Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Six-year-old Ebola patient taken from DR Congo hospital found and ‘doing well’

    Six-year-old Ebola patient taken from DR Congo hospital found and ‘doing well’

    An ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) took an unexpected turn earlier this week, when a 6-year-old confirmed Ebola patient—abducted from her treatment ward by armed men alongside her mother—has been located and is reported to be in stable condition. Local health official Dr. Lubambo Maboko Gaston confirmed the update to the BBC on Friday, two days after he first announced the abduction that drew international attention to growing unrest around Ebola response efforts in the region.

    According to Dr. Gaston, the pair were taken by a group of armed, angry men from a hospital in Butembo, a major city in eastern DRC, on Monday. It remains unclear whether the abductors had prior personal connections to the child or her family, but the abduction fits a pattern of rising hostility toward Ebola treatment facilities that has hampered outbreak response for weeks. On Friday, the girl and her mother voluntarily arrived at an alternative Ebola treatment center located roughly 18 kilometers outside Butembo, where medical teams have since assessed the child’s condition as stable and improving. “Her condition is currently considered stable,” Dr. Gaston confirmed in a statement to reporters.

    Hostility toward outbreak response teams is not a new development during this outbreak. To date, the event has killed more than 230 people and recorded 890 confirmed cases across eastern DRC, with treatment centers facing repeated attacks from local communities driven by fear and misinformation. Just last month, police in Mongbwalu were forced to fire warning shots into the air to disperse angry crowds that attempted to seize the bodies of Ebola victims from a local health facility. Days prior, residents of Rwampara, a small town 85 kilometers southeast of Mongbwalu, set fire to hospital isolation tents after officials blocked them from retrieving the body of a man who had died from suspected Ebola.

    Public health experts stress that the bodies of Ebola victims carry extremely high viral loads, and unsanctioned burial preparations are a major driver of new transmission. Safe, regulated burial protocols are one of the most critical tools for containing spread, but deep-rooted misinformation has left many local residents distrustful of these measures. “People are not properly informed or sensitised about what is happening,” local politician Luc Malembe explained to the BBC last month. “For a certain segment of the population, especially in remote areas, Ebola is an invention by outsiders – it does not exist. They believe it is the NGOs and hospitals creating this to make money, and this is tragic.”

    The outbreak was officially declared by DRC authorities on May 15, though public health officials later confirmed that transmission had gone undetected in remote communities for weeks before the declaration. A complicating factor for response teams is that the outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo, a rare strain of Ebola that currently has no approved vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) has projected it could take months to develop and deploy an effective vaccine for this strain.

    The scale of the outbreak has already drawn grim projections from global health leaders. This week, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the outbreak could become one of the largest Ebola events in recorded history, echoing an earlier assessment from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cross-border spread has already been recorded in neighboring Uganda, which has confirmed 19 cases and two deaths since the outbreak began. However, the WHO reported this week that Uganda has not recorded any new confirmed cases since June 5, a hopeful sign that containment measures there are working.

    In DRC, the national ministry of health has said it is ramping up core response measures, including expanding community surveillance, scaling up contact tracing, and building out dedicated treatment infrastructure across affected towns. The WHO has committed $3.9 million to response efforts, while Africa CDC has approved a $319 million budget to support coordinated action across the region.

    Nearly all confirmed cases are concentrated in three eastern DRC provinces: Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu—the same region where the 6-year-old patient was abducted. Ituri remains the epicenter of transmission, accounting for more than 90% of all confirmed infections. Ongoing armed conflict in the region has created additional barriers to effective response, the WHO has warned. The M23 rebel group currently controls large swathes of both North and South Kivu, leaving response teams unable to access many remote communities where transmission may be spreading undetected.

  • UK law enforcement destroyed my reputation and integrity, ex-Nigerian oil minister tells BBC

    UK law enforcement destroyed my reputation and integrity, ex-Nigerian oil minister tells BBC

    More than a decade of high-stakes anti-corruption investigation ended in acquittal this week, leaving a trail of damaged careers, unproven allegations, and sharp criticism of British law enforcement from one of the oil and gas industry’s most prominent female leaders. Diezani Alison-Madueke, 65, who made history as the first woman to serve as Nigeria’s oil minister and as president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was cleared of all five bribery and conspiracy charges Wednesday at London’s Southwark Crown Court after a months-long trial.

    In her first public interview following the verdict, the ex-minister told the BBC the 13-year probe carried out by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) devastated her personal and professional life, leaving her with a permanently tarnished reputation that can never be repaired. The case was not just a legal battle, she said, but a traumatic experience that upended every part of her life. For years, she was barred from international travel and blocked from working in any professional capacity. When your personal freedom is restricted for so long, Alison-Madueke explained, it inflicts deep, long-lasting psychological harm. She has maintained her complete innocence from the start, emphasizing she never committed any of the serious misdeeds prosecutors alleged against her.

