Category Archives: Africa

Calls grow for Liberia prison reform after more than 200 inmates protest

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Jails are routinely severely overcrowded and access to basic medical facilities is lacking

Calls for reform of Liberia’s notorious prison system have intensified after more than 200 inmates held a protest at a facility in the northern Nimba county earlier this month over what they described as the government’s failure to provide them with adequate food and medication.

Complaints about the west African country’s prisons are longstanding. Prisons are routinely severely overcrowded and inmates suffer from a lack of access to basic medical facilities, sanitary items and uniforms.

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Isabel dos Santos has £580m of assets frozen by UK high court

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Billionaire daughter of Angola’s former president is being sued by telecoms company Unitel

Isabel dos Santos, the former president of Angola’s self-exiled billionaire daughter who has long faced claims of corruption, has had £580m of assets frozen by the UK high court.

Dos Santos, Africa’s first female billionaire, is being sued by the Angolan telecoms company Unitel, which she founded during her father’s 38-year reign as president. Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled Angola until 2017, and died last year.

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Presidential candidates call for rerun of election in Democratic Republic of Congo

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Opposition complains of ‘obviously planned electoral fraud’ as vote is plagued by administrative chaos, delays and closed polling stations

Five Congolese opposition presidential candidates have jointly called for a rerun of the country’s general elections, saying a decision by the election commission to extend the ballot was unconstitutional.

After a day plagued by administrative chaos, delays and closed polling stations, electoral authorities said late on Wednesday that voting would continue on the following day in areas where voters could not cast ballots.

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Could new malaria drug give babies a better chance of survival?

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Trials are under way for a treatment for newborns and infants, who are often wrongly assumed to have immunity through their mothers

When Rose Akinyi’s baby, Jayla Joy, would not eat or stop crying one night, she thought her newborn had a stomach upset. She gave her some mild pain medication, but her condition grew worse.

“She was burning hot, so I removed her clothes and gave her [more pain medication],” said 30-year-old Akinyi, from Kisumu, a port city in western Kenya on Lake Victoria.

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France jails former doctor for 24 years over role in 1994 Rwanda genocide

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Sosthene Munyemana is sixth person to be tried and convicted in France over involvement in slaughter of Tutsi minority

Former Rwandan doctor Sosthene Munyemana has been jailed for 24 years by a French court for his involvement in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.

The 68-year-old former gynaecologist was on Wednesday found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and participation in a conspiracy to prepare these crimes.

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French couple lose court case over rare African mask worth millions

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Couple sold mask to dealer for €150 in 2021 before it was sold to unidentified buyer for €4.2m

A French couple who sold an “extremely rare” African mask for €150 only to discover it was worth millions have had a request to cancel the artefact’s sale thrown out in court.

The couple, in their 80s, sold the wooden mask in September 2021 to a secondhand goods dealer as part of the sale of a number of antiquities including African artefacts that they had kept in their secondary home in southern France.

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Businessman who tried to buy Sheffield United accused of ‘elaborate’ fraud

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US watchdog sues Dozy Mmobuosi for allegedly faking documents and making up companies out of ‘thin air’

A Nigerian businessman who appeared to be closing in on a takeover of the Premier League football club Sheffield United is being sued by the US financial watchdog for a fraud, in which he is alleged to have faked documents and made up companies out of “thin air”.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday it had filed charges against Dozy Mmobuosi, claiming he inflated his companies’ financial performance by hundreds of millions of dollars to defraud investors.

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Egypt’s Sisi wins third term as president after amending constitution

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President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wins Egypt election with 89.6% of vote after facing no serious challengers

The president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was voted in for a third term on Monday after an election where he faced no serious challengers, calling the vote a rejection of the “inhumane war” in neighbouring Gaza.

The president was able to claim the top job after Egypt’s constitution was amended in 2019, extending the presidential term to six years from four, and allowing Sisi to stand for a third term.

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RSF paramilitary seizes control of Wad Madani, Sudan’s second city

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Advance comes after three days of intense fighting that forced thousands to flee towards the south

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have seized Wad Madani, the country’s second city, which had taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees from the capital, Khartoum, early in the eight-month war between the regular army and the paramilitary RSF.

Videos posted by the RSF on Monday showed fighters in pickup trucks driving along streets in the city, the capital of el-Gezira state.

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Judge throws out Kabwe lead-poisoning case against Anglo American mining

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South African court dismisses huge class-action lawsuit over toxic legacy of mining at Broken Hill in Zambia between 1925 and 1974

A South African court has thrown out a case brought against the multinational mining company Anglo American on behalf of 140,000 Zambian women and children, who allege they have suffered lead poisoning from one of its mines.

The lawsuit, one of Africa’s largest class-action cases, was filed in October 2020, accused Anglo American of negligence over its alleged failure to prevent widespread lead poisoning in the Zambian town of Kabwe, where its South African subsidiary is alleged to have played a key role in running a large mine from 1925 until 1974.

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More than 60 people presumed dead after boat sinks off Libya, says UN

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Victims were from Nigeria, the Gambia and other African countries and included women and children, UN agency says

Dozens of people are missing and presumed dead after their boat sank off Libya’s coast, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said, in the latest migration tragedy off north Africa.

