News

Former US President Barack Obama has been named the winner of the prestigious German Media Prize 2016. The 55-year-old statesman will receive the award personally in Baden-Baden. Barack Obama is the recipient of the German Media Prize for 2016. This was announced yesterday by the German market research group Media Control, which manages the award. The former US president has accepted to …

Muslim migrants who refuse to embrace European values must realize there are better places for them to reside than in the EU, Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German Finance Minister has said. Muslims who don’t want to change their ways after arriving in Europe must be told, “you’ve made the wrong decision,” Schaeuble said during a round table discussion in Berlin on …

The African Network of Germany (TANG) has launched a project, christened  ‘Lost Dreams’, about the dangers of illegal migration to Europe. It’s currently being presented to young people in Cameroon. Moki Kindzeka reports. In the Nlonkak neighborhood of Cameroon’s capital Younde, the “Cameroon Center Band” is playing songs encouraging young people from rural areas to come to the capital to …

The United Nations’ migration agency says growing numbers of African migrants passing through Libya are being sold as slaves by traffickers or militia groups before being held for ransom. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has published a report based on interviews with several West African migrants who told of being bought and sold in garages and car parks in …

A Nigerian group in the UK has sharply criticized the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government over its handling of the violence perpetrated by ethnic Fulani cattle herders in the country. Herdsmen are nomadic or semi nomadic herders whose primary occupation is raising livestock. No week passes without the media reporting a massacre carried out by herdsmen in farming communities in …

  There was a time that South Africa looked very different to the rest of the world. The “rainbow nation” was seen to be exceptional, having more in common with the developed states of Europe than many countries elsewhere. But, in the wake of a series of destabilising corruption scandals, financial mismanagement and the incompetent leadership of President Jacob Zuma, …

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is trying to stop poor German men from selling paternity so that children born of foreign mothers can gain citizenship. But the Constitutional Court has some objections, reports Ben Knight. Men often claim paternity over children that are not their own for various reasons. There are six months left of Angela Merkel’s third administration, and it …

Kenya’s Paul Lonyangata won the Paris Marathon in a quick time of two hours, six minutes, 10 seconds on Sunday and Purity Rionoripo, his wife, won the women’s race in a new record time of 2:20.55. Lonyangata pulled clear when his compatriot Stephen Chebogut, who started with the best personal best of the field, cracked with 5.7km left. The 24-year-old …

The federal government is currently working on closing some of Nigeria’s 119 foreign missions, an official has said. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said though it is expensive to close a country’s embassy or consulate, it will be beneficial in the long run. Onyeama said at the News Agency of Nigeria Forum in Abuja on Sunday that the …

The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Muhammad Babandede, has announced that the Service now has standard passport booklets in sufficient quantity for issuance, and has therefore directed Passport Control Officers to clear the backlog of all outstanding applications. A statement by NIS Public Relations Officer, Sunday James, says the CG has appealed to the general public to bear with …

Nigeria and the EU are working on an agreement to facilitate the repatriation of Nigerians living illegally in EU countries, reveals Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Sunday in Abuja. The EU for now, he explained, was trying to have a collective agreement with Nigeria covering all the EU countries so that there can just be a one-stop-shop …

The Gambia’s long-time opposition party won an absolute majority in Thursday’s parliamentary elections, easily defeating the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) of ousted leader Yahya Jammeh, according to the results announced today. Official results issued by the Independent Electoral Commission showed the United Democratic Party (UDP) had won 31 of the 53 available elected seats in the country’s …

Voices critical of the activities of non-governmental humanitarian groups rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean are growing louder. Several Italian politicians have pointedly accused these lifesavers of encouraging people smugglers in Libya, who send out migrants in rickety boats in the direction of Europe with the expectation that these persons will be saved at sea. Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia …

The wave of deportations of Nigerians from European countries continues unabated as 50 of them were forcibly repatriated on Thursday from Germany,  Switzerland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, Spain and Hungary. The 48 males and two females arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, in a chartered aircraft. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the deportees were sent back …

The number of African organisations in Germany is astounding. More than 700 African clubs and associations support projects in Africa or promote sporting activities and African culture in Germany. At the same time they also support integration into German society. However, like all voluntary organisations they depend on donations. MoneyGram, one of the world’s leading providers of innovative money-transfer solutions …

 – MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan authorities on Wednesday (5 April) released 28 Eritreans and seven Nigerians who were captured and enslaved by Islamic State in Sirte and had been held in detention since the jihadist group lost the city in December. The group, all but two of whom are women and children, escaped from Sirte, a former Islamic State …

Benin’s parliament narrowly rejected a draft bill by President Patrice Talon on Tuesday for a referendum to reform the constitution, including a provision to reduce presidential terms from the current two to one. Lawmakers voted on Monday 60 to 22 in favour of the bill, with one abstention, but it needed 63 out of the total of 83 available votes …

Asylum seekers’ chances of staying in Germany depend not only on threats they may face back home, but also in which German state they filed their applications, a study has shown. Its co-author has criticized this as an “asylum lottery.” Asylum seekers in the German states of Saarland and Bremen are most likely to be granted asylum, according to a …

An Archbishop-elect who sexually assaulted a teenage girl and a woman during private prayer sessions has been jailed by a court in London. Benjamin Egbujor, 55, of Harold Avenue, Belvedere, Kent, has been sentenced at Inner London Crown Court to three years and four months’ imprisonment, after he was found guilty of sexual assault and causing or inciting a child …

The UK is the most corrupt country on earth, using Gibraltar, Jersey and other territories to funnel dirty cash. That’s the view of anti-mafia journalist Roberto Saviano who claims the financial services industry in London facilitates worldwide criminal capitalism. ‘‘Transparency groups have shown this with irrefutable data. The UK is already the most, without doubt, the most corrupt country in …