Category Archives: Africa

France should return much more looted African art, film-maker says

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Mati Diop, the director of Dahomey, which charts the restitution of 26 objects to Benin, says the tiny number involved is ‘humiliating’

The first major return of looted treasures from Europe to Africa in the 21st century has left a lingering feeling of humiliation because of the lack of follow-up action, a French-Senegalese film-maker who accompanied a hoard of artefacts on their journey from Paris to their country of origin has said.

In her film Dahomey, which premiered at the Berlin film festival on Sunday, the director, Mati Diop, documents the 2021 journey of 26 treasures that the commander of French forces in Senegal looted from the royal palace of the kingdom of Dahomey, part of modern-day Benin, in 1890.

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Desperate Egypt sells off historic hotels as it dives deeper into debt

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Amid biting austerity and rising inflation, the al-Sisi government is off-loading assets – some to a convicted murderer with Emirati cash

As dusk fell over the verdant grounds of the Marriott Mena House hotel, the reflection of the Great Pyramid of Giza grew darker in a pool built to reflect the last of the seven wonders of the world.

A band played a smooth jazz rendition of the Eagles’ Hotel California on the grassy lawns as guests assembled for dinner, while the staff attempted to project a sense of business as usual, despite the hotel’s recent acquisition by an infamous Egyptian real estate tycoon, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, and two powerful Emirati conglomerates.

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Sudan armed forces advance in Omdurman for first time since start of war

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SAF join engineering corps in south of city where they have been besieged by RSF forces since April

The Sudan armed forces (SAF) have advanced in Omdurman for the first time since the beginning of the war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year.

It is reported that the SAF in the Karari military area, north of Omdurman, have joined their peers in the engineering corps in the south of the city, where they have been besieged by the RSF since April.

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Rwanda’s sacking of footballer adds to fears over UK’s ‘immoral’ asylum seekers plan

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The suspension of a Congolese player for a gun gesture referring to conflict in DRC raises questions over goverment’s refugee policy

When a Congolese footballer made a brief gesture after scoring in an east African league match last weekend, it felt like little more than a talking point among the spectators.

Yet the gesture by midfielder Héritier Luvumbu at the game in Kigali has prompted a dramatic reaction from Rwanda that has renewed scrutiny of a regime accused of stoking the world’s deadliest conflict as it enters a volatile new phase.

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Woman who handed over British girl, 3, for FGM in Kenya given seven years

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Amina Noor travelled from north London with the child to Kenya where the procedure was carried out in 2006

A woman who was found guilty of handing over a three-year-old British girl for female genital mutilation (FGM) during a trip to Kenya has been jailed for seven years.

Amina Noor, 40, was convicted last year of assisting a Kenyan woman to carry out the procedure overseas in 2006. The conviction was the first for assisting in such harm under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.

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Egypt scraps plan to restore cladding on one of three great pyramids of Giza

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Antiquities authority drops proposal for Menkaure pyramid after review prompted by international outcry

Egypt has scuttled a controversial plan to reinstall ancient granite cladding on the pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the three great pyramids of Giza, a committee formed by the country’s tourism minister said in a statement.

Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of the supreme council of antiquities, announced the plan last month, declaring it would be “the project of the century”.

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Houthi attacks in Red Sea having a ‘catastrophic’ effect on aid to Sudan

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Shipments of food and medical supplies from Asia are having to take longer, more expensive routes to avoid seaborne assaults

Attacks by Houthi forces against ships in the Red Sea are holding up shipments of vital aid to Sudan and driving up costs for cash-strapped humanitarian agencies in the east African country, where conflict has put millions at risk of famine.

The attacks mean ships carrying aid from Asia to Port Sudan must now circumnavigate Africa, traverse the Mediterranean and then enter the Red Sea via the Suez Canal from the north, resulting in huge delays and increased costs.

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Death toll rises to seven in Malawi elephant relocation project linked to Prince Harry NGO

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Exclusive: The animal translocation scheme by wildlife NGOs including African Parks, once headed by the royal, has been dogged by controversy

Four more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in Malawi. The recent deaths bring the total fatalities connected to the relocated elephants to seven.

In July 2022, more than 250 elephants were moved from Liwonde national park in southern Malawi to the country’s second-largest protected area, Kasungu, in a three-way operation between Malawi’s national park service and two NGOs: the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), and African Parks. Prince Harry was president of African Parks for six years, before being elevated to the board of directors from 2023.

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Ill-judged tree planting in Africa threatens ecosystems, scientists warn

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Research reveals area size of France is under threat by restoration projects taking place in unsuitable landscapes

Misguided tree-planting projects are threatening crucial ecosystems across Africa, scientists have warned.

Research has revealed that an area the size of France is threatened by forest restoration initiatives that are taking place in inappropriate landscapes.

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NHS nurses being investigated for ‘industrial-scale’ qualifications fraud

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Scam involves more than 700 healthcare workers who used proxies to pass test in Nigeria enabling them to work in the UK

Hundreds of frontline NHS staff are treating patients despite being under investigation for their part in an alleged “industrial-scale” qualifications fraud.

More than 700 nurses are caught up in a potential scandal, which a former head of the Royal College of Nursing said could put NHS patients at risk.

