NEWS - The African Mirror

Oct

21

2025

Cameroon awaits historic election results as opposition candidate challenges world’s oldest president

NEWS

CAMEROON stands at a critical juncture as the Constitutional Council prepares to announce presidential election results Thursday morning, ending days of tense uncertainty that have gripped the Central African nation and sparked street protests over allegations of electoral fraud. The announcement, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Yaoundé Convention Center, will determine whether 92-year-old Paul Biya - the world's oldest sitting president who has ruled Cameroon for 43 unbroken years - secures an eighth term, or whether opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary's claims of victory will be validated. Since polls closed on October 12th, Tchiroma, 75, has repeatedly declared himself…

Oct

21

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Nigerian police fire teargas, deploy armoured vehicles to crush pro-Biafra protests

NEWS

PLUMES of white teargas choked the streets of Nigeria's capital Monday as riot police and soldiers mounted an overwhelming show of force to stamp out demonstrations demanding freedom for imprisoned separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu. Armed officers unleashed volleys of teargas canisters and blasted water cannons at crowds attempting to rally in Abuja, while armoured trucks rumbled through sealed-off intersections in a military-style operation that transformed the city center into a lockdown zone. Heavily-armed soldiers reinforced police lines as authorities moved aggressively to prevent any gathering momentum for the banned Indigenous People of Biafra movement. The crackdown spotlights the explosive tensions…

Oct

20

2025

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Kenya lays Raila Odinga to rest in emotional Bondo ceremony

NEWS

IT was an emotional day in Bondo, Siaya County, as Kenya's long-serving opposition leader, Raila Odinga, was laid to rest at his family homestead on Sunday, closing a remarkable chapter in the nation's political history. The 80-year-old former prime minister was buried beside his father, independence hero Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, in a private ceremony attended by family, political leaders, and dignitaries from across the globe, fulfilling his wishes for a burial conducted in strict accordance with Luo cultural traditions. A Farewell Steeped in Tradition The burial at Opoda Farm was conducted with full military honours, befitting Odinga's service as Kenya's…

Oct

20

2025

By The African Mirror

Banking on bloodshed: How a French giant bankrolled genocide

NEWS

IN a thunderous repudiation of corporate impunity, a Manhattan jury has delivered a verdict that reverberates far beyond the marble halls of international finance. On Friday, BNP Paribas—one of Europe's banking behemoths—was found guilty of aiding and abetting genocide, its ledgers stained with the blood of Sudan's ethnic cleansing campaigns. The message is unmistakable: the invisible hand of the market cannot wash away the visible consequences of mass atrocity. The Machinery of Destruction For years, while villages burned and bodies piled in Darfur's scorched earth, BNP Paribas kept the financial machinery humming. The French banking titan systematically violated U.S. sanctions,…

Oct

20

2025

By The African Mirror

Morocco’s Gen Z protests signal new wave of youth power across Africa

NEWS

AFTER a 10-day pause, young Moroccans returned to the streets outside parliament on Saturday, marking the latest surge in a leaderless movement that is reshaping political participation across Africa and drawing uncomfortable parallels with the Arab Spring that swept through the region over a decade ago. The protests, organised through the online collective Gen Z 212, represent a growing wave of youth-led demonstrations that have convulsed multiple African nations in recent months, from Madagascar's largest protests in 15 years to Kenya's tax revolts, signalling what analysts describe as a fundamental shift from electoral to participatory democracy. "Even though we paused…

Oct

21

2025

By STAFF REPORTER

Motsepe rules out political ambitions at SANEF fundraiser

NEWS

MINING billionaire and Africa football boss Dr Patrice Motsepe has definitively ruled out any aspirations to become ANC president or enter politics, telling attendees at the South African National Editors' Forum annual gala dinner on Friday that the country does not need a rich man as president. "Being president of a country, it's sacrosanct. It's holy," Motsepe said in his keynote address at the Houghton Hotel, dismissing persistent speculation about his political future. The billionaire told guests he would contribute to South Africa's development through other means. "I don't have to enter into politics to make a contribution. What South…

Oct

18

2025

By The African Mirror

Madagascar’s general-turned-president faces the Gen Z reckoning

NEWS

THE transformation was swift and theatrical: Colonel Michael Randrianirina, once clad in the olive-drab fatigues of Madagascar's elite CAPSAT unit, his chest adorned with military medals earned through decades of service, strode into the High Constitutional Court on Friday, draped in civilian authority. The presidential sash replaced his ribbons. The suit supplanted his combat uniform. And with raised swords glinting and trumpets blaring their brassy proclamation, Africa's latest coup leader became Madagascar's newest head of state. The colonial-era courthouse—a red-brick monument to French imperial architecture, with its elegant segmental arches and stone balustrades—provided an almost ironic backdrop for a ceremony…

Oct

18

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Zimbabwe’s power struggle: The coup comrades turn on each other

NEWS

IN a dramatic escalation of Zimbabwe's simmering leadership crisis, President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga - the two generals who jointly orchestrated the 2017 coup against Robert Mugabe - have turned their guns on each other in an explosive confrontation that lays bare the fractures at the heart of Zanu PF. The extraordinary clash, which erupted during a tense politburo meeting this week, represents the most serious threat yet to Zimbabwe's political stability as the nation approaches a critical juncture in its troubled democratic journey. The Dossier That Shook the Party It began on September 17, when Chiwenga,…

Oct

18

2025

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

How Africa’s woke Gen Z mobilises

NEWS

STREET demonstrations and online community advocacy are the most popular ways that Gen-Zers mobilise to tell their governments how life can be better for everyday citizens. Youth-led civic engagement is surging in more African countries. In September, Madagascar witnessed its largest protests in 15 years, lasting three weeks, with young citizenry, mobilised through social media, marching on the streets over water and electricity shortages, prompting President Andry Rajoelina to dissolve his cabinet on October 7. Demonstrators continued to fill the streets of Antananarivo, demanding the president’s resignation. In Morocco, another leaderless campaign has swelled under the hashtag #GenZ212 since late…

Oct

17

2025

By The African Mirror

Money fuels the violence: How Nigerian governors buy electoral chaos

NEWS

NIGERIA'S upcoming 2027 elections are already showing ominous signs of violence, with early clashes erupting between ruling party supporters and opposition groups in northern states. But the real story, according to groundbreaking research, lies not in whether violence will occur—but in who carries it out and why. The answer comes down to money. Specifically, how much cash state governors control. A newly published study exposes a disturbing two-tier system of electoral violence across Nigeria, where wealthy governors hire sophisticated armed groups while their cash-strapped counterparts recruit desperate citizens for as little as $4. "The distinction in electoral violence perpetrators is…