Author: Editor

THE UN human rights council has given unanimous backing to a fresh, independent investigation into mass killings reported in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher. “Our wake-up calls were not heeded. Bloodstains on the ground in el-Fasher have been photographed from space. The stain on the record of the international community is less visible, but no less damaging,” UN human rights chief Volker Türk said at an emergency meeting in Geneva on Friday. Since the civil war began over two years ago, more than 150,000 people have been killed and about 12 million have been forced from their homes. The new…

TWELVE historical artefacts have been formally returned to Ethiopia after being kept by a German family for more than 100 years. The artefacts, originally collected in the 1920s by Germany’s then-envoy to Ethiopia Franz Weiss and his wife Hedwig, were handed over on Wednesday to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University. The collection included crowns, shields and paintings, all considered culturally and historically significant in Ethiopia. “The artefacts still stand as a symbol of the long-standing and friendly relationship between Germany and Ethiopia,” said Ferdinand von Weyhe, Germany’s envoy to Ethiopia. Professor Ramon Wyss, whose father was…

SUPER Falcons’ Chiamaka Nnadozie, has won the CAF Goalkeeeper of the Year prize for the third time in a row, writing her name in African football folkore. Nnadozie claimed the prize at the 2025 CAF Awards in Morocco on Wednesday, adding to her wins in 2023 and 2024. The Brighton goalkeeper played all games as the Super Falcons won a 10th Women Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) crown earlier in the year. She edged Morocco’s Khadija Er-Rmichi and South African goalkeeper, Andile Dlamini, to get the honour at the event in Rabat. After picking the prize, Nnadozie thanked the Confederation…

AT least one Palestinian has been killed and two others, a woman and her child – injured in Israeli attacks on southern Gaza, according to the Wafa news agency and a medical source. The killing came on Wednesday in the Qizan an-Najjar area, south of Khan Younis, a source from the city’s Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera. Earlier, a woman and her child were gravely injured in a drone attack on the southern town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis. They add to 279 killings and more than 650 injuries in nearly 400 Israeli violations recorded by the enclave’s…

PRIME Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday said Spain would investigate Facebook owner Meta for allegedly violating millions of users’ privacy, summoning the US tech giant to answer before parliament. An investigation by Spanish, Belgian and Dutch experts found that Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, used a “hidden mechanism” for almost a year to track the internet activity of Android device users, Sanchez’s office said in a statement. Data was allegedly collected about the web pages users visited on browsers and was then linked to their identity on Facebook and Instagram apps, even when internet surfers were in incognito…

THE Kenyan authorities paid a network of trolls to threaten and intimidate young protesters during recent anti-government demonstrations, Amnesty International has said. A new report by the human rights organisation said government agencies also employed surveillance and disinformation to target organisers of the mass protests, which swept Kenya across 2024 and 2025. The demonstrations were driven largely by “Gen Z” activists who used social media platforms to mobilise. In response to Amnesty’s report, Kenya’s interior minister said the government “does not sanction harassment or violence against any citizen”. But Amnesty said it had uncovered a campaign to “silence and suppress”…

TANZANIA’s image for stability has been “stained” by the unrest that hit the East African nation during last month’s heavily disputed elections, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has acknowledged. Speaking as she swore in her new cabinet, Samia warned that the violence could “set the country back”. “We mostly depend on loans from international creditors, but what happened eroded our global credibility,” the 65-year-old president said. She was declared the winner of October’s presidential poll with 98% of the vote, but the opposition – which was barred from contesting – denounced the election as a “mockery of democracy”. Lazarus Chakwera, Malawi’s…

ARSENAL are set to discover the full extent of the thigh injury suffered by Gabriel while on international duty amid concerns he faces several weeks out. The centre-back limped off in visible discomfort during Brazil’s friendly against Senegal at Emirates Stadium over the weekend and has returned to Arsenal for treatment. The early fears are that the 27-year-old will miss a minimum of four weeks, with sources indicating the defender’s absence could stretch to January. The exact severity of the injury, and the timescale for recovery, will be finalised in the coming days, with Gabriel undergoing further assessment. His absence…

HAMAS and other Palestinian factions in Gaza have rejected a United Nations Security Council resolution that establishes a governing board and an international stabilisation force to take over the Israeli-besieged enclave. In a joint statement released on Tuesday, Hamas and other factions in Gaza said the United States-led effort will act as a framework “that paves the way for field arrangements imposed outside the Palestinian national will”. They said that in its current proposed form, the international military force to be deployed in Gaza “will turn into a type of imposed guardianship or administration – reproducing a reality that restricts…

PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Tuesday angrily dismissed a question about the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, claiming the Saudi dissident journalist was “extremely controversial” and insisting the subject was only raised during his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to embarrass his visitor. “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you liked him or didn’t like him, things happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office as he presided over a pageant-filled visit for the de facto Saudi leader. Trump went on to insist Prince bin…

ESWATINI’s government has confirmed that it received $5.1m (£3.8m) from the Trump administration for accepting people deported from the US as part of a hard-line approach towards immigration. The southern African kingdom, led by absolute monarch King Mswati III, has come in for heavy criticism from rights groups for striking the deportation deal with President Donald Trump’s government. Questioned in parliament about the deal on Monday, Eswatini’s Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg confirmed the sum received from the US. “We were told it was for the US deportees after we enquired,” he said, adding the ministry had been kept in the…

A FRENCH energy company is facing war crimes allegations, which it denies, over a massacre near its multi-billon dollar international gas project in northern Mozambique in 2021. In a complaint filed with French prosecutors, a human rights group accused TotalEnergies of complicity in war crimes, including the torture and execution of dozens of civilians held by local security forces in a cluster of shipping containers at its facility. Total has always denied responsibility for the actions of government troops and related security forces who were involved in guarding the Afungi peninsula gas refinery development. It was the biggest foreign investment…

THE bitter dispute between Kylian Mbappe and his former club Paris Saint-Germain reached the French labour court on Monday for a tense hearing in which the France captain claimed 263 million euros ($304m) and the club responded by demanding he pay them 440m euros. Both sides offered a long shopping list of grievances with price tags attached. PSG said they are basing their figure in part on a botched 300 million-euro transfer to Saudi club Al Hilal, which Mbappe refused in June 2023, and its aftermath. Mbappe left for Real Madrid on a free transfer when his contract expired the…

THE United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution mandating a transitional administration and an International Stabilization Force in Gaza that envisions a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood. The resolution, drafted by the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, passed in a 13-0 vote on Monday, paving the way for the crucial next steps for the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Russia and China abstained from the vote. Arab and other Muslim countries that expressed interest in providing troops for an international force had previously indicated that a UN mandate was essential for their…

A SPECIAL tribunal in Bangladesh has sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death after a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year. The International Crimes Tribunal in capital Dhaka, which tried Hasina, 78, and two others for charges related to crimes against humanity, handed down the sentence on Monday. The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands injured as Hasina’s government cracked down on protesters last year in a desperate bid to cling to power. The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national…

SOUTH Africa has said it does not want to receive any more chartered flights carrying Palestinians, days after the controversial arrival of 153 passengers from Gaza in the country. Many aspects of their arrival remain unclear and disputed. The flight was part of “a clear agenda to cleanse Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank”, Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said on Monday. The Israeli authorities have not responded to this allegation. However, they said that South Africa had previously agreed to receive the 153 Palestinians. The BBC has asked the South African authorities to comment. The Palestinian embassy in…

A CROWD runs in panic along a dusty street. Shots ring out. A woman wearing a purple jacket carrying a stick falls to the ground. Another woman can be heard pleading, “Mama, mama, stand,” as she tries to lift her. Blood is spreading around her stomach as another stain appears on her back. This verified footage, filmed in Tanzania’s city of Arusha, is just one of many graphic scenes to have emerged showing the violent actions of police as they attempted to crush widespread protests last month during the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The protests started in the city…

HARRY Kane scored twice in the second half as England beat Albania to complete a flawless World Cup qualifying campaign with eight wins from eight. The Three Lions were already qualified as group winners and Thomas Tuchel made seven changes to the side that beat Serbia at Wembley on Thursday. Alongside the changes to the starting XI, Tuchel made tactical tweaks with John Stones stepping into midfield whenever England were in possession but despite the victory it was not a vintage England performance. Kane, who took his personal tally to 78 international goals, scored his first in the 74th minute…

ISRAEL is engaged in a last-ditch bid to change the wording of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on the next phase of United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan that was recently amended to mention a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that his opposition to a Palestinian state had “not changed one bit”, one day before the UNSC votes on the US-drafted resolution, which would mandate a transitional administration and an international stabilisation force (ISF) in Gaza. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Netanyahu’s government…

UKRAINE is working to resume prisoner exchanges with Russia that could bring 1,200 Ukrainians home, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, a day after his national security chief announced progress in negotiations. “We are … counting on the resumption of POW exchanges,” Zelenskyy wrote on X on Sunday. “Many meetings, negotiations and calls are currently taking place to ensure this.” Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said on Saturday that he held consultations mediated by Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates on resuming prisoner of war exchanges, which the two sides have carried out successfully multiple times. He…