Africa

केप वर्डे (Cape Verde) में एक कार्यक्रम में प्रतिनिधियों ने तकनीक से मिलने वाले अवसरों पर प्रकाश डाला, साथ ही इस बात पर जोर दिया कि AI प्रतिभा का विकल्प नहीं है। पिछले जुलाई में, नाइजीरियाई गायक-गीतकार Fave ने खुद को एक वायरल पल में फंसा हुआ पाया: एक ट्रैक का अनधिकृत संस्करण जिसमें AI क्वायर (choir) शामिल था, जारी किया गया था और वह तेज़ी से इंटरनेट पर सनसनी बन गया। स्थिति से आगे निकलने के लिए, उन्होंने अपना खुद का रीमिक्स रिकॉर्ड किया जिसमें उस AI-सहायता प्राप्त गीत को शामिल किया गया और उसे अपनी डिस्कोग्राफी (discography) में जोड़ लिया। लागोस (Lagos) स्थित मनोरंजन वकील Oyinkansola Fawehinmi ने कुछ महीनों बाद टिप्पणी की, “मेरी राय में, [वह] स्मार्ट और व्यावसायिक रूप से बहुत जागरूक कदम था। उन्होंने अनिवार्य रूप से ‘AI संस्करण’ को वापस अपने अधिकार में लिया और इसे अपनी आधिकारिक अभिव्यक्ति के रूप में जारी किया।” पढ़ना जारी रखें...

• क्रेमलिन-नियंत्रित अर्धसैनिक बलों ने यह भी आरोप लगाया कि उन्होंने नागरिक हताहतों से बचाते हुए विद्रोहियों को 'अपूरणीय क्षति' पहुँचाई है। • रूस के रक्षा मंत्रालय ने दावा किया है कि उसके Africa Corps — जो पूर्व Wagner भाड़े के समूह का उत्तराधिकारी है — ने सप्ताहांत में माली में एक तख्तापलट को रोका, जिससे बड़ी संख्या में नागरिक हताहत होने से बच गए और विद्रोही हमलावरों को "अपूरणीय क्षति" पहुँचाई गई। • एक बयान में कहा गया कि अल्जीरियाई सीमा के पास रेगिस्तानी शहर Kidal में तैनात उसके सैनिकों ने पूरी तरह से घिरे होने और संख्या में बहुत कम होने के बावजूद 24 घंटे से अधिक समय तक लड़ाई लड़ी।

• सत्ताधारी सैन्य शासन को रूसी समर्थन के बावजूद विद्रोही लड़ाकों ने हाल के दिनों में महत्वपूर्ण हमले किए हैं। • जब माली के सैन्य शासन के नेता असिमी गोइता ने पिछले साल गर्मियों में क्रेमलिन में रूसी राष्ट्रपति व्लादिमीर पुतिन के साथ मुलाकात की, तो इसने पश्चिम की कीमत पर माली पर मास्को के दबदबे का प्रतीक बनाया। • जब ये दोनों व्यक्ति बात कर रहे थे, तब करीब 3,500 मील दक्षिण में, साहेल क्षेत्र में प्रभाव बढ़ाने के मास्को के व्यापक प्रयास के हिस्से के रूप में, लगभग 2,000 रूसी सैनिक इस भूधस्त रेगिस्तानी देश में शासन को समर्थन दे रहे थे।

• The African Union convened emergency sessions Friday in Addis Ababa to address military coup concerns in three Sahel nations and coordinate response to deteriorating security conditions affecting 180 million people across West Africa. • Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have experienced military takeovers since 2020, with suspended AU memberships and international sanctions creating governance vacuums exploited by extremist groups and destabilizing the entire region. • The AU proposed conditional reinstatement frameworks for suspended nations contingent on democratic transition timelines, though France and Western partners expressed skepticism about implementation feasibility given entrenched military leadership.

Leader of leftwing Economic Freedom Fighters was convicted last year for firing rifle in the air at 2018 rallyThe South African leftwing politician Julius Malema has been sentenced to five years in prison for firing a rifle in the air at a political rally in 2018.Lawyers for the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, South Africa’s fourth largest political party, immediately sought leave to appeal. Legal arguments are ongoing. Continue reading...

Appointment of Roelf Meyer seen as attempt to improve relations amid false US accusations of genocide against AfrikanersSouth Africa has appointed a former apartheid government chief negotiator during the talks that ended white rule in the 1990s as ambassador to the US, in what is seen as an attempt to improve the deeply strained diplomatic relationship between the two countries.Roelf Meyer replaces Ebrahim Rasool, who was expelled in March 2025 after he criticised the Trump administration. Continue reading...

Pontiff makes first papal visit to country as he starts 11-day tour that will also include stops in Cameroon and AngolaPope Leo XIV arrived in Algeria on Monday for the first papal visit to the country, calling for peace on the opening stop of a tour of Africa that signals the continent’s growing importance to the Catholic church.The 11-day trip, which will include stops in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, is the longest by Pope Leo since being elected to the papacy in May last year. Continue reading...

