Category Archives: Africa

Dramatic images show the first floods in the Sahara in half a century

Posted on by

More than year’s worth of rain fell in two days in south-east Morocco, filling up lake that had been dry for decades

Dramatic pictures have emerged of the first floods in the Sahara in half a century.

Two days of rainfall in September exceeded yearly averages in several areas of south-east Morocco and caused a deluge, officials of the country’s meteorology agency said in early October. In Tagounite, a village about 450km(280 miles) south of the capital, Rabat, more than 100mm (3.9 inches) was recorded in a 24-hour period.

Continue reading...

Mozambique ruling party likely to win elections despite dissatisfied youth

Posted on by

Venâncio Mondlane is enthusing young voters in presidential elections but Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo still likely winner

Mozambicans go to the polls on Wednesday in elections that the ruling Frelimo party is expected to win easily, even as an outsider candidate is shaking up the presidential race and winning over young voters in a country where the median age is just 17.

Frelimo has ruled the southern African country since the end of Portuguese colonial rule in 1975. For the first time, it is fielding a presidential candidate born after independence, Daniel Chapo, a provincial governor who was relatively unknown until being picked in May as the candidate to succeed the outgoing president, Filipe Nyusi.

Continue reading...

Tunisia’s president wins landslide second term after cracking down on opponents

Posted on by

Kais Saied secured 90.7% of the vote in election on a turnout of just 27.7%, after detaining rival Ayachi Zammel

Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, has secured a second five-year term with a landslide victory, although the election had one of the lowest turnouts in the north African country’s history.

The Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) declared on Monday evening that Saied had won 90.7% of the vote in Sunday’s election, on a turnout of 27.7%.

Continue reading...

Suddenly, all MPs know where the Chagos Islands are and what’s best for them | John Crace

Posted on by

Many who last week couldn’t have got within 500 miles of Mauritius on a map now can’t bear it taking the archipelago

What a difference a week makes. Just last Wednesday, you could have put money on most MPs being totally clueless about the exact location of the Chagos Islands. Give them a map and many would have better luck being blindfolded.

Even a hint wouldn’t have made much difference. Are they east, west, south or north of Mauritius? To be in with a shout, you have to know where Mauritius is. And most MPs wouldn’t get within 500 miles. The Indian Ocean is bigger than you think. And don’t get them started on Diego Garcia. Surely he’s the younger brother of the titular character in the 1974 Sam Peckinpah film Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.

Continue reading...

Lammy defends Chagos deal, saying it saves important UK-US military base

Posted on by

Foreign secretary says status quo not sustainable as Tory MPs accuse Labour of giving away key asset

David Lammy has hailed the decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as a deal to save a strategically important UK-US military base, after accusations from opposition MPs that a key asset was being given away.

The government announced last week that it was going to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, but the military base on Diego Garcia will remain under UK control.

Continue reading...

Biden to visit Angola as global powers vie for African influence

Posted on by

US and EU are supporting infrastructure projects in Angola, which has historically been closer to Russia and China

When Joe Biden travels to Angola on Sunday, it will be the first trip to an African country of his presidency and the first to the continent by a sitting US president since Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia in 2015.

It is a marker of how Africa’s 54 countries are increasingly courted by global powers, drawn to the continent by geopolitical shifts and an abundance of minerals needed for electric cars and other battery-powered technologies.

Continue reading...

Democracy campaigners criticise President Saied as polls close in Tunisia

Posted on by

Leader of north African country expected to win second term after jailing opponents and changing constitution

Polls have closed in Tunisia’s presidential election as the president, Kais Saied, seeks a second term, while his most prominent critics are in prison and after his main rival was jailed suddenly last month.

Observers see the election, which Saied is expected to win, as a closing chapter in Tunisia’s experiment with democracy.

Continue reading...

Mpox vaccination begins in DRC after 859 die this year

Posted on by

World Health Organization declared outbreak in central and east Africa a global emergency two months ago

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have begun vaccination against mpox, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread to several countries was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization.

Some of the 265,000 doses donated to the DRC by the EU and the US were administered in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox.

Continue reading...

Arab spring dreams in ruins as Tunisia goes to polls against backdrop of repression

Posted on by

Critics of incumbent Kais Saied say he has increasingly bent the country’s institutions to his will

Tunisia will hold a presidential election on Sunday against the backdrop of a crackdown on dissent and human rights violations committed against undocumented migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

The incumbent, Kais Saied, whose most prominent critics are behind bars, is expected to sail to an easy win after a campaign with few rallies and public debates, marking a significant step back for a country that long prided itself as the birthplace of the Arab spring uprisings of 2011.

Continue reading...

Starmer defends UK ceding control of Chagos Islands amid Tory criticism

Posted on by

PM says deal has secured future of US-UK military base as Conservative leadership hopefuls play blame game

Keir Starmer has defended giving up UK control of the Chagos Islands, as the decision has descended into a political blame game among Conservative leadership candidates.

