Diaspora news

A Swiss court on Wednesday convicted a former government minister from Gambia of crimes against humanity under ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh and jailed him for 20 years, in a historic verdict using universal jurisdiction in Europe. The Federal Criminal Court found Ousman Sonko guilty on several counts of intentional homicide, torture and false imprisonment. Sonko, who was dismissed as Gambia’s interior ...

Leaders from the West African regional bloc, Ecowas, have climbed down on their initial announcement that they were visiting Togo “due to the seriousness of the controversial constitutional reforms that the government planned to introduce”. Those words were part of a press release that was published on X on Monday then deleted on Tuesday. It was replaced by a new ...

Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency has recovered $28.88 million after launching an investigation into alleged fraud at a government ministry responsible for tackling poverty, a spokesperson said. Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, was suspended in January less than six months after her appointment by President Bola Tinubu, who came to power last year on a promise to revive growth ...

A South African accountant who was investigating high-level corruption cases has been shot dead along with his son. Cloete Murray, 50, was the liquidator for Bosasa, a company implicated in numerous government contract scandals. He also worked as a liquidator for firms linked to the wealthy Gupta brothers, who deny bribery accusations. Police will see if there is a link ...

Nigeria’s Supreme Court has temporarily suspended Friday’s deadline to stop using old banknotes, which had caused a cash crisis in the country. Banks have not been releasing enough of the new naira notes, leading to desperate and chaotic scenes as people tried to get their hands on them. There were fights at ATMs, protests and mob attacks on commercial banks. ...

Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on Tuesday appointed his vice-minister of education, Manuela Roka Botey, as prime minister, the first time a woman has held the role in the West African country. Botey’s new position was announced on state television late on Tuesday. Obiang, 80, was re-elected for a sixth term in office in November with 95% of the vote, cementing ...

China’s population has fallen for the first time in 60 years, with the national birth rate hitting a record low – 6.77 births per 1,000 people. The population in 2022 – 1.4118 billion – fell by 850,000 from 2021. China’s birth rate has been declining for years, prompting a slew of policies to try to slow the trend. But seven ...

The activist daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been sentenced to five years in prison, her lawyer said on Tuesday. The lawyer did not give detail of the charges against Faezeh Hashemi. But Tehran’s public prosecutor indicted Hashemi last year on charges of “propaganda against the system”, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. State media in ...

The authorities in Burkina Faso have launched an investigation into the circumstances of the deaths of 28 people whose bodies were found in the north-western town of Nouna. In a statement, the government said the killings were discovered on the night of 30 December and condemned the “unacceptable violence”. The Reuters news agency quotes prosecutors as saying that the victims were ...

The United States has dropped Burkina Faso from its AGOA trade preference program citing deep concerns over “unconstitutional change” in government in the West African country, the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office said on Sunday. Frustrations over the government’s inability to curb an Islamist insurgency spurred two military coups in Burkina Faso in 2022. Both the previous and current juntas ...