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Starvation as a weapon of spillover: Somalia’s famine warning exposes the human cost of global indifference

Starvation as a weapon of spillover: Somalia’s famine warning exposes the human cost of global indifference

AS the world’s gaze remains fixed on the explosive confrontations in the Middle East, a slower, quieter, but equally lethal catastrophe is swallowing Somalia whole. The fallout from distant wars - not drought alone - is now pushing millions of Somalis toward the precipice of formal famine, exposing a brutal new reality: in a fractured global economy, a conflict in one region can trigger a starvation death sentence in another. The UN aid teams have issued a chilling recalibration of the crisis in the Horn of Africa. At least six million people are enduring days without food. Nearly two million…
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UBUNTU: Motsoaledi’s humble walk to a grieving family exposes the human side of powerful politician

UBUNTU: Motsoaledi’s humble walk to a grieving family exposes the human side of powerful politician

THE black official convoy pulled up quietly on a dusty street in Extension 5, a world away from the polished corridors of the Union Buildings. When Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi stepped out, dressed in black and carrying groceries like a mournful neighbour, he did something rare for a sitting cabinet member: he walked into the epicentre of a tragedy his own security detail had caused, and he did not make excuses. Eight days earlier, on the evening of 9 May, Beauty Shoperai, a Zimbabwean mother, and her one-year-old son were mowed down on the N1 highway near Bela-Bela. They had…
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Two Ghanaian brothers, US woman indicted for “Romance scam.”

Two Ghanaian brothers, US woman indicted for “Romance scam.”

THEY gave themselves aliases to match the scale of their deception. Jamal Abubakari went by “Arrangement.” His twin brother Kamal was “Lancaster.” They were building something, alright - not the romantic lives they promised their victims, but a meticulously engineered criminal apparatus that turned loneliness into liquidity. On Thursday, May 14, 2026, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio unsealed a federal indictment charging the two brothers from Ghana and a 53-year-old American woman, Amanda Joy Opoku-Boachie, also known as Amanda Joy Glum and Amanda Joy Kessei Bierman, with Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Money…
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Ghana’s xenophobia paradox: Evacuating citizens from SA while raiding migrants at home

Ghana’s xenophobia paradox: Evacuating citizens from SA while raiding migrants at home

IN a striking demonstration of Africa’s fractured migration politics, Ghana is simultaneously executing two opposing state functions: airlifting 300 of its citizens out of South Africa to escape alleged xenophobic violence, while its security forces raid domestic slums to arrest and deport illegal immigrants of other nationalities. The dual-track policy, approved by Foreign Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, exposes a profound irony at the heart of Ghana’s foreign and domestic strategy. Accra demands Pan-African protection for its diaspora in Pretoria while exercising uncompromising sovereign border control against West African neighbors in Madina. The evacuation follows a formal advisory from Ghana’s High…
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Blue light, black consequence: The blood price of South Africa’s untouchable convoys

Blue light, black consequence: The blood price of South Africa’s untouchable convoys

ON the morning of Saturday, 9 May 2026, Beauty Shoperai, 37, did what any wife and mother would do. She heard that her husband, Paul Masunda, had been struck and killed by a vehicle on the N1 highway near Bela-Bela in Limpopo. She ran — back across that highway, baby strapped to her back, a terrified teenager trailing behind her — to reach him. She never made it. The vehicle of Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, driven by a member of the Protection Security Services (PSS), struck the family. Beauty Shoperai and her infant were killed. The teenager survived. Three…
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A Nation Bids Farewell With Grace: Botswana honours Festus Mogae, the statesman

A Nation Bids Farewell With Grace: Botswana honours Festus Mogae, the statesman

THE University of Botswana Indoor Sports Centre fell into a profound hush as President Advocate Duma Boko rose to deliver the eulogy that a nation had waited a week to hear. When he finally spoke, his voice - at times heavy, at times trembling - carried the full weight of a people saying goodbye to one of their finest. The State Funeral of His Excellency Festus Gontebanye Mogae, Botswana's third president, marked the culmination of a week-long national commemoration that transformed grief into celebration, and mourning into an act of collective memory. It was, by every measure, a farewell richly…
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Ramaphosa acts: Tolashe fired in the sharpest test yet of GNU accountability

Ramaphosa acts: Tolashe fired in the sharpest test yet of GNU accountability

IT came without ceremony. A single paragraph. The invocation of section 91(2) of the Constitution. The name. The portfolio. The end. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s dismissal of Social Development Minister Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe, announced by the Presidency on Thursday, 14 May 2026, was the kind of spare, institutional language that belies the seismic weight of what it represents. It represents, at minimum, the most consequential act of executive accountability in the Government of National Unity since its formation. It may represent something larger still: the moment a South African president looked at one of the ANC’s most politically sheltered figures -…
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‘I went in the middle of the night. My abuser never spent a day in a cell.’

‘I went in the middle of the night. My abuser never spent a day in a cell.’

She had spent the entire night at Isange One Stop Centre in Kacyiru, doing everything she was told. The medical examination. The psychological assessment. The questions from a male officer whose tone, at first, made her want to walk out the door. She stayed because a friend beside her said: You're traumatised, give him a chance. She gave him the chance. She gave all of them a chance. Then she watched, over eight agonising months, as every single one of them squandered it. Now Glory Iribagiza — Gender and Innovation Editor at The New Times Rwanda, two-time winner of Female…
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Nigeria: fugitive ex-minister sentenced to 75 years for $21 million power sector looting – INTERPOL hunt begins

Nigeria: fugitive ex-minister sentenced to 75 years for $21 million power sector looting – INTERPOL hunt begins

NIGERIA’S Federal High Court has handed down one of the country's starkest anti-corruption verdicts in recent memory, sentencing former Minister of Power Saleh Mamman to 75 years in prison for laundering more than N33.8 billion - approximately $21 million - in public funds meant for flagship electricity projects. The conviction and sentence were delivered in Mamman's absence. He has been declared a fugitive. Justice James Omotosho, sitting in Abuja, convicted Mamman last week on all 12 counts brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), then deferred sentencing to Wednesday. When the hearing resumed, prosecution counsel Rotimi…
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The long goodbye: A nation bids a quiet giant farewell

The long goodbye: A nation bids a quiet giant farewell

IN life, Festus Mogae shunned the thunder of strongmen. In death, he has orchestrated the most powerful of finales: a nation’s spontaneous, unscripted embrace of a man who proved that humility is the highest form of strength. For ten years, he sat in the highest office. But as Botswana began filing past his open perspex casket at the House of Parliament on Wednesday, they were not mourning a potentate. They were bidding a luminous, aching farewell to a father, a technocrat with a conscience, and the quiet giant who stared down a pandemic when silence was the political norm. Even…
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