NEWS - The African Mirror

Mar

01

2023

French court to rule on landmark TotalEnergies Uganda case

NEWS

AMERICA HERNANDEZ A French court could order oil major TotalEnergies to halt the development of an east Africa pipeline in a landmark case based on legislation that makes big companies liable for risks to the environment and human rights. The Paris civil court will rule on a lawsuit filed by Friends of the Earth France and five other French and Ugandan activist groups accusing TotalEnergies of expropriating land from more than 100,000 people without sufficient compensation and drilling on a natural park with endangered species. TotalEnergies has argued that its vigilance, compensation and relocalisation plans are fair and legal and that…

Mar

20

2023

By The African Mirror

Bumper grain harvests: African countries defy global food slump

NEWS

CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY AS ravaging drought, low rainfall and war in Europe resulted in a global slump in cereal production in 2022, some African countries went against the grain, recording bumper harvests. Niger, Sudan, Mali, Mozambique and Chad are among the countries that recorded the biggest harvests, of 10% or more above average yields in 2022, a quarterly report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows. Favourable weather and government subsidy programmes helped smallholder farmers in these countries improve maize, millet, sorghum, wheat and rice yields last year. “Generally conducive weather conditions, coupled with support…

Feb

23

2023

By The African Mirror

Death toll from cyclone Freddy in Madagascar rises to 4 – govt

NEWS

THE death toll in Madagascar from tropical cyclone Freddy has risen to four, the government said, as the storm moved west across the island nation toward mainland Africa. Freddy made landfall in southeastern Madagascar late on Tuesday with gusts of up to 180 km per hour (110 miles per hour), flooding the area and ripping roofs off houses. Its arrival came nearly a month after storm Cheneso killed 33 people and forced thousands from their homes in Madagascar. In a statement, the government's National Office of Risks and Disasters revised the death toll up to four from one earlier. The storm has…

Mar

20

2023

By The African Mirror

Lagos governor re-elected in victory for Nigeria ruling party

NEWS

MACDONALD DZIRUTWE THE governor of Lagos easily won re-election in low turn-out local voting, figures showed, a victory for Nigeria's ruling party just weeks after the commercial capital backed the opposition in a disputed presidential election. With votes tallied in districts representing 95% of voters, incumbent Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the ruling All Progressive Congress had more than 736,000 votes, compared to just 292,000 for his closest rival, the Labour Party's Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission. The turnout was just a small fraction of the 7 million registered voters in Africa's largest megacity, which has a population…

Mar

01

2023

By The African Mirror

Congo president says unrest in east could disrupt elections

NEWS

DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi said that a conflict with rebels in the east of the country could disrupt preparations for general elections scheduled for December 20. Congo's electoral commission started registering voters on February 17 in North Kivu province, parts of which are occupied by the M23 rebel group, a Tutsi-led militia that has been waging an offensive against Congolese troops for almost a year. The fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, raising concerns about the state's ability to prepare for the parliamentary and presidential elections later this year. "The persistence of the war in the east…

Mar

20

2023

By The African Mirror

Analysis: Sudan paramilitary leader jostles for role ahead of civilian handover

NEWS

KHALID ABDELAZIZ THE leader of a powerful paramilitary force in Sudan has put himself at the forefront of a planned transition toward democracy, unsettling fellow military rulers and triggering a mobilisation of troops in the capital Khartoum last week. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo commands tens of thousands of fighters in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and has amassed considerable mineral wealth. He is also deputy leader of Sudan's ruling council, which took power in a coup more than a year ago. Recently however, Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, has pulled away from military colleagues and found common ground with…

Mar

20

2023

By The African Mirror

Tunisian president names one of his staunchest supporters as interior minister

NEWS

TUNISIAN President Kais Saied named Kamal Feki, the former governor of Tunis, as his new interior minister on Friday, just hours after Taoufik Charfeddine resigned from the post, amid a crackdown on prominent opposition figures that has prompted international ire. Feki, one of Saied's staunchest supporters, refused to grant a protest permit to the opposition Salvation Front coalition, saying that its leaders were involved in plotting against state security. But the Interior Ministry allowed them to protest. He criticized the opposition several times, describing them as "immoral and weightless". Charfeddine said earlier he resigned due to family reasons. Charfeddine at…

Feb

23

2023

By The African Mirror

U.N. says Congo will need $2.25 bln to aid uprooted people in rebel-hit east

NEWS

THE United Nations will need to mobilise a record $2.25 billion this year to address the mass displacement of people in the east Democratic Republic of Congo following a major offensive by M23 rebels last year, the U.N. coordinator for the country, Bruno Lemarquis, said on Wednesday. Decades of militia violence in Congo's vast mineral-rich east worsened last year after the Tutsi-led M23 staged a major come-back in North-Kivu province in March, uprooting more than 600,000 people, according to the U.N. That has added to hordes of others displaced across east Congo over the years. Lemarquis said in a statement…

Mar

01

2023

By The African Mirror

Tinubu is Nigeria’s president-elect after disputed election

NEWS

FELIX ONUAH and MACDONALD DZIRUTWE NIGERIA'S ruling party candidate, Bola Tinubu, was declared president-elect of Africa's most populous nation in the early hours of Wednesday after a weekend election that the main opposition parties have disputed. Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state, will take over leadership of a country grappling with Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, armed attacks, killings and kidnappings, conflict between livestock herders and farmers, cash, fuel and power shortages, and perennial corruption that opponents say Buhari's party has failed to stamp out, despite promises to do so. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Tinubu garnered…

Mar

02

2023

By The African Mirror

African migrants suffer under crackdown in Tunisia

NEWS

ANGUS MCDOWALL SINCE Tunisia's president announced a crackdown on illegal immigration last week using language the African Union denounced as racialised, Malian construction worker Mohamed Kony has been evicted from his apartment and sacked from his job. Unemployed, homeless and without legal residency, he now fears he will face the fate of several of his friends who have been attacked on the street. "I am confused and worried," said Kony, 32, who has lived in Tunis for five years and appeared well-liked in his neighbourhood, where Tunisian residents said they enjoyed his cheerful demeanour and often employed him for small…