Tom Perriello condemns tactics of Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese military before peace talks in Geneva
The US special envoy for Sudan has accused the two factions in the country’s civil war of “cowardice” before crucial peace talks that are due to start on Wednesday.
Tom Perriello told the Guardian that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military “lacked courage and honour” because of their continued use of starvation as a weapon.
Continue reading...Senior Chadema party figures including vice-chair detained as well as about 400 people heading to youth gathering
Police in Tanzania have arrested leaders of the country’s main opposition party and hundreds of its supporters in a crackdown that started at the weekend.
Police detained Tundu Lissu, the vice-chair of the Chadema party and a former presidential candidate, as well as the party’s secretary general, John Mnyika, before a gathering in the country’s south-west.
Continue reading...Joint statement says framework agreement is ‘on the table’ and there are no excuses ‘from any party for further delay’
The leaders of the US, Egypt and Qatar have called on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent negotiations to finalise a ceasefire and hostage release deal, saying there were no excuses “from any party for further delay”.
The three countries, which have been trying to mediate a deal, said in a joint statement the talks could take place in either Doha or Cairo on 15 August, adding that it was “time to bring immediate relief both to the longsuffering people of Gaza as well as the longsuffering hostages and their families”.
Continue reading...African disease control centre urges ‘collective and collaborative approach’ after cases rise by 160% in a year
The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said the agency is likely to declare a continental public health emergency over the growing mpox outbreak.
The Africa CDC’s director general, Dr Jean Kaseya, said on Thursday that because of the increase in mpox cases and its continued spread across borders, he had resolved to start “active engagement” with African Union member states to prevent the outbreak from becoming “another pandemic”.
Continue reading...National government is investigating Chidimma Adetshina, who had faced a public furore over her citizenship
A South African beauty pageant contestant has withdrawn from the competition after the government accused her mother of fraud and identity theft, following questions over the contestant’s citizenship.
Chidimma Adetshina, 23, said she had made the “difficult decision” to protect herself and her family before the Miss South Africa final on Saturday, and a day after the home affairs ministry said her mother may have stolen a South African woman’s identity.
Continue reading...South African government joins row over Chidimma Adetshina’s heritage with suggestion mother may have committed identity theft
South Africa’s national beauty pageant has been thrown into turmoil, after the government accused the mother of a contestant who suffered a torrent of online abuse over her Nigerian heritage of fraud and identity theft.
Chidimma Adetshina, 23, has been the subject of vicious, xenophobic attacks on social media since she was announced as a finalist in Miss South Africa in July, with many, including cabinet ministers, questioning her credentials.
Continue reading...Apparent shutdown attempt shows potential for some leaders to use such threats to enforce personal agenda
The political complexities of Libya’s oil industry were highlighted at the weekend when allies of the warlord Khalifa Haftar were said to have tried to shut down a Spanish-operated oilfield in reprisal for an arrest warrant issued by Spain for his son over alleged weapons smuggling.
Saddam Haftar, a key military figure in his father’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), was detained at an airport in Naples, Italy, for an hour on Friday after his name appeared on a common EU database. Those close to Haftar say he was questioned by Italian officials in relation to Spanish allegations, but insist he was never arrested.
Continue reading...Critics say the move is aimed at targeting serious challengers to the current Tunisan president, Kais Saied.
A Tunisian court has sentenced a number of potential presidential election candidates to prison and banned them from running for office, according to local media, politicians, and a lawyer, in a move critics say is aimed at excluding serious competitors to President Kais Saied in October’s vote.
A court decision was issued on Monday against prominent politician Abdel Latif Mekki, activist Nizar Chaari, Judge Mourad Massoudi and another candidate, Adel Dou, according to lawyer Mokthar Jmai who spoke to Reuters. All four were sentenced to eight months in prison and banned from running for office on a charge of vote buying.
Continue reading...Analysis suggests extent of problem UN estimates is causing 500,000 deaths a year in sub-Saharan region
A fifth of medicines in Africa could be substandard or fake, according to a major research project, raising the alarm over a problem that could be contributing to the deaths of countless patients.
Researchers from Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia analysed 27 studies in the review and found, of the 7,508 medicine samples included, 1,639 failed at least one quality test and were confirmed to be substandard or falsified.
Continue reading...At least 50 press arrested on Saturday in Abuja and almost 700 demonstrators detained since unrest began
Nigerian security forces on Saturday fired bullets and teargas at protesters and journalists during demonstrations against the country’s economic crisis in the capital city, Abuja, according to journalists at the scene and videos reviewed by the Associated Press news agency.
It was not immediately confirmed whether the projectiles fired at journalists were rubber or live rounds. But the AP witnessed the aftermath of the attack, including bullet holes in a car belonging to one of the journalists as well as live bullets at the scene of the protests.
