Two explosions occur at same busy junction where al-Shabaab blasts killed 500 people five years ago
Two car bombs have exploded at a busy junction in Mogadishu near key government offices, leaving “scores of civilian casualties,” police told Somali state media.
The attack on Saturday occurred five years after a massive blast at the same location killed hundreds of people.
Continue reading...Coronation of Misuzulu Zulu at football stadium follows bitter feuding over royal succession
Tens of thousands of people gathered at a football stadium in Durban on Saturday to celebrate the coronation of South Africa’s Zulu king.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was to hand over the certificate to formally recognise the 48-year-old new ruler of the country’s richest and most influential traditional monarchy.
Continue reading...Exclusive: in a rare interview, Egyptian minister Sameh Shoukry says global tensions are making talks harder
• Windfall tax must change in face of ‘excessive’ oil profits – Cop26 chief
The goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is “more fragile” than ever, as world leaders prepare to meet for crucial climate talks, the president-designate of the negotiations has warned.
Sameh Shoukry, the foreign minister of Egypt, who will chair the UN Cop27 climate summit next month, said in a rare interview that forging agreement would be harder than at any other recent climate talks, owing to the “turbulent” global economy and “difficult” geopolitical tensions, stoked by the Ukraine war.
Continue reading...Twelve officers face charges including rape, murder and torture over response to post-election protests
In a landmark decision, 12 Kenyan police officers will face charges of crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on post-election protests in 2017, prosecutors have announced.
The charges include rape, murder and torture and the case of a six-month-old girl whose death became a symbol of police brutality during the election aftermath.
Continue reading...MPs and peers say Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s life is seriously at risk and his sister is being ignored
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has been accused by MPs and peers of ignoring the case of jailed British-Egyptian hunger striker Alaa Abd El-Fattah.
He has also been accused of failing to engage with the activist’s sister, Sanaa Seif, who has camped outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office for 10 days in an effort to force the British government to act.
Continue reading...With famine in Somalia almost inevitable, Martin Griffiths criticises opaque handling of $100bn a year promised to poorer countries
The UN’s humanitarian chief has questioned why billions of dollars pledged to tackle the climate crisis have not been used to fight famine in Somalia.
Martin Griffiths said he did not know where the promised $100bn (£87bn) a year to fight the impact of global heating in poorer countries had gone, and called for greater transparency around climate finance.
Continue reading...Experts say crude oil pipeline from Uganda to Tanzania will produce 25 times host nations’ combined annual emissions
An oil pipeline under construction in east Africa will produce vast amounts of carbon dioxide, according to new analysis. The project will result in 379m tonnes of climate-heating pollution, according to an expert assessment, more than 25 times the combined annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania, the host nations.
The East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil drilled in a biodiverse national park in Uganda more than 870 miles to a port in Tanzania for export. The main backers of the multibillion dollar project are the French oil company TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
Continue reading...Video shows captive Madagascan primates using elongated finger to pick nose and eat the mucus
With its big eyes, bushy tail and sensitive ears, the aye-aye may appear a cute, if quirky, creature. But now researchers have discovered it has a less endearing trait: it uses its long middle finger to pick its nose – and eat the mucus.
Aye-ayes are – like humans – primates, but they are nocturnal, endangered and only found in Madagascar. An object of superstition, they have a number of unusual features, including rodent-like teeth and a skinny, elongated finger with a ball-and-socket joint.
Continue reading...Minister says more than 30,000 people forced to flee in Blue Nile state as tensions between rival communities erupt into violence
At least 230 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in attacks on villages in Sudan’s Blue Nile state over the past few days, according to authorities.
Gamal Nasser al-Sayed, the health minister in the southern state, which borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, told the Guardian that more than 30,000 people in eight villages in the Wad al-Mahi area had had to flee as their homes were torched and villagers were attacked.
Continue reading...Violence has intensified recently as Ethiopia and TPLF seek to bolster their negotiating position
Peace talks aiming to end the nearly two-year-old war in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia have started in South Africa, although the chances of bringing the conflict to an immediate stop are believed to be low.
