Category Archives: Africa

Cop15: lack of political leadership leaves crucial nature summit ‘in peril’, warn NGOs

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Nairobi biodiversity talks end in stalemate, prompting open letter to world leaders calling for action before Montreal conference

UN biodiversity negotiations have reached crisis point due to a lack of engagement from governments, leading NGOs have warned, three years after experts revealed that Earth’s life-support systems are collapsing.

Last week, countries met in Nairobi for an extra round of talks on an agreement to halt the human-driven destruction of the natural world, with the final targets set to be agreed at Cop15 in Montreal. Governments have never met a target they have set for themselves on halting the destruction of nature despite scientists warning in 2019 that one million species face extinction, and that nature is declining at rates unprecedented in human history.

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V&A to display its first African fashion exhibition

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Galleries will showcase designers who are often overlooked, in an effort to acknowledge colonial histories within the museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum will open its first African fashion exhibition this week, more than 170 years after it was founded.

Featuring designers who have worked with names including Beyoncé and architect David Adjaye, Africa Fashion aims to look across the fashion of the continent, exhibiting designs, photographs and films from 25 of the 54 countries.

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Moroccan authorities accused of trying to cover up Melilla deaths

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Concern at apparent plan to bury victims without investigating cause of death or trying to identify them

There are growing calls for an investigation into the deaths of up to 37 people who died trying to scale a fence to enter Melilla, Spain’s enclave in north Africa.

About 2,000 people stormed the heavily fortified border between the Moroccan region of Nador and the Spanish enclave on Friday. The Moroccan authorities say 23 people died and 140 police were injured during the attempt, while several NGOs say the number of dead is 37.

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Calls for investigation over deaths in Moroccan-Spanish border crossing

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NGOs say toll could be as high as 37 after hundreds of people break into border control area in attempt to reach Melilla enclave

Human rights campaigners in Spain and Morocco have called for investigations to be launched in both countries after a mass attempt to scale the border fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla left at least 23 people dead.

Spanish officials said about 2,000 Africans made their way to the iron fence at dawn on Friday, with more than 500 managing to slip into a border control area after cutting an opening with shears.

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Seventeen people found dead in South African nightclub

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Police in southern city of East London launch investigation and officials rule out stampede

At least 17 young people were found dead at a nightclub in a township in South Africa’s southern city of East London on Sunday, police said.

“We got a report about 17 [people] that died in a local tavern in Scenery Park, which is based in East London,” said Thembinkosi Kinana, a police spokesperson. “We are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.”

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Melilla: death toll from mass incursion on Spanish enclave rises to 23

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Crowd of more than 500 enter border control area after cutting fence in attempt to cross from Morocco

The death toll from the mass attempt to cross from Morocco into Spain’s enclave of Melilla has risen to 23, according to Moroccan state TV.

About 2,000 people approached Melilla at dawn on Friday and more than 500 managed to enter a border control area after cutting a fence with shears, the Spanish government’s local delegation said in a statement.

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Stars urge Commonwealth to oppose UK plan to send refugees to Rwanda

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Celebrities including Sophie Okonedo and David Harewood say scheme shows ‘colonial view’ of Africa as ‘dumping ground’

British celebrities have urged Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda to oppose the UK’s plan to deport refugees to the country, saying it shows a “colonial view” of Africa as a “dumping ground”.

It comes as a summit of Commonwealth prime ministers and presidents is under way in Kigali, the first time the gathering has been held since 2018.

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Rwanda making preparations to take children removed from UK

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Hostel in Kigali building football pitches and providing outdoor toys for any children flown to the country

A hostel that has been leased by the Rwandan government to house asylum seekers from the UK is making preparations to accept children.

The Hope hostel in Kigali is building outdoor facilities that will include football pitches, basketball courts and outdoor toys for any children who are flown to the east African country.

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Charles tells Commonwealth leaders dropping Queen ‘for each to decide’

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Prince of Wales says at summit any move by members to become a republic can be ‘without rancour’

The Prince of Wales has told Commonwealth leaders that keeping the Queen as head of state or becoming a republic is “a matter for each member country to decide”.

Charles made the comments during the opening ceremony of a summit of Commonwealth prime ministers and presidents in Rwanda. He said he believed such fundamental changes could be made “calmly and without rancour”.

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Ukrainians who come to UK illegally could be sent to Rwanda, Johnson says

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PM had previously said deportations were ‘simply not going to happen’ but now admits in theory they could

Ukrainian refugees face being sent to Rwanda if they travel to the UK without authorisation, Boris Johnson has said in an escalation of government plans to deport those who travel across the Channel seeking sanctuary.

During a visit to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the prime minister also urged Nato and G7 countries not to settle for a “bad peace” in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, saying it would lead to escalation by Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

Politicians from 11 European countries condemned the Rwanda-UK scheme. But it emerged that Johnson did not raise human rights abuses when he met the country’s president, Paul Kagame, on Thursday, despite previous indications that he would.

Ahead of a meeting with Prince Charles on Friday, Johnson was bullish in saying he would defend the policy after the heir to the throne reportedly called it “appalling” – but Downing Street and Clarence House sources suggested the subject would not be raised.

