Country joins growing list of African nations free of capital punishment, but execution remains for high treason
Ghana has become the 29th country in Africa to abolish the death penalty in a move hailed by human rights activists.
The decision means that the 176 people currently on death row, including six women, are likely to have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
Continue reading...Zambia study finds egg variability and random nest selection by cuckoos helps fork-tailed drongos rumble impostors
Cuckoos might be the ultimate avian con artists, laying lookalike eggs in the nests of other birds to avoid raising their own young, but researchers say at least one potential victim is remarkably good at rumbling the fraud.
Scientists studying the African cuckoo have revealed that while the birds are able to produce almost identical-looking eggs to those of the fork-tailed drongo, the latter is likely to reject an impostor egg about 94% of the time.
Continue reading...Foreign affairs select committee condemns government’s ‘dismal lack of understanding’ about group’s hold in Africa
A decade-long failure by the British government has allowed the Wagner network to grow, spread its tentacles deep into Africa and exploit vulnerable countries, according to a highly critical report from the UK’s foreign affairs select committee.
It called on the government to proscribe the Wagner group in the UK and to make a far more concerted effort to stop it using the City of London as a financial centre.
Continue reading...Dozens also injured as army shells three neighbourhoods in city close to capital, Khartoum
At least 18 people have been killed in the Sudanese city of Omdurman as the war between the national army chief and his former deputy continues.
Dozens of people were also injured when the army shelled three neighbourhoods in the city, which lies next to the capital, Khartoum, residents said.
Continue reading...About 7,500 firefighters trying to bring blazes under control and 1,500 people evacuated as heatwave spreads
Thirty-four people including 10 soldiers have been killed by wildfires in the mountainous Béjaïa and Bouïra regions of Algeria, as a heatwave spreads across north Africa and southern Europe.
About 8,000 firefighters were trying to bring the flames under control, authorities said, adding that about 1,500 people had been evacuated.
Continue reading...Peace between Hemedti’s RSF and Sudan’s army will not end war crimes. As UN security council president, Britain must act
As conflict in Sudan escalates, it is becoming clear that the Rapid Support Forces has returned to Darfur to complete the genocide it began 20 years ago. The RSF is the Janjaweed rebranded, the “devils on horseback” used by the Sudanese government from 2003 to implement widespread and systematic crimes against non-Arab communities across Darfur. The RSF was, and still is, commanded by Gen Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo.
In recent weeks, what we knew was coming has been confirmed. Yale University’s Conflict Observatory, which uses a combination of satellite imagery, Nasa thermal-detection data and open-source analysis, found evidence of the “targeted destruction of at least 26 communities” by the RSF between 15 April and 10 July. Mass graves have been discovered, and satellite imagery shows entire urban neighbourhoods and villages have been burned down.
Continue reading...A rise in violence towards staff has led Médecins Sans Frontières to rethink its presence in the Sudanese capital as intense fighting continues
Increased violence against health workers in Khartoum is endangering the few hospitals still open in the Sudanese capital, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said after its employees were beaten and whipped by armed men on Thursday.
The MSF team was attacked 700 metres from the Turkish hospital, one of only two operating in southern Khartoum after others were forced to close during almost 100 days of fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Continue reading...Opposition leader Raila Odinga rallies his supporters to the streets where there have been clashes with armed police in Nairobi and western city of Kisumu
Teargas and live ammunition were used against demonstrators as pockets of violence broke out in Kenya during a second day of protests against tax increases and rising living costs.
Despite relative calm in Nairobi on Thursday morning, there were clashes in the informal settlements of Kibera and Mathare in the capital, and in the western city of Kisumu. Protesters threw stones at police, who had mounted a heavy presence in Nairobi after the deaths of at least six demonstrators and more than 300 arrests around the country on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Protests against tax rises and cost of living turn violent with hospitals reporting many wounded by gunshot
At least two people have been killed after anti-government protests in Kenya, as police opened fire on demonstrators protesting against the cost of living and tax increases.
Demonstrators hurled rocks at police and burned tyres in the streets on Wednesday, while the security forces fired teargas in the third round of anti-government demonstrations the opposition called this month.
Continue reading...Cyril Ramaphosa faced demands for Russian president to be detained under ICC warrant if he attended Brics summit
Vladimir Putin will not attend a Brics summit in South Africa next month amid speculation that he could be detained under an international criminal court warrant for his arrest for war crimes in Ukraine.
South Africa’s presidential office announced that the Russian president would not be attending the summit after holding a “number of consultations” with the Kremlin.
Continue reading...Katalin Novák, an anti-abortionist and promoter of pro-natalist policies, spoke at the opening of the Women Deliver conference in Rwanda
Some leading delegates at a women’s rights conference in Rwanda have expressed shock at the appearance there of the Hungarian president, an anti-abortionist criticised for an anti-equality stance.
