Some asylum seekers have received letters saying government intends to remove them, the Guardian has learned
The Home Office is planning a new deportation flight to Rwanda, the Guardian has learned.
Some newly arrived asylum seekers in hotels have received letters from the department telling them their asylum claims are deemed inadmissible for consideration in the UK.
Continue reading...WHO hails west African country as first in world to stamp out Guinea worm, lymphatic filariasis, sleeping sickness and trachoma
Togo has been praised by the World Health Organization for becoming the first country in the world to eliminate four neglected tropical diseases.
The WHO presented the west African country with an outstanding achievement award this week for eliminating Guinea worm, lymphatic filariasis, sleeping sickness and trachoma in just 11 years.
Continue reading...Prolonged bending to gather tea for James Finlay Kenya is argued to accelerate ageing of pickers’ backs by up to 20 years
More than a 1,000 Kenyan tea pickers who say that harsh and exploitative working conditions on a Scottish-run tea farm have caused them crippling health complaints can now pursue their class action in an Edinburgh court.
Lawyers acting for the tea pickers have won an order from the court of session, Scotland’s highest civil court, telling James Finlay Kenya Ltd (JFK) to abandon attempts to block the suit through the Kenyan courts.
Continue reading...Tigrayan rebels and government each accuse the other of striking first as conflict resumes
Fighting has erupted between government forces and Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia, shattering a five-month truce between the warring sides.
Both have repeatedly blamed the other for a lack of progress towards negotiations to end the 21-month conflict in Africa’s second most populous nation.
Continue reading...Civil society groups say covert screening process excluded government’s critics
A group of Egyptian civil society organisations have been prevented from attending the Cop27 climate summit by a covert registration process that filtered out groups critical of the Egyptian government.
Egypt’s foreign, environment and social solidarity ministries privately selected and screened NGOs that would be permitted to apply for one-time registration for Cop27, a separate process from applications for official observer status, which closed last year.
Continue reading...Ruling MPLA party faces major challenge from opposition parties, with turnout expected to be high
Angolans are voting in an election in which the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) faces the most significant challenge from opposition parties for decades.
More than 14 million people in the oil and diamond rich country are eligible to vote, with a high turnout likely after polls showed the main opposition party closer to victory than many expected.
Continue reading...Record win for women is a cause for celebration as acrimony over the presidency continues
More women won parliamentary seats in Kenya’s elections this month than ever before.
The National Gender and Equality Commission said Kenyans elected 30 female MPs, up from 23 in 2017, seven female governors, up from three in 2017, and three female senators, the same number as in 2017.
Continue reading...Raila Odinga submits case to supreme court in move that could heighten the country’s political dispute
Kenya’s longtime opposition leader, Raila Odinga, has filed a case with the country’s supreme court to challenge the results of the 9 August presidential election in which his opponent, William Ruto, was declared the winner with 50.49% of the vote.
Ruto, who has served as deputy president since 2013, was named president-elect amid protests from four of the seven electoral commissioners, who renounced the results, calling them “opaque”. They claimed that the chair of the electoral commission, Wafula Chebukati, had hijacked the process leading up to the announcement and declared the results unilaterally.
Continue reading...Somali social media has been flooded with tributes to the man better known as ‘Hadraawi’
Messages of condolences continue to pour in from around the world following the death of Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, regarded as one of Somalia’s greatest poets.
Warsame, better known as “Hadraawi”, died in Hargeisa, in Somaliland, on Thursday at the age of 79.
The snake sneaks in the castle:
although it’s carpeted with thorns
Continue reading...A new generation could end decades of MPLA rule this week and serve notice on Africa’s veteran leaders in polls seen as test of democracy
Millions of Angolans will vote this week in a landmark election described as an “existential moment” for the key oil-rich central African state, and a test for democracy across a swath of the continent.
The poll on Wednesday pits veteran politicians against a generation of young voters just beginning to grasp that they can bring about a radical change and escape from the shadow of the cold war.
