Human rights groups demand Kenyan government halt forced evictions of Ogiek community from Mau forest
Human rights groups are calling for the Kenyan government to halt forced evictions of the Indigenous Ogiek community from their ancestral land in the Rift Valley.
“We are calling for an immediate cessation of ongoing demolitions and the evictions,” said Cyrus Maweu, deputy director of Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).
Continue reading...Predicted 116m tonnes of waste annually by 2060 is six times higher than in 2019, driven by demand in sub-Saharan Africa
Plastic waste is “spiralling out of control” across Africa, where it is growing faster than any other region, new analysis has shown.
At current levels, enough plastic waste to cover a football pitch is openly dumped or burned in sub-Saharan Africa every minute, according to the charity Tearfund.
Continue reading...Tyres of Sindisiwe Chikunga’s car punctured by spikes on highway south of Johannesburg, say police
A South African government minister has been robbed and her bodyguards have had their guns stolen, say police, in what authorities in the country described as an “unprecedented incident”.
The attack took place on Monday as the transport minister, Sindisiwe Chikunga, was travelling on a highway south of Johannesburg, police said.
Continue reading...Move announced by interior minister is part of ambitious Kenyan plan to plant 15bn trees by 2032
The Kenyan government has announced a surprise public holiday on 13 November for a nationwide tree planting day, part of its ambitious plan to plant 15bn trees by 2032
The interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, made the announcement via an official notice posted to social media.
Continue reading...Pre-qualification seen as significant step towards self-sufficiency in healthcare in continent where more than 70% of drugs are imported
A Kenyan pharmaceutical company, Universal Corporation Limited, has become the first manufacturer in Africa to receive World Health Organization (WHO) approval to produce a lifesaving malaria drug.
The antimalarial drug, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine (Spaq), is frequently used to prevent seasonal malaria in children during months of peak transmission periods such as rainy seasons. Previously, demand for drugs such as Spaq in Africa has been met through the importation of generic versions of the medicine from India and China.
Continue reading...NGOs report allegations of abuse and harassment at Kasigau Corridor conservation project in southern Kenya over 12 years
Male staff at a leading Kenyan carbon-offsetting project used by Netflix, Shell and other large companies have been accused of extensive sexual abuse and harassment over more than a decade, following an investigation by two NGOs.
The Kasigau Corridor conservation project in southern Kenya, operated by the California-based firm Wildlife Works, generates carbon credits by protecting dryland forests at risk of being destroyed in key elephant, lion and wildlife habitats west of Mombasa. The scheme was the first ever forest protection scheme approved by Verra, the world’s leading certifier of carbon offsets, and has also been accredited for its biodiversity and community benefits, probably generating millions of dollars in revenue in carbon-credit sales.
Continue reading...Country, estimated to be owed up to $1.5trn, is increasing penalties for late payments and cutting back on infrastructure projects
China has become the world’s biggest debt collector, as the money it is owed from developing countries has surged to between $1.1tn (£889bn) and $1.5tn, according to a new report. An estimated 80% of China’s overseas lending portfolio in the global south is now supporting countries in financial distress.
Since 2017, China has been the world’s biggest bilateral lender; its main development banks issued nearly $500bn between 2008 and 2021. While some of this predates the belt and road initiative (BRI), Beijing’s flagship development programme has mobilised much of the investment in developing countries.
Continue reading...Healthcare workers say clinics are being overwhelmed by women seeking help, amid lack of staff and facilities to back programme
Pregnant women across the Democratic Republic of the Congo are to be offered free healthcare in an effort to cut the country’s high rates of maternal and neonatal deaths.
Women in 13 out of 26 regions in the country will, by the end of the year, be entitled to free services during pregnancy and for one month after childbirth. Babies will receive free healthcare for their first 28 days under the scheme, which the government plans to extend to the rest of DRC – although there is no timetable for that yet.
Continue reading...Former junta leader back in jail hours after commando raid his lawyer says was an abduction
The former head of Guinea’s 2008 military junta has been recaptured and returned to prison hours after an apparent jailbreak led by a heavily armed commando, the army and his lawyer said.
At least two other former officials on trial alongside Moussa Dadis Camara over a 2009 massacre during his presidency were taken in the earlier operation that sparked heavy gunfire in the capital Conakry, a minister and lawyers said.
Continue reading...World leaders will reconvene in Abu Dhabi before UAE’s Cop28 after talks broke down two weeks ago
Governments will meet this weekend for a last-ditch attempt to bridge deep divisions between rich and poor countries over how to get money to vulnerable people afflicted by climate disaster.
Talks over funds for “loss and damage”, which refers to the rescue and rehabilitation of countries and communities experiencing the effects of extreme weather, started in March but broke down in rancour two weeks ago.
