Category Archives: Africa

Anti-malaria funding cuts could lead to ‘deadliest resurgence ever’, study warns

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Expected reduction in contributions by wealthy countries likely to cost millions of lives and billions in lost growth

Slashed contributions from wealthy countries to an anti-malaria fund could allow a resurgence of the disease, costing millions of lives and billions of pounds by the end of the decade, according to a new analysis.

The fight against malaria faces new threats, including extreme weather and humanitarian crises increasing the number of people exposed, and growing biological resistance to insecticides and drugs, the report warns.

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Four dead as Kenyan security forces fire on crowds mourning Raila Odinga

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Thousands gather in Nairobi to pay respects to veteran opposition leader, prompting chaotic scenes at stadium

Four people have been killed in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, after security forces fired shots and teargas to disperse huge crowds at a stadium where the body of the opposition leader Raila Odinga was lying in state.

Odinga, a major figure in Kenyan politics for decades who was once a political prisoner and ran unsuccessfully for president five times, died on Wednesday aged 80 in India, where he had been receiving medical treatment.

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Agnes Wanjiru’s niece urges Labour to extradite ex-soldier while still in power

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Esther Njoki says family has seen ‘big change’ under Labour, after long fight for justice over aunt’s 2012 death in Kenya

The niece of Agnes Wanjiru, who was killed in Kenya, said she hopes the former British soldier charged with her aunt’s murder will be extradited while the Labour government is still in power.

On her first trip outside Kenya, Esther Njoki travelled to London, where she was invited to parliament to meet the defence secretary, John Healey, whom she urged not to delay the potentially years-long extradition process.

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Raila Odinga, towering Kenyan opposition figure, dies aged 80

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Odinga, who ran five times for presidency and had profound influence on Kenyan politics, has died in India

The veteran Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who ran five times for the presidency and had a profound influence on the country’s politics, has died aged 80 in India.

Odinga was in the southern city of Kochi for treatment. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that he had a cardiac arrest during a morning walk.

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Thousands trapped in El Fasher siege on ‘edge of survival’, says report

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The city – the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the west of the country – has withstood more than 500 days of attacks by paramilitary RSF

The besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher has been declared “uninhabitable” with new data indicating most homes are destroyed and critical levels of malnourishment among people trapped there.

The stark assessment comes as the city endures constant artillery and drone attacks, shoehorning its 250,000 starving people into a shrinking urban enclave.

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Elite military unit says it has seized power in Madagascar

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Announcement comes after country’s parliament impeaches president after weeks of anti-government protests

An elite military unit said it had taken power in Madagascar on Tuesday, after the country’s parliament impeached president Andry Rajoelina after weeks of anti-government protests.

Rajoelina, who said on Monday in a Facebook Live video that he had gone into hiding after attempts to kill him, had refused demands to step down, but the demonstrators won the backing of the influential Capsat unit at the weekend.

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Cameroon opposition leader declares victory in presidential election

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Issa Tchiroma Bakary calls on 92-year-old president to accept end of reign, although results have yet to be released

The Cameroonian opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary has declared himself the winner of the 12 October presidential election and called on the incumbent, Paul Biya, to accept the end of his 43-year rule.

“Our victory is clear, it must be respected,” Tchiroma said in a video statement on Facebook with the national flag in the background, before directly addressing 92-year-old Biya: “We call on the regime in power to show greatness and to honour the truth of the ballot box with a long-awaited gesture: that phone call of congratulations, which will demonstrate the political maturity of our nation and the future strength of our democracy.”

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Prosecution of South Sudan’s vice-president raises fears of return to full-scale civil war

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Observers and opposition says prosecution of Riek Machar for crimes in relation to attack by rebel militia puts peace deal at risk

South Sudan’s opposition and observers have warned that the prosecution of the country’s suspended vice-president, Riek Machar, risks jeopardising a peace agreement that ended a devastating civil war and plunging the country into full-scale conflict once again.

On 11 September, Machar was charged with murder, treason, crimes against humanity and other serious crimes in connection with a deadly attack by the White Army rebel group on a government army garrison in Nasir county in the country’s north-east. President Salva Kiir then suspended him from his post.

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African football’s general secretary accused of creating toxic culture of fear

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  • Mosengo-Omba said to run CAF as a ‘proprietorship’

  • Employee: ‘Anyone who dares speak up is terminated’

The Confederation of African Football’s general secretary, Véron Mosengo-Omba, has been accused of running the organisation as his “proprietorship” and creating a toxic culture of fear where employees are fired for speaking out against him.

Several former and current members of staff have told the Guardian there is an atmosphere of intimidation and paranoia at the Caf headquarters in Cairo, where Mosengo-Omba is accused of sidelining colleagues and silencing whistleblowers.

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Madagascar president says he fled country in fear for his life

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Andry Rajoelina does not announce resignation in speech broadcast on social media after military rebellion

Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, said he had fled the country in fear for his life after a military rebellion but did not announce his resignation in a speech broadcast on social media late on Monday from an undisclosed location.

The 51-year-old has faced weeks of gen Z-led anti-government protests, which reached a pivotal point on Saturday when an elite military unit joined the protests and called for the president and other ministers to step down. That prompted Rajoelina to say that an illegal attempt to seize power was under way in the Indian Ocean island and to leave the country.

