By Africanews with AFP Frederick Teiko Ofori spent a large portion of his life with a guitar in his hands, so when the Ghanaian musician died in a road accident, his family decided that the instrument should accompany him on his final journey. His coffin was built in the shape of an enormous guitar. The coffin stood out at his funeral on Saturday in Adjen Kotoku Amoama, on the outskirts of Accra, among bright red flowers, a portrait of the 40-year-old and the mourners gathered under canopies to shade themselves from the sun. Yet it was also par for the…
Author: Montage Africa
By Rédaction Africanews Fighting broke out in Baidoa early Thursday between Somali government forces and militia loyal to former South West State predisent Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen. Heavy gunfire rung out, with residents fleeing some neighbourhoods as a result. One doctor at the Bay Regional Hospital told journalists that his hospital received 24 people who were injured in the fighting, as well as one civilian who died. According to Somalia’s defense ministry, its forces were responding to an attack on their positions by militias loyal to Laftagareen as well as Al-Shabab fighters. It’s the latest episode in a political and…
The world has entered a “danger zone of extreme weather” as the impacts of El Niño start to be felt globally, UN head António Guterres has warned. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released the latest data on the natural weather phenomenon showing it could be the strongest for more than 70 years and last until at least February 2027. El Niño changes weather patterns around the world, pushing some regions into drought whilst others experience stronger typhoons and flooding. Forecasters also say El Niño will boost temperatures in some places, coming on top of rising heat globally from human-induced…
By Rédaction Africanews and Agencies Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to Cairo this week has been hailed as a much-needed boost to bilateral relations by Egyptian officials. The two-day trip saw Xi and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi mark 70 years of diplomatic ties. “Two countries that have many bonds through civilization dialogue and relations that exist between two civilizations, comprehensively add to the value of the principles of co-existence, non-interference in general, and enhancing international law and world order,” Mohamed Hegazy, a former assistant to Egypt’s Foreign Minister, said after the visit. During the two-day trip, Xi and…
By AFP After her 19-year-old son disappeared while attempting to cross the Atlantic to Europe, Aminata Boye turned her grief into a mission to help other families facing the same loss. In Mbour’s Tefees neighbourhood, where many families have lost relatives to irregular migration, Boye helps search for missing migrants and supports their relatives. Aminata Boye, President, Collective of Victims of Irregular Emigration in Senegal: “That’s how I drew on my own experience to understand research methods and track down those who had taken the boats. I got in touch with the Red Cross so they could help me with…
Abraham Mofokeng still carries the wounds of the bloody suppression of a protest in South Africa 66 years ago. In what became known as the Sharpeville massacre, police infamously opened fire on thousands of peaceful demonstrators. A bullet is still lodged in Mofokeng’s spine, and he has a gentle limp from a gunshot to the leg. “We weren’t seen as people,” the 86-year-old tells the BBC as he explains the reasons he joined the demonstration on 21 March 1960 against the repressive laws of the white-minority government. “All you were good for was working. You couldn’t question them, you were…
Kenya’s President William Ruto has ordered a crackdown on foreigners operating small-scale businesses, saying local traders and hawkers need to be protected. His announcement comes amid growing debate about the increasing number of African migrants involved in Kenya’s vast informal economy. “From next week, all [foreign] traders doing those small businesses should close them,” he said, also promising to fast-track proposed legislation to preclude foreigners from certain areas of trade. Ruto said Kenya remained open to foreign investment, but argued that investors – including Chinese traders – should create jobs and expand production rather than compete with Kenyans in small…
More than 80 people were killed between October 2025 and July this year following false accusations about what is termed “genital theft”, the BBC Global Disinformation Unit has found after gathering data from police forces across six African countries. The killings are linked to rumours that a simple tap on the shoulder can cause a man’s genitals to shrink or disappear. They are being fuelled by widespread misinformation on social media. “They were shouting that we had stolen someone’s genitals and we didn’t have any way to escape because there was a huge crowd,” Tanzanian mechanic Boniface Mgala told the BBC…
More than 80 people, including a baby, are feared to have died in a boat which was adrift in the Atlantic Ocean for 27 days. Spanish Maritime Rescue teams located the vessel some 65 nautical miles southwest of Gran Canaria’s coastal town of Arguineguín on Wednesday and found 44 survivors, with five dead bodies also on board. The boat is believed to have departed The Gambia in West Africa in early August with 127 occupants on board. Human rights activist Helena Maleno Garzón, founder of Spanish charity Caminando Fronteras, said 83 people had lost their lives. Rescuers were forced to…
By Rédaction Africanews A Tunisian court started hearing on Thursday the final appeal of scores of opposition figures accused of plotting against the state. A crowd gathered outside the courthouse to voice support for the defendants. Ezzedine Hazgui, a leftist activist, said, “today is the trial of Tunisia’s future. It is not the trial of my son [Jawher Ben Mbarek] or my daughter [Dalila Msaddek]. It is the trial of Tunisia. Today, I am proud of them [his two children], because they stood up against the coup d’état carried out by Kais Saied and his entourage against Tunisia. What we…