    The case against Alison-Madueke dated back to her 2015 arrest, though formal charges were not brought until 2023. Prosecutors claimed she accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper kickbacks from wealthy Nigerian oil tycoons who secured lucrative government oil contracts during her tenure. Prosecutors alleged these payments funded a lavish lifestyle, including more than £2 million ($2.65 million) in luxury goods purchased from London’s Harrods, access to private chauffeur-driven cars, and the use of multi-million-pound properties across London and Buckinghamshire. Two other co-defendants – Alison-Madueke’s brother Doye Agamas, a 69-year-old Pentecostal archbishop based in Manchester, and oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde, 54 – were also cleared of all related charges. Ayinde’s acquittal carried extra weight: she had been prosecuted despite acting as a cooperating informant for Nigerian anti-corruption officials.

    From the opening of the trial in January, Alison-Madueke’s defense team challenged the validity and fairness of the prosecution’s case, arguing that critical documents that would have proven her innocence went missing under mysterious circumstances in Nigeria. The ex-mininger confirmed those missing records included boxes of receipts that proved she had fully reimbursed the oil tycoons for any payments they made on her behalf. She told the BBC that Nigerian intelligence forces seized those documents from her Abuja home back in 2015, and she has had no knowledge of their fate ever since. Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who appointed Alison-Madueke to her cabinet post, submitted a letter to the court backing her account, noting that it was common practice for third parties to cover travel and accommodation costs for Nigerian cabinet members conducting official overseas business.

    When asked who bears responsibility for the failed prosecution, Alison-Madueke said blame is shared across multiple parties. She called on Nigerian authorities to conduct a full review of the procedures and practices they use in cross-border corruption cases. For the NCA, she argued the agency lacked sensitivity when pursuing a case rooted in another country’s political context, suggesting the investigation into her was at least partially politically motivated. She claims the NCA targeted her as easy, high-profile “low-hanging fruit,” ignoring two key facts: her own record of pushing anti-corruption reform in Nigeria’s oil sector – the heart of the country’s economy, as Africa’s largest oil producer – and the fact that she had made powerful political enemies during her time in office. As a woman breaking barriers in a deeply misogynistic political culture, she said, she was already an outsider target.

    Alison-Madueke said the NCA should have paused to conduct a deeper, more thorough investigation into the on-ground context of the claims before moving forward with prosecution. In the wake of the not-guilty verdict, an NCA spokesperson confirmed the agency respects the jury’s final verdict. The BBC has requested additional comment from the agency, and has not yet received a response.

    The verdict comes after years of related asset recovery actions by international law enforcement. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice seized $53 million (£40 million) in assets from two of the oil tycoons named in the London trial. At the time, a department spokesperson claimed Alison-Madueke had abused her position to steer profitable oil contracts to the tycoons’ companies. Alison-Madueke pushed back on that claim in her interview, noting she was never given an opportunity to defend herself against those allegations because she was never charged in the U.S. case. She added that all contracts awarded during her tenure went through the full, required due diligence process as mandated by law.

    Nigeria’s leading anti-graft body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), also has had prior actions against Alison-Madueke: in 2022, the agency said it recovered roughly $153 million and more than 80 properties linked to the ex-minister. When asked about those forfeited assets, Alison-Madueke said the assets were never directly traced to her, and she has had no clear updates on the status of that case. Now that she has been acquitted in London, she says she will finally have the freedom to investigate what actually happened with those assets to clear her name further.

  • The maths whizz turned teen star who chose Morocco over France

    The maths whizz turned teen star who chose Morocco over France

    Eighteen-year-old midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi has become one of the most talked-about young talents at the 2026 FIFA World Cup after his masterclass performance against Brazil, drawing transfer interest from top European sides including Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool. But for those who have watched the teenager grow from a youth prospect in northern France to a global stage standout, his dramatic rise is no surprise at all.

    World Cup-winning striker and Bouaddi’s current Lille teammate Olivier Giroud is among the talent’s biggest admirers, drawing a striking parallel between the teen and Kylian Mbappé. “I played with Kylian Mbappe when he was 18,” Giroud, now a BBC Sport pundit, shared. “He was so mature for his age and I have the same feeling with Ayyoub.” This is not a bandwagon take following Bouaddi’s breakout, either; Giroud has watched the midfielder’s relentless work ethic up close on a daily basis, and says his sudden fame is far from an overnight success.

