Africa | The Guardian
Articles about Africa | The Guardian
I was kidnapped and held hostage for 977 days. Could I forgive my captors?
The long read: At first the idea of mercy was something that helped me through the ordeal. But would real forgiveness be a form of Stockholm syndrome?
Gabrielle Goliath: Elegy review – devastating lament is a furious, single-note call to action
Ibraaz, London Too controversial for the Venice Biennale, this haunting video and audio work commemorates murders and genocides with an angry act of mourning The sound of mourning spills out into the streets. A single, endless wailing note echoes out of the basement of Ibraaz, a relatively new cultural centre in London’s Fitzrovia. This is Gabrielle Goliath’s heart-wrenching Elegy, each of its three films featuring a woman singing just one note until their lungs falter and another woman steps up to fill in for her.
At least 139 dead including children after migrant boat capsizes off Djibouti
More than 116 others still missing from vessel heading to Yemen with 305 people onboard, UN migration agency says
‘I didn’t want to write about this’: the man who first saw chimps waging civil war
John Mitani spent years studying a huge community of chimpanzees in Uganda. But then things took a dark turn – and his findings stunned the scientific world
Controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK Jr gets go-ahead in Guinea-Bissau
Recommended dose of hepatitis B vaccine will be withheld from thousands of newborns by Danish researchers A controversial research trial that will withhold hepatitis B vaccines from some African newborns was given approval to move forward this week. It is a central part of the vaccine vision for Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime vaccine opponent. Continue reading
In the Shadows review – true tale of Ramla Ali’s remarkable rise through the boxing ranks is a knockout
Jasmine Jobson goes the distance as the British-Somalian boxer battling pain from her past and her family’s disapproval in a heavyweight, tick-the-boxes production
Nobel peace prize winner Navi Pillay jokes about sharing award with Donald Trump – video
The South African-born jurist and former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has won a Nobel her efforts to promote peace and international law. The 85-year-old, who is an ad hoc judge at the international court of justice, received the news while attending the Nuremberg Forum. The forum is an annual gathering of legal scholars, practitioners, policymakers and civil society in Nuremberg, Germany, the location of the trials of Nazi war criminals that helped lay the foundations of international law.
Isaias strengthens to become first Atlantic hurricane of 2026 season
Storm expected to make landfall on US’s northern Gulf coast with risk of flash floods and isolated river flooding
ICJ judge Navi Pillay wins Nobel peace prize for promoting international law
Norwegian committee recognises achievements of former UN rights chief who stood up against apartheid in South Africa Nobel peace prize – latest updates Former UN human rights chief Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a judge on the international court of justice (ICJ), has won the Nobel peace prize. Pillay, 85, from South Africa, who is a judge with the international court of justice, was recognised for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee. Continue reading
Egyptian journalists plan weekend protest over detention of six colleagues
Matsadaash staff allege torture and forced confessions after being held on charges of working for Muslim Brotherhood
The Guardian view on Ethiopia’s return to conflict: civilian catastrophe and a spiralling regional polycrisis | Editorial
Editorial: The escalating violence reflects deep domestic rifts – but is fuelled by broader geopolitical power games
Scientists discover 180,000 giant tortoises on one Seychelles island
Free-roaming Aldabra population thrives on Indian Ocean atoll due to decades-long recovery programme A survey of the world’s largest free-roaming giant tortoise population has revealed that the once endangered species is thriving. A population of Aldabra giant tortoises lives on an island in Seychelles called Aldabra Atoll. Continue reading
Ethiopia launches drone attack against Eritrean troops who crossed into Tigray
Government forces’ attack raises risk of internal conflict in Ethiopia that could trigger regional war
‘Someone else will do it for less’: Refugees in Kenya are powering tech for dwindling pay
Refugee gig workers for tech companies don’t know how much they’ll be paid – if AI hasn’t already taken their jobs
