Total deaths reach 76 and more than 130,000 displaced as weeks of flooding also affects east African neighbours
Seventy-six people in Kenya have died because of flooding triggered by torrential downpours since March, the government has said, warning residents “to brace for even heavier rainfall”.
Kenya and its east African neighbours have been battered by stronger than usual rain in recent weeks, compounded by the El Niño weather system.
Continue reading...Plan to expand Ruaha national park has been beset by allegations of abuse, leading bank to withhold final $50m of $150m budget
The World Bank has suspended financing intended to develop tourism in southern Tanzania after allegations of killings, rape and forced evictions.
The bank began investigating last year after being accused of enabling abuses around Ruaha national park, which was due to double in size as part of a World Bank-supported programme.
Continue reading...Another 78 people taken to hospital after consuming delicacy, which is known to cause food poisoning
Eight children and an adult have died after eating sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, and 78 other people have been taken to hospital, authorities said on Saturday.
Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy in Zanzibar but it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning.
Continue reading...African-led trial ended a year early as researchers conclude there is ‘little or no chance’ new combination vaccines cut HIV risk
The first trial in Africa of two combination vaccines to prevent HIV has been halted after researchers concluded it was not working.
The vaccines (part of the PrEPVacc study) were being tested on 1,500 people aged between 18 and 40 in Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa.
Continue reading...Toll expected to rise after heavy rains caused flooding in Katesh in country’s north
At least 47 people have been killed and 85 others injured in landslides caused by flooding in northern Tanzania, a local official has said, with warnings the toll would rise.
Heavy rain on Saturday hit the town of Katesh, 300km (186 miles) north of the capital, Dodoma, district commissioner Janeth Mayanja said on Sunday. “Up to this evening, the death toll reached 47 and 85 injured,” Queen Sendiga, regional commissioner in the Manyara area of northern Tanzania, told local media. Both warned that the death toll was likely to increase.
Continue reading...Tanzania government blamed for violence against villagers in national park, while thousands more people face losing their homes
The World Bank is investigating allegations of killings, rape and forced evictions made by villagers living near the site of a proposed tourism project it is funding in Tanzania.
The bank has been accused of “enabling” alleged violence by the Tanzanian government to make way for a $150m (£123m) project ministers say will protect the environment and attract more tourists to Ruaha national park.
Continue reading...Remains pillaged in colonial era for ‘scientific’ experiments are DNA matched to Tanzanian descendants
Researchers in Berlin have identified living relatives of people whose remains were stolen from Tanzania and taken to Germany for “scientific” experiments during the colonial era.
Berlin’s Museum of Prehistory and Early History has been carrying out research since 2017 on about 1,100 skulls taken from what was then known as German East Africa.
Continue reading...Five deaths and three further cases of the Ebola-like virus have been reported in the country’s north-west
Tanzania has announced its first outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus disease (MVD), after five fatalities and three further cases were reported at a hospital in the country’s north-west Kagera region.
Through contact tracing, approximately 161 people have been identified as at risk of infection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The government has deployed an emergency response team to the area and neighbouring countries have stepped up surveillance. No cases have yet been reported outside Kagera.
Continue reading...Media council reports progress under progressive stance of President Suluhu following years of repression by former regime
The number of journalists being censured for their work in Tanzania has fallen slightly, raising hopes that press freedom is improving in the country.
Last year, 17 “press violations”, which include threats, arrests, denial of access to information and equipment seizures, were reported in the east African nation, the Media Council of Tanzania told the Guardian. This compares with 25 in 2021 and 41 in 2020.
Continue reading...Walking on two legs may not have been linked to environmental shifts, as previously thought
The ancestors of humans may have begun moving on two legs to forage for food among the treetops in open habitat, researchers have suggested, contradicting the idea that the behaviour arose as an adaptation to spending more time on the ground.
The origins of bipedalism in hominins around 7m years ago has long been thought to be linked to a shift in environment, when dense forests began to give way to more open woodland and grassland habitats. In such conditions, it has been argued, our ancestors would have spent more time on the ground than in the trees, and been able to move more efficiently on two legs.
Continue reading...The pastoralists had been detained over the death of a police officer during protests against government plans to evict them from ancestral land
Prosecutors in Tanzania have dropped murder charges against 24 Maasai pastoralists who were detained over the death of a police officer earlier this year.
The officer died in June during protests against government plans to evict them from their ancestral land in Loliondo, in Ngorongoro District, to make way for a conservation and a luxury hunting reserve.
Continue reading...Precision Air plane with 43 people onboard came down in bad weather on its approach to Bukoba airport
At least 19 people have died after a plane plunged into Lake Victoria in Tanzania during bad weather shortly before it was due to land in the north-west city of Bukoba, according to the state-owned Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation.
“There was an accident involving a Precision Air plane which … crashed into water about 100 metres from the airport,” the regional police commander William Mwampaghale told reporters at Bukoba airport.
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...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...Williamson Pink Star sets world record highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction
An extremely rare “fancy vivid pink” diamond has sold for 453m Hong Kong dollars (£52m) – more than double its estimated price – and set a world record for the highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction.
The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star diamond, which is named after another pink diamond given to Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift, was sold to an undisclosed buyer at auction by Sotheby’s Hong Kong on Friday.
Continue reading...Williamson Pink Star is second largest ‘fancy vivid pink’ diamond to ever appear at auction
The second largest, internally flawless “fancy vivid pink” diamond ever to appear at auction is expected to sell for more than £20m when it goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Friday.
The 11.15-carat, cushion-shaped diamond, known as the Williamson Pink Star, is named after two other huge pink diamonds: the 59.60-carat, mixed-cut, oval Pink Star diamond that sold for a record $71.2m at auction in 2017, and the Williamson stone, a 23.60-carat diamond given to the late Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift by the Canadian geologist and ardent royalist John Thorburn Williamson in 1947.
Continue reading...Herders lodge appeal against ruling in their case against the Tanzanian government, which they say is violently evicting them from ancestral land
Lawyers for Maasai herders who say the Tanzanian government is trying to violently evict them from their ancestral land to make way for a luxury game reserve have lodged an appeal against a court ruling that dismissed their case.
Donald Deya, lead counsel for the herders and chief executive officer of the Pan-African Lawyers Union (Palu), said his team had, on Wednesday, appealed against the verdict of the east African court of justice, which campaigners branded “a shocking blow” to Indigenous land rights.
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...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.
Continue reading...Dozens wounded in clashes with police over eviction from ancestral lands to make way for hunting and safaris
Ten Maasai leaders were detained and more than 30 people wounded during violent clashes with police in northern Tanzania on Friday, as they protested against eviction from their land to make way for a luxury game reserve.
One police officer was reportedly killed in the clashes and hundreds of people are in hiding after the protests in Loliondo, which borders Serengeti national park.
Continue reading...