    That consensus is echoed across every stage of Bouaddi’s early career. Growing up in the northern French town of Creil, Bouaddi stood out not just for his on-pitch ability, but for a discipline and focus rare for a young player. “No one is shocked here,” said his former youth coach Sofiane Khair. “For us, it’s logical.” Khair recalled that even as a child, Bouaddi rejected the typical hobbies of kids his age: no video games, no fast food. When he wasn’t training, he would stay home reading or studying. “He’s the same now as he was when he was 10,” Khair added.

    Off the pitch, that intellectual discipline translates to pursuits far beyond football: Bouaddi is currently completing a mathematics degree in his spare time, and previously won a national oratory competition after delivering a speech at the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the French President. That reflective, self-critical mindset has shaped his football development too. When Bouaddi moved up to Lille’s under-17 side at 15, coach Mickael Delestrez said the teen’s first question was, “What do you expect from me?”

    “His reflective nature leads to him constantly questioning his game – what could he have done better or what should he have done differently?” Delestrez explained. “He possesses this analytical ability that allows him to continually challenge himself.” Former Creil coach Armand Doue echoed that assessment, noting Bouaddi remains a perfectionist who still works closely with his early coaches to refine his game. Even as his career has skyrocketed, Bouaddi has never stopped pushing to improve.

    A quick look at his senior career already confirms his extraordinary trajectory. Just days after his 16th birthday in 2023, he became the youngest player to ever make a senior debut for Lille. On his 17th birthday, he helped the club secure a landmark Champions League win over Real Madrid, earning a serenade from the home crowd at Stade Pierre-Mauroy. Earlier this year, he broke a 20-year record previously held by club icon Eden Hazard, becoming the youngest player in Lille history to hit 50 Ligue 1 appearances at 18.

    One of the biggest talking points of Bouaddi’s young career came long before his World Cup breakout: his choice to represent Morocco at senior level, rather than France, the country of his birth where he featured for every French youth national side. The decision came despite gentle persistent encouragement from Giroud, who joked and “teased him the whole year regarding picking France.”

    For Bouaddi, the choice was always rooted in family and identity. To announce his decision, he shared a decade-old photo on Instagram: 10-year-old him, wearing a Morocco national team shirt, watching the 2018 World Cup from the stands. “I am aware of the privilege I have to defend these colours and I will give everything to best represent my country,” he wrote in the post. It is a commitment he backed up with his performance against Brazil at the New York New Jersey Stadium in Morocco’s recent 2026 World Cup group stage match.

    Against a star-studded Brazilian side, the 18-year-old was unflappable. He finished the 1-1 draw with more touches (87) and more completed passes (60) than any other Moroccan player on the pitch. As temperatures rose and older players faded late in the match, Bouaddi kept pushing forward, repeatedly dribbling past Brazil defenders to drive his team up the pitch. He was equally tenacious in the tackle, winning nine duels — a physicality that caught the attention of Brazil’s veteran midfield leader Casemiro, who was substituted at half time after being outplayed by the teen. Morocco captain Achraf Hakimi summed up the performance as a “masterclass.”

    To those who know him best, however, this level of play is standard. “He does this kind of match every weekend on the pitches of Ligue 1,” Doue noted. Now, as Bouaddi prepares to face Scotland in Morocco’s next World Cup group fixture this Friday, all eyes will be on the teen prodigy who has drawn comparisons to Mbappé, attracted interest from Europe’s biggest clubs, and built his career on relentless self-improvement. While he has yet to score his first senior goal, all signs point to Bouaddi becoming one of the most exciting players to watch in this World Cup — and for decades to come.

  • Morocco captain Hakimi to stand trial for rape

    Morocco captain Hakimi to stand trial for rape

    French prosecutors have officially confirmed that Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco national team captain Achraf Hakimi will face trial on rape charges, a development that has thrown the 27-year-old fullback’s 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign into uncertainty ahead of his side’s second group stage fixture against Scotland this Friday.

    The allegations date back to 2023, when a 24-year-old woman accused the star defender of assaulting her at Hakimi’s private residence in Paris. Authorities in Nanterre, the western Paris suburb overseeing the case, launched an initial preliminary investigation in March 2023. After more than three years of procedural review, an investigating judge ordered the case proceed to trial in February 2026. Multiple French media outlets have reported that Hakimi’s recent appeal to have the charges dismissed was rejected.

    Hakimi has vehemently denied all allegations against him from the beginning, and broke his years-long public silence on the case in a social media post published Friday. “The justice system looked me in the eye and said, ‘If you weren’t famous, there would never have been a case,’” he wrote.

    The World Cup star explained that he chose to stay out of public discourse for years out of a commitment to preserving his dignity and confidence in France’s judicial process. “Today, a story that isn’t mine is being told at the expense of my family, my life, and above all, the truth. I sometimes feel like I’ve become an easy target,” Hakimi added. “I’ve been waiting for this trial since day one. And now I’m eagerly awaiting it. Finally, I’ll be able to speak.”