‘Cancer is tripling and will keep increasing’: first African to lead global action against disease ready for battle
With cancer cases rising fastest in poorer countries, Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control, says Africa needs investment in research, diagnosis and prevention
Bullet and blast injuries … and a constant need for blood: inside South Sudan’s overwhelmed trauma wards
Renewed fighting is bringing a flow of wounded to Juba’s military hospital, where medics never know what the next day will bring
The US has backed Libya’s Haftar clan. The UK should not make the same mistake | Letters
Letter: Steven Kay says Britain should act independently and in a role consistent with its status as a member of the UN security council
Women behind the lens: ‘I felt suspended between hope and giving up’
The Ethiopian photographer Sosina Mengistu’s self-portraits draw on personal experience to reflect young people’s anxiety and frustration
The Register that shatters the myth of Britain’s role in profiting from enslavement
In this month’s newsletter: for Caribbean scholars, the evidence of how deeply slavery shaped Britain’s wealth has never been in doubt. Plus, heritage walks in Manchester
The west has a blinkered view of African music – and it’s hurting the whole continent’s culture
The term Afrobeats is applied to all sorts of genres, flattening them into one. Artists, media and the music industry must do better at showing off the richness of African pop
Kenya confirms first Ebola case as virus ‘surges’ in DR Congo province
Health minister says 28 contacts identified after death of citizen who arrived from DRC on Saturday Kenya has reported its first-ever Ebola death, the health minister announced on Tuesday, after a Kenyan man who had been living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) died after returning to the country. In mid-May, the DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak, an extremely deadly disease that has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. Continue reading
‘There’s always been a belittling of African women’: honouring history’s invisible heroines
Congolese photographer Pamela Tulizo uses costume and vivid scenery to celebrate women’s strength and give a new perspective on slavery
Guardian readers fund life-changing surgery for Somali boy injured in US airstrike
After Guardian investigation uncovered drone strike that killed 12 civilians and injured many more, seven-year-old Abdiqadir Salah underwent vital operation in Mogadishu
Skull fractures suggest servants of Egypt’s ancient kings were sacrificed
Study of remains taken from royal cemetery at Umm el-Qa’ab appears to confirm early Egyptologist’s theory Court officials and craftspeople serving early Egyptian kings may have been sacrificed when their ruler died, according to research that found fractures in several ancient skulls. The royal cemetery of Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos features the tombs and enclosures of the First Dynasty rulers of Egypt, and dates as far back as 3,000BC. Continue reading
Knox Chitiyo obituary
My friend and former colleague Knox Chitiyo, who has died aged 65 of bowel cancer, was a Zimbabwean academic and later an important voice in Britain on his homeland and its future. He was regularly consulted by diplomats, business people, journalists, academics and activists.
Egyptian journalist faces terrorism charges after entire newsroom detained
Calls for release of six Matsadaash staff after one is charged, while whereabouts of other five remain unknown
Libyan unity talks upended as warlord’s son linked to drone attacks on fuel facilities
Western Libya’s GNU say working with Saddam Haftar ‘impossible’ as US-backed merger plan breaks down Allegations that the son of the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar oversaw a “terror cell” that launched drone attacks on fuel storage facilities and power stations in western Libya have upended plans for the Tripoli-based government of national unity (GNU) to continue cooperating with Haftar on a plan to unify the country.
John Iliffe obituary
Pioneering historian who transformed the study of Africa by seeking out the testimonies of Africans When John Iliffe, who has died aged 87, wrote his book The African Poor: A History (1987), the continent was readily dismissed by many academics as a home of problems and poverty, with no intellectual depth. But Iliffe acknowledged no such limitations, and it came as no surprise that it won the African Studies Association’s best book prize, then known as the Herskovits prize.
