News

Clashes last week between rival elements of Côte d’Ivoire’s security forces appear to be a destructive extension of a tussle at the highest levels of power. As such, they bode ill as the country gears up for presidential elections in 2020. On 9 January in Bouaké (the country’s second largest city and between 2002 and 2011, a rebel stronghold), soldiers …

Nigeria’s Channels Television and the BBC are joining forces on a new English language current affairs programme due to launch in 2018. The live studio based show will focus on the stories behind the news, with original storytelling and audience interaction via social media and in the studio in Lagos. Made by the BBC and Channels Television in Nigeria, this …

A Nigerian-British male fashion model, Harry Uzoka, has been stabbed to death near his home in what is believed to be a robbery which went wrong. Uzoka, who was on the books of Premier Model Management, died from a single stab wound in the tragic incident on Friday (12 January). Neighbours on Old Oak Road, East Acton, reported a shout …

US President Donald Trump has denied being “racist” in the wake of wide condemnation triggered by his alleged reference to Haiti and African nations as “shitholes”.   Trump reportedly used the term last week during a bipartisan Oval Office meeting on immigration reform. “I’m not a racist. I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed, that I can tell …

German doctors shut their doors to state insurance patients at the end of each quarter to save money, a new study has shown. Germany’s profit-driven health care system is increasingly attracting criticism. State health insurance patients are struggling to see their doctors towards the end of every quarter, while privately insured patients get easy access, according to a study released …

The Championship of African Nations (CHAN) tournament kicks off on Saturday January 13 in Morocco. The CHAN is a version of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) but one that is reserved for players who ply their trade in Africa. The biennial competition is scheduled to take place between January 13 to February 4, 2018 across four Moroccan cities of Casablanca, …

The annual Henley Passport Index has just been released. It ranks passports according to the number of countries their holders can travel to visa-free. The ranking named Germany as the country with the most powerful passport in the world for the fifth year in a row. Last October a separate ranking put Singapore at the top of the list, but Germany …

A report that President Donald Trump reportedly asked why so many people from “shithole countries” like El Salvador, Haiti and some African nations come to the US has been met with widespread outrage. Trump reportedly became furious during a meeting at the White House Thursday when Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) proposed restoring protections for immigrants …

More than 200 people were arrested and dozens were injured on Tuesday as a wave of demonstrations continues to shake several cities in Tunisia following new austerity measures in the 2018 budget, which are expected to increase the cost of living. The spokesman for the Tunisian interior ministry Khalifa Chibani told local media outlets on Wednesday that 49 police officers …

Nigeria’s political parties must select their candidates for the country’s 2019 presidential election between 18 August and 7 October this year, the electoral commission said on Tuesday in a timetable of the polling process. Presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on 16 February 2019, marking the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term. Buhari has not said if he …

The African Union (AU) has condemned an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea stressing that it will not condone any unconstitutional power seizures on the continent. The United Nations through its special envoy to the Central African nation, Francois Fall, had also condemned the attempted takeover promising to help Malabo with stabilization efforts. The AU Commission’s position was contained in a …

The Nigerian government has warned its Libyan counterpart against molesting Nigerians in the North African country. Abuja said it made clear to Libyan authorities that it has “zero tolerance” for such treatment. The warning followed reports of enslavement and maltreatment of Nigerians stranded in Libya. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, made this known on Monday as another batch …

AfD federal lawmaker Jens Maier has been warned by his party over a racist tweet about the son of tennis legend Boris Becker. But Maier, who called Noah Becker a “half-negro,” can remain in the party. The national executive of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Monday officially reprimanded Bundestag member Jens Maier over a racist tweet …

Several thousands of protesters turned out in Dessau on Sunday to demand justice for Oury Jalloh who died in mysterious circumstances in police custody in the eastern German city 13 years ago. Oury Jalloh died in a police cell in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, thirteen years ago, but the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear until today. More than four thousand supporters …

More than 100,000 people requested asylum in France in 2017, a “historic” number and an increase of 17 per cent on the year before, according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA). In a statement on Monday, OFPRA director Pascal Brice said the figures show that “France is one of the top countries for …

After several days of public silence, tennis living legend Boris Becker has finally spoken up on the controversy surrounding AfD politician Jens Maier’s racist comment about his son. The member of the German parliament had attacked Noah Becker, calling him a “little half-negro” on Twitter over an interview in which the son of the former Wimbledon champion compared Berlin with …

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn dropped a veritable bombshell last week, when he announced that political prisoners would be released and that a detention centre in the capital that had become notorious for torture would be closed. What made this all the more surprising was that the government had never before even acknowledged the existence of political prisoners (when dissidents …

Israel plans to deport thousands of African asylum seekers within the next three months. They have the choice of leaving for a third country or indefinite imprisonment in Israeli jails. The quit deadline fans fears among African migrants, reports Tania Kraemer. “It is a very scary moment and many people are simply in panic,” says Ghebrihiwet Tekle, a young Eritrean …

The Association of Black People in Germany (Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland or ISD Bund e.V.) has condemned Jens Maier, a member of the far-right, anti-immigrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD), for his racist Twitter comment on Noah Becker (23), son of former tennis star Boris Becker. The member of the Bundestag or German parliament had attacked Noah Becker, calling …

The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to France, Dr. Modupe Irele, has said that no fewer than 30,000 Nigerians are currently living in France. Irele told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos that the number included Nigerians living in France as business owners, as well as those studying in various French educational institutions. “The …