Category Archives: Africa

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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African and Caribbean nations agree move to seek reparations for slavery

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African Union and Caricom members establish global reparations fund and call for formal apologies from European nations

A global movement to seek reparations for slavery has been forged during a summit in Ghana this week, with the African Union partnering with Caribbean countries to form a “united front” to persuade European nations to pay for “historical mass crimes”.

The partnership between the 55-member African Union and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) of 20 countries will aim to intensify pressure on former slave-owning nations to engage with the reparations movement.

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South Africa ‘can’t afford’ to pay for new anti-HIV drug, despite cut-price offer

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The jab, given every two months, has been offered on a non-profit basis, but it can’t compete with a cheap daily HIV-prevention pill

The South African health department says the reduced cost of a new anti-HIV injection is still three times more than it can afford to pay.

The UK-based drug company ViiV Healthcare has lowered the price from 729 rand per shot (£32) to between 540 and 570 rand (£23.66-£24.97).

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Solar energy could power all health facilities in poorer countries and save lives, experts say

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Move would cost less than $5bn and cut toll of deaths from power outages and lack of supply, Cop28 delegates will hear

All healthcare facilities in poorer countries could be electrified using solar energy within five years for less than $5bn, putting an end to the risk of life from power outages, experts will argue at Cop28 this month.

“I would like the international community to commit to a deadline and funding to electrify all healthcare facilities,” said Salvatore Vinci, an adviser on sustainable energy at the World Health Organization and a member of its Cop28 delegation. “We have solutions now that were not available 10 years ago – there is no reason why babies should be dying today because there is not electricity to power their incubators.

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Peers and MPs pledge to block Sunak’s Rwanda plan as Braverman labels it ‘magical thinking’

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Fast-track bill, after supreme court ruling barring deportation flights, would be ‘wildly unpopular legislation’ says Tory peer

Rishi Sunak’s target of flying out asylum seekers to Rwanda by next spring is in doubt, with opposition parties and some Conservative peers having pledged to try to block emergency legislation intended to rescue the plan.

In another blow to the prime minister, Suella Braverman, the home secretary that Sunak sacked on Monday, dismissed his ideas as “magical thinking”, setting out her own rival plan to make sure removals begin swiftly.

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UK government to present full law to set aside supreme court Rwanda decision

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Decision to table primary legislation in parliament puts in doubt Rishi Sunak’s aim for flights to begin leaving for Rwanda by spring

Rishi Sunak’s government will present a full law to parliament to set aside the supreme court’s ban on sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, setting up a probable battle with MPs and peers and putting in doubt the aim for flights to begin leaving by spring.

The law could be published within a fortnight, after next week’s autumn statement, and it will be primary legislation, meaning it will have to pass through all the normal stages of the Commons and Lords, Downing Street has said.

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UK ministers’ efforts to revive Rwanda policy likely to fail, lawyers say

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Government accused of ‘magical thinking’ and ignoring facts on the ground that led to supreme court judgment

Lawyers have said that UK ministers’ latest plans to get their high-profile Rwanda policy off the ground are unlikely to overcome the legal obstacles that defeated them in the supreme court on Wednesday.

After the five judges unanimously rejected the government’s plans to deport people seeking asylum in the UK to the east African country, Rishi Sunak said that he would ensure the flights could go ahead by legislating that Rwanda was safe.

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Cleverly ‘determined’ to get removal flight to Rwanda before general election

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Home secretary says legally binding treaty will be drafted ‘within days’ despite policy being ruled unlawful

Ministers are “absolutely determined” to get a removal flight to Rwanda off before the next election, and will finish drafting a legally binding treaty with the country “within days”, the home secretary, James Cleverly, has said, after the policy was ruled unlawful.

Cleverly, who was made home secretary in the reshuffle earlier this week, said the controversial policy was already having “a deterrent effect” on people smugglers.

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Sunak pins hopes on a new Rwanda asylum pact after supreme court defeat

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Whitehall sources say it could take more than a year for any treaty to be passed, with next election looming

Rishi Sunak is attempting to finalise a new pact with Rwanda after a central plank of the British government’s immigration plans was ripped up by the supreme court.

A treaty, which would have to be ratified by the UK parliament, was being drawn up with the government in Kigali, the prime minister said.

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Abducted Zimbabwe opposition activist Tapfumaneyi Masaya found dead

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Masaya reportedly tortured and his body dumped on outskirts of Harare after being abducted while campaigning

A Zimbabwe opposition activist has been found dead after he was abducted on Saturday during a political campaign just outside Harare, the Citizens Coalition for Change party has said. It was the second abduction in weeks of an opposition party member.

Tapfumaneyi Masaya was reportedly bundled into a vehicle by unknown men while campaigning for the CCC’s candidate ahead of byelections on 9 December, the party said.

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Win or lose, supreme court decision on Rwanda policy will be pivotal for Tories

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A victory for the immigration and asylum policy on Wednesday will come with headaches, but a defeat could split the Conservative party

Wednesday marks a potentially pivotal moment in the government’s fortunes when the supreme court rules whether its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful.

The decision could have significant implications not just for immigration and asylum policy, but also for the future direction of Rishi Sunak’s government, and the Conservative party more widely. Here is what could follow from a government win or loss.

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Irish woman inspired to return African and Aboriginal antiquities by Guardian article

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Isabella Walsh has contacted embassies and consulates to repatriate 10 objects that her father wanted to be returned

An Irish woman has been inspired by the Guardian to return her late father’s collection of 19th-century African and Aboriginal objects to their countries of origin.

Isabella Walsh, 39, from Limerick, has contacted embassies and consulates in Dublin and London to repatriate 10 objects, including spears, harpoon heads and a shield, after she read about other cases in the newspaper.

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Countries meet in Kenya to thrash out global plastic pollution treaty

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Delegates in Nairobi for talks in what experts say could be most important multilateral treaty since Paris accord

• The godfather of microplastics on how to stop them

Government delegations will gather in Nairobi, Kenya, to hammer out details of what could be the first global treaty to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.

A key focus for the discussions on Monday will be whether targets to restrict plastic production should be decided unilaterally or whether states should choose their own targets; this is, say environmentalists, the “centre of gravity” for the treaty’s ambition.

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UN warns violence against civilians in Sudan ‘verging on pure evil’

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UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan says war between army and paramilitaries is ‘horrific’

Violence against civilians in Sudan is “verging on pure evil,” a senior UNofficial has warned, as fighting escalates seven months into the war between the army and paramilitaries.

“We keep saying that the situation is horrific and grim. But, frankly, we are running out of words to describe the horror of what is happening in Sudan,” said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.

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UK couple on holiday in Egypt died of carbon monoxide poisoning, coroner rules

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Susan and John Cooper, from Burnley, fell ill after hotel room next door was sprayed for bed bug infestation

A woman whose parents were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning during a holiday to Egypt has said her family is “broken without them”.

John and Susan Cooper, aged 69 and 63 respectively, died after falling ill in their hotel room after a pesticide was sprayed in the room next door to kill bed bugs, a coroner ruled on Friday.

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South Africa to introduce shared parental leave after landmark judgment

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Country will be first in Africa to introduce measure after its high court ruled that both parents must have right to time off

South Africa is set to become the first country in Africa to introduce shared parental leave after a high court ruled that both parents must have the right to time off after the birth of a baby or adopting a child.

The landmark judgment allows parents to choose how to divide four months parental leave between them.

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