tipped off the police, the Hawks serious crime unit said in a statement. Police urged the public to report any other escaped naked people in the area.

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Kenya court rules that criminalising attempted suicide is unconstitutional

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The judgment has been welcomed as an important shift in perceptions by human rights and mental health groups

A Kenyan judge has declared as unconstitutional sections of the country’s laws that criminalise attempted suicide. In a landmark ruling on Thursday, Judge Lawrence Mugambi of the country’s high court stated that section 226 of the penal code contradicts the constitution by punishing those with mental health issues over which they may have little or no control.

While the constitution says in article 43 that a person has the right to the “highest attainable standard of health”, criminal law states that “any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanour and is subject to imprisonment of up to two years, a fine, or both”, with the minimum age of prosecution for the offence set at eight years old.

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Mozambique opposition leader returns after post-election violence

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Venâncio Mondlane went into self-imposed exile after disputed elections in October, saying he feared being assassinated

Mozambique’s opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane, has returned to the country from self-imposed exile, saying he is ready for talks with the government after claiming October’s elections were stolen from him.

In large dark sunglasses, Mondlane dropped to his knees as he exited the arrivals door of Maputo’s international airport and appeared to be praying. He spoke to journalists outside, wearing a fake flower garland, before his car edged through crowds of cheering supporters.

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UK cut health aid to vulnerable nations while hiring their nurses, research finds

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Royal College of Nursing says Labour has a duty to fix health ‘double whammy’ by raising aid and funding for UK nursing

The UK cut health aid to some of the world’s vulnerable countries at the same time as recruiting thousands of their nurses, in a “double whammy” for fragile health systems, new analysis has found.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which carried out the research, said Labour had a “duty to fix” aid cuts imposed by the previous government, and to work on increasing the UK’s domestic supply of nurses.

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Massive cleanup under way in Ghana after fire destroys one of world’s biggest secondhand markets

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Thousands of traders face ruin after blaze razes two-thirds of Accra’s Kantamanto, which receives an estimated 15m used clothes from global north each week

A huge cleanup operation is taking place after a fire devastated one of the world’s biggest secondhand clothes markets.

Thousands of traders’ stalls were destroyed in the blaze that started at about 10pm on 1 January and consumed large sections of Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana’s capital.

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Twenty missing after falling from boat in rough seas off Libya’s coast

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Small vessel tilted after taking in water, according to seven survivors who reached Italian island of Lampedusa

Twenty people are missing after falling into the sea from a tilting boat after it started to take in water in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya, according to survivors.

Carrying 27 passengers, the six-metre boat had left Zuwara in Libya at 10pm on Monday. Despite the waves, seven people managed to continue the journey on the rickety vessel before being found by an Italian police patrol boat on Tuesday night close to the southern island of Lampedusa.

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World of dance mourns death of ‘brilliant light’ Dada Masilo at age of 39

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South African dancer and choreographer died unexpectedly after a brief illness, her family says

The dance world is mourning the internationally acclaimed South African dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo, who died in hospital at the weekend aged 39.

Masilo died unexpectedly on Sunday after a brief illness, a spokesperson for her family said in a statement.

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Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof was ‘scathing about African leaders’, files reveal

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Singer urged Tony Blair not to appoint African co-chair to commission on aid, UK government papers show

The Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof urged Tony Blair not to appoint an African co-chair to the UK-led organisation working to overhaul international aid to the continent because he thought African leadership was “very weak” on the issue, newly released government documents suggest.

The singer was “scathing about the ability and worthiness of virtually all African leaders” before the establishment in 2004 of Blair’s Commission for Africa, which would produce a report, Our Common Interest, and prompt a landmark pledge by rich nations to boost aid and write off debt.

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Labour government discussed Tanzania asylum camp plan in 2004, files show

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Newly released files show proposals to divert £2m – earmarked to prevent conflict in Africa – to fund scheme

Tony Blair’s government discussed diverting £2m earmarked to prevent conflict in Africa in order to fund a controversial pilot scheme to process and house asylum-seekers in Tanzania, newly released government files show.

Under the scheme, Britain would have offered Tanzania an extra £4m in aid if it opened an asylum camp to house people claiming to be Somalian refugees while their applications to live in Britain were assessed.

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UN authorises new mission against al-Shabaab in Somalia

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Resolution allows deployment of 12,626 personnel – but it is unclear if Ethiopia will stay part of peacekeeping force amid territory dispute

The UN has authorised a new African peacekeeping mission to continue its fight against Somalia’s al-Shabaab, the insurgent group affiliated with al-Qaida, but there are doubts about whether troops from neighbouring Ethiopia will remain part of the deployment.

The UN security council adopted a resolution on Friday allowing the deployment of up to 12,626 personnel to support the Somali government’s nearly two decades-long fight against al-Shabaab.

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‘We have to change our attitude’: wildlife expert says rhino horn trade must be legalised

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Call for illicit market to be taken out of hands of criminals as numbers continue to fall drastically due to poaching

International trade in rhino horns should be legalised, a leading wildlife expert has urged.

Writing in the research journal Science, Martin Wikelski argues only carefully monitored, legitimate transactions in horns can save the world’s remaining species of rhinoceros.

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Almost one in five children live in conflict zones, says Unicef

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UN humanitarian body warns that dramatic increase in harm to children should not become the ‘new normal’

Nearly one in five of the world’s children live in areas affected by conflicts, with more than 473 million children suffering from the worst levels of violence since the second world war, according to figures published by the UN.

The UN humanitarian aid organisation for children, Unicef, said on Saturday that the percentage of children living in conflict zones around the world has doubled from about 10% in the 1990s to almost 19%, and warned that this dramatic increase in harm to children should not become the “new normal”.

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