Trump is disappearing refugees into the hands of torturers – and rewarding them handsomely | Tutu Alicante and Uzra Zeya
Refugees from third countries are being sent to Equatorial Guinea, where they are often sent back to the very countries they fled
Row erupts over Cairo mural depicting Tutankhamun and Nefertiti with dark skin
Artwork created in Tahrir Square for Chinese president’s state visit to Egypt is painted over amid allegations it revived Afrocentric claims about Pharaohs’ origins
One green shoot at a time: the women restoring mangrove forests in the oil-ravaged Niger delta
In a region of Nigeria blighted by decades of pollution, Martha Agbani and her team are not just replanting trees but regaining ownership of their lost lands and livelihoods
Alan Ferguson obituary
My brother, Alan Ferguson, who has died aged 79, was a Scotsman who began his working life as a geography lecturer at Nairobi University in Kenya, before working with aid agencies in that country. Alan joined the university in 1972, but left after a couple of years to teach in Britain at Cambridge University, and then in the US at NorthEastern University in Chicago. Continue reading
‘They raped our country’: documentary follows Kenyans’ fight for restitution over stolen land
Multinational tea companies still occupy ancestral highlands of communities displaced during British colonial era
Who’s your Uber driver on the phone to? Welcome to the long, long diaspora phone call
For those employed in arduous solitary work such as cab driving, a marathon phone call is the perfect place to navigate the dislocations of immigrant life
Burundi agrees to receive ‘third-country’ migrant deportees from US
Burundi joins several other African nations in accepting people deported under Trump’s hardline policy
Cotton Queen review – mystery, matriarchs and magic in pioneering Sudanese debut
Suzannah Mirghani’s first feature contains a powerful performance by Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud as a village’s elder woman and tackles the long shadow of British imperialism and women’s rights
The secret Trump deals sending migrants across the world - Full Story podcast
A Sierra Leonean nurse detained, handcuffed and flown to Ghana. An Iranian dissident sent to Central African Republic. A Cameroonian deported to Equatorial Guinea.
Economic growth and democratic decline: the ‘cotton king’ who reshaped Benin
Patrice Talon has transformed the west African country’s economy and infrastructure at the expense of political freedom
The Guardian view on Morocco’s election: hosting a World Cup will not placate a disillusioned generation | Editorial
Editorial: A year after mass protests demanding a change in political priorities, gen Z opted out of last week’s poll en masse
Murdered for their eyes: people with albinism living in terror in Madagascar
The country is struggling to address a rise in attacks, with a record 13 people – mostly children – killed this year for body parts, which some believe can bring good fortune
DRC politician beaten to death after radio appearance about Ebola outbreak
Marie-Celestin Karondwa was attacked on Sunday after promoting measures to prevent spread of disease, his party says
Banished: the secret Trump deals sending migrants across the world - podcast
Investigations correspondent Louisa Loveluck reports on the Trump administration’s secret deportation deals, sending thousands of migrants to ‘third countries’ across the world
‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys
Two troops of chacma baboons are breaking into homes and shops but animal rights activists insist coexistence is the answer
At least 27 dead after two mass shootings in South Africa, police say
Seventeen people killed at bar near Johannesburg and 10 killed in separate incident at barbecue venue near Cape Town Two separate mass shootings near South Africa’s two biggest cities killed at least 27 people, police have said. The South African police service said on Sunday that 17 people were killed on Saturday night when eight suspects armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols opened fire at a bar in Wedela township, south-west of Johannesburg. At least 15 other people sustained gunshot injuries in that attack, police said. Continue reading
I have seen with pride how British overseas aid saves children’s lives. That is why I say cuts should be reversed | David Harewood
I understand the pressure on the public purse, but I have also seen the effect of our spending on the ground, says actor and Unicef UK ambassador David Harewood
‘Africa hasn’t decolonised education enough’: how world’s youngest continent can unlock potential
Dr John Nkengasong, a former WHO adviser who worked with Biden administration on Aids policy, says decolonising curriculums and investment are key to unlocking potential of continent’s graduates
Rebel offensive against Ethiopian army stokes fears of return to civil war
Fighting escalates after Tigrayan rebels form new coalition aimed at overthrowing Abiy Ahmed government
‘We have nothing’: DRC displacement crisis worsens as fighting continues
More than a year after a peace deal was signed, violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is forcing people south to Tanganyika, where camps are already home to hundreds of thousands living in dire conditions
Indian billionaire’s payments firm plots biggest London flotation in years
Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel Money targets $9bn IPO in boost for ailing UK stock market A payments business that operates across Africa and is ultimately controlled by an Indian billionaire has announced its intention to float on the struggling London Stock Exchange. Airtel Money, the mobile money arm of Airtel Africa, is planning one of the biggest UK listings in years, in a boost for the shrinking London market that has faced a string of recent departures. Continue reading
Top South African police officer charged with raping woman, 18, and grooming 16-year-old girl
Arrest of Shadrack Sibiya comes as country reels from cases of femicide and alleged police corruption and criminality
Using AI to ‘talk to animals’ might make us feel clever – but what, if anything, does it do for them?
