Underfire Man United manager Solskjaer to be without midfield dynamo Paul Pogba up 10 weeks
Paul Pogba will miss between eight to 10 weeks for Manchester United after suffering a thigh injury during training with France’s national team. The midfielder pulled up during a shooting drill on Monday and immediately left the pitch in order to receive treatment from France’s medical team. After striking the...
Glimmer of hope as peace mediators find ‘small window of opportunity’ in Ethiopian rebellion
A new round of deadly attacks and forced conscription has begun against ethnic Tigrayans in an area of Ethiopia now controlled by Amhara regional authorities in collaboration with soldiers from neighbouring Eritrea, people fleeing over the border to Sudan said as the yearlong war intensifies. Urgent diplomatic meetings with Prime...
Biden threatens to expel Ethiopia from trade treaty as thousands march in Addis Ababa against US
US President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday accused Ethiopia of “gross violations” of human rights and said warned it would remove the country from a US trade pact. The threat to expel Ethiopia from duty-free access to the American market would be an expansion of the list of countries that...
While Chinese abroad cry out for security, hiring private firms is ‘a sensitive topic politically’
The Hong Kong-listed Frontier Services Group (FSG), one of the largest Chinese players in Africa, is wholly owned by CITIC Group, the Chinese state-run investment company. But while Chinese private security companies (PSCs) have the support of the state, they remain a sensitive topic politically, something that was evident in...
Why Chinese in Africa hire private security firms for protection against increased attacks
It was the dead of night as 12 men approached a Chinese mining compound near the city of Likasi. Just after 2:30am, they cut a hole in the wire fence and slipped through, carrying AK-47s and metal pipes. Once inside, they moved swiftly through the camp to the security office,...
Nairobi’s never-say-die legislator builds momentum to rid Kenyan capital city of ‘criminal enterprise’
Glorified in the past as the “Green City in the Sun” with its clean and secure streets, timed urban public transport and functioning social amenities, Kenya’s capital Nairobi has slipped into the doldrums in the past four decades as a result of years of ruin through bad governance and deep-seated...
It’s EPL manager’s sacking season! Leicester’s Brendan Rogers put on standby as Solskjaer’s Man United exit looms
A report claims that Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has verbally agreed to take over as Manchester United manager when the position becomes available. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is coming under intense scrutiny to improve results at United. Saturday’s toothless display in a 2-0 derby loss at home to Manchester City...
UN agencies have become helpless bystanders in crises – refugee situation in Libya tells it all
The situation for asylum seekers and migrants in Libya has been bad for years, but it recently became even worse. I grew up and live in the capital, Tripoli, where refugees and migrants – most of them from sub-Saharan Africa – have been part of our society for decades. Many...
Africa’s more democratic than other regions relative to its development, but still needs quality leadership
Do recent coups in Chad, Mali, Guinea and Sudan mean that democracy in Africa is failing? This notion is fuelled by internet shutdowns, muzzling of the opposition and rising third termism. But evidence suggests that while there are pockets of concern, a robust democratic culture is in fact growing in...
Carbon emissions: Romanticised electric cars have long way to go to replace fossil-fuelled vehicles
Extracting the valuable materials from an electric vehicle (EV) battery is difficult and expensive. The recycling process typically involves shredding batteries, then breaking them down further with heat or chemicals at dedicated facilities. That part is relatively simple. The harder part is getting dead batteries to those facilities from wherever...
