British Home Secretary Priti Patel continued to defend the United Kingdom’s decision to send immigrants to Rwanda, a deal that’s come under deep criticism for essentially outsourcing its responsibilities to asylum seekers. “The UK-Rwanda partnership is the type of international cooperation needed to make the global immigration system fairer, keep…
Akinwumi Adesina, head of the African Development Bank (AfDB), says he was in the VIP lounge of Dakar’s Blaise-Diagne International Airport with Senegal’s economic minister this week when another African dignitary walked in. The surprise guest was Moussa Faki Mahamat, head of the African Union Commission. What followed, the AfDB…
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has agreed to extend its security mission in Mozambique, where defense forces have sought to restore order in troubled Cabo Delgado province. The decision was announced in a communiqué following Tuesday’s summit in Lilongwe, Malawi. The extraordinary summit, hosted by President Lazarus Chakwera, was…
An Israeli company scrutinized for its role in supplying spyware to foreign governments, a number of them on the African continent, has been placed under new restrictions by the United States government. NSO Group, which develops and supplies Pegasus software, is now on the Entity List at the US. Department…
BioNTech is moving forward with plans to build vaccine manufacturing facilities on the African continent, with an announcement Tuesday that Rwanda has been chosen for the first site. Dr. Daniel Ngamije, the health minister for Rwanda, said the first facility will be built at the Kigali Special Economic Zone (KSEZ),…
Morocco, Egypt and Rwanda are just three of the nations where governments and their leaders are named in an ongoing investigation into the use of Pegasus spyware supplied by Israeli tech company NSO Group. The Pegasus Project, coordinated by the Paris-based NGO Forbidden Stories, looks at how the technology is…
When Mount Nyiragongo erupted on Saturday, residents of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo evacuated the city until the lava flows stopped. Although 17 villages were destroyed and some three dozen people died, the rest were allowed to return – but not for long. That’s because of serious concerns…
Earthquakes continued to rumble in western Rwanda following the weekend eruption of Mount Nyiragongo volcano, with some 651 Congolese who fled the Goma area now taking refuge across the border, according to Rwandan media. The latest 4.6-magnitude quake happened Tuesday evening near Gisenyi and was one of a series of…
At least 15 people are dead following the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo volcano on Saturday, according to Congolese authorities who continue to assess the damage and coordinate aid response to affected villages. The 15 fatalities come from road accidents during an evacuation of Goma and its surroundings, and include four…
Six park rangers died in an attack by an armed group in Virunga National Park on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another ranger was seriously wounded, the park said in a statement. “The ranger has been evacuated to hospital in Goma and his injuries are no longer considered…
United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR) said Wednesday that the town of Bambari remains under their control, and has not been captured by armed groups as previously reported. Vladimir Monteiro, a spokesman for the MINUSCA peacekeeping mission, said that some rebels attacked soldiers on Tuesday and began…
Three African nations are among those awarded grants from a new fund designed to deliver sustainable cooling to some of the hottest places. The US$580,000 comes from the UK-based Ashden organization, which has focused on climate innovation for the last 20 years. In partnership with the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program…
The Urumuri robot helping to screen passengers at Rwanda’s Kigali International Airport is just one of more than 120 health technology innovations that Africans are using in the fight against COVID-19. That’s according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) analysis of 1,000 new or modified technologies developed around the…
Rwanda is the only nation in sub-Saharan Africa that appears to be approved for travel to the European Union as management of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, according to a list seen by the New York Times. The short list of non-European nations with citizens determined eligible to enter the EU,…
Leaders of four East African Community (EAC) member nations have agreed to new measures for truck drivers, spurred by the coronavirus pandemic and the frequent crossing of regional borders. The presidents of Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Kenya say they’re coordinating a plan to have drivers tested and certified at…