Continue reading...Urgent action needed to avert further disaster in war-torn country as funding ‘fast running out’
Nearly one in three children under five in the Ethiopian region of Tigray are malnourished and the UN said urgent action is needed to prevent them from dying.
According to a new emergency assessment carried out by the World Food Programme (WFP), 29% of very young children are suffering from global acute malnutrition (GAM). More than half of pregnant or breastfeeding woman are also malnourished.
Continue reading...Government forces retake Hayat in Mogadishu after it was overrun by al-Shabaab fighters
Somali forces have ended the siege at a hotel in the capital Mogadishu after it was overrun by Islamic extremist gunmen in one of the most deadly and high-profile attacks in recent years.
According to police and witnesses, at least 20 people are believed to have been killed and 40 wounded during the attack, which has been claimed by the al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabaab.
Continue reading...Four years of failed rains in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia have left the region facing catastrophe this year
The number of people at risk of starvation in the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa has increased to 22 million, the UN’s world food programme (WFP) says.
Years of insufficient rainfall across Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia have caused the worst drought in 40 years and conditions akin to famine in the hardest-hit areas, aid groups say.
Continue reading...People in Ethiopian region turn to desperate measures after authorities stop 6 million people accessing their own money
Hunger in the besieged region of Tigray is pushing people to increasingly desperate measures as the authorities are systematically blocking and confiscating remittances needed by millions of people.
Banking services and all communications have been cut off to the state by the Ethiopian administration since last year, with 6 million people denied access to their own money.
Continue reading...Fears the unit will enforce public order laws limiting women’s rights and freedoms amid crackdown since military coup
Human rights campaigners in Sudan fear the launch of a new police squad will herald the return of “morality policing” in the country.
The government has announced the creation of the community police unit to “reaffirm the relationships between people and the police” and ensure security.
Continue reading...Three men arrested after bodies including those of children discovered during raid of building in Benin City
Police in Nigeria have discovered 20 mummified bodies including those of children in a building in Benin City, in a case that has shocked the country.
Three suspects were arrested during the raid in southern Nigeria, Jennifer Iwegbu, a police spokesperson said in a statement late Wednesday. Armed police officers raided the building in Benin City, the capital of Edo state, acting on intelligence that it was a “suspected ritual shrine”, she said.
Continue reading...Hundreds forced to flee homes and at least 200 injured as firefighters battle string of blazes in El Tarf province
Algerian firefighters were on Thursday battling a string of blazes, fanned by drought and a blistering heatwave, that have killed at least 38 people and left destruction in their wake.
Deadly forest fires have become an annual scourge in the north African country, where the climate crisis is turning large areas into a tinderbox.
Continue reading...Tanzanian minister hails move and says connectivity will also improve safety of porters and visitors
Tanzania has installed high-speed internet services on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, allowing anyone with a smartphone to tweet, Instagram or WhatsApp their ascent up Africa’s highest mountain.
The state-owned Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation set up the broadband network on Tuesday at an altitude of 3,720 metres (12,200ft), with the country’s information minister, Nape Nnauye, calling the event historic.
Continue reading...Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says world ignoring disaster being inflicted on 6 million people by Ethiopian government
The head of the World Health Organization has returned to his suggestion that racism may be driving the lack of international interest in the ongoing war in Ethiopia.
Civil war broke out in November 2020 and has pitted Tigrayan forces against federal Ethiopian forces, also drawing in Eritrean troops, in fighting that has triggered a serious humanitarian crisis.
Continue reading...Guardian, BBC and Times seek release of documents about policy of sending asylum seekers abroad
A Foreign Office official raised concerns about plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, citing state surveillance, arbitrary detention, torture and killings by the country’s government, the high court has heard.
The court has been asked to consider an application by the foreign secretary to keep parts of certain government documents secret for fear the contents could damage international relations and threaten national security.
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