The Rwandan government confirmed it has already received £120m from the UK government to house asylum seekers who have yet to arrive, and has spent a proportion of the money.

The prime minister pledged £372m in aid to provide help for countries grappling with soaring food prices.

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Tanzania charges 20 Maasai with murder after police officer dies during protests

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Lawyers say government is attempting to intimidate pastoralists as thousands flee to Kenya amid escalating row over evictions

Twenty Maasai pastoralists from northern Tanzania have been charged with the murder of a police officer during protests over government plans to use their ancestral land for conservation and a luxury hunting reserve.

The officer was allegedly shot by an arrow on 10 June while attempting to demarcate land in Loliondo, which borders Serengeti national park.

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Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul prepare for Mediterranean tsunami

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Risk of significant tsunami within next 30 years is nearly 100%, Unesco says, as it urges coastal cities to become ‘tsunami-ready’

A tsunami could soon hit major cities on or near the Mediterranean Sea including Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul, with a nearly 100% chance of a wave reaching more than a metre high in the next 30 years, according to Unesco.

The risk of a tsunami in Mediterranean coastal communities is predicted to soar as sea levels rise. While communities in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, where most tsunamis occur, were often aware of the dangers, it was underestimated in other coastal regions, including the Mediterranean, Unesco said.

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Boris Johnson and Prince Charles to hold Rwanda talks

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Pair are visiting for Commonwealth meeting, after Charles criticised government’s asylum policy

Boris Johnson will have a potentially awkward meeting with the Prince of Wales in Rwanda after the heir to the throne criticised the government’s policy of sending asylum seekers to the east African state.

The talks will take place at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Kigali this week. Prince Charles reportedly described the government’s plan to fly people 4,000 miles on a one-way ticket as “appalling”.

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Somalia: ‘The worst humanitarian crisis we’ve ever seen’

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Children starving to death ‘before our eyes’ say aid workers as G7 leaders warned only ‘massive’ and urgent funding will avert famine

Only a “massive” and immediate scaling-up of funds and humanitarian relief can save Somalia from famine, a UN spokesperson has warned, as aid workers report children starving to death “before our eyes” amid rapidly escalating levels of malnutrition.

In a message to G7 leaders who are meeting from Sunday in Germany, Michael Dunford, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) regional director for east Africa, said governments had to donate urgently and generously if there was to be any hope of avoiding catastrophe in the Horn of Africa country.

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Russian mercenaries accused of deadly attacks on mines on Sudan-CAR border

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Dozens of people said to have been killed in attacks allegedly involving Wagner Group fighters

Russian mercenaries have mounted a series of bloody attacks on artisanal mines in the lawless border zones between Sudan and Central African Republic (CAR) in an effort to plunder the region’s valuable gold trade, witnesses and experts have said.

Dozens of miners are thought to have died in at least three major attacks this year allegedly involving mercenaries working for the Wagner Group, a private military company that has been linked to the Kremlin by western officials. There are also reports of further attacks on mines in at least six other places across CAR.

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East African leaders propose deploying regional force to help DRC

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EAC meeting convened to discuss sending personnel to eastern DRC where military has been fighting rebels

East African heads of state have gathered for a closed-doors meeting in Kenya to discuss the deteriorating security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the DRC military has been fighting a resurgence of M23 rebels.

The rebels are a group of mainly Tutsi fighters that were defeated in 2013 by the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers. DRC accused Rwanda of backing the rebels – which Rwanda denies – sparking a diplomatic row between the neighbouring countries.

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As many as 320 dead in Ethiopia gun attack, witnesses suggest

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Witnesses say victims of massacre in country’s western Oromia region were ethnic Amharas – a minority in the area

The suspected death toll in an attack by gunmen in Ethiopia’s western Oromia region has risen, with new witness testimony suggesting that between 260 and 320 civilians were killed on Saturday.

Reports of the massacre surfaced on Sunday, as survivors described one of the deadliest such incidents for several years in Ethiopia.

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Briton feared dead after going missing while on Seychelles hiking trail

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Tributes paid to retired barrister Peter Clement, 57, who was last seen walking alone on trail on 15 May

A retired British barrister is feared to have died in Seychelles after going missing on a jungle hike.

Peter Clement, 57, who was reportedly on holiday to celebrate his retirement, was last seen walking alone on the 12-mile Grande Barbe trail on Silhouette Island on 15 May.

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Belgium returns Patrice Lumumba’s tooth to his family 61 years after his murder

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Congolese independence hero’s gold-capped tooth returned as ex-colonial power faces its bloody past

Belgian authorities have returned a tooth belonging to the murdered Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba, as the former colonial power continues to confront its bloody past and look toward reconciliation.

The restitution of the relic took place after Belgium’s King Philippe expressed his “deepest regrets” this month for his country’s abuses in its African former colony, Congo, 75 times the size of Belgium.

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Sudanese museums seek return of artefacts taken by British colonisers

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Items include armour, banners, and two skulls taken from Omdurman battlefield

Museum officials in Sudan are hoping for the return of priceless artefacts and body parts taken by British soldiers, colonial administrators and travellers, saying they could help bring peace to the unstable east African country.

The items include valuable armour, weapons and clothing, and the banners of fighters who resisted the British force that invaded and colonised Sudan 124 years ago.

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