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SILENCE BY DECREE: How Kinshasa is criminalising dissent as DRC burns

SILENCE BY DECREE: How Kinshasa is criminalising dissent as DRC burns

IN a country already bleeding from one of the continent's most devastating armed conflicts, the government of Félix Tshisekedi has chosen to open a second front - this one directed inward, against the men and women who report, protest, organise, and dissent. The Democratic Republic of Congo is silencing its own conscience. That is the damning conclusion that emerges from a comprehensive Human Rights Watch investigation covering the period between January and May 2026. Across Kinshasa, Kisangani, Bunia, Kalemie, and Matadi, the pattern is consistent and chilling: speak critically of the government, and the security apparatus will find you. The…
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Ramaphosa condemns xenophobic ‘lawlessness,’ vows mass deportations as Africa demands AU probe

Ramaphosa condemns xenophobic ‘lawlessness,’ vows mass deportations as Africa demands AU probe

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a forceful condemnation of violence against foreign nationals as criminal opportunism, while vowing escalated deportations and border enforcement - amid a diplomatic row with African nations over attacks on their citizens. In a letter titled "Everyone in South Africa must respect and uphold our laws”, Ramaphosa rejects the protests as unrepresentative. "The recent violent protests and criminal acts directed at foreign nationals in parts of our country do not represent the views of South Africa’s people nor reflect our government’s policy," he said. "These are the acts of opportunists who are exploiting the legitimate grievances,…
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UN Chief Guterres delivers fiery rebuke of global finance, champions permanent African seat on Security Council

UN Chief Guterres delivers fiery rebuke of global finance, champions permanent African seat on Security Council

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has unleashed a scathing indictment of the world's financial architecture, slamming it as "deeply unfair" for saddling African nations with borrowing costs three times higher than those of wealthy countries – even as many boast stronger growth prospects and financial stability. Speaking at the inauguration of the United Nations Nairobi Expansion Project in Gigiri, Guterres framed the disparity as a colonial hangover from 1945, when Africa's voice was absent from the founding of key institutions like the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the Bretton Woods system. "It is not acceptable that African countries pay more than…
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Mercy mission: Ghana rescues 28 nationals from West Africa’s human trafficking web – but hundreds remain trapped

Mercy mission: Ghana rescues 28 nationals from West Africa’s human trafficking web – but hundreds remain trapped

GHANA's Foreign Affairs Ministry has announced the successful rescue and repatriation of 28 of its nationals from Côte d'Ivoire, where they had been held captive by a sophisticated human trafficking syndicate that had lured them across West African borders under the false promise of a new life in Europe. The government's confirmation, delivered through Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, came amid growing public alarm over a trafficking network whose reach, investigators now believe, extends to at least five countries and ensnares hundreds - possibly thousands - of vulnerable Ghanaians. THE MINISTER SPEAKS In a statement that was at once…
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Ramaphosa: I am not resigning, defying calls from opposition parties

Ramaphosa: I am not resigning, defying calls from opposition parties

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has told South Africans he will not resign in the wake of the Constitutional Court's landmark ruling that Parliament acted unconstitutionally when it blocked the Section 89 Independent Panel report, saying he intends to take the parliamentary panel's findings on review. Addressing the nation following the Constitutional Court judgment handed down on Friday, 8 May 2026, Ramaphosa was unequivocal: he would contest the determination by the Independent Panel, chaired by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, that there is a prima facie case he violated his oath of office. "I am not resigning," Ramaphosa declared, signalling his intention…
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Queen of the hill: Ajon, ambition and a Rolls-Royce Cullinan

Queen of the hill: Ajon, ambition and a Rolls-Royce Cullinan

THERE is a word in the Teso language of eastern Uganda — Aicerit na Okide — which means, roughly, a woman of strength and purpose. The people of Bukedea District use it to describe their queen, their TOTO, their mother: Anita Annet Among, Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Uganda. The rest of the continent, surveying the spectacular latest chapter of her remarkable story, might be forgiven for reaching for a different word altogether. Several, in fact. None of them would be boring. Because on a recent bright morning at Entebbe International Airport, a cargo aircraft from England…
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Growing calls for justice as Rwandan dissident Aimable Karasira dies in state custody

Growing calls for justice as Rwandan dissident Aimable Karasira dies in state custody

AIMABLE Karasira had signed his release papers. His family was on its way to collect him. Five years of imprisonment - years scarred by alleged torture, medical neglect, and a prosecution that sought to silence him with a 30-year sentence - were finally behind him. Then, on the night of 6 May 2026, he was dead. The 48-year-old Rwandan academic, YouTuber, and relentless government critic died at Nyarugenge District Hospital in Kigali on the very day the state was legally obliged to set him free. Rwandan Correctional Services announced that he had died of a medical overdose, saying through a…
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Senegal’s Faye blocks Sonko’s comeback bill, opening succession battle at the top

Senegal’s Faye blocks Sonko’s comeback bill, opening succession battle at the top

SENEGAL'S President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has refused to sign into law electoral amendments that would have cleared the way for Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko to contest the 2029 presidential election, sending the bill back to parliament in a move widely interpreted as the opening shot in a succession war between Africa's two most closely watched political allies. The decision, announced on 8 May 2026, came less than two weeks after the ruling PASTEF party's dominant National Assembly majority passed the amendments in an emergency sitting, voting 128 to 11 in favour of changes to Articles L29 and L30 of the…
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Wicknell Chivayo: Not a person of interest in SA. Just an interesting person. (He swears.)

Wicknell Chivayo: Not a person of interest in SA. Just an interesting person. (He swears.)

THERE are men who, when accused of nothing in particular, say nothing. Then there is “Sir” Wicknell Chivayo. When the internet whispered his name in connection with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent private visit to Zimbabwe - a visit that generated more conspiracy theories than a Davos after-party - Chivayo did not retain a lawyer, issue a terse denial, or simply go for a walk on the Boulders Beach boardwalk. He took to the social media platform X (Twitter). At length. In CAPSLOCK. From Cape Town. On holiday. With his wife, his children, their friends, and — presumably — fifteen heavily…
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The quiet giant: How humility built a nation

The quiet giant: How humility built a nation

THERE is a particular kind of power that does not announce itself. It does not thunder into rooms or demand the orchestration of applause. It enters quietly, does its work with precision, and leaves the institution stronger than it found it. Festus Gontebanye Mogae, Botswana's third president, who died in the early hours of Friday morning at the age of 86, possessed exactly that kind of power - and spent a lifetime proving that humility is not the opposite of strength. It is, in fact, its highest expression. The news of his passing arrived as a quiet shock to a…
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