NEWS - The African Mirror

Jul

01

2026

“No More Pillage” – DRC President declares end to extraction of raw materials

NEWS

PRESIDENT Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi used the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 66th Independence Day address on Tuesday to deliver what may be the most forceful articulation yet of his economic sovereignty doctrine, declaring an end to the era in which Congolese minerals were “extracted at home, exported raw, valorised elsewhere, then sold back to the world” while the people who produced that wealth remained trapped in poverty. Delivered from the Palais de la Nation against the backdrop of an ongoing eastern insurgency, a resurgent Ebola outbreak and a combustible domestic political climate, the address fused triumphant nationalism - anchored by the…

Jul

01

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

The Endgame: First move in a war for Senegal’s soul

NEWS

Senegal's political honeymoon is over, and what replaces it will be remembered as one of the most consequential power struggles in the country's history. On Monday, the National Assembly — an institution now thoroughly remade in the image of Ousmane Sonko, its newly installed Speaker — passed sweeping constitutional reforms that strip the presidency of authority and hand it, piece by piece, to parliament and the office of the prime minister. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye's response was immediate and unambiguous: he would not simply accept the law. He would put it to the people in a referendum. It is a…

Jul

01

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

EXPOSED: Sensational attempts to bribe SA MP with R10 million cash, a R2-million-a-month tender and promises of “chocolates”

NEWS

A sworn account now before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has placed uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) Member of Parliament Vusi Shongwe at the centre of one of the most startling sub-plots yet to emerge from South Africa’s sprawling probe into criminality and political interference within the criminal justice system: an alleged attempt by intermediaries linked to suspended Crime Intelligence boss Major-General Feroz Khan to buy his silence in cash, in kind, and through a state security tender - brokered, on his telling, in the orbit of former president Jacob Zuma’s office in Durban. Shongwe, who is a member of Parliament’s…

Jun

30

2026

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Mozambique moves to govern AI as more African states build laws

NEWS

MOZAMBIQUE has drafted a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy as it moves to formalise the legal, institutional, and regulatory frameworks that will shape how AI systems are deployed across public and private sectors. “This is not about stifling innovation, but rather about creating clear rules that ensure these tools are used safely, transparently, responsibly, and with respect for consumer rights,” Bank of Mozambique Governor Rogério Zandamela said during the opening of the central bank's 17th Scientific Conference on June 16. Zandamela said artificial intelligence is already embedded in financial systems and institutional decision-making processes, adding that its use is now part…

Jun

30

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Museveni’s son-in-law admits soldiers beat voters, stuffed ballots in stolen election

NEWS

For nearly four decades, public criticism of President Yoweri Museveni's grip on power in Uganda has come from outside his family circle - from opposition politicians, civil society and a battered independent press. This week, in a striking departure, it has also come from inside the presidential household itself. Odrek Rwabwogo, chairperson of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) and a senior presidential adviser, is married to Museveni's eldest daughter, Pastor Patience Museveni Rwabwogo. In an interview with The Observer, the 52-year-old businessman — long regarded as a Museveni loyalist and, at various points, a subject…

Jun

29

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

BURKINA FASO DIVORCE: Paris reacts, Francophone Africa watches

NEWS

FRANCE has revealed that it was weighing reciprocal measures after Burkina Faso severed all diplomatic relations with Paris, calling the decision “hostile and unfounded” and warning that it illustrated a worrying drift by the Burkinabè authorities. The response, delivered within a day of Ouagadougou's announcement, was the clearest signal yet that France does not intend to absorb the break quietly - even as the rest of Francophone West Africa has, more carefully, been edging toward the same destination for the past four years. Foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said in a statement that necessary reciprocal measures were currently under review,…

Jun

29

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Uganda’s darkest weekend: Muhoozi shuts down independent media as Matembe missing

NEWS

UGANDA woke on Sunday to find soldiers stationed outside the country's largest independent newsroom and one of its most respected elder stateswomen still missing, after Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba moved within a single week to silence both the press that scrutinises him and the activists who criticise him. Shortly after midnight on Sunday, armed personnel surrounded the Namuwongo, Kampala headquarters of Nation Media Group (NMG) Uganda and the Kampala Serena Hotel broadcast centre housing NTV Uganda and Spark TV, sealing the compounds and restricting movement in and out. By 5 am, NTV Uganda and Spark TV screens…

Jun

29

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENTS

Kinshasa drags Kigali back to The Hague: DRC-Rwanda relations hit new low as peace process falters

NEWS

THE fragile diplomatic architecture holding together the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda cracked further this week after Kinshasa filed an application instituting proceedings against Kigali at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing its smaller eastern neighbour of three decades of genocide, mass killing and systematic human rights abuse in the mineral-rich Kivus. The filing, lodged at the Peace Palace in The Hague on 26 June 2026, concerns what the DRC describes as “abuses attributable to Rwanda over a period extending from 1996 to the present day”. It is the boldest legal escalation yet in a relationship that…

Jun

27

2026

By The African Mirror

SA: Kings, Queens Drawn Into Last-Ditch Push to Defuse Migration Powder Keg

NEWS

WITH days standing between South Africa and a self-declared “national shutdown” over illegal immigration, President Cyril Ramaphosa turned on Saturday to an institution older than the republic itself: the country’s traditional monarchs. At a closed-door meeting with Kings and Queens, Ramaphosa restated the five-pillar Comprehensive Approach for Managing Migration his Cabinet adopted following his 7 June address to the nation, while appealing to the moral authority of traditional leaders to calm communities ahead of the 30 June deadline set by the anti-immigration movement March and March and allied groups for undocumented foreigners to leave the country. It was the latest,…

Jun

27

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Africa’s World Cup windfall: Knockout stage breakthrough triggers a multimillion-dollar payday from FIFA

NEWS

THE referee's final whistle signalled more than victories for South Africa, Morocco and Côte d'Ivoire into the knockout stage in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It activated a financial mechanism that FIFA spent two years engineering, and that the rest of African football is now racing, in real time, to unlock for itself. With the Round of 32 kicking off this weekend, the difference between an early flight home and one more match in this 48-team tournament is no longer measured only in pride. It is measured in tens of millions of dollars, paid not to players but to federations…