South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday called on Ukraine and Russia to de-escalate their conflict, as he arrived in the war-torn country on a mission to broker peace. “This war must be settled and there should be peace through negotiations,” he told reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.Ramaphosa was among a group of …
A key critic of Tunisian President Kais Saied called in for questioning over allegations of conspiracy against the state accused the president Friday of “criminalising” all opposition.Saied won a landslide victory in a 2019 presidential election but assumed sweeping powers in a July 2021 power grab in a move labelled a coup by his opponents.Ahmed …
Tunisia’s Saied ‘criminalising’ opposition, key critic saysFri, 16 Jun 2023 16:05:02 GMT Read More »
A barrage of Russian missiles greeted a delegation of African leaders arriving in Kyiv on Friday as part of a mission aiming to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. The high-level diplomatic team hopes to bring to the table the voice of a continent that has badly suffered from repercussion of the Ukraine war, including by …
Kyiv attacked as African peace mission visits UkraineFri, 16 Jun 2023 15:25:34 GMT Read More »
The classrooms are bright and clean, their shelves filled with textbooks and stationery. The pupils wear neatly ironed blue and grey uniforms, complete with bright red jerseys. The set-up could easily be mistaken for an expensive South African private school, yet all the pupils are from poor backgrounds. The school, funded by philanthropists, offers hope to children …
Sitting on top of a yellow jerry can of fuel, Jeannine waits for customers on a sidewalk in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou, but business is slow. The motorbikes and cars she normally supplies are no longer stopping to stock up on her cheap gasoline, which is smuggled in from neighbouring Nigeria.Since Nigeria’s new president Bola Ahmed …
Traditional chiefs, officials, human rights activists and NGOs have been criss-crossing the vast Tillaberi region of western Niger for several months. Their mission: to organise forums in a bid to ease community tensions revived by massacres of civilians in the landlocked West African nation.In the past, disputes between the various ethnic groups were settled in peaceful …
Intercommunal forums seek to end deadly violence in NigerFri, 16 Jun 2023 06:04:51 GMT Read More »
As a child, Djibril Gueye Marvin dreamed of being a make-up artist, no easy feat in the chronically unstable Central African Republic, where he faced ridicule for doing a “girl’s job”.Help came from an unusual source: the make-up tutorials that have flooded YouTube over the past decade, launching influencers across the globe and generating billions …
Sudan’s devastating war raged on into a third month Thursday as the reported death toll topped 2,000 and after a state governor was killed in the remote Darfur region.Since April 15, the regular army headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been locked in fighting with paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy …
African leaders are expected in Ukraine on Friday in a self-professed bid to broker peace between Kyiv and Moscow, despite three presidents dropping out and Ukraine’s counteroffensive overshadowing the mission.Four presidents and three representatives are due to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv before heading to Saint Petersburg on Saturday to meet …
The United States on Thursday denounced the scourge of human trafficking, calling out forced labor and the little-known but growing problem of boys and young men caught up the trade.The condemnation came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented a report on what he called “concerning trends” in human trafficking.Blinken blasted the rise in forced …
