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63 deported from Ireland land to South Africa amid controversy on both sides

63 deported from Ireland land to South Africa amid controversy on both sides

THE chartered flight touched down at OR Tambo International Airport just after 4 am on Sunday morning, Irish time. On board were 63 people - 28 men, 26 women, and nine children -  who had all, in the eyes of the Irish state, exhausted every legal avenue available to them. They were South African nationals, removed under deportation orders, and they arrived back in a country roiling with its own debates about who belongs, who is welcome, and on what terms. It was the second charter removal flight from Ireland this year, and the eighth since such operations resumed in…
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Young Zambian engineers are embracing AI to create local solutions

Young Zambian engineers are embracing AI to create local solutions

20-YEAR-OLD software engineering student, Innocent Mugwadi, presents a slideshow in front of a classroom before his fellow classmates at the Information and Communications University (ICU) in Lusaka. "The reason why I built this project is to solve one specific problem, which is trying to build AI systems whilst understanding the mathematical aspect of it," he said. Mugwadi, currently in his second year at the private university, said his passion for programming began at a young age when he taught himself how to build games and systems while still in Grade 9. His invention, called Tensor, is a system designed to…
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He came home in a coffin: From Zambia’s dreams to a Canadian massacre and back to African soil

He came home in a coffin: From Zambia’s dreams to a Canadian massacre and back to African soil

HE left with his parents, full of hope — a bright-eyed Zambian boy with soccer medals, a laptop, and a wooden toy truck he had crafted himself as a gentle hint that his father needed a tow hitch. He was twelve years old, embarking on a new life in Canada. Three years later, on Sunday, March 1, 2026, Abel Mwansa Jr. came home — in a casket draped with the quiet grief of two nations — to be buried in the red earth of Zambia's Copperbelt. His remains touched down at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka before being flown…
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Kenya’s passport scandal: Warlords, a Zimbabwean fraudster, and accusations of a plot to steal 2027 elections

Kenya’s passport scandal: Warlords, a Zimbabwean fraudster, and accusations of a plot to steal 2027 elections

WHAT began as a single line in a US Treasury sanctions notice has erupted into the most serious governance and national security crisis of President William Ruto's administration. A leaked government document, now circulating widely on Kenyan social media, contains the names of dozens of foreign nationals -  among them associates of a genocide-accused Sudanese warlord, and a Zimbabwean businessman convicted of fraud -  who were allegedly issued Kenyan passports on the direct orders of State House. The scandal has fused two previously separate controversies into one combustible story: the sale of Kenya's sovereign travel documents to sanctioned foreign actors,…
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Africa’s youth lead the world in mental resilience – and the reasons may surprise you

Africa’s youth lead the world in mental resilience – and the reasons may surprise you

THE world is in the grip of a youth mental health crisis. In the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan, and across the wealthiest corners of the globe, young adults are struggling at rates that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago. Nearly half of all 18-to-34-year-olds in high-income countries now experience mental health challenges of clinical significance. Billions of dollars in treatment spending have not moved the needle. Yet in Africa -  a continent often defined in global discourse by its challenges -  something quietly remarkable is happening. The data shows that African youth are, by a significant margin, the…
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South Sudan edges toward humanitarian catastrophe as displacement crisis deepens

South Sudan edges toward humanitarian catastrophe as displacement crisis deepens

SOUTH Sudan is facing one of the world's most severe humanitarian emergencies, with over 1.3 million Sudanese war refugees pouring across its borders and nearly 10 million of its own citizens requiring aid, the UN's migration agency has warned - even as renewed political violence threatens to collapse what little relief infrastructure remains. The International Organisation for Migration reported that displacement within South Sudan has accelerated sharply in recent weeks, with more than 250,000 people uprooted in just the past two months. The figures place South Sudan among the most displacement-affected countries globally, yet the crisis has drawn little international…
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Prophets and profits: the art of the sell in Shepherd Bushiri’s YouTube sermons

Prophets and profits: the art of the sell in Shepherd Bushiri’s YouTube sermons

IN a widely viewed YouTube sermon called 3 Types of Keys, a preacher, dressed in a sky blue Italian suit, holds a microphone and speaks with great assurance about spiritual matters. Prophet Shepherd Bushiri is telling his audience that their financial struggles are not accidental. He warns that business, marriage or social standing can easily crumble if believers don’t pay their tithes to the church every month – 10% of their earnings. This message is not presented as advice, but as divine instruction. Bushiri is one of the most influential and controversial Pentecostal prophets to emerge from southern Africa in…
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Refugee crisis in Burundi reaching breaking point as DRC arrivals continue

Refugee crisis in Burundi reaching breaking point as DRC arrivals continue

BURUNDI is confronting one of its most acute humanitarian crises in years, squeezed between two simultaneous population movements that are stretching its reception infrastructure to the breaking point - and an international funding response that has so far covered only a fraction of what is needed. The numbers tell a stark story. In just three months, more than 90,000 Congolese refugees have flooded across the border as fighting intensifies in eastern DRC, the majority now packed into the Busuma refugee site, which is hosting over 66,000 people. Cholera circulates through the overcrowded settlement. Nearly 10,000 more remain stranded in transit…
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Africa pushes back against America’s Health Bargain

Africa pushes back against America’s Health Bargain

WHEN US President Donald Trump dismantled USAID and ordered the reconstruction of America’s global health architecture, his administration offered African governments a simple proposition: accept Washington’s terms, and the money would flow again. Sixteen countries said yes. Then the pushback began. This week, Zimbabwe became the most dramatic casualty, formally rejecting a $367 million five-year agreement and triggering a US announcement that it would begin “winding down” health assistance in a country where 1.2 million people currently receive HIV treatment funded by Washington. In Zambia, a $1 billion deal that was meant to be signed in November remains stalled, with…
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The man who dribbles for a living now has the biggest defender’s duel of his life

The man who dribbles for a living now has the biggest defender’s duel of his life

HE has nutmegged the best wingers in Europe. He has charged down the flanks of the Stade de France, the Bernabéu, and the Etihad, leaving defenders grasping at shadows. He has marshalled Morocco's backline through World Cup semi-finals and Africa Cup of Nations, earning the continent's highest individual football honour along the way. But Achraf Hakimi -  the 27-year-old who earns his extraordinary living by stopping opponents in their tracks -  now finds himself unable to stop the most consequential charge of his life. A French investigating judge has ordered the Paris Saint-Germain right-back and Morocco captain to stand trial…
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