Blog

Warning: This piece contains details that some readers may find distressing Touma hasn’t eaten in days. She sits silently, her eyes glassy as she stares aimlessly across the hospital ward. In her arms, motionless and severely malnourished, lies her three-year-old daughter, Masajed. Touma seems numb to the cries of the other young children around her. […]

It was only when Stopira’s effort hit the net in the 91st minute that it finally felt real. In the crowd, an eruption of blue, red and white; on the touchline, players and staff embraced. Some wept as a plan many years in the making came to fruition. Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony of […]

An elite military unit says it has seized power in Madagascar from President Andry Rajoelina following weeks of youth-led protests in the Indian Ocean island. Standing outside the presidential palace on Tuesday, CAPSAT chief Col Michael Randrianirina said the military would form a government and hold elections within two years. He also suspended key democratic […]

Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has died at the age of 80, family sources have told the BBC. Odinga died on Wednesday while receiving medical treatment at a hospital in India. Indian police told the AFP news agency that he was walking with family members and a personal doctor “when he suddenly collapsed”. He […]

Spain is kicking against the prevailing political mood among Western nations when it comes to migration and policies regarding the African continent. At a time when the US, the UK, France and Germany are all cutting back their development aid budgets, Madrid remains committed to continued expansion, albeit from a lower starting point. This week, […]

Lecturers at public universities in Nigeria have begun a two-week strike over pay and funding. The industrial action comes just weeks after universities resumed for a new academic year. Announcing the decision, the leader of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (Asuu), Professor Chris Piwuna, described the decision as “inevitable” due to what he said […]

Forty-two Zimbabwean and Malawian nationals have died after a bus taking them home overturned on a South African road, authorities have said. The crash happened on Sunday night as the bus was moving through “a mountainous section” of the N1 highway in South Africa’s Limpopo province, local transport officials said. “It [then] veered off the […]

A Kenyan police officer stationed at one of the gates of the president’s official residence in the capital, Nairobi, has died after being shot with an arrow, officials have said. Police said that on Monday morning, a 56-year-old man, armed with a bow and arrows, approached officers at the gate of State House and was […]

Madagascar’s embattled President Andry Rajoelina has said he is sheltering in a “safe place” after an attempt on his life, following weeks of protests calling for him to quit. In a live broadcast to the nation on Facebook, Rajoelina, 51, said “a group of military personnel and politicians planned to assassinate me”. He did not […]

Mali has announced that US nationals visiting the West African country will be required to post a bond of up to $10,000 (£7,500) for business and tourist visas, in response to a similar requirement the Trump administration has imposed on its citizens. The US embassy in Mali said on Friday the fee had been introduced […]