    Rachel-Flore Pardo, the legal representative for the accuser, said the judge’s ruling to proceed to trial brings her client both relief and hope, after more than three years of navigating the legal process. Pardo noted that her client believes she has been defamed and publicly maligned by Hakimi’s defense team. “Relief that she has been heard by the justice system and will have the right to a trial,” Pardo said. “Hope that this trial will help other women and further weaken the wall of denial and impunity surrounding sexual violence, including in the world of men’s football.”

    As of this reporting, no official start date has been scheduled for the trial. All three of Morocco’s group stage matches at the 2026 co-hosted World Cup are set to take place in the United States, where the Moroccan squad is currently based, leaving Hakimi able to play for the time being. However, if Morocco advances to the knockout round, the team could be forced to play matches in co-host nations Canada or Mexico, where Hakimi may face entry restrictions.

    This scenario is not unprecedented at this tournament: last week, Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey was denied entry to Canada and forced to miss his country’s opening group stage match against Panama. Partey, 32, has pleaded not guilty to seven rape charges and one count of sexual assault leveled by four separate accuser for alleged incidents between 2020 and 2022, and he is scheduled to go to trial in 2027. Canadian immigration rules explicitly allow officials to deny entry to any person who has been alleged or convicted of a criminal offense.

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup splits matches across all three North American co-hosts through the quarter-final round, after which all remaining fixtures will be hosted exclusively in the United States.

    One of the most decorated active African footballers, Hakimi made his senior international debut for Morocco in 2016 at just 17 years old, and has since earned 97 caps for his country. He was a foundational player for the 2022 Moroccan World Cup squad that made history as the first African nation to reach the tournament’s semi-final. Since transferring from Inter Milan to Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, Hakimi has won 13 club trophies, including consecutive UEFA Champions League titles in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.

  • Boy, 12, wins hearts after trying to check sick chicken into Ethiopian hospital

    Boy, 12, wins hearts after trying to check sick chicken into Ethiopian hospital

    For 12-year-old Markos Abaye, a displaced child growing up in rural Ethiopia, one small feathered companion has become his whole world. So when his beloved pet chicken fell ill earlier this month, unresponsive to every home remedy his young mind could devise, he did what felt like the only logical step: he laced up his shoes, tucked the ailing bird close to his chest, and rushed her straight to the nearest local hospital.

    Markos’ desperate act of kindness has since captured global attention after a nurse on duty at Denbecha Primary Hospital, located in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, filmed the unlikely patient and her worried young owner and shared the clip on TikTok. To date, the video has amassed more than 770,000 views, leaving thousands of viewers across Ethiopia and beyond moved by the preteen’s profound compassion for his animal companion.

    In the viral footage, Markos can be seen cradling the sick hen tightly, his face etched with worry as he explains to the nurse, “She is wheezing.” Nurse Umer Chane, who recorded the interaction, gently responded: “Listen, there are doctors who treat animals. You have to take her there. This is a hospital for humans. Okay, dear?”

    What many viewers do not know from the 15-second viral clip is the deeper backstory that binds Markos to this chicken. Markos moved in with his uncle and guardian Kelemework Amogne in August 2023, when violent conflict broke out between the Ethiopian national army and local Fano militias in Amhara. Fearing for the boy’s safety, his grandparents sent him away to live with his uncle, and gave him the chicken as a cherished parting gift.

    Since then, Markos has formed an unbreakable bond with the hen. His uncle shared that the boy watches the bird’s every move, even mapping her footpaths and building tiny earthen bridges over small holes in the ground to keep her from falling. When the chicken fell ill, Markos was so distraught that he stopped eating and attending to his schoolwork. Kelemework had suggested the boy seek out professional help for the hen, but Markos had no idea that specialized veterinary clinics existed in his town of Denbecha – to him, a hospital was simply a place where any sick living thing could get care.

    Even as onlookers in the hospital teased the boy for bringing a chicken to a human medical facility, Umer the nurse said he could see nothing but pure, earnest kindness in Markos’ face. “He hugged the chicken tightly, worried about her condition, even as others tried to make fun of him,” Umer told the BBC. Struck by the moment, Umer posted the video to TikTok, never expecting it to blow up across the country.

    When Markos returned home after his hospital trip, he only told his uncle that people had laughed at him. It was not until days later, when the family stumbled on the viral video online, that they realized the boy’s act of love had captured national attention. “He thought of a hospital as one that could treat both people and animals,” Kelemework explained, adding that he has been stunned by the outpouring of support for his nephew. “It seemed like a dream!”

    Thankfully, Markos’ beloved chicken has already made a full recovery. The 12-year-old told reporters he is now planning to let the hen hatch the 12 eggs he has saved up for her.

