Politics and society

The governor of the American state of Maryland canceled this Monday, June 17, more than 175,000 convictions linked to the use and possession of cannabis handed down over the last decades, the Washington Post and CNN reported. This decision comes almost a year after the legalization of the recreational use …

Four peopledied, twelve others were injured after a vehicle in the convoy carrying the body of the late Malawi Vice-President Saulos Chilima hit mourners, police say. It followed clashes between local people, the police and soldiers escorting the late vice-president’s funeral convoy from the capital, Lilongwe, to his home village …

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu said on Wednesday economic reforms would continue, despite increasing hardships that have fuelled public anger. Tinubu, who came to power a year ago, promised to send an executive bill to parliament soon to set a new minimum wage. In a television broadcast to mark Democracy Day, …

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan is urgently investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur city of al-Fashir. Al Fashir has become a new front between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In a video statement released on Tuesday, prosecutor Karim Khan …

Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and nine other people were killed when the military plane they were traveling on crashed, President Lazarus Chakwera said on Tuesday. The aircraft carrying Chilima, who was seen as a potential candidate in next year’s presidential election, went missing on Monday. “I’m deeply saddened, …

More than 80 people were killed in one week by suspected Islamists in the Democratic Republic of Congo, local media reported. It follows an attack on Friday by suspected Islamist rebels on villages in the east of the country. “The attack had been carried out by members of the Allied …

More than one in four children under the age of 5 in the world live in “severe food poverty”, or more than 180 million children who risk serious after-effects due to lack of a nutritious and diversified diet, Unicef warns. A “shocking” number of children “survive on a very poor …

A Senegalese court has jailed two men for “spreading false news” after they accused Prime minister Ousmane Sonko of tolerating homosexuality. Activist Bah Diakhate and Imam Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Ndao were jailed for three months and fined 100,000 CFA francs ($165, £130) each. They were arrested two weeks ago after …

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday it was “very concerned” by the tightening of American immigration policy, announced earlier by President Joe Biden, urging Washington to reconsider its decisions. President Biden, campaigning for his re-election, signed an executive order that will prevent migrants who entered …

Nigeria’s trade unions have suspended a general strike by workers that has brought economic activity to a halt this week. The decision comes after the government promised to increase the national minimum wage to at least 60,000 naira ($40) a month. This falls below the $330 that unions have been …