Politics and society

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has said that the country needs to slow its birth rate to avoid a catastrophe, local media reported. He said that Egypt has to lower its annual births to 400,000 from the current more than two million for the country to efficiently provide jobs and …

Large sums of money have already been pledged to Africa at the ongoing climate summit in Kenya, with the UK among the first to make a commitment. It is to invest £49m ($61m) in new projects to help Africans manage the impact of climate change and mobilise finance for climate …

Paying passengers have used the Lagos metro rail line for the first time on Monday, 20 years after construction began on the project. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was on board as the train began commercial operations months after it was launched at the beginning of the year with test rides. The …

Prisoners from six penitentiaries in Ecuador are holding 57 guards and police officers hostage in retaliation for operations by the state’s armed forces in the prisons, the organization in charge of the latter (SNAI) said on Thursday. In the middle of a day of violence caused by the explosion of …

Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy, insisted on Thursday on the difference between the coups in Niger and Gabon, declaring that the elections in Gabon were marred by irregularities. “Naturally, military coups are not the solution but we must not forget that in Gabon there were elections full of …

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has banned the import of used clothes and called for increased investment in local garment industries. “When a white man dies in Europe, all his clothes are thrown away, I don’t know who collects them and sends them to Africa. I thank our friends who invest …

A 20-year-old Ugandan man could face the death penalty after he was charged with aggravated homosexuality, which is a capital offence under a law that was passed in May, local media reported. It is the first time that such a charge has been reported, though it is not clear if …

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group has mapped out its vision to end the conflict between it and the country’s regular army, signalling a readiness for a negotiated settlement. Its leader, Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, issued a long statement on X (formerly Twitter) on …

Colombia is issuing a passport with the “X” option in the gender box from Thursday, for people who identify as non-binary, the South American country’s foreign ministry said. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognizes gender diversity with the option of recording ‘non-binary’ gender in the passport. This will be identified …

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has called for an immediate resolution to disagreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that affected flights and issuing of visas. The UAE last year stopped issuing visas to Nigerians after Emirates airlines suspended flights after being unable to repatriate funds from the West African country …