    Following the viral spread of Markos’ story, a local Ethiopian poultry company has stepped forward to honor his love of animals: the firm announced it will donate 100 chickens to Markos, as well as provide him with formal training in poultry farming to help him turn his passion into a skill for the future.

  • A Miami art exhibit is celebrating Africa’s soccer legacy throughout the World Cup

    A Miami art exhibit is celebrating Africa’s soccer legacy throughout the World Cup

    MIAMI (AP) — Near the entrance of a new Miami art exhibition, a striking photograph captures Brazilian star Vinícius Júnior mid-goal celebration, one fist raised high in triumph. It hangs adjacent to a vivid acrylic work by Tasanee Durrett, depicting a Black woman heading a soccer ball, her dreadlocks floating mid-air. A glass-cased replica of the FIFA World Cup trophy anchors the nearby display space, encircled by an array of photographs, paintings and national flags that weave together the untold stories of generations of African footballers and their soccer dreams.

    This immersive collection, titled *Art and the Beautiful Game: Africa on the World Stage*, is the work of AfriKin, a foundation dedicated to amplifying African and African diaspora art. Curated by Alfonso D. Brooks, a former longtime sound engineer turned arts organizer, the exhibition opened in Miami in advance of the World Cup, drawing together works from more than 50 creators spanning 25 countries. The show traces soccer’s deep embedded role in African history, while honoring the sport’s most globally influential figures — from the late Brazilian legend Pelé to contemporary French star Kylian Mbappé.

    Every one of the 10 African nations qualifying for the World Cup is highlighted and celebrated in the exhibition, with a special tribute reserved for Cape Verde. The tiny island nation off West Africa pulled off one of the tournament’s most surprising upsets in its World Cup debut, securing a historic draw against European powerhouse Spain. AfriKin is scheduled to host an official honorary ceremony for Cape Verde on Saturday evening, ahead of the team’s group stage match against Uruguay.

    As the World Cup draws tens of thousands of global football fans to Miami, Brooks and participating artists set out to create a welcoming communal space where the African diaspora can gather, connect and celebrate its distinct cultural legacy throughout the tournament. “Miami is a huge melting pot,” explained Durrett, a 31-year-old Orlando-based artist and licensed architect. “We have Latin residents, Haitian communities, Caribbean communities, so many different cultural influences. Now that we have this platform and this voice, why not lift that story up?”

    Brooks, who was born in the Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten and relocated to Miami in 2008, developed his love for soccer from its humble grassroots origins across the African continent. He recalls growing up watching young children kick makeshift soccer balls — or any round object they could find — down school hallways, in living rooms, across uneven concrete streets. “This is where you get the term ‘the beautiful game,’” he said. “Because it required nothing but a beautiful spirit.”

    That joyful simplicity runs through the entire exhibition, which offers intimate glimpses into neighborhood pick-up pitches while also highlighting the sport’s unique global power to unite people across differing backgrounds, races and languages.

    Columbus-based artist Bamazi Talle, a native of the West African nation of Togo, explores this unifying theme through paintings of the calabash — a large, woody gourd that holds deep cultural meaning across many African communities. Beyond its practical uses, from serving meals to being hardened into water-carrying vessels, the calabash stands as a cultural symbol of community connection and hospitality. Talle paints the gourds floating against the backdrop of flags of all competing World Cup nations, drawing a parallel between the fruit’s cross-cultural history and the unifying spirit of the global tournament. “Calabash became one thing that united all of us,” Talle said. “And this cup, this World Cup is, I think, this celebration of all of us coming together.”

    Durrett, whose acrylic work greets visitors at the entrance, uses her art to lift up the underrepresented stories of Black women in soccer. She first took up drawing as a therapeutic practice years ago, and has centered her work on highlighting marginalized communities, often creating full canvas pieces in a single continuous line. “I hope that visitors see the unique stories that we as artists are telling,” she said. “And I hope they see themselves reflected in these stories.”

    The exhibition also highlights what Brooks terms “Hidden Africa” — a section focused on European national teams including France, Belgium and England that field numerous players of African heritage, who were either born or developed their football skills in European countries. Through this framing, Brooks aims to highlight the far-reaching connections of the African diaspora across the entire World Cup field, while opening up conversations around identity, immigration, and the complex factors that shape a player’s choice of which nation to represent internationally.

    “I’m not just showing a football and hanging up pretty pictures or highlights of goals,” Brooks emphasized. “We want to tell a real story that people can walk into, engage with, and leave saying ‘Wow, I didn’t know that.’ People need to learn from this exhibition.”

  • Can Renard revive Tunisia’s World Cup campaign?

    Can Renard revive Tunisia’s World Cup campaign?