As animal behaviorists increasingly use AI in their research, they grapple with how to wield the technology responsibly
As president of Botswana, I know how we can make malaria a memory in Africa | Duma Gideon Boko
As funding is cut, the disease is soaring. African nations are plugging the gap but they need help with the transition
Grief, trauma and solidarity as South African running club mourns member killed in wave of femicides
A week after Elizabeth ‘Tsontso’ Moselakgomo’s body was found, runners took part in a morning run to honour her name and demand more protection
Healthcare in Africa ‘under growing strain’ after US withdrawal from aid programs, report warns
Accra Reset’s report states countries in the region and global south should take greater control of their health development after USAID debacle
Rising Up at Night review – community spirit shines bright in Kinshasa’s shadows
Religion and collective resilience are beacons of hope in an electricity-deprived DRC in this otherworldly documentary debut
Banished to alien lands: Trump’s secret deportation deals
After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy deals made with dozens of countries. An in-depth investigation reveals the ‘show of force’ costing American taxpayers millions
Nine women in South Africa have been murdered since July. We are being told to be vigilant – but where are the warnings to men? | Nolethu Ndude
The country has one of the highest femicide rates in the world, and women are yet again being asked to remove themselves from public life to counter it, writes Nolethu Ndude, founder of We Mattah
Men deported from US bound and beaten in Equatorial Guinea detention hotel, lawyers say
Group trapped at Hotel Bamy after US removal as rights groups sound alarm over poor conditions and violence
Survivors recount panic and struggle to breathe in Nigerian prison cell where 37 died
Police fire teargas as protests break out in city of Minna after deaths of suspected illegal goldminers, many of whom were children
British woman who was kidnapped in Malawi rescued by police after shootout
The battle to rescue Nusrat Osman saw four of her alleged abductors killed and a police officer wounded A British woman kidnapped in Malawi last week has been rescued by police after a shootout in which four of her alleged abductors were killed. Nusrat Osman was abducted outside her home in the southern city of Blantyre on 11 September at about 12.30pm. Police had offered a reward of 30m Malawi kwacha (£12,950) for information leading to her rescue and the arrest of the perpetrators. Continue reading
Louisiana firefighters find feline native to sub-Saharan Africa while responding to house fire
The African serval, illegally enclosed in the back yard, was subdued and transferred to an animal welfare facility
‘We demand the truth’: Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee lead calls for proof of life of disappeared Eritrean writers
More than 180 writers sign letter renewing calls for information on 12 authors detained incommunicado since 2001 crackdown on free speech by Isaias Afwerki
‘A map is never neutral’: meet the cartographers who took on centuries of western bias
Equal Earth projection, adopted by the UN last week, provides an alternative to 16th-century Mercator display
Almost 50 dead in Nigeria after drinking alcohol suspected to contain methanol
Drinking locally made alcohol is common in Nigeria, especially in rural areas where it is more affordable and poorly regulated.