Continue reading...Scotland first minister’s parents-in-law among those evacuated, amid concerns for those stuck in northern Gaza
The first people in a group of about 100 Britons due to leave Gaza on Friday have made the crossing into Egypt, amid concerns about whether individuals in the north of the Palestinian territory will be able to make it to the southern Rafah crossing.
By Friday, there were 127 people on the UK list to be evacuated into Egypt since the crossing opened on Wednesday, more than three weeks after the conflict began in which thousands of Palestinians and Israelis have been killed. Among those able to leave Gaza were the parents-in-law of Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, who described the last four weeks as a “living nightmare” for the family of his wife, Nadia El-Nakla.
Continue reading...Suella Braverman signs ‘migration and security agreement’ with Austrian counterpart in move to work more closely together
Austria is seeking to adopt a Rwanda-style deal to deport asylum seekers to a third country, having agreed a deal to work with the UK on migration.
Suella Braverman signed a “migration and security agreement” with her Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, in which the two countries agreed to work more closely together.
Continue reading...Rights groups repeat calls for apology while President William Ruto says ‘much remains to be done to achieve full reparations’
King Charles’s expression of “greatest sorrow and deepest regret” over colonial atrocities committed by British forces in Kenya has been criticised as a “miss” in the east African country.
Reactions to the king’s statement were mixed, with the president, William Ruto, diplomatically welcoming Charles’s “courage and readiness to shed light on uncomfortable truths that reside in the darker regions of our shared experience”, but calling Britain’s colonial suppression of Kenya’s freedom movement “monstrous in its cruelty”.
Continue reading...Giorgia Meloni ‘misled’ into phone conversation reportedly with Russian comedian posing as African political leader
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told a prank caller posing as an African leader there was “a lot of tiredness” over the war in Ukraine and that she had some ideas up her sleeve on how to “find a way out”.
Meloni’s office confirmed that she had been “misled” into the phone call – reportedly by two Russian comedians – that took place on 18 September “by an impostor who passed himself off as the president of the African Union Commission”.
Continue reading...Crossing open for first time in weeks to allow evacuation of foreign passport holders and injured Palestinians
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders.
Witnesses at the border on the Gaza side saw scores of people and cars hurrying to get through the gates towards the Egyptian side through the damaged terminal area, some carrying their belongings. Ambulances whisked away the wounded to Egyptian field hospitals, including one young boy with heavy bandaging around his stomach.
Continue reading...Visiting monarch speaks of sorrow and deepest regret for past ‘wrongdoings’ under British rule
King Charles has spoken of Britain’s “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence” committed against Kenyans during their fight for independence, but stopped short of an apology despite human rights groups demanding one.
The monarch made the comments in a speech, delivered during a banquet in Kenya held in his honour, in which he referred to the “greatest sorrow” and “deepest regret” for the “wrongdoings” of the past.
Continue reading...Pensioners sold rare object found in attic for €150 – but campaigners say it must be returned to Gabon
A retired French couple who sold an African mask to a secondhand goods dealer for €150 (£130) have gone to court for a share of the proceeds after the mask fetched €4.2m (£3.7m) at auction.
But campaigners insist that the rare artefact instead should be returned to Gabon, in a case that has raised questions over Africa’s cultural heritage looted by colonial France.
Continue reading...King urged to offer apology while in Kenya for UK’s ‘brutal and inhuman treatment’ during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s
The Kenya Human Rights Commission has called on King Charles to offer an “unequivocal public apology” for colonial abuses, during his visit to the country this week.
“We call upon the king, on behalf of the British government, to issue an unconditional and unequivocal public apology (as opposed to the very cautious, self-preserving and protective statements of regrets) for the brutal and inhuman treatment inflicted on Kenyan citizens,” the KHRC said.
Continue reading...President William Ruto says change aims to boost trade and allow goods, services, people and ideas to move freely across continent
Visas to visit Kenya are to be scrapped for other African nationals from next year as part of a movement towards opening up trade and travel within the continent.
“By the end of this year, no African will be required to have a visa to come to Kenya,” Kenya’s president, William Ruto, said at a climate change conference in Congo-Brazzaville.
Costly and time-consuming visa requirements, as well as high air fares, have long created barriers to inter-African travel for African passport holders; 32 out of 54 African countries still require the nationals of half or more countries on the continent to obtain a visa.
UK refusing to commit to EU pledge to stop cutting tariffs on big producers despite bananas being as cheap today as three decades ago
It is one of the few British supermarket staples to have bucked the trend during the cost of living crisis, with the price of a bunch of bananas today no more expensive today than three decades ago. Every country in the world with cheaper prices than the UK has its own producers of the fruit.
The government has now been accused of pursuing an irresponsible post-Brexit policy that could reduce the price of bananas further in the shops – but at the cost of the livelihoods of thousands of workers on small plantations in some of Africa’s poorest countries.
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