Exclusive - The African Mirror

Nov

2023

Exclusive: Belgium drafting new fuel quality law targeting exports to Africa

BELGIUM is set to shut the door on rising exports of low-quality gasoline and diesel to West Africa as it follows the Netherlands in tightening environmental rules, officials have told Reuters. The Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub is the world's leading gasoline exporting region, LSEG data shows, and hosts some of Europe's largest oil refineries including plants operated by TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil. After the Netherlands introduced legislation in April to tighten the specification for its road fuel exports, Belgium's environment and energy ministries are now planning to introduce their own draft rules to tighten the quality of exported fuels. That would further reduce northern…

Jul

2023

By FELIX NJINI and DAVID LEWIS

Exclusive: New Mali mining law could boost state, local interest in projects to 35%

BUSINESS

MALI'S military-led government is in talks with gold miners over proposed changes to its mining law that could see it boost state and private Malian interests in new projects to 35%, from up to 20% today, according to a draft of the new code seen by Reuters. The government announced the review of the mining code in January after it said an internal audit had shown that Mali, one of Africa's biggest gold producers, was not receiving a fair share of profits while granting too many tax breaks. The draft, dated June 17 and verified by three sources close to…

Jul

2023

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and FILIPP LEBEDEV

Exclusive: Russia is rotting in absurdity and repression, veteran rights campaigner says

WORLD

RUSSIA is decaying in a potent brew of absurdity and repression that is comparable to the Leonid Brezhnev era of the Soviet Union, Oleg Orlov, one of Russia's most respected human rights campaigners, told Reuters. Orlov, 70, is on trial in Russia for articles he published last year which cast Russia as a "fascist" state seeking revenge for the perceived humiliations of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. He faces up to three years in prison. One of the leaders of the Memorial rights group, which won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 a year after…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Exclusive: Ukraine accuses Russian snipers of abusing child, gang-raping mother

WORLD

UKRAINE has accused two Russian soldiers of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl and gang-raping her mother at gunpoint in front of her father, as part of widespread allegations of abuse during the more than one-year-long invasion. According to Ukrainian prosecution files seen by Reuters, the incidents were among a spree of sex crimes Russian soldiers of the 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade committed in four homes of Brovary district near the capital Kyiv in March 2022. Russia's Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Phone numbers listed for the brigade were out of order. Two officials at…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Exclusive: Ethiopia seeks to end U.N.-ordered probe into Tigray war abuses

NEWS

EMMA FARGE and GABRIELLE TÉTRAULT-FARBER ETHIOPIA is courting support for a motion to cut short a U.N.-mandated inquiry into atrocities in the Tigray war, five diplomats said, in a move that could divide African and Western nations. The Ethiopian government's two-year conflict with forces in the northern Tigray region ended last November with thousands dead and millions uprooted. Both sides blamed each other for widely-documented atrocities, including massacres, rape and detentions without trial. Though the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council has never ended a probe before its mandate, Addis Ababa has circulated a draft version of a resolution calling for the Tigray inquiry to…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Exclusive: White House sets deadline for purging TikTok from federal devices

WORLD

DAVID SHEPARDSON The White House gave government agencies 30 days to ensure they do not have the Chinese-owned app TikTok on federal devices and systems. In a bid to keep U.S. data safe, all federal agencies must eliminate TikTok from phones and systems and prohibit internet traffic from reaching the company, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young told agencies in a guidance memorandum seen by Reuters. The ban, ordered by Congress late last year, follows similar actions from Canada, the EU, Taiwan and more than half of U.S. states. The device ban — while impacting a tiny portion of TikTok's…