Ukrainian forces reportedly hit and destroy a second Russian naval ship in the Black Sea
Another Russian naval ship in the Black Sea was hit and left burning by the Ukrainian military, according to unconfirmed reports. The Admiral Makarov, a 409-foot Russian frigate, was sailing close to Snake Island in the Black Sea, off the coast of the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, when it...
East African Community intervention in DRC raises fears over ‘legitimate and illicit’ interests of Congo’s neighbours to the east
Will the East African Community’s (EAC) gambit to try to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s chronically turbulent east succeed where others have failed? After a false start the week before, last week representatives of some 23 of the eastern DRC’s countless armed rebel groups concluded five...
Doubts persist about Somali MPs’ readiness to elect new government despite picking a presidential election office
Somalia is expected to have a new president on May 15 – ten days after 34 members of the upper and lower houses of Parliament met in the capital Mogadishu to set the date for the process that has been delayed for almost two years. The unorthodox method of choosing...
Odds stacked against Russia as Western countries ship heavy arms to beleaguered Ukraine
As Western countries ship increasingly heavy arms to a beleaguered Ukraine, one of the most important transfers so far is an arsenal’s worth of field howitzers. Unlike the Ukrainian army’s existing big guns, these artillery pieces come in Nato calibres and are the key to unlocking the West’s precision-guided artillery...
Doctors in Sudan’s West Darfur say 200 people were killed in past one week, hospitals evacuated and closed down
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) has confirmed that the violence in El Geneina and Kereinik in West Darfur over the past week claimed at least 200 lives, including nine women, 24 children and 23 seniors. Medical facilities to deal with dozens wounded in the strife are severely overstretched,...
Gunners arm manager Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal ambitious rebuild with contract extension to summer of 2025
Mikel Arteta wants to take Arsenal “to the next level” after agreeing to terms on a new long-term contract with the Gunners. The Spaniard has been in charge at The Emirates since replacing Unai Emery at the back end of 2019. In his first season in charge, he won the...
Muzzling the messenger: Why suppression of freedom of expression persists in Sub-Saharan Africa
Mancho Bibixy was pulled from his hideout in Bamenda, Cameroon, in the dead of night on January 17, 2017. In the years since the elite commandos of the Cameroon army dragged the Abakwa FM anchor away, his fiancée and son have said they lost all hope of seeing him regain...
South African president walks thin political ground as his party and opposition deride him as ineffective
Shouted down by angry mineworkers, defied within his party over his anti-corruption drive, derided as ineffective by the opposition – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faces daunting political challenges. Ramaphosa, 69, has responded with a calm demeanour and a serious, dogged determination that may see him prevail, say some analysts....
Russia’s technologically advanced warship Moskva was barely a year old when Ukrainian army destroyed it
Russia faced yet another military setback this week following reports that one of the country’s most advanced tanks in service, the T-90M, was destroyed just days after it was deployed to Ukraine. Ukrainian journalist Andriy Tsaplienko first posted a picture of the charred vehicle on Wednesday from the Kharkiv region,...
Experts warn US to expect Moscow retaliation after emerged it gave Ukraine intelligence used to sink Russia’s largest warship
Intelligence shared by the US helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser Moskva, US officials told NBC News, confirming an American role in perhaps the most embarrassing blow to Vladimir Putin’s troubled invasion of Ukraine. A guided missile cruiser carrying a crew of 510, the Moskva was the flagship of Russia’s...