The 61 people are believed to have died because of high waves, which swamped their vessel after it left from Zuwara, on Libya’s north-west coast, the IOM’s Libya office said in a statement on Saturday.

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Three killed while repairing ancient wall at Unesco world heritage site in Tunisia

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Two other workers were injured when a 30m section of wall around the Old City of Kairouan gave way while being restored

A section of the ancient walls around the Old City of Kairouan collapsed on Saturday, killing three masons carrying out repairs on the Unesco world heritage site, Tunisian authorities said.

In addition two workers were injured when a 30-metre (100ft) section of the 6-metre-high walls near the Gate of the Floggers crashed to the ground, the Civil Protection department said.

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Thousands flee Wad Madani, Sudan’s second city, to escape fighting

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Region had been a place of refuge for those escaping conflict in Khartoum between the army and the Rapid Support Forces

Thousands of people are fleeing their homes in Wad Madani, Sudan’s second city, where the majority of the capital city Khartoum’s displaced people took refuge at the beginning of the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last April.

The fighting reached Wad Madani, the capital city of el-Gezira state, home to Africa’s biggest agricultural scheme, in central Sudan on Friday. People have been seen on buses, while some are walking towards the south.

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Jacob Zuma withdraws support for ANC in run-up to 2024 South African election

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Former president criticises party he led, citing ‘death of democratically elected structures’

The former South African president Jacob Zuma, who was forced out of office over corruption allegations, has said he will not vote for the ruling African National Congress party (ANC) in the 2024 national elections.

Zuma, 81, criticised the president and ANC leader, Cyril Ramaphosa. The ANC, which led the decades-old struggle against apartheid, is fast losing support. Zuma said he would vote for a small radical leftwing party and would refuse to campaign for the ANC.

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Police officer stoned to death after rescuing FGM survivors in Kenya

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Activists see the killing as a setback in the efforts to eliminate the practice, despite it being illegal in the east African country

Efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation in Kenya have suffered a setback after a police officer was killed in a confrontation with a gang of youths.

Activists and local leaders condemned the murder, calling it a backward step in the fight to eradicate the practice in the country. Police in Elgeyo Marakwet county, in the Rift Valley region, had taken a group of girls who had been forced to undergo the illegal procedure to hospital when a mob of young men stormed a police station and stoned Cpl Mushote Boma to death.

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Rwandan politician who criticised Sunak’s bill fears for her safety

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Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza has received threats after saying Rwanda was not a safe place to send refugees

A Rwandan opposition politician who publicly criticised the UK’s deportation deal this week fears for her safety after a presidential adviser condemned her for “waging war on her compatriots”.

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who wrote a column in the Guardian on Tuesday questioning her country’s treatment of refugees, said she has become concerned about the fallout from the criticism after the aide, an ally of Paul Kagame, wrote she was “maligning Rwanda” in international media.

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Soldiers accused of widespread looting from homes near Sudanese capital

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People living in Ombada district in west of Omdurman say soldiers shot at those who tried to stop them

Residents of Omdurman have described widespread looting by soldiers from the Sudanese armed forces in the only part of the city they still control.

People living in Ombada district in the west of Omdurman, which lies across the Nile from the capital, Khartoum, said soldiers had taken everything from cars to spoons, and had shot at those who tried to stop them.

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Africa sees sharp rise in road traffic deaths as motorbike taxis boom

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Fatalities rose by 17% in a decade on the continent, despite falling globally, with campaigners calling for stricter safety standards on motorcycle helmets

The number of people who died in traffic incidents in Africa rose by 17% in the past decade, despite global road traffic deaths falling by 5%, according to the World Health Organization.

The Road Safety report found that nearly one in five fatal traffic incidents across the world occurred in Africa. “Part of the reason for increased fatalities in Africa is the increase in the number of vehicles on the roads,” said Nhan Tran, leader of WHO’s safety and mobility unit and the lead author of the report. “People who were not able to afford a vehicle 10 or 20 years ago can now buy one. Africa has seen a big increase in motorisation, but the infrastructure to facilitate it is not there.”

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Zahara, platinum-selling South African singer-songwriter, dies aged 35

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Singer who played for Nelson Mandela at his home had been hospitalised with ‘physical pains’, and previously suffered liver damage from alcoholism

The South African pop singer Zahara, whose soaring voice and strident ballads earned her multiple platinum-selling albums in her home country, has died aged 35.

South Africa’s sports, arts and culture minister, Zizi Kodwa, announced her death, saying: “My deepest condolences to the Mkutukana family and the South African music industry. Government has been with the family for some time now. Zahara and her guitar made an incredible and lasting impact in South African music.”

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South African court rules government’s recognition of Zulu king was unlawful

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Cyril Ramaphosa ordered to set up inquiry into King Misuzulu Zulu’s accession amid dispute over process

A South African court has ruled that the government’s recognition of the king of the Zulu nation last year was unlawful, potentially setting off a new succession battle.

The Pretoria high court ordered the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to set up an inquiry to investigate whether the tumultuous accession of King Misuzulu Zulu took place in line with customary laws.

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