Presidential elections in Djibouti and Benin at the weekend highlighted how a costly electoral system is reshaping democracyAlexis Mohamed would have loved to stand against his former boss. A longtime adviser to Djibouti’s president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, Mohamed resigned last September, citing democratic regression in the country.But at the election at the weekend, Mohamed was not on the ballot. Now outside the country, he says he cannot return home to file nomination papers or campaign freely without credible security guarantees. Even if he were allowed to compete, nomination costs would still loom as a steep barrier in a political environment many critics describe as ceremonial, with Guelleh the habitual winner. Continue reading...

• Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Uganda formalized a coordinated military command structure on April 8 at a summit in Nairobi to strengthen counterterrorism operations against Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for recent attacks in the region. • The joint task force will deploy approximately 8,500 personnel across border regions, with integrated intelligence-sharing platforms and unified rules of engagement for cross-border pursuit of militant cells. • The initiative marks a significant shift in regional cooperation following a series of coordinated insurgent attacks that killed over 400 civilians and security personnel in the past six months, with international donors pledging $127 million in support.

• The United Nations humanitarian coordinator reported on Thursday that drought conditions across East Africa have intensified, affecting approximately 24 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia with critical water and food shortages. • The organization is requesting $3.2 billion in emergency humanitarian assistance for 2026, warning that without immediate intervention, malnutrition rates could exceed 2022 levels when the region experienced famine conditions. • US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced an additional $450 million in emergency aid packages, representing a 40% increase from the previous fiscal year allocation for East African relief operations.

A huge rise in internet users under the age of 30 has fuelled an increase in online violence against women and girls with devastating real-life effects, activists sayActivists and lawyers in Africa are calling for urgent action to protect women, girls and boys as digital violence surges across the continent.A massive rise in internet users, coupled with huge numbers of people aged under 30, has fuelled an increase in gendered online violence across the continent, according to experts, by giving perpetrators new tools to control and silence women and girls, and influence boys. Continue reading...

Minister’s decision to ditch town’s colonial-era identity and honour anti-apartheid activist divides residentsA South African town is divided over changing its name from the colonial-era Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe, after the anti-apartheid activist, in a debate that has inflamed racial tensions.Petitions have been signed, rival marches held and a formal letter of complaint sent to the sports, arts and culture minister, Gayton McKenzie, who approved the name change on 6 February. Continue reading...

Despite resistance from states who had role in chattel slavery, many feel this is an idea whose time has comeJohn Mahama knows a thing or two about beating the establishment. On Wednesday, less than two years after completing a remarkable comeback as Ghana’s president with a landslide defeat of the ruling party candidate, he rallied the world to ratify a landmark vote against transatlantic chattel slavery, despite major opposition from the same western entities that drove it for centuries.The resolution to declare the practice as “the gravest crime against humanity” passed with a decisive majority at the UN general assembly and has been largely welcomed across Africa. Yet the details of the tally reveal a world still deeply divided on the gravity of the sin of enslaving more than 15 million people as chattel over the course of 400 years. Continue reading...

Piece by late South African artist Dumile Feni is part of new series History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, But It Does Rhyme On the second floor of the Reina Sofía, in the very spot where Picasso’s Guernica was first exhibited when it arrived in the Madrid museum 34 years ago, there now hangs a smaller, near-namesake of the Spanish artist’s most famous work.While African Guernica, which was drawn by the late South African artist Dumile Feni in 1967, may lack the scale of Picasso’s masterpiece, its depth, anger and unnerving juxtaposition of man and beast, light and dark, and innocence and cruelty, are every bit as disturbing. Continue reading...

Food production in many African countries depends heavily on fertiliser imported from the Gulf through the strait of HormuzCountries in Africa, where farmers depend heavily on imported fertiliser and a large share of household income goes on food, are particularly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East, experts have said.The conflict has drastically disrupted trade through the strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane not just for oil and gas but also for fertiliser, which is produced in vast quantities in the Gulf. Continue reading...

Meta halted construction on a key segment of its 2Africa subsea cable project on March 13, 2026, citing security threats from the escalating US-Iran conflict disrupting Middle East routes. The $1.2 billion initiative, spanning 37,000 km to connect Africa and Europe, faces delays costing millions in potential bandwidth losses. This pause underscores geopolitical risks to global tech infrastructure investments, as Iran tensions threaten undersea cables vital for AI data flows. Meta plans rerouting assessments, with resumption eyed post-ceasefire.

Countries across the continent have spent more than $2bn on Chinese tracking technology that is not ‘necessary or proportionate’, new report findsThe rapid expansion of AI-powered mass-surveillance systems across Africa is violating citizens’ right to privacy and having a chilling effect on society, according to experts on human rights and emerging technologies.At least $2bn (£1.5bn) has been spent by 11 African governments on Chinese-built surveillance technology that recognises faces and monitors movements, according to a new report by the Institute of Development Studies, which warns that national security is being used to justify implementing these systems with little regulation. Continue reading...