Category Archives: Africa

Fire kills sleeping boys at Kenyan boarding school

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Several dead after blaze engulfs dormitory housing more than 150 children aged 10 to 14

At least 18 boys have been killed and 27 more were taken to hospital after a fire raged through the dormitory of a boarding school in central Kenya in the early hours of Friday.

Kenya’s vice-president, Rigathi Gachagua, gave the toll at the scene at the Hillside Endarasha academy, a primary school in the town of Endarasha, where the fire broke out at about midnight engulfing rooms where more than 150 children were sleeping.

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Algeria election to take place amid ‘steady erosion of human rights’

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Abdelmadjid Tebboune set for second term as president after changed poll date is expected to favour him

Algeria goes to the polls on Saturday in a presidential election being held in the context of what rights groups have called “a steady erosion of human rights” under the president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is expected to win a second five-year term.

As many as 24 million people are eligible to vote in the north African country in a process moved forward by three months.

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Rebecca Cheptegei’s family demand justice after death of runner set on fire by former partner

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  • Olympian sustained 80% burns during attack in Kenya
  • Police say former boyfriend attacked her amid dispute

The family of a Ugandan athlete who died in Kenya after allegedly being set on fire by her former boyfriend has called for justice and legal action against the culprit.

“I have a lot of grief because I’ve lost my daughter. I seek your help so that this person who has killed my daughter can be prosecuted,” Joseph Cheptegei, the father of Rebecca Cheptegei, told reporters at the hospital where she died.

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Ugandan opposition leader shot in leg after police confrontation

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Bobi Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform, said police ‘made an attempt on his life’

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine has been shot in the leg in a confrontation with police just outside the capital, Kampala, his opposition group said.

Photos posted online on Tuesday showed Wine surrounded by followers who yelled that he had been shot in the leg before some supported him into a waiting car.

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Daughter of South Africa’s ex-president Zuma to be Eswatini king’s 16th wife

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Engagement of Nomcebo Zuma, 21, to King Mswati, 56, confirmed at annual Umhlanga reed dance

A daughter of the former South African president Jacob Zuma and the king of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, have become engaged during a traditional ceremony in which Nomcebo Zuma was among hundreds of women and girls dancing for the monarch.

Zuma, 21, appeared on Monday night at the annual reed dance as the liphovela – the royal fiancee or concubine – and will become King Mswati III’s 16th wife.

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More than 100 killed in attempt to escape DRC’s largest prison

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Democratic Republic of the Congo officials say 129 people died in failed jailbreak at Makala facility in Kinshasa

More than 100 people were killed while trying to escape from a prison in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the early hours of Monday, the security minister has said.

In a post on X on Tuesday morning, Jacquemain Shabani said 129 people had died and 59 others were injured in the escape attempt at Makala prison in Kinshasa. Twenty-four of those who died were killed by gunfire, while the others lost their lives in a crush during the chaos, he said.

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Weather tracker: extreme heat hits Brazil, fuelling risk of wildfires

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Some African countries, meanwhile, hit by unusual rainfall with flooding killing at least 170 people

Unrelenting heat will continue across parts of Brazil this week with temperatures about 5C to 10C above the 1991 to 2020 average.

Daytime temperatures will reach 35C to 40C in parts of the Central West region, affecting cities such as Belo Horizonte, Brasília and Manaus. This extreme heat is likely to continue into next week, with temperatures above 40C possible in places.

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South African beauty queen crowned Miss Nigeria after nationality row

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Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, had been competing in South African competition, but withdrew after a xenophobic backlash

A former Miss South Africa contestant hounded over a nationality row was crowned Miss Universe Nigeria on Saturday, bringing to an end a difficult few weeks for the contender.

Born to a Nigerian father in South Africa, 23-year-old Chidimma Adetshina withdrew from the country’s competition “for the safety and wellbeing of my family” after a backlash that exposed anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa.

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African nations hit by mpox still waiting for vaccines – despite promises by the west

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Last week’s planned rollout of doses faces further delays as campaigners complain of greed and inequality

None of the African countries affected by the outbreak of a new variant of mpox have received any of the promised vaccine, pushing back a rollout that had been planned for last week.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been at the centre of an outbreak of the new clade 1b variant, with 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

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US and UN call for talks in Libyan dispute over control of central bank

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UN-backed institutions in west of Libya show no sign of backing down over dismissal of bank’s governor of 20 years

A crisis in the Libyan economy sparked by an escalating and sometimes violent contest over the control of the country’s central bank can only be cured through diplomacy, the US embassy in Libya has said, as it backed efforts by the UN to convene an emergency meeting of the groups involved.

The embassy, led by the ambassador Richard Norland, pleaded with all sides to heed a UN call to hold talks, saying the contest over the administration of the bank “undermines confidence in Libya’s economic and financial stability in the eyes of Libyan citizens and the international community, and increases the likelihood of harmful confrontation”.

