African women are 130 times more likely to die due to pregnancy or childbirth complications than women in Europe and Northern America, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) said in a new report published on Wednesday. Interwoven Lives, Threads of Hope: Ending inequalities in sexual and reproductive health and rights, reveals that more than half of all preventable ...

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 ...

The British government’s plan for a landmark smoking ban that aims to stop young people from ever smoking cleared its first hurdle in Parliament on Tuesday despite vocal opposition from within Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party. The bill, a key policy announced by Sunak last year, would make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after January ...

The escalating cost of living in Ghana is taking a heavy toll on workers, particularly those in the informal sector. This situation is driving them up into abject poverty as rising prices for essential goods and services including food, transportation, and accommodation are squeezing the budgets of low-income households. Non-governmental organization – The Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing ...

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 ...

The Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has reaffirmed that Ghana’s medium-term macroeconomic outlook and prospects remain positive and promising. He also highlighted the government’s dedication to implementing comprehensive structural reforms to bolster growth and enhance revenue mobilisation. Speaking during a joint press conference by the government of Ghana and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Saturday, April 13, ...

Rwandan President Paul Kagame blamed the inaction of the international community for allowing the 1994 genocide to happen as Rwandans on Sunday commemorated 30 years since an estimated 800,000 people were killed by government-backed extremists. Rwanda has shown strong recovery and economic growth in the years since, but scars remain and there are questions about whether genuine reconciliation has been ...

A group of Aggregators in Northern Ghana has raised serious concerns regarding Ghana’s recent approval of genetically modified (GM) products across various sectors, emphasizing the potential long-term effects on human health and the environment. They argue that the safety of GM foods has not been definitively established, with fears of unforeseen consequences on biodiversity and the ecosystem. Fredrick Saah, a ...

The former South African speaker of parliament was arrested on Thursday over allegations that she received about $135,000 in bribes, in the latest corruption scandal to face the governing African National Congress party. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula turned herself in to police in the capital, Pretoria, on Thursday and was taken to Pretoria Magistrates Court, where she was released on 50,000 rand ...

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has swapped the Upper East and Upper West regional ministers. In a statement signed by the Communications Director at the Presidency Eugene Arhin, the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu, will assume the role of Upper West Regional Minister. Similarly, the Upper West Regional Minister, Hafiz Bin Salih, will become the new Upper East ...