By Dominic Wabwireh with other agencies A Nigerian defendant who suffered a stroke appeared in court Thursday as his lawyer sought bail on compassionate grounds, in a case unfolding against the backdrop of high-level US-Nigeria talks over Washington’s designation of the country for religious freedom violations. Defence lawyer Ibrahim Angulu filed two applications: challenging duplicate counts and seeking bail for the first defendant. “As you can see, the first defendant has suffered a stroke. So, on compassionate grounds, we are asking the court to allow him to be treated in a hospital instead of just lying in prison,” Angulu told…
Author: Montage Africa
By Rédaction Africanews with AFP Killings of civilians in Sudan’s war more than doubled in 2025 compared with the previous year, the United Nations rights chief said Thursday, warning that thousands more dead are unidentified or remain missing. Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. “This war is ugly. It’s bloody and it’s senseless,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council, blaming both warring sides, which have so…
By Rédaction Africanews and AFP Gabon is in talks with Meta and TikTok over the country’s social media ban, the communication ministry said on Thursday. Gabon’s media regulator suspended all social media platforms earlier this month, blaming online content for stoking conflict and division. Companies failed to act despite numerous warnings about defamatory, violent and pornographic content, deputy presidency spokeswoman Jennyfer Melodie Sambat said on Monday. It is “inconceivable that, after numerous alerts from the government, the group should do nothing”, she added. TikTok has contacted the media regulator to express its shared commitment to maintaining a “safe digital environment…
By AFP A United Nations flight landed at Khartoum airport on Thursday, the first since Sudan’s nearly three-year war began, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the country said, calling it “a big deal” for aid workers trying to reach millions of Sudanese in need. Since April 2023, Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a devastating conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced some 11 million people. Khartoum, which was overrun by the RSF early in the conflict, has slowly begun to recover since the army retook it in March last year. “I’d…
By Dominic Wabwireh with other agencies Guinea’s military has confirmed the detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers after accusing them of crossing the border and raising their flag on Guinean soil, while Freetown maintains its troops were on its own territory constructing a border post, the latest flare-up in a decades-old territorial dispute. According to Guinea’s Ministry of National Defense, the soldiers entered the district of Koudaya in the Faranah border region without authorization on Sunday, where they “set up a tent and raised their national flag” approximately 1.4 kilometers inside Guinea . Their equipment and supplies were seized, and…
Nigeria’s government has rejected a media report alleging that it paid a “huge” ransom to Islamist militant group Boko Haram to secure the release of more than 200 pupils and staff abducted from a Catholic boarding school in November. Information Minister Mohammed Idris described the allegation, made by the AFP news agency quoting intelligence sources, as “completely false and baseless” and a “disservice to the professionalism and integrity” of the security forces. He also denied that two Boko Haram commanders were freed as part of the deal. In a separate announcement, a presidential spokesman has said police chief Kayode Egbetokun,…
By Rédaction Africanews and AP As the United States continues to threaten military action against Iran, Iranians are anxiously awaiting a new round of talks set to take place in Geneva this week. They’re hoping the two countries can strike a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme and ward off the outbreak of war. “Everybody is worried, because the consequences of war with a country like America,” says Tehran resident Mohammadi, who didn’t give his first name. “We once fought Iraq for eight years, but it was a country at the same level with us, but going to war with America,…
By Rédaction Africanews and AP Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Addis Ababa on Wednesday at the start of a two-day visit to Ethiopia. He was welcomed by the country’s Foreign Minister and is expected to meet President Salassie and Prime Minister Abiy later in the day. The visit follows Israel’s controversial recognition of Somaliland late last year and appears to be part of a diplomatic push to expand Israeli influence in the Horn of Africa. During his own recent visit to Ethiopia, Turkey’s President Erdogan warned that the region should not become a “battlefield of foreign forces.”
By Rédaction Africanews with AFP Ethiopia on Tuesday revoked the licence of independent online outlet Addis Standard saying it harmed national interests, in the latest curb on press freedom. Africa’s second most populous nation s ranks 145th out of 180 in the press freedom index compiled by Reporters without Borders. According to a statement posted on Facebook by the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA), whose director is appointed by the lower house of parliament, Addis Standard “has been repeatedly disseminating reports that violate media ethics, Ethiopian laws, and endanger the national interests of the country and its people”. It said Addis…
Ugandan police have arrested two women, both in their 20s, after neighbours reported seeing them kiss outside, an act criminalised under the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the police said the pair had been taken into custody on Wednesday 18 February in Arua, a city in north-western Uganda. Authorities said neighbours had photographed them before alerting police. The women remain in custody without access to legal representation, according to the AFP news agency. The country’s law imposes severe penalties, including life imprisonment, for same-sex relations and the death sentence for what are described as “aggravated” cases.…