Representatives of the Ethiopian government and a team sent by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political organisation that has ruled the northern region for decades, are to spend five days together in the most serious effort yet to find a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Continue reading...Police say Arshad Sharif was shot after his car failed to stop at a roadblock near Nairobi
Kenya’s national police service has said it regretted the killing of a Pakistani journalist who had been living in hiding in the country and was shot dead in Nairobi in an incident it described as a case of mistaken identity.
Officers opened fire on Arshad Sharif, 50, and a friend on Sunday after they allegedly drove through a security roadblock outside the Kenyan capital.
Continue reading...Groups say cancellations could restrict debate as host country tightens security for opening days
Civil society organisations and governments may have to cancel events at the UN climate summit in November as the Egyptian hosts have tightened security for the opening days.
Cop27 will open on Sunday 6 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, and on the Monday and Tuesday world leaders are due to descend on the conference centre for talks to direct their negotiating teams.
Continue reading...Police and locals help firefighters attempt to put out fire that was spread by strong winds overnight
Tanzanian authorities said on Sunday that a fire on Mount Kilimanjaro was mostly under control after flames burned Africa’s tallest mountain for more than 24 hours.
The blaze began on Friday evening near the Karanga site used by climbers ascending the famous peak, at about 4,000 metres altitude on its south side.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Privilege Style causes problem for Home Office as it bows to pressure from campaigners
A charter airline hired to remove people seeking refuge in the UK to Rwanda has pulled out of the scheme after pressure from campaigners.
A plane operated by Privilege Style first attempted to fly asylum seekers to the east African country in June but was grounded by an 11th hour ruling by the European court of human rights.
Continue reading...Authorities partly blamed after months of deadly flooding in African nation; jet stream causes temperature divide in US
Nigeria has found itself at the centre of devastating floods over the past week, with poor preparation from authorities partly blamed for the damage caused. At least 600 people have died across the west African nation, with two-thirds of states affected by the disaster.
An estimated 1.3 million people have been displaced, with up to a quarter of a million homes reportedly destroyed. The floods are a culmination of months of above average rainfall, with the first floods having occurred in summer.
Continue reading...Bodies of four men, believed to be en route to South Africa, found less than a mile from where 25 bodies were exhumed in Mzimba
Authorities in Malawi have discovered four bodies in a forest close to where dozens more were found in a mass grave on Wednesday.
Police say the bodies were found yesterday morning, less than a mile from where 25 others were exhumed in Mtangatanga Forest Reserve in the northern district of Mzimba.
Continue reading...‘Rebels’ accused of setting fire to ruling party HQ during demonstrations calling for faster democratic transition
Security forces in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, have violently dispersed banned protests calling for a quicker transition to democratic rule, leaving at least 50 dead and dozens injured, according to the country’s prime minister.
Palls of black smoke could be seen in some areas in N’Djamena and the crack of teargas grenades could be heard throughout much of the day. Several roads had been blocked with barricades and burning tyres and most shops closed their doors to avoid looting.
Continue reading...Country investigating 206 cases of kidney injury that could be linked to ingredients in liquid medicines
Indonesia has banned the sale of all syrup medicines as it investigates the deaths this year of nearly 100 children, warning that the liquids may contain ingredients linked to fatal kidney injuries.
The move comes just weeks after the World Health Organization issued an alert over four Indian-made cough syrups that it said were potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and the deaths of 70 children in the Gambia.
Continue reading...Heavy rain and rising waters continue to take a deadly toll in countries including Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam
It has been a drenched 2022 for many parts of the world, at times catastrophically so. A year of disastrous flooding perhaps reached its nadir in Pakistan, where a third of the country was inundated by heavy rainfall from June, killing more than 1,000 people in what António Guterres, the UN secretary general, called an unprecedented natural disaster.
While floods are indeed natural phenomena, a longstanding result of storms, the human-induced climate crisis is amplifying their damage. Rising sea levels, driven by melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of water, are increasingly inundating coastal areas, while warmer temperatures are causing more moisture to accumulate in the atmosphere, which is then released as rain or snow.
Continue reading...World Health Organization welcomes country’s ‘crucial step’ in backing use of long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA)
Zimbabwe has become the first country in Africa and the third in the world to approve an HIV prevention drug recently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Regulators in Australia and the US have already given their backing to use the long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA), and the WHO welcomed the move by Zimbabwe.
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