Drug addiction is Africa’s silent crisis WHO predicts will explode in 2030 with 40 per cent rise
A bizarre sight welcomes anybody who enters the home of Asia Bianca and her husband in the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi. An infant’s slippers, strewn with cigarette waste and drug paraphernalia. This is no ordinary home. The slippers belonged to their little daughter, who died six months after she...
Amnesty International calls for probe of recent massacre of 400 Amhara civilians in Ethiopia’s Oromia region
Amnesty International on Thursday called for an investigation into the massacre of more than 400 Amhara civilians in Ethiopia’s Oromia region last month, citing eyewitnesses who blamed a local rebel group for the killings. The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) has denied the accusations, saying government-allied militias were responsible for the...
Presidential candidate who promises to legalise cannabis, export snakes is stealing the show in Kenya
Less than three weeks before Kenya holds a presidential election, analysts say the unexpected, growing popularity of one candidate could deliver some unpredictability to the outcome. George Wajackoyah ranks a distant third behind front-runners Raila Odinga and William Ruto. But according to one poll, his platform to legalise marijuana and...
Cambridge University in UK is on verge of growing human brain in a laboratory
A dozen tiny, creamy balls are suspended in a dish of clear, pink liquid. Seen with the naked eye, they are amorphous blobs. But under a powerful microscope and with some clever staining, their internal complexity is revealed: intricate whorls and layers of red, blue and green. These are human...
Ethiopia’s forgotten war: Oromo Liberation Army only responds to state terrorism, human rights abuse
In November 2020 an outbreak of violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray region captured worldwide attention. The conflict was between Tigrayan forces and the forces of the Ethiopian government and its allies. Since then, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been under increasing global pressure to negotiate with Tigrayan officials to stop the...
Nine Liberian peacekeepers serving in South Sudan honoured by the United Nations mission
Growing up in civil war-torn Liberia gave nine young women a different outlook on life and was integral to them becoming police officers, a choice which saw them eventually land up in South Sudan as part of the first ever Liberian United Nations (UN) police officer detachment in the word’s...
Arsenal set to bid for Juventus’ Arthur Melo as new signing Vieira assures Gunners’ fans ‘I like to do the last pass‘
Reports at Emirates Stadium say Arsenal are “set to make an official bid” for Juventus midfielder Arthur Melo ahead of the 2022-23 campaign, six months after a similar move failed to materialise. The 25-year-old previously spent two seasons at FC Barcelona between 2018 and 2020. He featured 72 times for...
World Bank study shows countries in north Africa are losing beaches faster than anywhere else in the world
Over the past 15 years, the fishermen of Ghannouch, a town around 400 kilometres south of the Tunisian capital, Tunis, say they have seen “radical changes” on the coastline they sail around. “The sand is decreasing and the rocks are starting to appear,” Sassi Alaya, a local seaman and the...
Outgoing Kenya president cut price of staple food to tip elections in favour of preferred successor – critics
The cost of maize flour, used to make Kenya’s staple food, has been cut in half less than three weeks before general elections. The measure aims to deal with the rising cost of living that has seen prices of basic commodities soar. A 2-kilogramme packet of maize flour will now...
Cameroon’s war economy: ‘This is no longer a struggle for the common man, but an economic venture’
Five years into a deadly separatist conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, hopes of finding a negotiated settlement seem more distant than ever as both the government and secessionist rebels dig in, according to civil society activists. It’s a conflict marked by spikes of extreme violence that invariably target civilians. The...
