June, 2021 - The African Mirror

Jun

2021

‘Recipe for disaster’: COVID-19 spreads fear in India’s tea estates

ANURADHA NAGARAJ WHEN Indian tea plantation worker Bholanath Natto and his wife tested positive for COVID-19 their biggest worry was not their health, but where they would quarantine and how they could get hold of food and drinking water without his wages. As some of the cities worst hit by India's COVID-19 crisis see a lull in new cases, infections are rising among millions of tea pickers - many of whom live in cramped living quarters where measures to curb the virus's spread are difficult to implement. The positive test result and hospital orders to quarantine have been a logistical…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Caught in the middle: Peace activists in Cameroon try to end a brutal war

HUMAN RIGHTS

JESS CRAIG A small but growing grassroots peace movement is trying to bring an end to the four-year secessionist conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions – an internationally neglected crisis that is becoming increasingly deadly and complex. Formal attempts to negotiate a settlement between the government and fighters demanding independence for “Ambazonia” have stalled. Internationally led efforts are hamstrung by deep divisions within the separatist movement, and by the refusal of the government – which argues that the conflict is an internal affair – to engage with external mediators. Spurred by the lack of progress in getting the warring parties around a…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Djokovic sympathises with Osaka, but says media is important

SPORT

JULIEN PRETOT NOVAK Djokovic said he understood Naomi Osaka's decision to boycott post-match press conferences, which he thinks could feel outdated for a player of the Japanese's age. The Serbian, who eased into the second round at Roland Garros, also expressed sympathy for the 23-year-old Osaka, who revealed she had been suffering from depression. Osaka withdrew from the French Open on Monday after being fined $15,000 by the tournament referee and threatened with exclusion from Roland Garros and future majors for declining to face the media after her first-round match on Sunday. "The Grand Slams are protecting themselves and their…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Spotting hoaxes: how young people in Africa use cues to spot misinformation online

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

INACCURATE information on social media has become a problem in many countries around the world. Researchers know a fair deal about “fake news” in the global North, but much less about what is happening in the global South, particularly in Africa. CHIKEZIE E. UZUEGBUNAM, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Cape Town DANI MADRID-MORALES, Assistant Professor in Journalism at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston DR. EMEKA UMEJEI, Lecturer, Communication Studies, University of Ghana ETSE SIKANKU, Senior Lecturer, Ghana Institute of Journalism GREGORY GONDWE, PhD Media Research and Practice, University of Colorado Boulder HERMAN WASSERMAN, Professor of…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Courts asked to stop the hijack of queenship

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER DR Mathole Motshekga, one of South Africa’s leading lawmakers and a cultural expert, has asked the courts to stop an attempt to hijack the country’s only queenship - the Modjadji Royal throne - and asked for those behind the plot to be dealt with decisively. In court papers, Dr Motshekga, who is also a legal advisor to the Balobedu royal family, accused those behind attempts to remove Queen-elect Masalanabo Modjadji VII (16) as a violation of SA’s laws and centuries-old traditions. Queen-elect Masalanabo is expected to assume the throne when she turns 18 and her uncle Prince…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Beyoncé & JAY-Z splurge on world’s most expensive car

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

BEYONCÉ and JAY -Z are the new official owners of the world’s most expensive luxury car, a Rolls-Royce valued at a whopping US$28 million. According to an anonymous source that broke the news to The Telegraph, musicians Beyoncé and JAY-Z reportedly commissioned the Rolls-Royce custom-built Boat Tail, which features a rear deck with high-end double coolers, matching chairs, and a parasol. The Rolls-Royce Boat Tail. Picture: Twitter The American couple have not released any confirmation on their recent purchase (as they never have in the past with other luxury or business purchases), but many of Beyoncé and JAY-Z’s fans, as…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Pan African Parliament’s session abandoned – again

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER THE Pan African Parliament (PAP) session called to elect a new president descended into chaos for the second day running and led to its cancellation. The session collapsed after the South and North African caucuses insisted that the elections could only take place if there was agreement that the presidency of the institution would be rotated among Africa's five regions. Delegates from the West and Central Africa, were keen for the election to go on. However, after more than an hour of chaos, the seating was adjourned and lights switched off. The African Union is expected to…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

At least 55 killed in DRC attacks – UN

NEWS

AT least 55 people were killed overnight in two attacks on villages in eastern Congo, the United Nations has revealed, in potentially the worst night of violence the area has seen in at least four years. The army and a local civil rights group blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist armed group, for raiding the village of Tchabi and a camp for displaced people near Boga, another village. Both are close to the border of Uganda. Houses were burned and civilians abducted, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs said in a statement. Albert Basegu, the head of a…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Morocco, Spain trade accusations of violating good ‘neighbourliness’

NEWS

MOROCCO and Spain traded new accusations yesterday in a diplomatic row triggered by the Western Sahara territorial issue that led this month to a migration crisis in Spain's enclave in northern Morocco. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described Morocco's actions in appearing to relax border controls with the enclave of Ceuta as unacceptable and an assault on national borders. Morocco's Foreign Ministry meanwhile blamed Spain for breaking "mutual trust and respect", drawing parallels between the issues of Western Sahara and Spain's Catalonia region, where there is an independence movement. The dispute was sparked by Spain admitting Western Sahara independence movement…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Somaliland’s 1st vote since 2005

NEWS

ABDIQANI HASSAN SOMALIA’S breakaway Somaliland region held its first parliamentary election for 16 years yesterday, in what politicians there describe as evidence of its comparative stability. Official portrait of Somaliland President Muse Bihi. Picture: Wikimedia Commons The region, which broke away from Somalia in 1991 but has not gained widespread international recognition for its independence, has been largely peaceful while the rest of Somalia has suffered three decades of civil war. "Vote in peace," President Musi Bihi said in televised remarks after casting his ballot. Opposition leader Abdirahman Mohamed Abdulahi echoed the sentiment: "I urge the Somaliland people to vote…