Blog one column

Just five years after being dramatically unseated by a court ruling, Peter Mutharika is set to return to power as the president of Malawi. Mutharika, who held the top job from 2014 to 2020, seems to have triumphed in last week’s general election, usurping his long-time rival, President Lazarus Chakwera. Mutharika told voters on the […]

Malawi’s former President Peter Mutharika has been declared the winner of last week’s elections, in a huge comeback for the 85-year-old. Official results show that he won 57% of the vote, compared to the 33% of President Lazarus Chakwera, 70. Chakwera, a pastor before entering politics, conceded defeat ahead of the final result being declared, […]

British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has been freed and reunited with his family after spending the past six years in jail in Egypt. One of the country’s most prominent political prisoners, he was pardoned by Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on Monday. Video of the blogger and pro-democracy activist, 43, at home following his release […]

More than 80 buffaloes have been killed after they trampled over each other and drowned in a river, Namibia’s environment and tourism department has said. The buffaloes were being chased by lions in neighbouring Botswana when they “fell from a deep cliff” into the Chobe River on the Namibian side of the border, it added […]

A Jamaican man deported from the US to Eswatini under President Donald Trump’s tough new immigration rules has been sent on to Jamaica, the Eswatini government has said. Orville Isaac Etoria, 62, was voluntarily repatriated at the weekend, and was “warmly welcomed by members of his family”, it added. But his treatment has been condemned […]

Malawi’s former President Peter Mutharika has taken a comfortable lead in the country’s presidential race, with two-thirds of districts having reported provisional results. The 85-year old has received around 66% of the valid votes counted so far, with his closest rival, the incumbent Lazarus Chakwera, 70, trailing on around 24%. Results declared so far indicate […]

Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned the prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been imprisoned for six years, state media and his family say. Abdel Fattah was one of six people whose sentences were commuted following a request from the National Council for Human Rights, according to Al-Qahera News. His sister Mona […]

With tears in his eyes, a young Kenyan athlete now captive in Ukraine pleads not to be sent back to Russia. “I will die there,” Evans Kibet says, waving his hands in the air towards the unseen interviewer on the video released on Wednesday by a Ukrainian army brigade. The 36-year-old prisoner-of-war is wearing a […]

Kenya is toasting a golden generation of female track stars after they led the nation to second place in the medal table behind the United States at the 2025 World Athletics Championships. Female runners won six of the East African nation’s seven gold medals in Tokyo, sweeping top spot on the podium in every event […]

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have announced they will immediately withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), labelling it an “instrument of neo-colonialist repression”. The three military-led countries issued a joint statement, saying they would not recognise the authority of the United Nations’ top court, based in The Hague. “The ICC has proven itself incapable […]