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Flood surge in Sudan bursts dam, destroying villages and killing dozens

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One report says 150-200 people missing after heavy rain led to Arbaat dam giving way in area already hit by civil war

Surging waters have burst through a dam in eastern Sudan, wiping out at least 20 villages and leaving at least 30 people dead but probably many more, the UN has said, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.

Torrential rains caused floods that on Sunday overwhelmed the Arbaat dam, which is 25 miles (40km) north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

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Macklemore cancels Dubai show to protest UAE role in Sudan civil war

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US rapper says he will not perform in United Arab Emirates until it ‘stops arming’ the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, where thousands have been killed

Macklemore has cancelled an upcoming October concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates’ role “in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan through its reported support of the paramilitary force that has been fighting government troops there.

The announcement by the US rapper reignited attention to the UAE’s role in the war gripping the African nation. While the UAE repeatedly has denied arming the Rapid Support Forces and supporting its leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, UN experts reported “credible” evidence in January that the Emirates sent weapons to the RSF several times a week from northern Chad.

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Minister seeks legal settlement in case of South Africa’s imperilled penguins

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Dion George says avoiding extinction of African penguin is his objective, and settling case aimed at stopping fishing around major colonies will help

South Africa’s new environment minister has said he wants to stop African penguins from going extinct by taking measures including settling a case brought by two environmental charities to stop fishing around the birds’ major colonies.

BirdLife South Africa and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCOB) said they want an extension of no-fishing zones around six beaches and islands where the penguins breed, after failing to reach an agreement with fishing industry groups demanded by the previous minister.

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Africa to finally receive first batch of vaccines for deadly mpox virus

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The continent will belatedly get 10,000 shots amid criticism of delays to the process caused by WHO red tape

Africa’s first batch of mpox vaccines will this week finally reach the continent, weeks after they have been made available in other parts of the world.

The 10,000 shots, donated by the US, will be used to tackle a dangerous new variant of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, after a 2022 outbreak triggered global alarm.

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‘Really heavy to see’: Lewis Hamilton speaks up on plight of refugees in Africa

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  • Hamilton reiterates that F1 must stage a race in Africa
  • Verstappen unsure on future after current deal expires

Lewis Hamilton has spoken out over the plight of refugees and displaced people in Africa, ­decrying the lack of empathy toward them in the UK. He pledged to consider what he could do to support them after an emotional visit to the continent ­during the Formula One summer break.

Hamilton was speaking before this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, the first since the sport shut down for the summer, during which period the British driver travelled in Africa, ­visiting Senegal and Morocco and then the Maratane refugee settlement in the north of Mozambique, where he saw the work of the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR.

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Botswana diamond could be second-largest gem-quality example ever found

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Canadian company Lucara digs up ‘extraordinary’ 2,492-carat stone from Karowe diamond mine

A 2,492-carat raw diamond discovered in Botswana could be the second-largest gem-quality example ever unearthed.

The Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp said it had recovered the “exceptional” stone from its Karowe diamond mine, with a photo showing the hefty rough diamond sitting in the cupped palm of a hand.

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Rapidly urbanising Africa to have six cities with populations above 10m by 2035

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Youthful, growing cities expected to create wealth and opportunities but stretch public and utility services

Six African cities will have more than 10 million people by 2035, with the continent’s booming young population making it the world’s fastest urbanising region, according to a report.

Angola’s capital, Luanda, and Tanzania’s commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, will join the metropolises of Cairo, Kinshasa, Lagos and Greater Johannesburg with populations of more than 10 million, the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a report on African cities.

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How west Africa’s online fraudsters moved into sextortion

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With ‘hustle kingdoms’ teaching young people the tricks of the trade, there has been a surge in blackmailing crimes

In the late 90s and early 2000s, as internet connectivity began penetrating west Africa, young people soon realised that individuals in North America and Europe with access to more money than them and potentially susceptible to blackmail were now reachable by the click of a button.

Along came the “Nigerian prince” letters, a famous scamming technique employed by online fraudsters – known as Yahoo boys in Nigeria, Sakwa boys of Ghana and the brouteurs of Ivory Coast – preying on unsuspecting targets across the web. The emails typically involved someone pretending to be Nigerian royalty and asking for money, a claim so outlandish that victims presumed it couldn’t be a lie.

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African health officials call for solidarity not travel bans over mpox outbreak

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Head of Africa CDC Jean Kaseya urges international community to support rollout of testing and vaccinations

African health officials have appealed to the international community not to impose travel bans on countries dealing with an outbreak of mpox, but instead to support the continent in rolling out testing and vaccinations.

There have been about 1,400 new cases and 24 deaths linked to a new variant of mpox over the past week, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Police in Kenya say suspected serial killer has escaped from custody

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Man accused of murdering and dismembering 42 women named as one of 13 detainees on the run in Nairobi

A Kenyan man who police claim has confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women has escaped from a Nairobi police cell, along with a dozen other detainees, police have said.

Collins Jumaisi, 33, described by police as a “vampire, a psychopath”, was arrested in July after the discovery of mutilated bodies in a dump in a slum in the Kenyan capital.

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