Continue reading...A demonstration against the president about the cost of living crisis has spread, after youth groups saw protests across the continent force a change in the law
A protest organised by unions and youth groups about the cost of living crisis on Nigeria’s Democracy Day in June passed off quietly, drawing just a few hundred people in the country’s biggest city, Lagos, and the capital, Abuja.
Then things started to kick off in Kenya. Young Kenyans angry at the prospect of increased levies on essential foodstuffs occupied parliament in Nairobi amid violence that claimed more than 20 lives. Kenya’s president, William Ruto, was forced to withdraw his finance bill and dissolved his cabinet.
Continue reading...More than 200 wounded after suicide bomber and gunmen target busy beachfront in Somali capital
At least 37 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in a suicide bombing and gun attack at the popular Lido beach in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, police said. The attack happened on Friday night, when residents of the city typically gather at cafes near the seaside.
Agence France-Presse reported that police and witnesses said the bomber detonated his device late on Friday on the beach before gunmen stormed the area. State media said government forces “neutralised” the attackers after a gunfight.
Continue reading...Archaeologists say wide open mouth of woman who died about 3,500 years ago may be caused by rare, immediate form of rigor mortis
She looks uncannily like The Scream painting by Edvard Munch, but just why an ancient Egyptian mummy has such a startling expression has long puzzled researchers. Now they say they may have the answer – suggesting the woman died crying out in agony.
The woman is thought to have been buried about 3,500 years ago and was discovered in 1935 in a wooden coffin beneath the tomb of Senmut – an important architect during the reign of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.
Continue reading...Chidimma Adetshina subjected to online abuse and questions about whether she is South African amid anti-African immigrant sentiment
A South African beauty pageant contestant with a Nigerian father has been subjected to relentless online abuse and interrogations of her right to compete for the Miss South Africa title, as a persistent strain of xenophobia against immigrants from other African countries has resurfaced.
Since Chidimma Adetshina, a 23-year-old law student who was born in Soweto and lives in Cape Town, was announced on 1 July as one of the contestants in the running to represent South Africa at the Miss Universe pageant, there has been constant questioning of whether she is a South African citizen.
Continue reading...UN-backed early warning network confirms people in the Darfur city of El Fasher are starving to death
Famine has been declared in a Sudanese displacement camp in the besieged city of El Fasher.
About 600,000 people are estimated to be living in camps just outside the capital of North Darfur.
Continue reading...Anti-government protests held in Abuja, Minna, Katsina and Lagos despite official efforts to stifle it
As many as seven people have died, according to reports, after clashes between Nigerian security personnel and citizens on the first day of a weeklong nationwide protest against “bad governance” and a cost living crisis.
The newspaper Daily Trust reported that six people were killed on Thursday during clashes with police during an attempt to dislodge a roadblock protesters had installed in Minna, the capital of Niger state. One person was killed and another critically wounded by stray bullets fired by police in Kano, where another set of protesters breached the seat of government in the city.
Continue reading...Moussa Dadis Camara convicted of crimes against humanity after ordering 2009 crackdown on unarmed protesters
A court in Guinea has found the former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara and seven other military commanders guilty of crimes against humanity in a long-awaited verdict relating to a notorious massacre and mass rape that took place in 2009.
In a ruling in the capital, Conakry, the initial charges, including murder, rape and kidnapping, were recategorised as crimes against humanity. Afterward, Camara and his former police chief Moussa Tiegboro Camara were given 20-year prison sentences for ordering a crackdown on thousands of unarmed protesters, who were aggrieved that he had decided to stand in the presidential election the following year.
Continue reading...Nicknamed the ‘Elegant Stallion’, the revered star died after performing at a private party in Lagos
Onyeka Onwenu, the singer, actor, broadcaster and activist whose love ballads and songs about women’s rights were a soothing balm during Nigeria’s rocky 1980s and earned her the nickname “Elegant Stallion”, has died at 72.
She had just finished a performance at a private party on Tuesday night in Lagos when the singer became ill. Hours later, she died at a nearby hospital, having suffered a heart attack, according to local reports.
Continue reading...Detention of reporters for covering sensitive news is having a ‘chilling’ effect on free media in Somalia, say rights groups
The arrest of a journalist for reporting on drug use in the Somali military is the latest incident in an apparent clampdown on critical reporting in the country, which is having a “chilling” effect on Somalia’s media, rights campaigners said.
AliNur Salaad was detained last week and accused of “immorality, false reporting and insulting the armed forces”, after publishing a now-deleted video suggesting that soldiers were vulnerable to attacks by al-Shabaab militants because of widespread use of the traditional narcotic khat.
Continue reading...Malian rebels ‘received necessary information’ to kill fighters from Russian military group last week, GUR says
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has claimed it was involved in an ambush that killed fighters from Russia’s Wagner group in the west African nation of Mali, thousands of miles away from the frontline in Ukraine.
A Telegram channel linked to the Wagner leadership on Monday admitted the group had suffered heavy losses during fighting in Mali last week.
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