KINSHASA – Journalists have faced increasing violence and pressure amid the escalating conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said yesterday. The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has seized large swathes of territory in eastern DRC since 2021. The region is rich in natural resources and has been ravaged by conflict...
HARARE – A month after banning raw lithium exports, Zimbabwe is tightening its regulations and ramping up its crackdown on mineral smuggling in a major shake-up that is winning local praise even as it stirs concerns. The 26 February ban covered exports of all raw minerals but focused on raw lithium, a critical mineral for...
ADDIS ABABA – The number of migrants who died on the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula doubled to a record high of 922 last year, the UN migration agency said yesterday. Tens of thousands of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and neighbouring countries take the route across the Red Sea...
ACCRA – Ghana and the European Union on Tuesday signed their first formal defence partnership, as the country presents itself as a regional bulwark against the growing jihadist violence roiling West Africa. The agreement, signed in Accra by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Ghanaian Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, is aimed at strengthening...
NEW YORK – A plane carrying dozens of people collided with a fire truck on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport, killing the pilot and co-pilot and causing “serious injuries” to others, authorities said yesterday. Due to the crash late Sunday, US aviation authorities halted all flights at LaGuardia, and the port authority said...
NEW DELHI – Soaring black-market prices of cooking gas in India’s capital are pushing poorer families back to wood and coal, raising health risks and worsening air quality in the highly polluted megacity. India is the world’s second-largest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is used for cooking and predominantly sourced from the Middle...
PARIS – Attacks on water systems are uncommon in wartime, but Iran has threatened to target desalination plants after it said its own water and energy infrastructure had sustained damage in the ongoing war with Israel and the US. Iran’s military renewed its threats on Sunday against the region’s infrastructure after US president Donald Trump...
TEHRAN – Iran yesterday threatened to attack key infrastructure across the Middle East if US President Donald Trump follows through on his vow to “obliterate” the Islamic republic’s power plants unless the Strait of Hormuz swiftly reopens. Iran’s defiant response came after its missiles slipped through air defences and struck two towns in southern Israel...
MAIDUGURI – Coordinated blasts by suspected suicide bombers tore through a busy market and other areas in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others, in one of the worst recent attacks on the capital of Borno state. Three blasts detonated on Monday evening just after people...
BOGOTÁ – The leaders of Colombia and Ecuador sparred on Tuesday over allegations that the Ecuadoran bombing of suspected criminal hideouts near their shared border had spilt into Colombian territory. Months of tension between Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro and his right-wing Ecuadoran counterpart, Daniel Noboa, an ally of US President Donald Trump, spiked on...