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 …

Free school aims to breaks poverty cycle in S.African townshipFri, 16 Jun 2023 13:44:23 GMT Read More »

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 …

Benin feels the pinch as neighbouring Nigeria ends fuel subsidiesFri, 16 Jun 2023 09:53:11 GMT Read More »

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 …

Using YouTube and TikTok, a make-up artist defies the odds in C.AfricaFri, 16 Jun 2023 05:55:34 GMT Read More »

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 …

Sudan war death toll surges past 2,000 as fighting enters third monthFri, 16 Jun 2023 03:15:50 GMT Read More »

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 …

African leaders head for ill-starred peace mission in UkraineFri, 16 Jun 2023 02:36:40 GMT Read More »

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 …

US trafficking report highlights forced labor, exploited boysThu, 15 Jun 2023 20:55:24 GMT Read More »

Overfishing is driving coral reef sharks towards extinction, according to a global study out Thursday that signals far greater peril to the marine predators than previously thought.That matters to humans because the species act as managers of their marine ecosystems, maintaining delicately balanced food webs on which hundreds of millions of people rely.The research, published …

Overfishing pushes reef sharks toward extinction: studyThu, 15 Jun 2023 18:05:28 GMT Read More »

Kenyan President William Ruto’s government unveiled its maiden budget on Thursday in the face of widespread public anger over proposed tax hikes in a country suffering a severe cost-of-living crisis.The 3.6-trillion shilling ($25.7 billion) budget for 2023/24 is the first since Ruto took the helm of the East African powerhouse in September last year following …

Kenya government unveils budget to opposition walkoutThu, 15 Jun 2023 16:09:03 GMT Read More »