The prime minister said the agreement with Mauritius over the islands would secure the long-term future of a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, which he deemed as the “single most important thing”.

Continue reading...

More than 100 people missing after being forced off boats in Djibouti

Posted on by

Nearly 50 people dead and 108 unaccounted for after smugglers apparently force passengers into the water

More than 100 people are still missing after smugglers apparently forced migrants to leave their boats and swim in the Red Sea off the coast of Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration has said.

Forty-eight people have so far been confirmed dead after the incident on Monday, which involved two boats that had left Yemen for Djibouti with a total of 310 people onboard, said Frantz Celestin, a regional director at the UN agency. “Unfortunately, we have yet to account for about 108 of the migrants,” he said.

Continue reading...

At least 78 dead and dozens missing after ferry disaster in DR Congo

Posted on by

Overcrowded boat on Lake Kivu capsizes as it was about to dock near Goma, with death toll likely to rise significantly

At least 78 people have drowned and many more are missing after a boat belived to be carrying 278 passengers capsized on Thursday morning just a few hundred metres from the shore of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The accident happened just as the vessel, MV Merdy, was about to dock at the port of Kituku, just outside the city of Goma, after crossing the lake from the town of Minova.

Continue reading...

Tanzania suspends news websites over ad referencing killings of dissidents

Posted on by

Regulator says advert by publisher of the Citizen newspaper ‘likely to harm national unity’

Tanzania has suspended the online operations of a top newspaper publisher after one of its publications ran an animated advert depicting the country’s president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, and referencing a spate of recent abductions and killings of dissidents.

The advert, published on X and Instagram on Tuesday by the Citizen, an English-language newspaper, showed a character resembling the president flipping through TV channels. Each channel showed people speaking about loved ones they had lost through disappearances.

Continue reading...

Britain to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius ending years of dispute

Posted on by

Agreement to hand back UK’s last African colony follows 13 rounds of negotiations and international pressure

The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony.

The agreement will allow a right of return for Chagossians, who the UK expelled from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity and one of the most shameful episodes of postwar colonialism.

Continue reading...

Dikembe Mutombo, NBA Hall of Famer and humanitarian, dies at 58

Posted on by
  • Former NBA star’s diagnosis was revealed two years ago
  • Center was known for charity work in US and Africa

Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo, whose towering presence dominated basketball on and off the court, has died from brain cancer at the age of 58.

“Dikembe Mutombo was simply larger than life,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement on Monday. “On the court, he was one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players in the history of the NBA. Off the floor, he poured his heart and soul into helping others.”

Continue reading...

Seventeen killed in two mass shootings in South African town

Posted on by

Police hunting for suspects in attacks that took place in same neighbourhood in Eastern Cape province

Seventeen people, including 15 women, have been killed in two mass shootings that took place close to each other in a rural town in South Africa, police said.

A search was under way for the suspects, the national police spokesperson, Brig Athlenda Mathe, said in a statement on Saturday. One other person was in critical condition in the hospital, she added.

Continue reading...

British army to investigate conduct of troops in Kenya amid rape and murder claims

Posted on by

Defence secretary to meet family of woman allegedly killed by soldier, as ITV airs documentary alleging fresh abuses

The army is to launch an inquiry into the behaviour of British troops posted to a military base in Kenya, after multiple allegations of serious abuses committed by soldiers, including rape and murder.

The inquiry is to examine the conduct of military personnel posted to the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK). It is where the soldier alleged to have murdered a Kenyan woman, Agnes Wanjiru, was posted at the time of her death in 2012.

Continue reading...

Libya central bank deal could resolve ‘all political issues’, says head of state

Posted on by

Mohamed al-Menfi defends dismissal of previous governor and says deal will bring back international accountability

A deal backed by leaders on both sides of Libya’s political divide to appoint a new central bank governor has the potential “to resolve all the political issues” in the country, Libya’s head of state has said.

Mohamed al-Menfi, the president of Libya’s Presidential Council who is largely aligned with the UN-recognised government in Tripoli, was accused of acting unilaterally and propelling the country into fresh turmoil when in August he dismissed the previous long-serving bank governor, Sadiq al-Kabir, who then fled into exile.

Continue reading...

Sudan’s army launches push to retake ground in capital

Posted on by

Heavy bombardments and clashes reported before army commander addresses UN general assembly

Sudan’s army launched artillery and airstrikes in Sudan’s capital on Thursday in its biggest operation to regain ground there since early in its 17-month war with the Rapid Support Forces, witnesses and military sources said.

The push by the army, which lost control of most of the capital at the start of the conflict, came before its commander, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, gave an address at the UN general assembly in New York.

Continue reading...