    Tunisia has turned to the charismatic French football manager Herve Renard in a urgent push to rescue their 2026 FIFA World Cup hopes, just days after a humiliating opening match defeat forced the Carthage Eagles to make historic coaching change.

    The North African side moved quickly to part ways with former manager Sabri Lamouchi following a lopsided 1-5 loss to Sweden on Monday, making Tunisia the first nation in World Cup history to dismiss a head coach after just one group stage match. In the expanded 48-team tournament format, Tunisia still holds a narrow path to advance out of Group F, but Renard will have zero room for error when he makes his dugout debut against Japan on Sunday.

    At 57, Renard joins an exclusive club of elite managers to lead three different nations at consecutive World Cup finals, following his stints with Morocco in 2018 and Saudi Arabia in 2022. It was in Qatar 2022 where Renard cemented his reputation for giant-killing, masterminding a iconic group stage upset over eventual champions Argentina, despite Argentina and Lionel Messi taking an early lead in the match.

    When approached by the Tunisian Football Federation about the vacancy, Renard did not hesitate to accept the high-stakes role. “It’s a challenge that isn’t easy, but it’s a motivating challenge,” the manager stated following his official appointment on Tuesday.

    Beyond the famous crisp white shirts he wears while pacing the touchline, Renard’s path to top-level international management has been defined by hard-won experience and humble beginnings. Before his rise to global prominence, he balanced early coaching work with overnight cleaning shifts to make ends meet, a chapter of his career he credits with shaping his relentless work ethic.

    “I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, finished around noon and then left at 5pm for training at Draguignan. That was my rhythm of life for eight years,” Renard told BBC Sport Africa in a 2019 interview. While working his cleaning shift, Renard also studied to earn his coaching qualifications, and he says that grueling period gave him a grounded perspective on his career. “It’s the best schooling I could have had. You have to go through some failures and difficult times but it makes you stronger,” he added.

    Renard’s coaching resume is one of the most varied in international football, including stints with club sides across France, England, Vietnam and Algeria, plus leadership roles with six different senior national teams. He remains the only manager in history to claim the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) title with two separate nations: he delivered a fairy-tale 2012 triumph for Zambia against Ivory Coast, then guided the Ivory Coast side to the same trophy just three years later.

    Longtime Zambian sports journalist Nkweto Tembwe describes Renard as a relentless workaholic and master tactician, whose attention to opponent scouting sets him apart from other managers. “He does a lot of reading to make sure he keeps up with the trends that are going on. He [studies] opponents like he’s studying for an exam,” Tembwe told BBC Sport Africa, adding that Renard’s pre-match motivational speeches were the key to Zambia’s unexpected 2012 Afcon run. “If you listen to Herve’s pep talk in the semi-final against Ghana, you realise that Zambia won that match in the dressing room,” Tembwe said. “He described every player there and told the Zambia players what to do [and] especially what not to do. The famous white shirt delivered.”

    While Renard’s African success is unparalleled, his recent career has brought mixed results. He failed to advance past the knockout stages in Afcon tournaments with Morocco, then coached France’s women’s national team to quarter-final finishes at both the 2023 Women’s World Cup and 2024 Olympics. He returned to lead Saudi Arabia in October 2024 and guided the nation to qualification for the 2026 World Cup, but was surprisingly dismissed in April this year, opening the door for Tunisia’s approach.

    Renard has long been the first choice for many African national teams seeking a new manager, but his high salary demands and contract commitments have often blocked potential deals. During the 2023 Afcon hosted by Ivory Coast, the nation attempted to rehire Renard after sacking Jean-Louis Gasset, but the French Football Federation refused to release him from his contract with the French women’s side. A Nigerian football official even described Renard’s financial demands as “practically outrageous” when the Super Eagles attempted to recruit him in late 2024.

    For Tunisia, this appointment marks Renard’s fifth leadership role with an African national side, following his earlier stints with Zambia, Angola, Ivory Coast and Morocco. Beyond the historic milestone of managing three different countries at consecutive World Cups (a feat only achieved by a handful of managers including Bora Milutinovic, Carlos Alberto Parreira and Guus Hiddink), Renard is also chasing a personal milestone: he has never advanced past the group stage of a men’s World Cup finals.

    Renard’s immediate priority is fixing Tunisia’s leaky defensive structure, which conceded five goals to Sweden just days after allowing five in a pre-tournament warm-up loss to Belgium. The French manager, known for his strict disciplinary approach, has already called on his new squad to put the opening defeat behind them and refocus on their upcoming matches against Japan and the Netherlands. “I just told them we have to hold our heads high… you’re here to represent the country, Tunisia. It’s an honour, it’s a duty,” Renard said. “We owe it to ourselves to do much better.”