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Sculpture of colonial officer’s ‘angry spirit’ returns to DRC as Dutch urge reckoning

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Carved wooden figure at Venice Biennale aims to spark debate about colonial blindspots in the art world

A statue depicting the angry spirit of a Belgian officer beheaded during a 1930s uprising in the Congo will go on display at the Dutch pavilion of this year’s Venice Biennale, seeking to spark a debate about colonial blindspots in the art world – and the Belgian pavilion next door.

The carved wooden figure of colonial administrator Maximilien Balot will not be physically present at the world’s largest art event: a screen will show a livestream from a gallery in Lusanga, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the artefact will be on display for the six-month duration of the festival.

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Killing of three women in a week sparks femicide protests in Somalia

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Police name husbands as suspects in separate deaths of women, two of whom were pregnant

The deaths of three women in one week, all allegedly murdered by their husbands, has caused outrage in Somalia and sparked days of protests over the country’s femicide rates.

Police have named the suspects in all three killings, which took place in the first week of February, as the dead women’s husbands. Two of the victims were pregnant. Even in a country where – after more than three decades of conflict – death and violence are part of everyday life, there have been demonstrations in the capital, Mogadishu, with protesters holding up placards showing photos of Lul Abdi Aziz Jazirain her hospital bed. The 28-year-old had been doused with petrol and set alight. She suffered severe burns and survived in agony for seven days after being attacked.

Naima Said Salah is a writer with all-female media team Bilan in Somalia. It is funded by the European Union through the UN Development Programme and hosted by Dalsan Media Group in Mogadishu

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Dozens of civilians killed by Ethiopian state troops in Amhara region, say reports

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Witnesses claim victims shot ‘execution style’ during house raids after clashes between government forces and Fano rebels

Ethiopian government troops went door-to-door killing dozens of civilians last month in a town in the country’s Amhara region, according to residents, who said the bloodshed took place after clashes with local militia.

The killings in Merawi appear to be one of the deadliest episodes in Amhara since a rebellion by Fano, an armed Amhara group, erupted last year over a disputed plan to disarm regional forces.

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UK’s Rwanda bill ‘incompatible with human rights obligations’

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Damning report by MPs warns policy places UK’s reputation for rule of law and human rights ‘in jeopardy’

The UK government’s controversial Rwanda legislation that deems the African country as a safe place to deport people to is fundamentally incompatible with Britain’s human rights obligations and places it in breach of international law, according to a damning parliamentary report.

MPs and peers from the cross-party joint committee on human rights have delivered a critical analysis of the safety of Rwanda bill, which is progressing at speed through parliament.

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Senegal police and protesters clash in first major unrest over vote delay

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Student reportedly killed in the northern city of Saint-Louis while security forces and demonstrators clash in Dakar

Security forces and protesters have clashed in Senegal’s capital and other cities in the first widespread unrest over the delay to a presidential election that constitutes one of the country’s most significant political crises to date.

Riot police in Dakar fired teargas, stun grenades and what appeared to be rubber bullets at large crowds of protesters who set up roadblocks, burned tyres and threw stones.

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Fresh Del Monte says it cannot be held liable after violence at Kenyan farm

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Civil claim relating to alleged killing, rape and attacks by guards at pineapple farm should be struck out, claim firm’s lawyers

Fresh Del Monte has claimed it should not be held liable for a civil lawsuit alleging killing, rape and violence by security guards at its Kenyan pineapple farm because it is domiciled in the Cayman Islands.

In the high court in Thika on Thursday, lawyers for the company’s Kenyan subsidiary, Del Monte Kenya, also applied to have a case against the farm struck out altogether.

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EU leaders unveil €210m Mauritania deal in bid to curb people-smuggling

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Plan includes energy and infrastructure projects with aim of strengthening stability in Sahel

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, have unveiled plans for a €210m partnership with Mauritania in an attempt to curb people-smuggling to the Canary islands and launch new energy and infrastructure projects benefiting both sides.

Figures soon to be published by Frontex, the EU’s border agency, are expected to show that the number of people risking their lives by making the perilous journey from west African shores to the Spanish islands has risen dramatically in the past year.

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Del Monte Kenya representatives accused of seeking to cover up circumstances of men’s deaths

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Exclusive: Investigation uncovers claims Del Monte representatives offered bribes in attempt to persuade men to back company’s version of events

Representatives of Del Monte Kenya have been accused of offering bribes in an attempt to cover up the circumstances in which four men died after going to steal pineapples from its farm in December.

The men’s bodies were recovered from a river on the vast plantation near Thika on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last year. The four were part of a group of men who it is claimed were chased by the farm’s security guards after going to steal pineapples on 21 December.

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Council of Europe calls on UK not to process asylum claims in Rwanda

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People may be exposed to abuses such as torture and degrading treatment in Rwanda, says watchdog

Europe’s leading anti-torture watchdog has called on the government to process asylum claims in the UK rather than sending people to Rwanda because of the risk they may be exposed to human rights abuses there.

In a report published on Thursday, the Council of Europe’s committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment raises a litany of concerns after an 11-day visit to the UK in March and April last year.

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‘Our last stop is Rafah’: trapped Palestinians await Israeli onslaught

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Refugees crammed into the border city face a terrifying choice: stay for the expected attack, or flee back north through a war zone

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into the small southern Gaza border city of Rafah are being forced to contemplate being displaced once more as an Israeli offensive looms.

Those who fled to the border city, almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, face a terrifying choice: stay in overcrowded Rafah – once home to 280,000 people – and wait for the attack, or risk moving north through an area of continued fighting.

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