Category Archives: Africa

Climate crisis a ‘substantial risk’ to fight against malaria, says WHO

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New report says disease-carrying mosquitoes thrive in rising temperatures, leading to transmission in hitherto unaffected areas

The climate crisis poses a major threat to the fight against malaria, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with evidence suggesting extreme weather events and rising temperatures have already led to spikes in cases.

Mosquitoes, the carriers of the disease, thrive in warm, damp and humid conditions, which are increasing with global heating.

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Back from the brink: sand-swimming golden mole, feared extinct, rediscovered after 86 years

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Border collie Jessie sniffs out elusive species last seen in 1937 among dunes of South Africa

An elusive, iridescent golden mole not recorded since before the second world war has been rediscovered “swimming” in the sand near the coastal town of Port Nolloth in north-west South Africa.

The De Winton’s golden mole (Cryptochloris wintoni), previously feared extinct, lives in underground burrows and had not been seen since 1937. It gets its “golden” name from oily secretions that lubricate its fur so it can “swim” through sand dunes. This means it does not create conventional tunnels, making it all the harder to detect.

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The new ‘scramble for Africa’: how a UAE sheikh quietly made carbon deals for forests bigger than UK

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Agreements have been struck with African states home to crucial biodiversity hotspots, for land representing billions of dollars in potential carbon offsetting revenue

• Who is the UAE sheikh behind deals to manage vast areas of African forest?

The rights over vast tracts of African forest are being sold off in a series of huge carbon offsetting deals that cover an area of land larger than the UK. The deals, made by a little-known member of Dubai’s ruling royal family, encompass up to 20% of the countries concerned – and have raised concerns about a new “scramble for Africa” and the continent’s carbon resources.

As chairman of the company Blue Carbon, which is barely a year old, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook al-Maktoum has announced several exploratory deals with African states that are home to crucial wildlife havens and biodiversity hotspots, for land that represents billions of dollars in potential offsetting revenue. The sheikh has no previous experience in nature conservation projects.

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Rwandan courts will not protect refugees’ rights, say daughters of genocide hero

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Family of Paul Rusesabagina, who campaigned to have him freed from jail, say country’s justice system is a ‘tool to oppress people’

The Rwandan legal system is incapable of protecting refugees sent from the UK, according to the daughters of Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the Oscar-nominated movie Hotel Rwanda.

Carine and Anaïse Kanimba campaigned for more than two years to secure the release of their father, who was freed from a Kigali jail after three years of incarceration earlier this year, and they have detailed first-hand knowledge of the true nature of the Rwandan legal system.

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New push for debt relief to help developing world fund climate action

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Cop28 hears poorest nations spend at least 12 times as much to service debts than on tackling global heating

The fight against the climate emergency is being hampered by a debt crisis that involves the world’s poorest countries paying more than 12 times as much to their creditors as they are spending on measures to tackle the impact of global heating, a campaign group has warned.

As the Cop28 meeting opened in the United Arab Emirates, Development Finance International (DFI) said a new round of comprehensive and deep debt cancellation was needed to free up much-needed investment in climate emergency adaptation.

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UK and Rwanda ‘still committed’ to deal after reports Kigali is cooling

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Officials in the east African country are frustrated by delays in migrants arriving and negative attention scheme has engendered

The UK and Rwanda remain committed to their controversial migrant deportation deal, sources have said, after reports emerged that support in Kigali for the agreement had cooled because of the continual delays.

Westminster has already paid the Rwandan government more than £140m but nobody has been sent to the east African country yet. The first flight was scheduled for June 2022 but was cancelled after legal challenges.

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Home Office ‘loses’ 17,000 people whose asylum claims were withdrawn

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Tory MP queries claims marked withdrawn as government tries to clear backlog by end of year

Rishi Sunak has been accused of losing control of the UK’s borders after the Home Office admitted that it does not know the whereabouts of 17,000 people whose asylum claims have been withdrawn.

Amid a stalled Rwanda deportation scheme and rising costs for housing people seeking refuge in hotels, senior civil servants in the department were told by the Conservative MP and deputy party chair Lee Anderson they “hadn’t got a clue” after failing to provide answers on people seeking refuge in the UK or foreign offender removals.

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‘A biodiversity catastrophe’: how the world could look in 2050 – unless we act now

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The climate crisis, invasive species, overexploitation of resources and pollution could break down crucial ecosystems. We asked experts to lay out the risks and offer some solutions

The continued destruction of nature across the planet will result in major shocks to food supplies and safe water, the disappearance of unique species and the loss of landscapes central to human culture and leisure by the middle of this century, experts have warned.

By 2050, if humanity does not follow through on commitments to tackle the five main drivers of nature loss critical natural systems could break down just as the human population is projected to peak.

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Revealed: Saudi Arabia’s grand plan to ‘hook’ poor countries on oil

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Climate scientists say fossil fuel use needs to fall rapidly – but oil-rich kingdom is working to drive up demand

Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed. Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful products”.

