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The visa rejection rate rose again last year. The German foreign missions mainly rejected applications from African countries. Parliamentarians of the Left in the federal parliament criticize the visa practice. Germany once again rejected more visa applications from foreigners last year. While the rejection rate was 6.7 percent in 2016, it rose to 8.5 percent last year. In 2015, the …

Germany granted residence permit to some 35,000 Eritrean refugees last year. This entitles them to bring their families over. But not all are successful. Daniel Pelz of Deutsche Welle (DW) reports on the reasons for this. With its population of around five million, Eritrea is one of the main countries of origin of African refugees. Young people especially are among …

The German Cabinet has approved legislation allowing refugees with subsidiary protection status to bring their direct relatives to Germany. Critics say that the bill breaches human rights, and that it will force more migrants to put their fate in the hands of people-smugglers. Marion MacGregor of Deutsche Welle (DW) reports. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet on Wednesday voted to resettle …

Since 13 April 2018, a delegation of the Dortmund, Germany-based association AfricanTide Union e.V. has been in Yenagoa, the capital of the Nigerian state of Bayelsa. Although the region, situated in the Niger Delta, has high oil and gas reserves, the population suffers from high levels of poverty and unemployment. Many people therefore are fleeing the region, even to Europe. …

After being at the centre of attention in 2017, Germany’s Africa policy has somewhat stagnated. But Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wants to keep communications open and is visiting Ethiopia and Tanzania this week. Ludger Schadomsky of DW reports. Germany’s Africa policy is back in the spotlight, this time at the highest level. Only six weeks after assuming office, German Foreign Minister …

Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health has directed the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to immediately cease the importation of codeine. The ban is specifically in respect of codeine as an active pharmaceutical ingredient for cough preparations. The directive is meant to curb an addiction crisis exposed by the BBC in a recent undercover film. The …

Starting, Tuesday 1 May, and continuing weekly throughout the year, BBC Sport Africa will bring the issues, the personalities, the buzz, the key moments and the trends in sport from across the continent. The 30 minute programme will cover many different sports including those that are little-known, and will be featuring everyone from the most famous sports stars to rising …

Around every second migrant in Germany fails the language test at the end of integration courses, a newspaper reports. It suggests a lack of adequate attendance could be one factor in the low success rate. More than half of refugees and migrants to Germany are unable to pass a basic language test at the end of integration courses offered to …

Africa Eye – a new documentary strand from the BBC launches today with an in-depth investigation into the plague of addiction to cough mixture across Nigeria. The new strand will deliver up to 20 original and high-impact investigations from across Africa every year.   Nisha Kapur, Commissioning Editor for TV said: “Africa Eye will promote the culture of investigative journalism across …

A Press Statement released by Hon. Kenneth Gbandi, Continental Chairman Nigerians in Diaspora Organization Europe, on Saturday 28 April 2018. “There is nothing wrong with Nigeria/Diaspora that cannot be cured by what is right with Nigeria/Diaspora” I am neither a praise singer nor a ‘Yes, Sir’ man. I have always followed my conviction courtesy of the grace and magnanimity of …

Liberia’s former leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has spoken publicly for the first time about what she intends to use her time for as she settles into life after the presidency. The former Nobel Prize laureate and Africa’s first democratically-elected woman president said she was going to continue with issues of women empowerment whiles advancing the cause of good governance across …

A group of 121 migrants from Cameroon have returned home from Libya. The migrants were flown home on a charter flight as part of a program promoted by the European Union. The Cameroonian migrants returned home from Libya to start a new life with assistance from IOM, the UN Migration Agency, and the EU. The returnees left Libya on April …

Popular messaging service WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, has raised the minimum age of users in the European Union from 13 to 16. The move comes ahead of before the new EU-wide General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on May 25. The new age limit only applies to those living in the EU. “We had to make a trade-off …

EU member states as well as Norway, Iceland and Switzerland granted protection status to 538,000 asylum seekers in 2017, according to new data released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on Thursday. Another 24,000 refugees were resettled in the region last year. Last year’s asylum seeker figures represent a 25% drop from 2016, when 710,000 asylum seekers …

After more than ten years of agitations, new names for streets in Berlin’s African Quarter linked to the brutal German colonial past in Africa have been found. The representatives of the three major parties on the district council of Wedding (Greens, SPD and Left) have agreed to rename Petersallee, Lüderitzstraße and Nachtigalplatz in honour of African liberation fighters. Lüderitzstraße was …

Berliners are calling on the city government to address skyrocketing housing costs as lawmakers dispute recent reports that the German capital has had the biggest price hikes in the world. Elizabeth Schumacher reports. Thousands of people defied the rain in the German capital, Berlin, on Saturday to protest the rising cost of housing amid rampant gentrification. Berlin has the fastest-rising property …

Politicians, ordinary people, supermodels and heads of state from all over the world came to give testimony to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, whose impact was felt across the world, at a heroic farewell on Saturday. Zikhona Masala reports from Johannesburg. It was a funeral service that will forever be on the minds and hearts of those that attended and watched. Thousands of …

A group of Nigerians living in London yesterday protested against President Muhammadu Buhari, who is currently in the UK on a visit. The protest, held a day after Buhari declared his intention to contest for another term in office at next year’s election, took place at the Abuja House official residence of the Nigerian president in London. The protesters say …

Germany’s Interior Ministry supports the Central Council of Jews, whose chairman said those who disrespect German values should be stripped of their right of abode. It comes as Germany grapples with rising anti-Semitism. The chairman of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that fines and reprimands were not enough when tackling anti-Semitism and …

EU countries granted citizenship to around 995,000 people in 2016, according to the latest figures released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on Monday (9 April). In 2016, around 995 000 persons acquired citizenship of a Member State of the European Union (EU), up from 841,000 in 2015 and 889,000 in 2014. Of the total number of …