DRC president declared election winner as opposition cries foul

Officials in Democratic Republic of the Congo says Felix Tshisekedi has been re-elected with 73% of the vote

The president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, has won a second term in office with a landslide victory, according to provisional results, in a vote opposition leaders have dismissed as a “sham”.

Provisional results from the single-round presidential ballot, declared on Sunday by the country’s electoral commission, Ceni, showed Tshisekedi had won 73% of the vote.

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‘They attacked us. They displaced us’: grieving Sudanese confront Swedish oil giant over their days of slaughter

A historic trial, which will call on 61 witnesses worldwide, is expected to set a precedent for global corporations in foreign jurisdictions

Before the arrival of Lundin Oil in the town of Leer, now part of South Sudan, life there was peaceful, says George Tai Kuony. His childhood was that of a “typical village boy”, driving cattle, helping his family and going to school. But in June 1998, when he was 15, armed forces entered the town and changed his life for ever.

He fled, became separated from his family and hid for seven days before he was able to return. “When we got there, Leer wasn’t the town I had left seven days ago,” says the 40-year-old lawyer and human rights defender. “Everything was burned down, everything was destroyed. I could see the bodies of dead people lying in the street.” As a result of the conflict, he lost his father, and later his mother and one sibling.

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UK has failed to act to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah from jail in Egypt, family says

Rishi Sunak told activist’s sister in 2022 that government was ‘totally committed’ to resolving the case

The family of the imprisoned British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah have said the British government has failed to act to free him, a year after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told his sister the government was “totally committed to resolving your brother’s case”.

A figurehead in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, which overthrew Hosni Mubarak as president, Abd el-Fattah spent most of the past decade behind bars for his activism. He was rearrested in 2019 following a brief period out of prison but under police surveillance, and was sentenced in December 2021 to a further five years in detention for spreading “false news undermining national security”, after resharing a social media post about torture.

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Weather tracker: rain batters Argentina and DRC as fog shrouds India and Pakistan

Turkey also affected by fog, with 10 killed and 57 injured in serious road crash involving three buses

During the Christmas period, parts of South America experienced intense showers and thunderstorms, resulting in substantial rainfall in various regions. On Monday, more than 100mm of rain fell in the Catamarca province in Argentina, which led to flash floods. A sudden surge in river water levels then caused the collapse of a pedestrian bridge, which was the only link between the towns of Rincón and Pomán. While many other roads in the region were damaged and houses were flooded, no casualties were reported.

The unique topography of Catamarca aided the formation of a near-stationary convective shower over Pomán, unleashing several hours of torrential rain and causing catastrophic flooding.

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Liberia fuel tanker explosion kills at least 40

Witnesses say people climbed on to vehicle to gather petrol after tanker overturned on roadside

More than 40 people have been killed and dozens badly burned when a petrol tanker exploded in central Liberia, the country’s chief medical officer has said.

Witnesses said people clambered on to the lorry to try collect petrol leaking from its tank after it crashed and tipped into a ditch along a road in Totota, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the capital Monrovia on Tuesday.

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Man survives flight from Algeria to Paris hidden in plane’s landing gear

Unidentified man in life-threatening condition after enduring temperatures of around -50C on Air Algerie flight from Oran

A man has been discovered hidden in the landing gear compartment of a commercial aircraft that flew into Paris from Algeria with severe hypothermia but alive, French authorities have said.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, was found during technical checks after the Air Algerie flight from Oran, Algeria, landed at Paris’s Orly airport in mid-morning, prosecutors told AFP.

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Kenyan police investigate four suspected killings on Del Monte farm

Bodies of men missing for several days were retrieved from a river on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Kenyan police are investigating four suspected killings on a Del Monte pineapple farm after bodies were retrieved from a river on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

It follows a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism into allegations of brutal assaults and killings by security guards at the farm in Thika, which is the single largest exporter of Kenyan produce to the world.

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Weather tracker: South Africa flash floods kill six with people still missing

Catastrophic rains on Christmas Eve led to key infrastructure damage in western parts of country

Catastrophic rains and flash floods in South Africa have led to at least six deaths, with more people still missing. The western parts of the country have experienced extremely unsettled weather over the last few days, with frequent spells of heavy rain.

On Christmas Eve the city of Ladysmith to the north-east of Lesotho experienced flash flooding after a sudden deluge during the evening. Amateur weather stations in the area suggested about 60mm of rain fell within an hour, while in a three-hour period there was about 80mm of rainfall. The average rainfall in Ladysmith for the whole of December is just over 100mm.

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At least 160 dead and 300 wounded after attacks by armed gangs in Nigeria

‘Bandits’ started attacks in Bokkos area and spilled into neighbouring Barkin Ladi, according to local chairman

Armed groups have killed at least 160 people in central Nigeria in a series of attacks on villages, local government officials said on Monday.

The toll marked a sharp rise from the initial figure reported by the army on Sunday evening of just 16 dead in a region plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions.

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Attack by rebels in western Burundi leaves 20 dead

Red-Tabara group claims responsibility for assault in Vugizo that killed 12 children, three women and five men

An attack by rebels in western Burundi has killed 20 people, all but one of them civilians, the central African country’s government has said.

The attack was claimed by the Red-Tabara rebel group, which in its own statement said it had killed 10 members of the security forces. The attack occurred on Friday evening in the town of Vugizo, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the rebels have a base.

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US and Somali forces kill al-Shabaab commander with $10m bounty on head

Maalim Ayman was wanted over attack on airbase in Kenya in 2020 in which three Americans died

Somali troops and US forces have killed a senior commander of the al-Shabaab militant group who had a $10m bounty on his head over an attack that left three Americans dead.

“Maalim Ayman, a senior leader of al-Shabaab, was confirmed to have been killed in a joint operation by the Somali national army with assistance from US forces on December 17th,” Kenya’s information minister, Daud Aweis, said on X on Thursday.

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Questions over DRC election remain as voting is extended into second day

Church observers allege further irregularities after difficult polling day, but main opposition leader declines to join call for rerun

Voters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been left with more questions over the credibility of this week’s presidential election, amid fresh accusations of irregularities, as voting came to an end on an unplanned second day of balloting.

An observer mission formed by two church bodies, the Episcopal Conference of the Congo and the Church of Christ in the Congo, reported that 11% of voting machines had been set up at military schools, contrary to election law, according to reports from the local news site Actualite.cd.

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Two Guinean children abandoned in Bogotá airport as migrant routes shift

Migration through the treacherous Darién gap is slowing as less restrictive air routes open up between South and Central America

Two children from the west African country of Guinea who were abandoned in Bogotá’s airport have been taken into government custody after spending several days on their own in the international departures terminal.

Colombia’s national immigration department said the children, aged 10 and 13, had been travelling with separate groups and were left in the airport by their relatives earlier this month for reasons that have not been clarified.

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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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