Katalin Novák, an important player in the international “anti-gender movement”, was invited by the Rwandan government to speak at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali this week, where reproductive rights is one of the areas under discussion.
Continue reading...Cyclone Freddy cited as contributing factor in feared new outbreak that follows inoculation of 8 million children
Malawi is investigating at least 17 suspected polio cases just as a vaccination campaign is completed with more than 90% of the country’s children inoculated against the virus.
Health authorities fear Cyclone Freddy – the world’s longest-lasting tropical cyclone – which made landfall in March in the southern African nation and led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of displacements – could be a contributing factor.
Continue reading...North African country, which agreed €1bn deal with EU to stem irregular migration, says it will take back only Tunisians
Tunisia has said it will not be a “reception centre” for returns of sub-Saharan migrants from Italy or any other country in Europe despite a groundbreaking €1bn deal signed on Sunday.
Authorities in the north African country are determined not to enter a contract similar to that which the UK has with Rwanda and will take back only Tunisians who have made irregular entry to the EU.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: In April, fighting broke out between two rival factions – with no end in sight, the UN is investigating
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Last week the United Nations discovered a mass grave in Sudan’s West Darfur in which 87 people were buried, prompting the UN high commissioner for Human Rights to demand a “thorough and independent investigation” into activity in the region.
Ukraine | Explosions have reportedly hit the Kerch bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia, a heavily guarded road and rail link that is among the Kremlin’s most important infrastructure projects. The head of the Russian-controlled administration in Crimea, said traffic had been stopped because of “an emergency situation”. Two people have been killed and a child was injured.
Environment | Southern Europe is bracing for a second “heat storm” in a week. Record temperatures across the Mediterranean could be broken on Tuesday, and people in Italy have been told to prepare for most intense heatwave ‘of all time’. Meanwhile in the US more than 100 million people were under extreme heat advisories this weekend.
Iran | Iran’s “morality police” have returned to the streets 10 months after the death of a woman in their custody sparked nationwide protests. It comes as authorities announce a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf.
Hospitals | The government is on track to break a key election promise from Boris Johnson to build 40 new hospitals in England by the end of the decade, a damning report by the public spending watchdog has found.
Music | France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.
Continue reading...Ursula von der Leyen hails deal as an investment in shared prosperity and stability
The EU has signed off on a €1bn (£860m) deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration, as the president of the north African country denounced those who offer migrants “sympathy without respect” for their goal to have equity in life.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, hailed the deal with Tunisia, including significant measures to stem deadly irregular migration across the mediterranean, as an investment in shared prosperity and stability.
Continue reading...Group numbering at least 80 discovered in uninhabited region reportedly without water, food or shelter
Libyan border guards have rescued dozens of migrants they said had been left in the desert by Tunisian authorities without water, food or shelter.
Hundreds of people from sub-Saharan African countries were forcibly taken to desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after racial unrest in early July in Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city.
Continue reading...Von der Leyen to return with Italian and Dutch PMs despite warnings over ‘breakdown’ of democracy under Saied
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is to return to Tunisia on Sunday with the prime ministers of Italy and the Netherlands to sign off the details of a €1bn deal aimed at combating people smuggling and supporting the country’s collapsing economy.
Sources have confirmed they are expecting to sign off on a memorandum of understanding only days after a group of politicians in the European parliament warned that Tunisia should not be handed a deal on a “silver plate” amid fears of a “breakdown” of democracy in the country.
Continue reading...Faith leaders say the proceedings, brought by a transgender woman, are an attempt to legitimise ‘sinful acts’
Scores of religious groups and churches took to the streets of several cities in Malawi on Thursday to denounce same-sex marriage before a constitutional court hearing next week.
The court is expected to sit for two days from 17 July to consider a case brought by Jana Gonani, a transgender woman who was charged with “unnatural” behaviour.
Continue reading...Ex-president of South Africa receives medical treatment day after court rules he should return to prison
The former South African president Jacob Zuma is receiving medical treatment in Russia, his spokesperson has said, a day after the country’s highest court upheld a ruling that he should return to prison.
“Zuma travelled to Russia last week for health reasons,” Mzwanele Manyi said on Friday.
Continue reading...Witnesses say some victims’ bodies still lay uncovered two days after incident in Omdurman
At least 30 people died when the Sudanese army shelled a market in Omdurman during what residents of the country’s most populous city described as the worst week for civilian casualties since the outbreak of war in April.
Most of the victims in the incident at the Shaabi souk on Tuesday were children and women, according to witnesses. Medical sources said the shells were fired from the Karri military base, which the army controls, during fierce fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
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