Germany

A Kenyan woman living in the western German city of Heidelberg has gone missing since Thursday  (27 July) and her family is appealing to the public to help find her. Virginia Njeri Muchoki was last seen on Thursday in Heidelberg Pfaffengrund. She was scheduled to pick up her daughter at a nearby day care (Tagesmutter), but she never arrived. The …

One person was killed and four injured in a stabbing attack on Friday at a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany, police said. The incident happened in the Barmbek area to the north of the city. The assailant shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Greatest”) as he fled the scene of the crime in a neighbourhood supermarket before being overpowered by passers-by, witnesses …

German police will be able to use surveillance software by the end 2017 that can hack into people’s smartphones and read encrypted messages in such services as WhatsApp, says a report that cites a leaked document. A new version of the German police’s Remote Communication Interception Software (RCIS), which is used for surveillance over electronic devices, will be ready by …

The number of cases filed by asylum seekers challenging the decisions of immigration authorities in German courts has brought the legal system to the brink of collapse, a top German judge has warned in an interview. The sheer number of cases filed has overwhelmed the civil courts of the country, said Robert Seegmuller, chairman of the Association of German Administrative …

Odijie Irabor has achieved his life-long dream by qualifying as a technician in Automotive Mechatronics (Kraftfahrzeugmeachtronik). Odijie was presented his certificate on Wednesday (12 July) in the western German city of Marl after successfully completing a 3-year training course at the SBH Bildungsgesellschaft mbH Gelsenkirchen, during which he acquired skills across automotive-specific mechanics, electronics, communication and advanced control.   Automotive Mechatronics, …

Germany-based scholar and author Fekadu Bekele, PhD, offers an original African perspective on the G20 Africa Partnership initiative as he argues that the measures envisaged under the plan do not address the root causes of the social and economic crises in the continent. Dr Bekele posits that the priority of the West and its economic institutions is to keep Africa firmly …

The footage shocked Germany and went viral. CCTV cameras caught a man kicking a woman down some stairs at the Berlin metro station – Hermannstrasse – in an unprovoked attack. The incident took place in October 2016 but the video only emerged in December. Police had released the video in a bid to get public help to track down the …

German Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Bernhard Schlagheck, has revealed that 13,000 Nigerians are currently seeking asylum in Germany. The reasons they gave for their applications, according to the ambassador, range from insecurity arising from Boko Haram insurgency to political persecution in Nigeria. Ambassador Schlagheck however hinted that his country was not convinced that there is political persecution in Nigeria at …

Amidst African community outrage, police in Munich have launched investigations into an incident in which two security guards were filmed forcefully removing a man from a metro train. The man, said to be a 48-year-old Nigerian, was reportedly removed from the train at Leuchtenbergring station. He appeared to have no valid ticket as the inspectors came up to him during …

Germany’s federal parliament has voted by a wide margin to legalise same-sex marriage.  The Bundestag voted by 393 to 226 on Friday (30 June) to give full marital rights to homosexual couples and allow them to adopt children. The vote came after Chancellor Angela Merkel changed her mind and said members of her ruling conservative CDU/CSU bloc should follow their …

The German Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, has voted to fine social media networks up to €50 million if they fail to remove hateful content or fake news. The networks will be given 24 hours to block or delete any inappropriate content. “Freedom of speech ends where criminal law begins,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas said, adding that the measure …

A District Court (Landgericht) in the western city of Aachen has ordered the operator of a fitness studio chain to pay a compensation of 2,500 euros to an African as damages for discriminating against him. The man had been repeatedly refused membership in a fitness studio in Aachen owned by EasyFit in a way the court found to have contravened …

The struggle of the Black community in Berlin to have streets named after controversial figures of German colonialism in Africa changed seems to have finally started yielding fruits. For the first time an extensive renaming of streets connected with German colonialism in the federal capital will be carried out. Sabine Weissler (Greens), councillor for culture, said on Wednesday that new …

 The Embassy of Kenya in Berlin is inviting all Kenyans living in Germany to its annual general meeting with citizens – Kenyan Diaspora Day – on Saturday, 3 June 2017 in Frankfurt am Main. The event, which will be hosted by Ambassador Joseph Magutt, will also be attended by senior officials from the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, Nairobi Securities Exchange, …

Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge or BAMF) has issued a warning to asylum-seekers in the country to beware of dupers who may call them to demand money for a favourable result on their asylum request or to prevent their deportation. “The Federal Office has been informed that persons are being threatened again by …

The German parliament has passed legislation to tighten the country’s asylum laws, making it easier to deport failed asylum-seekers and monitor those deemed dangerous to public security in a move that has been slammed by opposition parties and rights groups as an assault on the rights of refugees. These are the new regulations in the legislation passed by the federal …

A newspaper report citing federal police statistics has indicated the number of potential terrorists in Germany is increasing. More than 600 people are considered capable of carrying out an attack.  According to a report in the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” newspaper published on Thursday (11 May), the number of people in Germany considered by authorities to be at risk of becoming …

In a bid to increase the number of asylum-seekers choosing to leave Germany voluntarily, the country’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and the International Organisation for Migration on Thursday (11 May) launched www.returningfromgermany.de, a new online portal providing information for those interested in voluntarily returning to their home country. ReturningFromGermany.de expands on a similar scheme that started in …

Germany’s minister of economic co-operation and development, Dr Gerd Müller, is presently promoting a plan to redesign the country’s relationship with Africa. Launched in Berlin early this year, the plan proposes new planks in German-African ties with the aim of promoting sustainable political stability and economic growth in Africa. ‘Marshall Plan with Africa’, in a nutshell, is a way to …

Germany is working on new rules to ensure that most marriages involving minors are not legally recognised in the country. The draft law aims to protect girls who were married abroad and sought asylum in Germany. It will allow youth welfare workers to take underage brides into care and, if necessary, separate them from their husbands. “Children do not belong …