Little was known about the oil demand sustainability programme (ODSP) but the investigation obtained detailed information on plans to drive up the use of fossil fuel-powered cars, buses and planes in Africa and elsewhere, as rich countries increasingly switch to clean energy.

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Australian Christian group fights claim it was linked to leader of Kenya starvation massacre doomsday cult

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Kenyan parliamentary committee report finds Paul Mackenzie, held responsible for more than 400 deaths, was ‘influenced’ by Australians Dave and Cherry McKay, which they vehemently deny

A Christian doomsday cult responsible for the deaths of more than 400 people from starvation and beatings in Kenya was influenced by an Australian religious group, a parliamentary committee report in the east African nation has found.

The report into the Shakahola massacre, tabled in the Kenyan Senate on 19 October, found that the accused leader of the group, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, “was influenced by Dave Mackay and Sherry Mackay [Dave and Cherry McKay] from Australia who are founders of a cult movement known as the Voice in the Desert”.

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Sierra Leone imposes nationwide curfew after armed clashes in capital

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Government says attempt to break into an armoury in Freetown has been repelled and calm restored

Armed clashes erupted in Sierra Leone’s capital on Sunday after what the government said was an attack on a military armoury, as it imposed an immediate nationwide curfew.

Witnesses said they had heard gunshots and explosions in the Wilberforce district of Freetown, where the armoury and a number of embassies are located.

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Madagascar’s Andry Rajoelina re-elected after boycotted presidential poll

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Ten of the dozen other candidates had refused to campaign and called on voters to shun the ballot

The president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, has been re-elected in the first round of a ballot boycotted by nearly all opposition candidates, the national election commission said.

Rajoelina won 58.95% of the votes cast in the 16 November presidential election, according to figures presented by the poll body, although the result needs to be validated by the constitutional court.

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Oscar Pistorius granted parole and will be released from prison in January

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South African former Paralympic star jailed for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to be freed on 5 January

South Africa’s parole board has granted early release to Oscar Pistorius, the former athlete jailed for the 2013 murder of Reeva Steenkamp, who was his girlfriend.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp, a law graduate and model, through a bathroom door in their shared home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 10 years ago. He claimed he thought there was an intruder in the bathroom when he opened fire.

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Weather tracker: Ethiopia hit by severe drought amid east Africa floods

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More than 50 people dead in Tigray and Amhara regions while UN warns of ‘crisis-level hunger or worse’ in Somalia

The regions of Tigray and Amhara in northern Ethiopia have continued to experience severe drought conditions with more than 50 people dead, as well as 4,000 cattle.

While northern Ethiopia suffers from droughts, the southern and eastern parts of the country, along with Kenya and Somalia, have been hit by flooding. Somalia suffered the worst of the flooding, with 50 people reported dead. According to the Somali disaster management agency almost 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.

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Shell to face human rights claims in UK over chronic oil pollution in Niger delta

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More than 13,000 Nigerian villagers can bring legal claims against oil firm, rules high court

Thousands of Nigerian villagers can bring human rights claims against the fossil fuel company Shell over the chronic oil pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life, the high court in London has ruled.

Mrs Justice May ruled this week that more than 13,000 farmers and fishers from the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger delta were entitled to bring legal claims against Shell for alleged breaches to their right to a clean environment.

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Cheap over-the-counter nail drug found to work on crippling flesh-eating disease

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‘Momentous’ breakthrough as trial finds treatment for nail infections to be highly effective for neglected tropical disease

A cheap and easily taken drug used to treat fungal nail infections has been found to work against a devastating flesh and bone-eating disease found across Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Researchers say the breakthrough offers hope to thousands of patients who have suffered decades of neglect and can face amputations if the disease is left untreated.

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Madagascan heatwave ‘virtually impossible’ without human-caused global heating

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Study finds impact of heat on millions of people went unrecorded, highlighting limitations many African countries face

A record-breaking heatwave in Madagascar in October would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused global heating, a study has shown.

The extreme temperatures affected millions of very poor people but the damage to their lives was not recorded by officials or the media. Many governments in Africa lack the capabilities to record climate impacts. The scientists behind the report said this lack of information made implementing measures to avoid deaths very difficult.

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Hunger crisis threatens Chad as funding for food aid falters

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World Food Programme warns it will stop helping to feed 1.4 million people including refugees from Darfur as global demand for assistance increases

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that food aid for 1.4 million people in Chad faces a “looming halt” because there is no money, even as the country is experiencing an influx of refugees from the fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Funding shortfalls and increasing humanitarian needs mean WFP will have to pause food for millions of displaced people and refugees in Nigeria, Central African Republic and Cameroon from December, the agency said.

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Zimbabwean ranger brings unloved painted dogs back from brink

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Jealous Mpofu wins Tusk’s ranger of the year award for his work with a maligned and misunderstood species

When Jealous Mpofu was a boy, he overheard his father’s bosses talking negatively about painted dogs, wild African canines with distinct marble coats that are among the world’s most endangered species.

“They said they didn’t kill an animal, they grabbed the flesh. They said they were rough animals,” Mpofu said.

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