Author: Montage Africa
By AP Hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in Spain without authorisation will soon be able to apply for legal residency under a new policy. Spain’s government announced Tuesday it will grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the country without authorisation, the latest example of how the country has bucked a trend toward increasingly harsh immigration policies seen in the United States and much of Europe. Migration Minister Elma Saiz announced the extraordinary measure following a weekly cabinet meeting. She said her government will amend existing immigration laws by expedited decree to…
By Rédaction Africanews with agencies Angered by a 10 year freeze on wages, thousands of teachers in Gabon have been on strike for the past six weeks, paralysing the school system. It marks the first wave of social unrest under the rule of President Brice Oligui Nguema, who seized power in a military coup in August 2023. “Today, we are in a situation where we are forced to express our anger, to say that enough is enough,” said French teacher Junior Anguila Obame. “To sound the alarm, not only to improve our own living conditions, but also those of learners.…
By Rédaction Africanews with AP As tensions between Cuba and the United States rise and Cubans brace for further economic difficulties, priests and priestesses of the African-Cuban root religion known as Santería held several ceremonies on Sunday and offered gifts to deities to ask for peace. Several of the leading figures in Santería families on the island prayed to their deities for the “spiritual healing” of the Cuban people, an end to the violence and conflicts that, according to their predictions from late December, would happen this year. They repeatedly chanted in ancient Yoruba, songs brought to the island by…
By Rédaction Africanews with AP Egypt’s Parliament is looking into ways to regulate children’s use of social media platforms to combat what lawmakers called “digital choas,” following some western countries that are considering banning young teenagers from social media. The House of Representatives said in a statement late Sunday that it will work on a legislation to regulate children’s use of social media and “put an end to the digital chaos our children are facing, and which negatively impacts their future.” Legislators will consult with the government and expert bodies to draft a law to “protect Egyptian children from any…
By Rédaction Africanews Libya signed a 25-year oil deal with France’s TotalEnergies and US-based ConocoPhillips, involving more than 20 billion dollars of foreign investments, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said during the Libya Energy and Economy Summit in Tripoli on Saturday. The agreement was signed through Waha Oil Company, a subsidiary of Libya’s state-run National Oil Corporation. The new agreement should boost oil production capacity by up to 850,000 barrels per day, according to the prime minister. It is also expected to generate over 376 billion dollars of net revenues. The agreement reflects “the strengthening of Libya’s relations with its largest and most influential international…
By Rédaction Africanews with AP Scoring goals for a cervical cancer vaccine: this is the ambition of the Goal Getter Campaign. The initiative was first showcased in Tanzania and Eswatini earlier last year before moving to Zimbabwe in December, using soccer to build awareness and trust among girls in the HPV vaccine. Lesotho’s Lishoeshoe soccer club was losing by four goals at halftime against South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns in the final of a regional Under-17 girls’ tournament in Zimbabwe aimed at promoting cervical cancer vaccination. By fulltime, the gap had stretched to 5-0. Yet for Lishoeshoe winger Nteboheleng Leticia Sooane,…
By Rédaction Africanews and AP Cross-border law enforcement agency Interpol says it has arrested more than 3,700 people as part of a global crackdown on human traffickers and migrant smugglers. More than 4,400 potential victims have been protected by the operation, the organisation said on Monday. Operation Liberterra III took place over eleven days last November, across 119 countries and involved 14,000 police officers. Interpol highlighted cases involving South Americans and Asians in Africa, saying there appeared to be an emerging change in human trafficking that contrasts with past patterns of African victims being trafficked abroad. In this photo released…
By Rédaction Africanews with AFP As reconstruction is underway in Sudan’s capital, a grassroots initiative is using the opportunity to turn Khartoum into a greener city. Volunteers are working to plant 1,000 trees around Khartoum in the hopes of restoring its pre-war glory. “The initiative began with questions like, ‘Why don’t we have fruit trees in Sudan? Why aren’t these trees in our streets and neighborhoods?’ These questions were presented as an initiative on social media, and [it] was very well received by young people,” said Mugtaba Montaser, the founder of the “Green Khartoum” initiative. The army recaptured Khartoum from…
By Rédaction Africanews with AFP The West African country is home to thousands of smallholder cocoa farmers, who are the backbone of the world’s largest producer of the fruit. But the country currently faces major difficulties in selling its cocoa, hit by a slowdown in exports and a drop in global prices. Laurent Kone’s wattle-and-daub house, with its tarpaulin roof and no electricity, lies down a bumpy red-earth track in western Ivory Coast. For 30 years, he has been growing cocoa and is typical of the smallholders who have been the backbone in making the west African country the world’s…
By Rédaction Africanews and CCTV Sudan’s gold industry, a key source of foreign currency, is reeling under ongoing conflict, infrastructure damage, and collapsing trade ties. The price of gold is hitting record highs but gold traders in Sudan are missing out. The country is one of Africa’s leading gold producers and exporters but conflict, infrastructure damage, and collapsing trade ties mean have seen its vital gold industry suffering severe setbacks. “The current market is incredibly difficult. It’s a heavy blow to the gold sector,” says Mohammed Al-Sawakni, head of the Gold Industry Association in Sudan’s Red Sea State. Gold mining…