NEWS - The African Mirror

Mar

28

2026

How 15 Zimbabweans died on Russia’s frontlines – and 66 more remain trapped

NEWS

FIFTEEN families in Zimbabwe are now waiting for bodies that may never come home. Sixty-six more Zimbabwean men remain alive - for now - on the front lines of Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War II, having arrived there not as soldiers, not as volunteers, but as victims of a crime. Zimbabwe’s government confirmed all of this on Wednesday, and used language that stripped away any diplomatic ambiguity: this is human trafficking. Speaking at a press conference in Harare, Information Minister Zhemu Soda delivered a statement that was as much a public alert as it was an official admission.…

Mar

28

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Stand up, shape up — or get out

NEWS

IMAGINE you are a District Mayor. Or perhaps a Provincial Governor. You have made the two-hour drive to Gako, deep in Bugesera, for what has been billed as a high-level consultative meeting at the Rwanda Military Academy — Rwanda's premier institution for forging discipline. You have settled into your seat. The morning is long. The speeches are longer. Your eyelids are, shall we say, conducting their own private referendum on whether consciousness is strictly necessary. Then — in that precise, calamitous moment that your career did not warn you about — the man at the front of the room notices…

Mar

27

2026

By The African Mirror

MOZ-UKRAINE: Out of the ruins of war, Africa answers the call

NEWS

IN a world accustomed to framing Africa as the perpetual recipient — of aid, of intervention, of development finance dispensed from the global North — the diplomatic exchange between Mozambique and Ukraine this week arrives as something of a quiet disruption. When Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Daniel Chapo spoke by telephone on Monday and agreed to explore a swap of Mozambican liquefied natural gas for Ukrainian security expertise, they sketched the outline of a relationship that defies the tired scripts of dependency and patronage. For Kyiv, the imperative could not be more urgent. Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in…

Mar

27

2026

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Cheaper cross border call rates beckon on lower tariffs push

NEWS

CROSS-BORDER traders and travellers across Africa are set to benefit from cheaper calls, texts and data, as a new wave of telecom reforms gains momentum across the continent. Regional blocs and national regulators are moving to cut mobile termination rates (MTRs) and roaming charges, to ease communication, lower the cost of doing business and support growing regional integration. Five Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are the latest to announce reduced and harmonised mobile roaming tariffs under the One Network Area (ONA) framework. Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA), which is spearheading the push,…

Mar

27

2026

By The African Mirror

UNHCR urges urgent aid as 33,000 DRC refugees return from Burundi amid fragile conditions

NEWS

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (24 March 2026) – More than 33,000 Congolese refugees have returned spontaneously from Burundi to eastern DRC in just one month since the border reopened on 23 February, prompting UNHCR to appeal for immediate international funding to ensure safe and sustainable reintegration. The returns follow intense fighting in December 2025 between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the M23 armed group, which displaced thousands from Uvira and nearby areas in South Kivu province. Most returnees are crossing at the Kavimvira border point near Uvira, driven by recent stability…

Mar

26

2026

By The African Mirror

SA: Ramaphosa faces pressure to suspend top cop Masemola amid R360m scandal arrests

NEWS

A seismic 24-hour corruption crackdown tore through the South African Police Service (SAPS) elite, arresting 12 senior officers tied to a crooked R360 million health tender and slapping a court summons on National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola. As public outrage swells, President Cyril Ramaphosa's measured response - vowing to "address the matter in accordance with the law" - has ignited demands for Masemola's immediate suspension to safeguard SAPS stability. The frenzy erupted Tuesday evening with IDAC-led raids, cuffing officers from captain to major general for allegedly rigging the Tshwane District tender to Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala's unqualified Medicare24. Despite a lower…

Mar

26

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

African leaders press the world to reckon with the gravest crime in human history

NEWS

HE began not with statistics or diplomatic pleasantries, but with a declaration about language. "Truth begins with language," Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama told delegates at the United Nations, his voice a measured instrument of moral authority. "There is no such thing as a slave. There were human beings who were trafficked and then enslaved." The distinction, Mahama insisted, is not semantic hairsplitting. It is the fulcrum on which four centuries of deliberate dehumanisation turned - and the foundation upon which the African world must now stand in demanding justice. With those words, he launched what African and Caribbean diplomats…

Mar

26

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENTS

Washington hotel incident sparks DRC-Rwanda diplomatic row

NEWS

WHAT began as a late-afternoon social media alert has evolved into a full-scale diplomatic confrontation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, with both governments now publicly accusing the other of distortion, dishonesty, and provocation over an incident that unfolded in the hallways and on the floor of a Washington hotel where senior figures from both countries were simultaneously staying. The Rwandan Embassy in Washington issued a detailed statement through its official social media channels — @RwandaInUSA — flatly contradicting the account presented by Kinshasa's Information Minister Patrick Muyaya at a press conference on Tuesday night. The embassy characterised…

Mar

26

2026

By The African Mirror

Drones, death and deliberate targeting: Sudan’s war on hospitals enters a lethal new phase

NEWS

SEVENTY people are dead. Among them: a doctor, two nurses, thirteen children, seven women, and an unspecified number of patients who had done nothing more than seek medical care. The Teaching Hospital in Al Deain, capital of East Darfur, was struck by an air strike late on Friday evening. By Tuesday, the United Nations had confirmed it was no longer functioning. For more than two million people across East Darfur state, the nearest alternative referral facility is now over 160 kilometres away. This is Sudan in the third year of its civil war - and it is getting worse. The…

Mar

25

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Born to privilege, humbled by the dock: Mugabe’s son moves towards a plea deal

NEWS

THERE is a particular kind of silence that descends when the inheritance of power runs up against the impartiality of the law. For Chatunga Bellarmine Mugabe, the youngest son of Zimbabwe's late strongman Robert Mugabe, that silence has grown louder with each adjournment at the Alexandra Magistrate's Court - and each night spent in a holding cell rather than a multimillion rands Hyde Park mansion. Mugabe and his co-accused, Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze, were back before the court on Tuesday morning, and once again the proceedings ended without resolution. The case has been postponed to 17 April 2026 for further investigation.…