Tag Archives: Africa

The New York Times reports: A draft of a Trump administration executive order proposes a drastic restructuring of the State Department, including eliminating almost all of its Africa operations and shutting down embassies and consulates across the continent. The draft also calls for cutting offices at State Department headquarters that address climate change and refugee issues, as well as democracy …

The Associated Press reports: The U.S. and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for resettling Palestinians uprooted from the Gaza Strip under President Donald Trump’s proposed postwar plan, American and Israeli officials told The Associated Press. The contacts with Sudan, Somalia and the breakaway region of Somalia …

The New York Times reports: The Ebola outbreak in Uganda has worsened significantly, and the country’s ability to contain the spread has been severely weakened by the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign assistance, American officials said this week. The officials, representing a variety of health and security agencies, made the assessment during a meeting with U.S. Embassy staff in Kampala, …

The Guardian reports: Environmentalists have urged the Trump administration to reverse its decision to cut off funding for key conservation work aimed at saving iconic at-risk species, including anti-poaching patrols for vulnerable rhinos and elephants. International conservation grants administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have been frozen by Trump, throwing conservation non-profits around the world into disarray. …

The New York Times reports: Two weeks into President Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid, H.I.V. groups abroad have not received any funding, jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children. With the near closure of the American aid agency known as U.S.A.I.D. and its recall of officers posted abroad, there is little hope that the …

The World Health Organization writes: The World Health Organization (WHO) today launched a global Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan to stop outbreaks of human-to-human transmission of mpox through coordinated global, regional, and national efforts. This follows the declaration of a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO Director-General on 14 August. The plan covers the six-month period of …

Politico Europe reports: A drug used in the last global mpox outbreak in 2022-23 is not effective against the more severe virus spreading rapidly in Africa, researchers have found. The antiviral, tecovirimat, did not reduce the duration of lesions among children and adults with clade I mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the initial results …

The New York Times reports: The rapid spread of mpox, formerly called monkeypox, in African countries constitutes a global health emergency, the World Health Organization declared on Wednesday. This is the second time in three years that the W.H.O. has designated an mpox epidemic as a global emergency. It previously did so in July 2022. That outbreak went on to …

Axios reports: The Centers for Disease Control on Wednesday alerted doctors to be on the lookout for a deadly new strain of mpox spreading through parts of Africa while U.S. officials committed $424 million to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the epicenter of the outbreak. The so-called clade I virus is more virulent and deadly than the …

Reuters reports: Burkina Faso’s military junta said it has adopted the draft of an amended family code that criminalises homosexuality. The West African nation has been among just 22 out of 54 countries on the continent that allow same-sex relations, which are punishable by death or lengthy prison terms in some states. Burkina Faso has been under military rule since …

The Voice Of America reports: Mixed reactions are swirling in Cameroon since Brenda Biya, the daughter of President Paul Biya, declared she is a lesbian. While LGBTQ activists see her declaration as an opportunity to push for greater rights in a country where same-sex relations are outlawed, anti-gay groups say they want Brenda Biya prosecuted. Brenda Biya, the 26-year-old daughter …

TIME Magazine reports: Namibia’s High Court declared the criminalization of sexual acts between men unconstitutional, a landmark ruling that contrasts with other recent attempts in Africa to curtail LGBTQ rights. The court’s finding stemmed from an application filed by Friedel Dausab, a gay Namibian man, who argued that the criminalization of homosexual relations and other sexual conduct that was deemed …

Reuters reports: Uganda’s constitutional court on Wednesday refused to annul or suspend an anti-LGBTQ law that includes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts, but found some of its provisions inconsistent with certain fundamental human rights. In particular the court said the section of the legislation requiring the mandatory reporting to authorities of people suspected of having committed homosexual offences …

The New York Times reports: Gambian lawmakers have voted to revoke a ban on female genital cutting by removing legal protections for millions of girls, raising fears that other countries could follow suit. Of the 47 members of the Gambia National Assembly present on Monday, 42 voted in favor of a bill to overturn the ban, sending the decision to …

The New York Times reports: Ghana’s Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that imposes jail terms on people who identify as L.G.B.T.Q. or organize gay advocacy groups, measures that Amnesty International called among the harshest on the African continent. The legislation, if signed into law by President Nana Akufo-Addo [photol, would mean that people convicted of identifying as gay could …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis said in an interview published on Monday that Africans were a “special case” in the opposition of bishops and many other people in the continent to homosexuality. But he said he was confident that, except for Africans, critics of his decision to allow blessings for same-sex couples would eventually understand it. “Those who protest vehemently belong …

The BBC reports: The world’s first routine vaccine programme against malaria has started in Cameroon, in a move projected to save thousands of children’s lives across Africa. The symbolic first jab was given to a baby girl named Daniella at a health facility near Yaoundé on Monday. Every year 600,000 people die of malaria in Africa, according to the World …

Al Jazeera reports: A Kenyan court has charged cult leader Paul Mackenzie with “terrorism”-related crimes over the deaths of 429 of his followers. The self-proclaimed pastor was charged along with 94 others on Thursday over the deaths of followers whose bodies have been exhumed from the Shakahola forest near the Indian Ocean. The charges, announced during an appearance before a …

Agence France-Presse reports: Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye launched a virulent anti-gay tirade on Friday, saying same-sex couples should be publicly stoned. He also lashed out at Western countries that press other nations to allow gay rights or risk losing aid. Homosexuality in Burundi, a conservative Christian country in East Africa, has been criminalised since 2009 with prison terms of up …

The New York Times reports: Since the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, as the law is officially known, there have been arrests and hundreds of human rights violations involving L.G.B.T.Q. people, according to a report by Convening for Equality, a coalition of human rights groups. More quietly, the law is exacting a grim economic toll. The hospitality industry …