Author: Editor

BURKINA Faso’s junta on Monday declared the top resident UN official “persona non grata” for a United Nations report which found that armed groups were recruiting children to fight in the country’s insurgents conflict. Since seizing power in a coup, the Burkinabe junta has placed international organisations and humanitarian bodies under increasing pressure, as the Sahel nation faces a widespread insurgency. The military government said in a statement that UN resident humanitarian coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak must leave because of her “responsibility” in drafting the March report, which it said contained “baseless” allegations that Burkina Faso’s army and defence forces were…

RUBEN Amorim made a goalkeeping gamble on Sunday and in the eyes of most, it backfired spectacularly. The Manchester United boss selected Altay Bayindir instead of the fit-again Andre Onana and it was the Turkey keeper’s early ‘controversial’ error that proved the difference in Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Old Trafford. Onana’s future at the club has been the subject of much debate this summer and, despite Amorim’s fierce defence of his keepers, the number-one position at United is again the talking point. A United official privately offered a basic truth about the club’s rebuild much earlier in the summer though.…

ISRAEL’s military has stepped up attacks on Gaza City as part of its expanded operations aimed at seizing the last major population centre in the enclave, forcing tens of thousands of starving Palestinians to flee again. The Gaza City neighbourhoods of Zeitoun, Sabra, Remal and Tuffah have particularly borne the brunt of the Israeli bombardments in recent days as a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israel’s plans to forcibly displace Palestinians to southern Gaza would increase their suffering. Thousands of families have fled Zeitoun, where days of continuous strikes have left the…

CLIMATE change-induced flash floods have killed at least 337 people in northwestern Pakistan, according to the National Disaster Management Authority, while dozens remain missing after the area was hit by flash floods in recent days. In Kishtwar district, emergency teams continued rescue efforts on Sunday in the remote village of Chositi. At least 60 were killed and some 150 injured, about 50 of them critically. Mohammad Suhail, a spokesman for the emergency service, said 54 bodies were found after hours-long efforts in Buner, a mountainous district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where torrential rains and cloudbursts triggered massive flooding on Friday.…

A PROMINENT Sudanese human rights group has accused the country’s army and security forces of torturing people to death and operating “execution chambers”. The Emergency Lawyers group said it had documented hundreds of arrests in the capital Khartoum. It said that in the “worst cases”, some captives had later been found dead with evidence of torture. The Sudanese army recaptured the city from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in March, against which it is fighting a bitter civil war that has killed tens of thousands in two years. The army did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment…

NIGERIA has joined seven other African nations in achieving a medical breakthrough with the approval of the first-ever malaria treatment for newborns and infants weighing less than five kilograms. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), in a statement on Sunday, hailed Nigeria’s contribution to the clinical trial that made the new therapy possible, describing it as “a turning point in the global fight against malaria.” Until now, babies in this weight category had no approved treatment option. Health workers often resorted to splitting or diluting doses meant for older children, a risky improvisation that could easily…

MARCUS Rashford made his competitive debut as Barcelona started their La Liga title defence with a controversial victory at nine-man Mallorca. Raphinha nodded in the opener following a fine right-wing cross from Lamine Yamal. Ferran Torres smashed in their second goal, while Mallorca captain Antonio Raillo was lying on the ground in the box with a head injury after blocking a Yamal shot. Manu Morlanes, who was booked for dissent in the aftermath of that incident, was shown a second yellow card soon after for a foul on Yamal. And Vedat Muriqi was sent off for a high boot on…

AN Israeli air attack on the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza has killed a baby girl and her parents, Nasser Hospital officials have said, as Israel pushes its plan to escalate its offensive in Gaza. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and their baby daughter were killed on Saturday in the tented encampment in southern Gaza. Israel designated al-Mawasi a so-called “humanitarian”, or “safe”, zone early in the war, but it has nonetheless repeatedly come under attack. The attack comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said the military had been given the green light to “dismantle” what he described as two…

THE death toll from heavy monsoon rains that have triggered flash floods across northern Pakistan has risen to at least 321 people in the last 48 hours, disaster agencies said Saturday. The majority of deaths, 307, were reported in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said. People gather near a damaged vehicle and scattered debris after the road washed out following a flash flood in Mingora, the main city of Swat Valley, in monsoon-hit northern Pakistan’s mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on August 16, 2025. The meteorological department has issued a heavy rain alert for Pakistan’s northwest…

AT least 35 migrants have died attempting the dangerous crossing of the Niger desert to Libya or Algeria on their way to Europe, a campaigning group said on Saturday. “Based on our information, 35 to 40 migrants have died between January and August while crossing the desert,” Aziz Chehou of the Niger NGO Alarme Phone Sahara told AFP. Among the tens of thousands of people hoping to reach the North Africa coast for smuggling boats to Europe, many die after being abandoned by smugglers or after their vehicles break down en route. “After their vehicles break down, passengers who are…

