Category Archives: Africa

Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey appointed Commonwealth secretary general

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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.

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Mozambique ruling party declared winner of election marred by killings

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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.

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Biodiversity declining even faster in ‘protected’ areas, scientists warn Cop16

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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.

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Four in 10 deaths in war zones last year were women, UN report finds

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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.

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EU refuses to publish findings of Tunisia human rights inquiry

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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.

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Breakdown in global order causing progress to stall in Africa – report

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‘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.

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Millions of teenagers in Africa have undiagnosed asthma – study

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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.

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Despair in Chad camps as violence and hunger in Sudan drive 25,000 across border in a week

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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.

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Cotswold wildlife park successfully breeds endangered Madagascan lemur

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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.

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Mozambique opposition figures killed as protest grows over election results

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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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Somali security agents arrest journalist in night-time raid

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Abduqadir Mohamed Nur’s reported abduction from home and detention is latest attack on press freedom for critical writing on regime, media union says

A Somali journalist was abducted from his home by intelligence agents early on Friday, according to press freedom campaigners.

The journalists’ union Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) said the detention of Abduqadir Mohamed Nur was a “brazen attack” on the reporter and his news outlet, Risaala Media Corporation, for critical reporting of state security forces.

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‘My dream has been shattered,’ says Nigerian nurse accused of cheating after arriving in UK

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Nurse says she has lost ‘my name, my integrity’ after being accused of using proxy to sit tests to work in Britain

When I was a little girl in my village in Nigeria going to school was something I could not even dream of because we did not have money. Then my mother sold everything we owned to pay for me to go to school.

I knew this was my only ticket to make something worthwhile out of my life and my family’s life.

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Kenyan political drama as deputy president impeached while in hospital

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Senators upheld five of 11 charges in unprecedented vote while Rigathi Gachagua was treated for chest pains

Kenya’s senate impeached the deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, while he was in hospital on a day of high political drama in Nairobi.

Senators upheld five out of 11 charges against Gachagua in a vote late on Thursday, making him the first deputy president in the country to be ejected from office through impeachment.

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Netherlands mulls sending rejected African asylum seekers to Uganda

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Critics say plan mooted by coalition government led by Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom party is ‘totally unfeasible’

The Dutch coalition government, headed by Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom party (PVV), is considering sending Africans whose asylum requests are rejected to Uganda, in plans that opposition politicians have said are “totally unfeasible”.

During a visit this week to the East African country, the Dutch minister for trade and development, Reinette Klever, said the cabinet was exploring the ideaand that Uganda was “not averse” to it, the Dutch public broadcaster Nos reported on Wednesday.

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Negative stereotypes in international media cost Africa £3.2bn a year – report

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Focus on conflict, corruption and poverty heightens perception of risk, raising interest on sovereign debt, authors say

Africa loses up to £3.2bn yearly in inflated interest payments on sovereign debt due to persistent negative stereotypes that dominate international media coverage of the continent, according to a new report.

Research by consultants Africa Practice and the advocacy non-profit Africa No Filter suggests that media portrayals, especially during elections when global coverage is heightened, focus disproportionately on conflict, corruption, poverty, disease and poor leadership, widening disparities between perceived and actual risks of investing in the continent, and creating a monolithic view of Africa.

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More EU leaders expected to back calls for offshore asylum centres

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Migration to dominate summit as four people including two toddlers die after falling from crowded speedboat off Kos

A growing number of European leaders are expected to back calls for offshore immigration centres, as the EU casts around for tougher measures to stop asylum seekers reaching the bloc.

EU officials were preparing for intensive talks on migration at a leaders’ summit on Thursday, as it emerged that four people, including two toddlers, had died after falling overboard from an overcrowded speedboat off the Greek island of Kos.

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Explosion kills scores of Nigerians collecting fuel from crashed tanker

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People were collecting fuel from tanker that had crashed when it blew up, according to local police

More than 140 people have died in an explosion while rushing to scoop up fuel from a crashed tanker in north-west Nigeria, in one of the country’s worst such incidents in recent times.

Local authorities said the vehicle crashed late on Tuesday night after the driver lost control on the Kano-Hadejia expressway near the town of Majiya in Jigawa state. It then exploded while onlookers were scooping spilt fuel with cups and buckets.

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Grand Egyptian Museum to open main galleries for trial run to 4,000 visitors

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Date for official opening still not announced for $1bn-plus mega-project more than a decade in the making

Egypt’s vast and much-delayed antiquities museum will partly open its main galleries on Wednesday, including 12 halls that exhibit aspects of ancient Egypt.

The Grand Egyptian Museum, a mega-project near the famed Giza pyramids that has cost considerably more than $1bn (£765m) so far, will open its halls to 4,000 visitors as a trial run until the official opening date, which is yet to be announced, according to Al-Tayeb Abbas, assistant to the minister of antiquities.

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EU unable to retrieve €150m paid to Tunisia despite links to rights violations

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Concerns are growing that funds from the migration deal are connected to abuses by the repressive regime in Tunis

The EU will be unable to claw back any of the €150m (£125m) paid to Tunisia despite the money being increasingly linked to human rights violations, including allegations that sums went to security forces who raped migrant women.

The European Commission paid the amount to the Tunis government in a controversial migration and development deal, despite concerns that the north African state was increasingly authoritarian and its police largely operated with impunity.

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Cameroon bans discussing president’s health as absence fuels speculation

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Health of Paul Biya, 91, declared matter of national security and any debate prohibited after denial that he has died

Cameroonian authorities have banned discussions about the health of the president, Paul Biya, after the latest round of speculation about his prolonged failure to appear in public.

In a 9 October letter to regional governors, the interior minister, Paul Atanga Nji, said discussing the 91-year-old president’s health was a matter of national security and “any debate in the media about the president’s condition is therefore strictly prohibited”.

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