    Renard already has prior experience facing Japan during World Cup qualifying with Saudi Arabia, and he will draw on that knowledge to push for Tunisia’s first ever knockout stage appearance at a World Cup. If he can pull off the comeback and secure Tunisia a spot in the round of 32, it will add yet another legendary entry to Renard’s already remarkable coaching career.

  • Vietnamese man deported from U.S. to South Sudan is repatriated after months in detention

    Vietnamese man deported from U.S. to South Sudan is repatriated after months in detention

    JUBA, South Sudan – More than a year after being transferred to South Sudan as part of the former Trump administration’s divisive third-country deportation initiative, a Vietnamese national has finally returned to his home country, shedding new light on the opaque and widely criticized program that resettles non-U.S. citizens with completed criminal sentences in third-party African nations.

    Forty-four-year-old Tuan Phan, who moved to the United States as a child in 1991, was formally repatriated to Vietnam on Friday, South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed during a weekly press briefing. Spokesperson Agok Anyar noted that throughout his more than 12 months in South Sudanese custody, Phan maintained good conduct and remained in stable health, for which the ministry expressed gratitude.

    Phan’s journey to Juba was tangled in legal dispute from the start. He and seven other male deportees were first rerouted to a U.S. military base in Djibouti in May 2025, after a federal judge paused their flight to South Sudan over documented procedural violations in their deportation orders. It was not until a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for their removal that the group finally arrived in South Sudan’s capital aboard a U.S. military aircraft two months later.

    All eight men had already served full prison sentences for U.S. criminal convictions when Immigration and Customs Enforcement took them into immigration custody last year. Phan’s conviction dates back to 2000, shortly after he turned 18, when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a fatal shooting during a gang altercation. His deportation was first ordered in 2009, and he was taken directly into ICE custody upon his release from prison in March 2025.

    The third-country deportation program, negotiated by the Trump administration, has secured agreements from at least seven African nations to accept deportees who are not their native citizens, in exchange for millions of dollars in U.S. financial assistance. Monitoring group Third Country Deportation Watch estimates that more than 180 people have been transferred to these participating nations to date.

    The decision to place deportees in South Sudan has drawn particularly sharp condemnation from human rights groups, due to the country’s well-documented poor human rights record, systemic widespread corruption, and escalating political instability. United Nations data confirms that ongoing armed conflict in South Sudan displaced over half a million people in 2025 alone, creating a fragile humanitarian crisis across much of the country.

    A U.S. Senate investigation into the conditions of the South Sudan transfers found that the eight deportees were held in a walled, gated residential compound under constant armed guard. The report also documented that for months, no independent observers outside of South Sudanese government officials had access to the group, with a congressional aide becoming the first external visitor during a trip to Juba late last year.

    Michael Bochenek, senior counsel for global human rights nonprofit Human Rights Watch, emphasized that the lack of independent access creates dangerous gaps in oversight. “There’s been no independent check on people’s treatment and conditions of confinement, and this raises serious questions about South Sudan’s compliance with human rights norms and essential safeguards against abuses in detention,” Bochenek explained.

    Unlike publicized agreements with other participating African nations, the full terms of the U.S. deal with South Sudan remain undisclosed. Declassified State Department records do show that South Sudan submitted specific requests to U.S. officials after agreeing to accept the deportees, including demands for sanctions relief for a former senior government official and U.S. support for the prosecution of a high-profile opposition leader. It remains unclear what financial or other concessions the U.S. provided to South Sudan’s government in exchange for accepting the group.

    Phan is the second member of the eight-person group to leave South Sudan for repatriation. Jesus Munõz-Gutierrez, a Mexican national in the group, was returned to Mexico in September. Dian Peter Domach, the only South Sudanese citizen among the eight, was released from custody immediately upon arrival. The four remaining deportees are nationals of Cuba, Myanmar, and Laos, and their future status remains unclear.

  • Zimbabwe MPs pass bill to extend president’s time in power

    Zimbabwe MPs pass bill to extend president’s time in power

    Zimbabwe’s political landscape has been thrown into sharp debate after the country’s lower house of parliament passed a sweeping constitutional amendment that will extend presidential terms from five to seven years and allow 83-year-old incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa to stay in office until 2030, two years beyond his previously scheduled departure.

    The vote held on Thursday delivered a decisive victory for ruling party Zanu-PF, which has held continuous power since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. Final tallies showed 216 lawmakers backing the amendment, easily clearing the constitutionally required two-thirds majority threshold of 187 votes needed to change the nation’s founding charter. Only 42 parliamentarians cast votes against the controversial proposal.