‘I see them like my own children’: reforesting Ethiopia with 50bn trees, one step at a time
After losing much of its forests in recent decades, the country’s people have led the way in planting saplings across the country as part of the government’s Green Legacy Initiative
‘Like a Disney movie’: Three wild dog brothers make Africa’s longest journey
As three siblings came of age and had to leave their pack, scientists tracked the dogs’ perilous 2,500-mile odyssey to find their own territory
Africa is bigger than we’ve been led to believe – what next?
A new map of the world rescales the size of Africa and calls into question our perception of land, power and influence
US to bar some South Africans over claims of anti-white discrimination
Announcement of visa restrictions follows Trump’s false claims of ‘white genocide’ taking place in South Africa
‘We are prey’: discovery of seven women’s bodies fuels anger over femicide in South Africa
String of female murder victims found near Johannesburg’s international airport, including five in the past week
Al-Qaida and IS-linked violence in Africa’s Sahel belt set to hit record levels this year
Twenty-five years after 9/11, figures compiled by conflict monitor underline how Sahel region has become centre of Islamist terror
Slave-trade wealth was embedded in Britain’s financial system, research finds
Dozens of Bank of England directors and founding subscribers invested in trafficking of enslaved Africans
How enslavement became state-backed operation supported by Conservative and Lib Dem forerunners
Tory and Whig MPs were central to funding trafficking of enslaved people and many opposed abolition of the slave trade
‘I believed the hype’: the white South Africans denied refugee status in the US
Drive to save thousands of Afrikaners from false claims of ‘white genocide’ appears to show signs of slowing
The London hospital funded by donors who invested in the slave trade
St Barts is one of many UK institutions whose benefactors were involved in the trafficking of enslaved Africans
Africa’s richest man aiming to make $23bn from continent’s biggest-ever IPO
Public offering of Aliko Dangote’s Nigerian oil refinery business could swell his net wealth by two thirds The fortune of Africa’s richest person could swell by two thirds to nearly $60bn (£44bn) after his refinery in Nigeria listed publicly in the continent’s biggest-ever initial public offering. If Monday’s flotation of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals goes to plan, then Aliko Dangote will add another $23bn (£17bn) to his $35bn net worth. Continue reading
How Britain’s kings and queens powered the slave trade – video
Enslaved African people were seared with hot metal brands bearing the royal crown, according to research by historians who have documented the monarchy’s centuries-long involvement in Britain’s slave trade.
Slavery was not a footnote to British history. It helped shape the nation | William Pettigrew
Register of British Slave Traders reveals how deeply the trafficking of Africans was embedded in the country’s politics, economy, institutions and culture
A spoonful of sugar: how South Africa’s weigh-and-pay shops are tackling ‘poverty tax’ head on
Run by a social enterprise, the six shops operate from shipping containers across Johannesburg’s Alexandra township and sell food and household goods by weight in small, affordable amounts
The royal crown branded on enslaved Africans: Britain’s monarchy and the slave trade
From Elizabeth I’s backing of early voyages to royal investment in trafficking companies, generations of monarchs were central to Britain’s slave trade Enslaved African people were seared with hot metal brands bearing the royal crown, according to research by historians who have documented the monarchy’s centuries-long involvement in Britain’s slave trade. The Register of British Slave Traders identifies thousands of people who invested in Britain’s trafficking of enslaved Africans, including kings and queens. Continue reading
What is the Register of British Slave Traders and who does it identify?
Three years of research has uncovered 13,000 people who invested in Britain’s trafficking of enslaved Africans
‘Spraying should be the last option’: how farmers are exploring alternatives to pesticides
When pesticide proved no match for the insect, desperate Phyllis Nvuda tried a new way to save her infested orchard
Burial of King Oyo takes place in Uganda as news anchor prepares for throne
Royal guards carry casket through streets of Fort Portal amid row over appointment of Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma
Six Nigerians extradited to US over $6M online romance scam
Alleged members of Black Axe criminal network that swindled US women out of $6m flown from South Africa