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Cameroon’s 92-year-old president set for another term as country goes to polls

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Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has brushed off calls to retire but is rarely seen in public

Cameroon goes to the polls on Sunday for a presidential election with Paul Biya, already the world’s oldest head of state at the age of 92, the favourite to win an eighth term in power in the central African country.

A fractured opposition of 11 candidates is standing against Biya, who, despite his advanced age and declining health, has dismissed calls for him to retire.

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Soldiers from elite Capsat unit join protests against Madagascar’s president

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Demonstrators march alongside regiment, who earlier in the day said they would not fire on the crowds

Madagascar’s prime minister called for calm after an elite group of soldiers joined thousands of protesters against the country’s president on the streets of the capital on Saturday afternoon.

Protesters marched alongside soldiers from the Capsat unit, who drove armoured vehicles, some waving Madagascar flags, from their base in Soanierana in the south of Antananarivo.

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Militia strikes kill at least 60 in Sudan displacement camp, says El Fasher group

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Drone and artillery strikes by RSF paramilitary group hit Dar al-Arqam shelter in western city, says resistance committee

Militia drone and artillery strikes have killed at least 60 people at a displacement shelter in the besieged city of El Fasher in western Sudan, a local activist group has said.

The Resistance Committee for El Fasher said the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group hit the Dar al-Arqam displacement centre, which is in the grounds of a university.

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DRC says EU’s minerals deal with Rwanda is ‘obvious double standard’

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Brussels urged to impose stronger sanctions against Rwanda, as it has in response to Russia for its war in Ukraine

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has accused the EU of “an obvious double standard” for maintaining a minerals deal with Rwanda to supply Europe’s hi-tech industries when it deployed a far-wider sanctions regime in response to the war in Ukraine.

Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the DRC foreign minister, urged the EU to levy much stronger sanctions against Rwanda, which has fuelled the conflict in eastern DRC, describing the bloc’s response to violations of DRC territory as “very timid”.

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Eswatini confirms arrival of 10 more people as part of US deportation deal

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African kingdom receives second group of third-country nationals in what NGOs and lawyers say is violation of human rights

Ten people deported by the US have arrived in Eswatini, its government said, the second group of third-country deportees to be sent to the southern African kingdom by the Trump administration in what lawyers and NGOs have described as violations of their human rights.

A statement by the Eswatini government posted on social media before their arrival on Monday said: “The individuals will be kept in a secured area separate from the public, while arrangements are made for their return to their countries of origin.”

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Kenyan activists abducted after joining opposition rally in Uganda

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Pair had crossed border to support presidential campaign of reggae singer Bobi Wine

Two Kenyan activists have been abducted in Uganda after attending a presidential campaign event for Bobi Wine, the reggae musician turned politician.

Heavily armed security operatives detained Bob Njagi, the chair of Free Kenya, and Nicholas Oyoo, the movement’s secretary general, at a petrol station near Kampala on Wednesday afternoon.

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‘We are the last hope’: Gen Z Madagascar vows to fight on until president resigns

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Protesting young people reject dissolution of government as insufficient and demand list of reforms

Young protesters in Madagascar have said they will continue their fight for the resignation of the president, Andry Rajoelina, and rejected his dissolution of the government on Monday as insufficient.

Twenty-two people were killed and 100 injured at the demonstrations, according to the UN. The unrest broke out on 25 September when local councillors were arrested for protesting against water and electricity outages in the capital, Antananarivo. The youth-led protests quickly spread to other towns and cities, fuelled by social media and other “Gen Z protests in Indonesia and Nepal, where the government was toppled.

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Former DRC president Joseph Kabila sentenced to death in absentia

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Military court convicts Kabila of war crimes, treason and other offences in verdict that could fuel enduring tensions

A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has sentenced the country’s former president Joseph Kabila to death in absentia after convicting him of war crimes, treason and crimes against humanity.

The case stems from his alleged role in backing the advance of M23 rebels supported by Rwanda in DRC’s volatile eastern provinces. Kabila, who led the country from 2001 to 2019, has denied wrongdoing and said the judiciary had been politicised.

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Wildfire in Namibia is contained, says PM, after criticism of response

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A third of Etosha national park has been burned despite efforts of volunteers, who say troops were sent in too late

Wildfires that raged through one of Africa’s largest national parks have been brought under control, Namibia’s government has said, amid criticisms over the response mechanism and limited resources.

The fire broke out in Etosha national park, in the arid desert nation’s north, on 22 September. The government said it suspected charcoal production next to the park, which is home to 114 mammal species including the critically endangered black rhino, was to blame.

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Namibia deploys army to fight wildfire burning third of Etosha game reserve

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Vast tract of park that is home to 114 mammal species, including critically endangered black rhino, affected

Namibia has begun deploying hundreds of soldiers to fight a fire that has burned through a third of the vast Etosha national park, one of Africa’s largest game reserves, officials said.

The park in the north of the largely desert country is home to 114 species of mammals, notably the critically endangered black rhinoceros, and is a major tourist attraction.

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