NEWS - The African Mirror

Mar

11

2024

Ex-Ivory Coast President Gbagbo agrees to contest 2025 election

NEWS

FORMER Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo agreed to lead the party he founded into the 2025 presidential elections, spokesman Katinan Kone told Reuters following a meeting of the party's central committee. Gbagbo, president of the West African country from 2000 to 2011, launched his African People's Party - Cote d'Ivoire (PPA-CI) in 2021 following his acquittal on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and return from a decade abroad. He was acquitted in 2019 by the Netherlands-based ICC on charges relating to his role in a civil war sparked by his refusal to concede defeat in an…

Mar

10

2024

By GARBA MUHAMMAD and BOSAN YAKUSAK

‘I forced her to go to school’, Nigerian mother cries after mass school abduction

NEWS

SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Safiya Kuriga complained she was feeling feverish but her mother still made her attend class. Within two hours, gunmen entered her school and kidnapped Safiya and some 300 other students in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state. "I forced her to go to school that morning despite her complaining to me of a fever," a sobbing Khadiya Kuriga told Reuters by phone from Kuriga town. "We have been crying since yesterday. Our children are hungry." Gunmen seized more than 300 primary and secondary school children between the ages of seven and 15, school authorities and parents said on Friday. Some students were later…

Mar

10

2024

By The African Mirror

Senegal kicks off short election campaign after poll delays

NEWS

SENEGALESE presidential candidates launched their shortened campaigns, two days after a court confirmed the election would be held on March 24, ending weeks of uncertainty and kick-starting a competition that remains wide open. Tensions have gripped the country since early February, when a bid by President Macky Sall to postpone by 10 months a vote that had been due to take place on February 25 provoked widespread protests and warnings by critics of democratic backsliding. Senegal, a country of 18 million, is normally one of West Africa's most stable democracies. The worst of the crisis appears to be over after the Constitutional Council…

Mar

11

2024

By NYASHA NYAUNGWA

Namibian communities demand return of land in dispute over German genocide legacy

NEWS

NAMIBIAN communities whose ancestors were massacred by German colonial forces and had their property seized more than a century ago are calling for fresh talks with Berlin to negotiate the return of ancestral land. Germany agreed in May 2021 to fund projects worth 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) over 30 years to make up for the property seizures and killings by German colonial forces between 1904 and 1908, after the tribes rebelled against German rule. Germany also apologised for its role in the slaughter, officially describing the massacre of some 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people as genocide for the first time. However, critics…

Mar

10

2024

By EMMA FARGE

Gambian ex-minister alleges racism and lies as Swiss crimes against humanity trial closes

NEWS

SWITZERLAND'S first full trial of crimes against humanity concluded this week, with the defendant, a former Gambian minister accused of rape and murder, giving a defiant closing speech in which he claimed to be a victim of racism and lies. Ousman Sonko, a former interior minister of Gambia under ousted dictator Yahya Jammeh, is the highest-ranking official ever to be tried in Europe using universal jurisdiction which allows the most serious crimes to be prosecuted anywhere. During the trial in Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, the court heard details of the charges of rape, torture and murder allegedly committed between 2000-2016…

Mar

09

2024

By GARBA MUHAMMAD

Nigeria Air Force trainer plane crashes but pilots survive

NEWS

A Nigerian Air Force Super Mushshak trainer aircraft was involved in "a minor mishap", but the two pilots on board survived the crash, the Air Force said. The incident occurred at about 1335 GMT near a military airfield in the northern city of Kaduna as the plane was returning from a routine training flight, Air Force spokesperson Edward Gabkwet said in a statement. Nigeria Air Force authorities have ordered a preliminary investigation to determine the immediate cause of the crash, the statement said. No further details were provided. The crash follows a Nigerian Air Force MI-35P helicopter that went down in December…

Mar

09

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

UN chief, fearing spread of conflict, urges Ramadan truce in Sudan

NEWS

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the warring parties in Sudan to agree to halt hostilities during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a move the Security Council is also considering. "This cessation of hostilities must lead to a definitive silencing of the guns across the country, and set out a firm path towards lasting peace for the Sudanese people," Guterres told the 15-member Security Council. "There is now a serious risk that the conflict could ignite regional instability of dramatic proportions, from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea." The Security Council is negotiating a British-drafted resolution…

Mar

10

2024

By DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS and KANISHKA SINGH

US issues sanctions on Russian, Central African Republic entities over Wagner ties

NEWS

THE United States imposed sanctions on two entities it accused of advancing Russia's "malign activities" in the Central African Republic (CAR) and enabling the Wagner mercenary group, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement. The entities, a CAR-based timber company and a Russia-based company sought to benefit financially "from illicit natural resource extraction and provided material and financial support to the Wagner Group and other organizations" tied to Wagner's former owner Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who died in a 2023 plane explosion in Russia, the Treasury said. The action targets CAR-based Bois Rouge SARLU for its ties to Wagner and St. Petersburg-based Broker Expert…

Mar

10

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

As UN urges Sudan truce, Russia and China cite Gaza

NEWS

THE United Nations Security Council called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sudan, prompting China to remind it not to forget about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia to accuse the United States of double standards. Russia abstained, while the remaining 14 council members voted in favour of the British-drafted resolution that called for an immediate cessation of hostilities during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins early next week. War erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The U.N. says nearly 25 million people - half…

Mar

08

2024

By The African Mirror

South Africa asks World Court for more measures against Israel

NEWS

SOUTH Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order additional emergency measures against Israel, which it says is breaching the measures already in place, the U.N.'s top court said. In its application, South Africa warned that Palestinians in Gaza were facing starvation and asked the court to order that all parties cease hostilities and release all hostages and detainees. In a statement issued Wednesday the South African presidency warned that the people of Gaza cannot wait. "The threat of all-out famine has now materialised. The court needs to act now to stop the imminent tragedy by immediately and effectively…