NEWS - The African Mirror

Jun

04

2026

US sanctions FDLR, M23 commanders in bid to save DRC peace process

NEWS

THE United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has moved decisively, sanctioning two senior intelligence commanders driving violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo - one from each warring camp - in what Washington described as a firm signal that all parties to the crumbling peace process will be held accountable. The designations, announced simultaneously by Treasury and the State Department, target Gustave Kubwayo of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and John Imani Nzenze of the Rwanda-backed March 23 Movement (M23). Both are intelligence chiefs at the heart of…

Jun

04

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENTS

Nigeria’s classrooms under siege: Teachers strike, children rot in the forest, and a Presidency scrambles to catch up

NEWS

IN the Yoruba-speaking heartland of south-western Nigeria - a region long considered insulated from the kidnap economy that has ravaged the country's north - the unthinkable has now twice become the thinkable. On the morning of 15 May 2026, twelve gunmen arrived on six motorcycles at the Ahoro-Esinele and Yawota communities in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State. They were dressed in military-style camouflage. Eyewitnesses say they communicated in a fluid mix of Yoruba, Hausa, and Pidgin - the vernacular of Nigeria's borderless banditry - and that for a brief, terrible moment, residents mistook them for security personnel. They…

Jun

04

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Truth set in stone: Paris monument seals a new chapter between Rwanda and France

NEWS

ON a June afternoon in Paris, before an audience that included heads of state, diplomats, historians and survivors, a monument was unveiled in France's capital to honour the approximately 800,000 Tutsi massacred in Rwanda in 100 days of 1994. The ceremony was more than an act of commemoration. It was, in the words of President Paul Kagame, a moment of truth — and truth, he reminded France and the world, is more valuable than any formal apology. President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame joined French President Emmanuel Macron, senior government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, academics, researchers and…

Jun

04

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Two suspects arrested in Mozambique after Kruger Park double murder; extradition to South Africa to follow

NEWS

TWO suspects have been arrested in Mozambique in connection with the murder of South African tourists Dina and Ernst Marais in Kruger National Park, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and South African National Parks (SANParks) said on Wednesday. Minister Willie Aucamp described the arrests as a major breakthrough reached through swift, coordinated law-enforcement action across national borders. "We said that these criminals would be apprehended, and that is exactly what has happened," he said, thanking the agencies and personnel involved. Authorities say the arrests followed a joint operation involving Mozambique’s Serviço Nacional de Investigação Criminal (SERNIC),…

Jun

03

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Nigerian student faces jail after UK jury convicts him of attempted rape

NEWS

A 27-year-old Nigerian student is facing a likely prison term after a jury at Hull Crown Court convicted him of attempted rape and sexual assault - a verdict that could end his academic career in Britain and trigger the cancellation of his student visa. Qudus Ajeyemi, who was studying in Manchester, was found guilty by a majority of ten to two on the attempted rape charge and unanimously on the sexual assault count. He now awaits sentencing, with legal experts noting that convictions of this nature almost invariably carry custodial sentences under English law. A prison term would also activate…

Jun

03

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Senegal: How the Faye-Sonko divorce is driving a nation towards a political chaos

NEWS

SENEGAL is hurtling toward a constitutional crisis that threatens to shatter the most celebrated democratic awakening in West Africa in a generation. Two years after Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousmane Sonko swept into power on a tide of popular hope - their names literally fused into a single rallying cry - their alliance has fractured so completely that the nation now stands on the edge of institutional collapse. On June 1, 2026, the break became irreversible. Sonko, now Speaker of Parliament after being ousted as Prime Minister, announced on social media that PASTEF — the party he founded in 2014…

Jun

03

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

“Visit Rwanda”: How Kagame’s football bet paid off on the biggest stage in club football

NEWS

THE whistle sounded at Puskas Arena and Paris Saint-Germain's players erupted. They had beaten Arsenal on penalties, 4-3 in a shootout that followed a 1-1 draw after extra time, to become the first repeat Champions League champions since Real Madrid swept three consecutive titles between 2016 and 2018. Luis Enrique's side was brilliant, dramatic, and worthy. But as the confetti fell on the Danube, another winner was already quietly counting its returns: the Republic of Rwanda. On every PSG shirt. On every Arsenal shirt. Sewn onto the left sleeve of every player who kicked, headed, dove, wept and celebrated in…

Jun

04

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

President hails gains as Presidency positions South Africa for growth and jobs

NEWS

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has told Parliament that South Africa is making “real, measurable progress” under the strategic leadership of his Presidency and set out a forward-looking agenda aimed at accelerating growth, creating jobs and improving services. Speaking during the Presidency’s Budget Vote in the National Assembly, Ramaphosa said the Presidency plays a strategic coordination role across government - driving implementation, resolving bottlenecks and mobilising partnerships - and that the institution’s work is translating into concrete results for citizens. “Our Constitution remains the foundation of our national project,” the President said, adding that stronger parliamentary oversight, exemplified by the new Committee…

Jun

02

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Nigeria: Tinubu deploys rescue team, army rescues 23 kidnap victims

NEWS

THE children are still missing. Sixteen days after gunmen on motorcycles swept into three schools along the Ahoro-Esinele and Yawota axis of Oriire Local Government Area in Oyo State, abducting more than 40 pupils and seven teachers in a coordinated dawn assault, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu dispatched the most senior security delegation a Nigerian community has received in years - and still could not announce their return. On Sunday, 31 May 2026, Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila led the National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu, Minister of Defence General Christopher Musa, Minister of Power Joseph Tegbe,…

Jun

02

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

The long, bitter journey of David, Deborah Mutaaga from Uganda to a Swiss cemetery

NEWS

ON the morning of Wednesday, 27 May 2026, a quiet graveside ceremony in the Swiss municipality of Dubendorf, on the outskirts of Zürich, concluded one of the most wrenching odysseys in recent Ugandan social and legal history. Two urns containing the cremated remains of David Baagala Mutaaga, 69, and his wife Deborah Florence Naizuwa Mutaaga, 62 - a couple who had dreamed of spending their twilight years on the fertile red-clay soil of their homeland — were finally lowered into the earth of a continent they had left decades before as young strivers, and to which their children had now…