Africa

"This is the Russian state coming out of the shadows in its Africa policy," says Jack Watling, land warfare specialist at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) and one of the report's authors.

According to Dr Watling, "there was a meeting in the Kremlin fairly shortly after Prigozhin's mutiny, in which it was decided that Wagner's Africa operations would fall directly under the control of Russian military intelligence, the GRU".

"The narrative that Russia is pushing [in Africa] is that Western states remain fundamentally colonial in their attitude," says Dr Watling. "It's very ironic because the Russian approach, which is to isolate these regimes, capture their elites and to extract their natural resources, is quite colonial."

The fundamental change lies in "the overtness with which Russia is pursuing its policy", Dr Waitling added. Prigozhin's Wagner Group had always provided Russia with a level of plausible deniability in operations and influence abroad.

Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many in the Western security apparatus say that Russia's mask has slipped.

Girls who become parents often experience discrimination, stigma, and a lack of support and accommodation that makes juggling school and childcare responsibilities impossible. The lack of free education pushes many girls from the poorest households out of school.

Carved wooden figure at Venice Biennale in Europe aims to spark debate about colonial blindspots in the art world.

While the influx of Chinese capital has boosted economic growth in many countries, concerns surrounding human rights abuses, opaque practices, and environmental degradation cast a long shadow over China’s involvement. China holds a lot of African debt (around $153 billion), and some analysts argue it is designing loans to induce debt and strengthen its grip on the continent.

It is essential that China and the African nations also uphold international labor standards by guaranteeing fair wages, safe working conditions, and respect for workers’ rights in all projects. Additionally, local communities should participate in the planning and decision-making, respecting their concerns and minimizing displacement.

There is no specific law in Somalia against domestic violence.

In 2018, a comprehensive UN-backed sexual offences bill was introduced but it has not yet been passed by parliament.

Rating agency Moody’s says Kenya will need $3 billion in annual external financing to meet its external debt service needs after 2024. These needs include nearly $2 billion per year owed to private creditors and Chinese bilateral creditors, two groups for which refinancing can come at a higher cost of borrowing and lack predictability.

Apart from a new eurobond issuance, Kenya has had substantial foreign currency inflows in recent months from multilateral creditors, and also from bilateral and commercial creditors.

IMF approved sixth review of Kenya’s Extended Fund Facility and the Extended Credit Facility disbursing $624.5 million in January, and the World Bank is expected to provide Kenya between $1 billion and 1.5 billion under its Development Policy Operation before 2024 eurobond maturity.

Other external financing sources are less certain, but the government has raised funding from the syndicated loan market and could receive additional loans from bilateral creditors, which would boost Kenya’s international reserve position from around $7 billion currently, or about four months of import coverage.

He was killed alongside his coach, Rwanda's Gervais Hakizimana, in a car on a road in western Kenya on Sunday.

Kiptum made a breakthrough in 2023 as a rival to compatriot Eliud Kipchoge - one of the greatest marathon runners.

And it was in Chicago last October that Kiptum bettered Kipchoge's achievement, clocking the 26.1 miles (42km) in two hours and 35 seconds.

The two athletes had been named in Kenya's provisional marathon team for the Paris Olympics later this year.

Senegal is in the midst of its worst political upheaval in decades after the president postponed this month’s election. More than 200 opposition politicians and protesters have been arrested, and the government has shut down some internet access, amid what the decision’s opponents are describing as a coup.

“This is just the latest step in a string of human rights abuses,” says Amnesty International researcher Ousmane Diallo, who says President Macky Sall's latest anti-democratic move is characteristic of an increasingly repressive regime.

Financial technology (fintech) allows people with a mobile phone and internet connection to more safely buy basic groceries, settle bills, and receive money from abroad – easing some of the hardships. These apps have been available for over a decade in Sudan, with nearly all public sector workers paid digitally.

But they are now more than just a convenience to millions of Sudanese, their lives upended by nine months of fighting between the regular army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

People transact as much as they can online to avoid navigating embattled neighbourhoods or the risk of carrying physical currency, and to cope with the reduced operating hours of the few bank branches that manage to remain open.

An investigation has uncovered claims that apparent representatives of the company made multiple approaches to witnesses of a December 2023 confrontation between Del Monte guards and pineapple thieves that led to the deaths of four men. Three people approached allege that Del Monte staff offered money and jobs in exchange for signing statements that supported the company’s version of events.

Despite Ethiopia’s outlawing of physical cryptocurrency exchange, the country welcomes Bitcoin mining operations.

Bitcoin mining has become increasingly popular in Ethiopia since China expelled the industry from its territory in 2021.

After the prohibition was lifted, the largest corporations in China dispersed worldwide in search of new locations that would accommodate their energy-intensive business practices.

When cargo containers containing powerful mining computers appeared near electricity substations associated with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam last spring, that journey brought many individuals to Africa.

A total of 28 insurers have so far declared they will not insure Eacop following pressure from climate activists.