FRANCE’s foreign ministry said Saturday that it was in talks with Mali over the arrest of a Frenchman accused of working with intelligence services to “destabilise” the country, calling the claims “unjustified”. “Discussions are underway to clear up any misunderstanding” and obtain the “immediate release” of the French embassy employee in Bamako, the ministry said. Mali authorities said Thursday that the French national had been arrested on suspicion of working for the French intelligence services, and accused “foreign states” of trying to destabilise the country. The West African country’s junta, which came to power after back-to-back coups in 2020 and…

NIGERIA’s D’Tigers recorded an emphatic win over Tunisia in the 2025 men’s Afrobasket, beating the North Africans 87-66 in a one-sided encounter on Friday. D’Tigers began the game on the front foot and raced to a 10-0 lead with Houston Rockets star Josh Okogie dictating the pace in the one-sided match at the Pavilhao Multiusos de Luanda in the Angolan capital. At the end of the 1st quarter, the D’Tigers had 29 points against their opponents’ 16. When the first half ended, Nigeria outscored the Tunisians, having 48 points while the latter were on 33. It stretched to 68- 47…

LIVERPOOL struck twice in the final minutes through Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah to overcome a battling Bournemouth 4-2 in a thrilling start to the Premier League season on Friday. Antoine Semenyo looked to have rescued a point for the Cherries by scoring twice, after he had reported an incident of racial abuse from a fan, to cancel out Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo’s strikes for the defending champions. But on an emotive night as Anfield remembered Diogo Jota, Chiesa was the unlikely hero as the injury-hit Italian fired the home side back in front before Salah rounded off the…

PALESTINIAN residents of Gaza City have come under relentless Israeli bombardment as the military prepares for a major offensive to seize and ethnically cleanse the area, barring emergency workers from reaching people trapped in the residential Zeitoun neighbourhood. Gaza civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army had been firing at emergency vehicles trying to reach the wounded in Zeitoun on Friday, as Israeli quadcopters dropped leaflets threatening a forced displacement. Residents were told to leave sections of the eastern neighbourhood, where hundreds of homes have recently been destroyed. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq…

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have left Alaska without reaching an agreement for a ceasefire in Ukraine. After an almost three-hour meeting, the leaders delivered a joint statement to the media before leaving without taking questions. “There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Donald Trump said early in his post-summit remarks here in Anchorage. It was a roundabout way of conceding that after several hours of talks, there’s no deal. No ceasefire. Nothing tangible to report. The president said that he and Vladimir Putin made “some great progress”, but with little details about what that…

MALI’s military rulers say they have arrested a French national on suspicion of spying for his country in an attempt to destabilise the African nation. In a statement read on national television late on Thursday, the junta alleged that Yann Vezilier was working “on behalf of the French intelligence service”. Mr Vezilier is yet to comment on the accusation. His picture was also broadcast, alongside those of a number of army generals arrested recently for allegedly planning to overthrow the military government. “The conspiracy has been foiled with the arrests of those involved,” Mali’s Security Minister Gen Daoud Aly Mohammedine…

SOUTH Africa’s army chief has been criticised after he reportedly pledged military and political support to Iran during a recent visit to the country. Members of South Africa’s governing coalition have accused General Rudzani Maphwanya of “reckless grandstanding”, while President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed he would meet the general to discuss his “ill-advised” trip. The row comes as South Africa navigates tense relations with the US, which has taken exception to the country’s ties with Iran, among other issues. The Democratic Alliance, part of South Africa government, called for Gen Maphwanya to be “court-martialled”. It said his comments had gone “beyond…

THE UN’s World Food Programme says food insecurity in Gaza is “catastrophic”, with at least 40,000 children under age one suffering from malnutrition. Gaza’s Health Ministry has recorded four more hunger-related deaths over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of Palestinians who starved to death during Israel’s war on Gaza to 239, including 106 children. At least 32 Palestinians, including 13 aid seekers, have been killed since dawn in Israeli attacks on Gaza today. Also, at least 35 people, including 13 seeking aid, have been killed on Thursday in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities,…

PRESSURE mounted ahead of a landmark summit in Alaska between the United States and Russia, as Donald Trump warned that Vladimir Putin had only one chance but Moscow pressed ahead with major battlefield gains in Ukraine. Putin and Trump will meet Friday at an air base in the far-northern US state, the first time the Russian leader has been permitted on Western soil since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine which has killed tens of thousands of people. With such high stakes, all sides were pushing hard in the hours before the meeting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has refused…

CHOLERA has claimed at least 40 lives in Sudan’s Darfur region over the last week as the country weathers its worst outbreak in years, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday. At a cholera isolation tent at a Sudanese displacement camp, an AFP journalist saw women and a young girl receiving intravenous fluids, while exhausted and weak patients sprawled on camp beds. Citing rising cases of cholera, which “exacerbate the worst effects of malnutrition,” the European Union (EU) called on all parties to “urgently” allow in international aid. Medical charity MSF said the vast western region, which has been a…