    Beyond extending Mnangagwa’s current term, the amendment carries far-reaching changes to Zimbabwe’s political system. It scraps direct public presidential elections, a system that has been in place since 1990, and transfers the power to select the head of state to parliament itself. It also extends parliamentary terms from five to seven years and pushes the next scheduled parliamentary election, originally planned for 2028, back to 2030.

    The proposal is the end result of a months-long push by Zanu-PF, which secured cabinet backing for the constitutional amendment plan back in February. The bill will now move to Zimbabwe’s senate for a final vote, where political observers widely predict it will pass, before heading to Mnangagwa to be signed into law.

    This development marks a striking reversal for the president, who has previously positioned himself as a committed constitutionalist and publicly pledged to respect the existing two-term limit that was set to see him step down in 2028. Mnangagwa first rose to the presidency in 2017, when he ousted long-time authoritarian ruler Robert Mugabe in a military-backed takeover. He subsequently won contested national elections in both 2018 and 2023, results that have faced widespread scrutiny from international observers and opposition groups.

    Opposition voices, civil society organizations, and constitutional legal experts have united in criticism of the amendment process, arguing that such a fundamental restructuring of Zimbabwe’s political system requires approval via a national public referendum, rather than a vote solely by sitting lawmakers. Their criticism draws on the text of the 2013 constitution, which currently states that any change to presidential term limits must be approved by voters in a public referendum, and that a sitting president cannot personally benefit from an extension without explicit voter approval in a second public vote.

    A last-ditch legal challenge to block the bill was heard and dismissed by Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court just one day before the lower house vote, clearing the way for Thursday’s proceeding.

    When Mnangagwa first took office, many observers and domestic supporters hoped he would usher in a new era of democratic reform and economic recovery for the struggling southern African nation. Instead, his tenure has been defined by persistent severe economic crises, repeated disputed electoral contests, and growing international and domestic concern over steady democratic backsliding.

    The amendment has intensified long-simmering tensions over Zimbabwe’s political trajectory. Opponents warn that the changes will drastically weaken democratic accountability and consolidate one-party control, while proponents of the amendment argue the longer terms and shifted election process are necessary to deliver political continuity and national stability as the country works to address its deep economic challenges.

  • A crucial tool of the slave trade, shackles evoke an ugly part of America’s past

    A crucial tool of the slave trade, shackles evoke an ugly part of America’s past

    Three centuries of transatlantic chattel slavery inflicted unfathomable brutality on more than 12 million kidnapped Africans, and few artifacts embody that dehumanizing violence as viscerally as the iron restraints used to control enslaved people. Today, one set of these 400-year-old Ghana-crafted shackles holds a new, transformative purpose at the Roots 101 African American Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, helping visitors confront the unvarnished reality of America’s racial history long buried by incomplete or rewritten historical narratives.

    Donated to the museum by a collector and activist, the shackles are not merely a static display piece for founder Lamont Collins, who launched the institution in 2020. For Collins, the relic is a living educational tool: he invites willing visitors to place the heavy irons on their own wrists to feel the weight of a history that cannot be denied or revised.

    The shackles on display are far more than ordinary metalwork. Designed for every part of the human body — wrists, ankles, waists, and necks — they were even forged in small sizes to restrain enslaved children. For the European and American traders who profited from the transatlantic slave trade, these restraints were nothing more than practical tools to keep the forced migration system running smoothly. Enslaved people were crammed by the hundreds into the holds of transatlantic slave ships during the deadly Middle Passage, chained together at markets across the American Deep South, and marched in chained lines called coffles across vast stretches of land — a sight that was once commonplace across the young United States.

    Beyond physical restraint, the shackles served a darker psychological purpose: they reinforced the constant message that freedom was an impossible dream for enslaved people. They were used as punishment for resistance and a deterrent against future uprisings. Special collar shackles were even fitted with bells or sharpened spikes to help slave catchers track and recapture people who dared to escape bondage.

    Last year, a viral social media video showing Collins fastening the shackles around the wrists of a white visitor pushed the museum’s unconventional educational approach into the national spotlight. Collins attributes the video’s traction to a growing national hunger for honest conversations about race, even as political and cultural movements across the U.S. push back against teaching full and accurate accounts of American slavery.

    Collins has observed that many people approach the history of slavery saying they want to learn, but only on their own comfortable terms. After wearing the shackles, many white visitors have broken down in tears, overwhelmed by the tangible weight of the violence the object represents. Others refuse to go through with the experience, stepping back even as Collins is about to fasten the restraints.

    To those who decline, Collins poses a sharp, unflinching question: “Why can’t I put these on you for two seconds, when we had them on for 200 years?” That question, he says, is exactly the point: the exercise is designed to spark the difficult, necessary conversations that many prefer to avoid.

    This report is part of *American Objects*, a recurring series marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, exploring how ordinary and extraordinary objects have shaped the nation’s history and identity.