Disaster marks second crash for Boeing 737 Max 8 in four months, with passengers from 35 different countries
An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed on Sunday near Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. Here’s what we know about the crash.
Continue reading...Three generations of the Dixit-Vaidya family were travelling on a family holiday to Kenya
Six members of one Canadian family were among those killed in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet on Sunday, it has emerged.
Three generations of the Dixit-Vaidya family were travelling on a family holiday to Kenya, where Kosha Vaidya, 37, was born. She had not been back to visit her birthplace in years.
Continue reading...Investigations are under way after Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 crashed shortly after taking off. The incident killed all 149 passengers and eight crew members onboard. The plane was on its way to Nairobi from Addis Ababa when it crashed six minutes after takeoff early on Sunday. The cause has not yet been determined
Continue reading...Airline cannot confirm number of casualties after Boeing 737-800 MAX crashes 40 miles from Addis Ababa
An Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi crashed early on Sunday with 149 passengers and eight crew members aboard, a spokesman for the airline has said.
Flight ET 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 40 miles south-east of the capital, Addis Ababa, the airline said, confirming the plane was a Boeing 737-800 MAX.
Continue reading...Decision prompts anger as high court asks for more time to consider evidence
Judges in Kenya have postponed a long-awaited landmark ruling that could have led to sex between men or between women decriminalised.
The attempt by LGBT campaigners to have colonial era legislation struck out has been closely watched by activists across Africa.
Continue reading...Decision has implications for rest of continent, where LGBT people face widespread discrimination
Judges in Kenya’s high court will decide on Friday whether to repeal laws criminalising homosexuality, in a potentially historic decision that has implications for the rest of Africa, where LGBT people face widespread discrimination.
“Everyone all over Africa is paying attention. Whatever happens in Kenya will have a direct impact on us all,” said Frank Mugisha, an activist based in neighbouring Uganda, where homosexuality is outlawed and authorities have attempted to impose harsher sentences on gay people in recent years.
Religious groups in Kenya have opposed any softening of its colonial-era laws, which punish sexual acts deemed “unnatural” with up to 14 years in prison, but pro-repeal campaigners say they are optimistic.
Lawyers acting for LGBT activists have argued that the laws contravene Kenya’s 2010 constitution.
“Our constitution is very progressive but there is legislation in place that is not. Repealing the laws would mean equal recognition … with rights such as the freedom to exist, to associate, to be free from discrimination. All these rights will finally be recognised for queer people in Kenya,” said Lelei Cheruto, of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC).
Hate crimes against gay people – including physical and sexual assault, blackmail and extortion – are common, but most victims are too fearful to go to the police, rights groups say.
“It is a challenge to be gay here because of society. You can be attacked whenever, wherever. There will be protests if we win,” said Mombo Ngua, an activist in Nairobi.
Kenya arrested 534 people for same-sex relationships between 2013 and 2017.
According to the NGLHRC, one of the petitioners against the law, there have been more than 1,500 attacks against LGBT Kenyans since 2014.
More than 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation and about 3 million more are at risk every year. Africa has the highest numbers, but its young people are fighting back
Photographs by the Girl Generation
Continue reading...There’s a whole new craze in east Africa, fuelled by secondhand inline skates – and a desire to unite
Photos and story by Duncan Moore
Nairobi’s traffic congestion is notorious. Minibuses known as matatus battle for space with cars, motorbikes and hand-drawn carts, causing excruciating gridlock.
Through this automotive battleground dart the daring members of the Kenyan city’s inline skating community, deftly weaving between moving vehicles, holding on to buses for speed and jumping over potholes.
Continue reading...Images were taken by British wildlife photographer, Will Burrard-Lucas, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya
The wild African black leopard has been the stuff of legend and campfire story for decades.
The animal – whose coat is sooty black as a result of melanism, the opposite of albinism – is extremely rare.
Continue reading...The US military said it carried out an airstrike in Somalia that killed 52 al-Shabaab extremists, in response to an attack on Somali forces.
Related: Al-Shabaab's Nairobi attack is a reminder that tit-for-tat terror never succeeds | Mukoma wa Ngugi
Continue reading...Soldier, who was reportedly in Kenya to train special forces, took part in operation against attackers
A member of the SAS helped secure a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi after 14 people, including a Briton, were killed in a militant attack.
Another Briton was wounded as gunmen stormed the dusitD2 complex in the Westlands district of the Kenyan capital on Tuesday afternoon, setting off explosions and shooting people.
Continue reading...President says planners of assault claimed by al-Shabaab will be relentlessly pursued
Kenya’s president has vowed to relentlessly pursue anyone involved in the Nairobi hotel complex attack, as new details of the 16-hour siege emerged and investigators tried to trace 50 people who are still missing.
Twenty-one people have so far been confirmed dead, including 11 Kenyans, a Briton and an American, as well as five attackers. The figure is expected to rise.
Continue reading...Western officials frustrated by lack of response ahead of assault that killed 14 in Nairobi
Intelligence services in Kenya were warned that al-Shabaab was planning terrorist attacks on high-profile targets in the east African country around Christmas and the new year, western and regional security officials have said.
Officials and other sources told the Guardian the warnings had been passed on several times in recent months, adding that they had been frustrated not to see a greater response from Kenyan authorities.
Continue reading...US citizen confirmed among those killed in assault claimed by militant Islamist organisation al-Shabaab
Police and anti-terrorist forces have regained control of a Nairobi hotel and office complex, hours after Islamist extremist gunmen launched an attack that is thought to have killed at least 15 people, including a US citizen.
The assault on the dusitD2 compound in the Kenyan capital, which includes a luxury hotel, restaurants, a spa and several office buildings housing international companies, was the most outrageous by terrorists in the country for many years.
Continue reading...Kenya’s president has said security forces have killed all four militants who stormed a hotel and office complex in Nairobi, confirming earlier reports that 14 civilians had died.
Continue reading...Amateur footage captured people escaping a terror attack in the Kenyan capital. At least seven people had been reported killed and one suspect detained. At least 10 more were wounded. Militant Islamist organization al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the armed assault
Continue reading...Unsafe in Somalia and unwanted in Kenya, refugees increasingly risk abduction in search of a better life
Two months after he went missing from the Dadaab refugee complex, Abdullahi Mohamed called his mother, Ubah, from a detention centre in Libya where he was being been held by armed gangs. The men asked his mother to pay a ransom of up to $10,000 (£7,850) for the 19-year-old.
Relieved but distraught, Ubah started fundraising for his release, talking to family members in the diaspora and in Somalia.
Continue reading...Girls in Narok County will be made to reveal identities of babies’ fathers and tell police about female genital mutilation
Plans to subject schoolgirls in Kenya to mandatory tests for female genital mutilation and pregnancy are a violation of victims’ privacy, campaigners have warned.
All girls returning to school this week in Narok, Kenya, will be examined at local health facilities as part of a countywide crackdown.
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