Diaspora news

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 ...

The UN Security Council has denounced Taliban government policies targeting women and girls in Afghanistan. The Taliban have banned women from attending university and working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) within the last week. The 15-member Security Council said it was “deeply alarmed” by the increasing restrictions on women’s education. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the latest restrictions “must be revoked”. A statement from ...

Angola’s Supreme Court ordered on Tuesday the preventive seizure of assets of Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former president Eduardo dos Santos deceased in July this year. This is the second seizure of Isabel dos Santos assets in Angola since 2019.  The court order covers 100 percent of the shares of the company Embalvidro, of which the defendant is the beneficial owner as well as the balances of all bank ...

A minibus has hit a landmine in Burkina Faso in West Africa, killing at least 10 people, officials say. Five others were wounded in the blast, which occurred in the east, near the border with Niger, on Christmas Day. The governor of the Fada N’Gourma region said the death toll could rise as some passengers were still missing. Burkina Faso ...