France announces radical policy change in Africa, vows to respect sovereignty of former colonies
The era of French interference in African affairs is “well over”, President Emmanuel Macron said in Gabon during his four-nation tour of central Africa. Speaking on the fringes of an environment summit in the Gabonese capital Libreville, Macron said France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering...
President Kiir wants 2.5 million South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries return home
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir is appealing to the more than two million South Sudanese refugees living in neighbouring countries to start returning home. Kiir says his government will provide returning refugees with the necessary security. There are more than 2.3 million South Sudanese living as refugees in nearby countries...
US First Lady Jill Biden starts sixth visit to Africa that will take her to Namibia and Kenya
US first lady Jill Biden opened a five-day, two-country visit to Africa on Wednesday during which she will focus on empowering women and youth and highlight food insecurity in the Horn of Africa region. Dancers representing Namibia’s different ethnic groups, some wearing red, white and blue, others dressed in bright...
Fighting flares up in troubled eastern DR Congo hours after EAC called for pullback by armed groups
Fighting flared on Monday between the DR Congo’s army and M23 rebels in the country’s troubled east, just days after African leaders called for a ceasefire and a pullback by armed groups. “There have been clashes since 5:00 am with the M23” in the Kitshanga area, northwest of the main...
Wary minorities say ‘Ethiopia is a federation of ethnicities and everyone deserves to feel safe’
When war broke out in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in November 2020, residents of the town of Adebay, close to the Eritrean border, woke to the sounds of gunfire and revving engines. Eritrean soldiers were beating up civilians and forcing them onto military trucks, two witnesses say. They estimated that...
Relegated to irrelevance by UN and the West, Western Sahara people are forced into servitude by international apathy
Fresh fruit and vegetables, sold commercially in the camps’ markets, are largely unaffordable for most Western Sahara refugees. Cheaper, processed food is available, but that has contributed to a “double burden of malnutrition”, which includes obesity among women and under-nutrition in children. Thirty-one-year-old Fatimalo Mustapha Sayed manages a community vegetable...
America’s uniformed gangsters: Why debates about police funding are a hot-button electoral issue in US
The Memphis Police Department unit that beat 29-year-old Tyre Nichols during a January 7 traffic stop was part of a division that operated with an annual budget of more than $28 million a year from the time of its creation in 2021 until it was disbanded over the weekend. The...
Senior Somali and AU leaders claim national army has ousted al Shabaab rebels from strongholds
A senior Somali minister and the head of ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) are insistent both will continue collaborating in joint military operations in the ongoing battle against al-Shabaab in the East African country. The top ATMIS man Mohamed El-Amine Souef and Daud Aweis, Somali Minister of Information,...
Military coup looms in Russia, there are also fears unpopular Putin plans to defer presidential elections and impose martial law
A military coup is becoming a possibility in Russia as the war in Ukraine continues, President Vladimir Putin’s former speechwriter has revealed. Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett, speechwriter turned political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said that as Russian losses mount in Ukraine and the country experiences hardship brought about by Western...
Why Super Powers are frantically wooing Africa as relations among themselves deteriorate
To call it a new ‘scramble for Africa’, as some like to do, is clearly hyperbolic. Nonetheless, it can’t be denied that the Big Powers are energetically wooing Africa as relations among themselves deteriorate. China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang got off to an early start, visiting Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola,...
