More than 1,700 people have died this year on the Mediterranean Sea migration route to Europe, and both UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and IOM, the UN Migration Agency, appealed jointly to European governments on Wednesday to change their “dangerously toxic” discourse on migration. “The current tenor of the political debate…
The World Health Organization held an emergency meeting in Geneva on Wednesday to discuss the Ebola virus outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo, and concluded that the growing Ebola threat does not yet meet the threshold for a “public health emergency of international concern” designation. The assessment of the risk…
The South African government has joined the global community in pressing for answers on what happened to Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, even as new details provided by Turkey added information about the suffering in Khashoggi’s final moments. South Africa’s foreign affairs ministry, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), issued…
Ugandan musician Bobi Wine – an opposition MP whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi – says he has a new reason to be frustrated, some two months after the Arua incident that left his driver dead and Wine himself facing treason charges and severely injured. After seeking medical treatment in…
Officials in Angola defended on Tuesday the closure of 67 illegal diamond mine operations as part of its “Operation Transparency” crackdown, a National Police effort in seven provinces meant to curb illegal mining and migration. Police spokesman António Bernardo told state news agency ANGOP that some 260 Congolese migrants left…
The fallout for the More Than Me (MTM) organization, based in the United States but operating in Liberia, has led to swift changes following the release last week of new investigative reporting by ProPublica and Time on sexual abuse at the Monrovia MTM girls’ academy. The in-depth reporting by Finlay Young and…
Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft and philanthropist with a special heart for the African continent, died in the United States on Monday. He was 65 and suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Allen’s death was announced by Vulcan, the Seattle-based umbrella company formed to manage a range of projects and global campaigns,…
Cameroon’s national election commission, ELECAM, submitted its final report Monday on the October 7 presidential election vote to the country’s constitutional council, but there are still no official results released. ELECAM has 15 days from the poll closing to report final results according to Cameroon law. That’s leaving a window to…
Nigerian officials confirmed the death of an aid worker held by Boko Haram on Monday, a day after the extremists aligned with Islamic State threatened to kill her within 24 hours. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, condemned the death of Hauwa Mohammed Liman, above, and extended Nigeria’s…
Both the African Union and the United Nations condemned on Sunday the two suicide bombing attacks that struck Baidoa over the weekend, leaving at least 16 people dead. The bombings at the Beder Restaurant and Bilan Hotel left another 50 people injured in the town about 130 kilometers from Mogadishu, in…
South Africa’s deputy foreign minister met with the prime minister of Western Sahara on Sunday as part of a four-day visit to the long-disputed government seeking independence from Morocco. The visit by Llewellyn Landers aims to deepen diplomatic relations between South Africa and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), according to…
A desperate appeal came Sunday from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), after they were notified that two health workers abducted by Islamic State-affiliated Boko Haram in Nigeria faced a 24-hour deadline on their execution. Hauwa Mohammed Liman, above, and Alice Loksha were taken on March 1 from the…
With the Ebola virus death toll now at 130 in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country’s health minister announced Saturday a new approach in seeking to contain the outbreak in the face of security challenges. Dr. Oly Ilunga said health workers are turning to community-based teams to help…
A prominent Western charity that began its work to educate Liberian girls under former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf finds itself under intense media scrutiny again, following accusations of sexual abuse at its school. The More Than Me (MTM) organization, based in the United States but operating in Monrovia, is the subject…
The Dubai-based DP World says construction has begun on its new facility in the Somaliland port of Berbera. President Muse Bihi Abdi and DP World Group CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem launched the first phase of work during a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday. The project includes a 400-meter quay and 250,000…