The 1,443-kilometre pipeline from Hoima in western Uganda to the Tanzanian Indian Ocean port of Tanga, is majority-owned (62 percent) by French oil giant TotalEnergies and state oil companies of China, Uganda and Tanzania.

Eacop is planned to pass through areas of sensitive ecological importance, including national parks and wildlife reserves. There has been criticism from international environmentalists.

According to Dickens Kamugisha, executive director of the Kampala-based Africa Institute for Energy Governance (Afiego), the Ugandan government is likely to lower its standards and offer attractive terms because it’s heavily indebted.

“The government currently has over $25 billion in debts, 80 percent of which has been accumulated during the time when it’s been pursuing these oil projects. The government is now desperate that it is likely that it will lower its expectations to attract investors,” Mr Kamugisha said.

The arrests came just three weeks after seven activists from another anti-pipeline group, Students against Eacop Uganda, were arrested and detained under similar circumstances, by the same judge. They spent almost four weeks in maximum security and will also appear in court on Wednesday charged with common nuisance. If convicted, they face a custodial sentence of 12 months.

"It is not normal to detain suspects for even a day for a common nuisance charge,” said attorney Ronald Samuel Wanda, who is representing 15 pipeline protesters. “These arrests are arbitrary … Arresting those protesting peacefully demonstrates that the government of Uganda does not respect its own constitution.”

French oil giant Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation are on the cusp of building a massive crude oil pipeline right through the heart of Africa – displacing communities, endangering wildlife and tipping the world closer to full-blown climate catastrophe.

International rights groups have documented those speaking out against the oil pipeline.

“Despite political and economic challenges, 2023 saw air cargo markets regain ground lost in 2022 after the extraordinary Covid peak in 2021. Although full-year demand was shy of pre-Covid levels by 3.6 percent, the significant strengthening in the past quarter is a sign that markets are stabilising towards more normal demand patterns,”

Decapitated and dismembered: in Kenya, the sordid murder in January of Rita Waeni, a 20-year-old student, was an electric shock in this East African country, where femicide and gender-based and sexual violence are often silent.

“Stop killing us,” thousands of people, mostly women, chanted on January 27 during a “march against femicide” in Nairobi, the capital. “I’ve never been to a protest, but I felt compelled to come and fight for this. (…) Absolutely nothing justifies the murder of a woman,” explained Beatrice Obiero, a 34-year-old engineering student.

More than 7.4 million people have been forced to leave their homes in search of safety within and outside Sudan.

So-called emergency response rooms (ERRs) - essentialky teams of volunteer medical staff, engineers and other emergency experts across the country - are addressing civilian needs amid the current bout of violence and insecurity stemming from clashes with rival military forces in April 2023.

The goal is simple: reach those facing the risk of death, famine, disease and difficulty obtaining drinking water, electricity and communication services.

"We are united by humanitarian work and the sense of responding to the repercussions of war and helping people,” says Hanin Ahmed, a young Sudanese activist with a master’s degree in gender and specializing in peace and conflict, who founded an emergency room with one of her colleagues.

Researcher Felix Kiprono and his colleagues recently released a report about Kenya's alarming rise in female killings as the country is reeling from at least 10 reported murders of women in the first month of the year alone.

One gruesome killing involved a victim whose dismembered remains were found stuffed into a plastic bag at a short-term rental apartment.

Titled Silencing Women, he says the report "aims to shed light on the disturbing reality of women's lives at risk, providing crucial information to address victim blaming, under-reporting and to inspire meaningful action".

But Mr Kiprono has been appalled by the reaction to its findings, in particular on social media which is sometimes described in Kenya as a "manosphere" - a network of online platforms focusing on the promotion of masculinity and opposed to feminism.

The interior minister of Niger’s decision this week to suspend the activities of Maison de la Presse (Press House), an independent media organization, is the latest in a series of government actions to crack down on the press and free expression in the West African country.

The minister’s January 29 decree also announced the creation of a new management committee for the media organization headed by the Interior Ministry’s secretary general. Maison de la Presse is an association that promotes freedom of information in Niger as well as the exchange of ideas and debate among media professionals. The government did not provide any reason for the suspension.

Steps include prioritising public spending measures that raise growth, fixing the revenue collection problem facing all African countries, and restructuring unsustainable government debt, writes Jonathan Munemo, Professor of Economics at Salisbury University.

Maasai societies are highly patriarchal, and governance of the conservancies has typically fallen to men. Now, however, a new generation of women are taking up leadership roles and guiding jobs, and Ripoi is one of the few conservancies in the greater Mara ecosystem where women hold administrative rights: making decisions on cattle grazing zones and financial matters, and discussing employment opportunities – including whether jobs go to women.

The Nigerian government should adopt and act on recommendations made by member states at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process earlier this week.

The recommendations, made on January 23, cover a range of concerns, including the death penalty, lack of justice and accountability for abuses by government security forces and other actors, women’s political participation, sexual and gender-based violence, child marriage, and rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

The UPR is a peer-review process in which UN member states assess each other’s human rights records and recommend changes to comply with international standards. Human Rights Watch contributed recommendations for states before the review. This is Nigeria’s fourth UPR.

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