Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Queiroz returns as Ghana head coach

    Queiroz returns as Ghana head coach

    In a unexpected turn of events that has caught the attention of global football circles, 73-year-old veteran football manager Carlos Queiroz has been reappointed as the head coach of Ghana’s men’s senior national team, the Black Stars, just months after his apparent departure following the 2024 FIFA World Cup.

    Queiroz first took the helm of the West African side in April this year, and steered the squad through a solid World Cup campaign that saw them advance to the round of 16, where they bowed out with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Colombia. Immediately after that final match, the experienced manager seemed to confirm his exit via a social media post, leading many to assume his tenure with Ghana had come to a close.

    However, after a series of internal deliberations, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has opted to bring Queiroz back for a second spell in charge. While the governing body has not yet released details on the length of his new contract, it confirmed in an official statement that the manager will be tasked with guiding the Black Stars into what the association calls “a successful new phase on the international stage”.

    “The GFA believes Queiroz’s extensive international experience, technical expertise and knowledge of the Black Stars position him strongly to lead the team into this next chapter,” the statement read.

    Queiroz brings an unparalleled level of global tournament experience to the role, having managed at five consecutive FIFA World Cups— a rare achievement for any coach. Prior to his first stint with Ghana, he has led national sides including Iran, Portugal, Egypt, South Africa, Colombia and Qatar at the highest level of international competition. He also previously built his reputation as a top tactical mind during two separate stints as assistant manager to Sir Alex Ferguson at English Premier League giants Manchester United.

    The GFA noted that further details surrounding Queiroz’s new mandate, including contract terms and performance targets, will be made public at a later date. Queiroz will kick off his second tenure with the Black Stars immediately, leading the team into 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, which are set to kick off later this month.

    Ghana has been drawn into Group C for the qualifiers, where they will face off against regional powerhouses Ivory Coast, The Gambia and Somalia. At present, the Black Stars have not yet confirmed the dates or host venues for their first two qualifying fixtures.

  • Algerians battle deadly wildfires as Tebboune seeks death penalty for arson

    Algerians battle deadly wildfires as Tebboune seeks death penalty for arson

    A devastating and historically unmatched outbreak of wildfires has swept across northern Algeria, leaving widespread death, ecological destruction, and political upheaval in its wake. The inferno has carved a continuous line of flames from central Algeria all the way to the country’s far eastern border, forcing emergency responders to mount a desperate, resource-stretched battle to contain the blaze.

    This week, Civil Protection teams backed by army units continued to fight reignited flare-ups in the eastern provinces of Sétif and Guelma, where thousands of hectares of old-growth forest have already turned to ash. The worst-hit region is Jijel, a popular coastal province located 120 miles east of the capital Algiers, once celebrated for its pristine sandy shorelines, clear turquoise waters, and rolling hills covered in olive groves, fruit orchards, and ancient cedar forests. Today, the entire 1,200-square-kilometer expanse of Jijel’s forests is reduced to smoldering cinders and blackened stumps.

    Discrepancies over the official death toll have emerged as a major point of tension following the disaster. The Algerian Interior Ministry initially reported a national death toll of 12, all from Jijel, when the crisis escalated in late August. But on-the-ground accounts and social media footage suggest the actual number of fatalities is far higher. Videos posted online show dozens of coffins lined up alongside open mass graves, awaiting burial as high temperatures accelerate decomposition of remains.

    “After 40 years in Civil Protection fighting wildfires, I have never seen a catastrophe on this scale — human, environmental, and material. There are hundreds of dead,” Lieutenant Djabri Said told the Associated Press in an on-site interview. One high-profile case underscores the scale of the tragedy: Abdelwahab Boukrouh, a journalist with the Algerian presidency’s communications department, announced via Facebook that 12 members of his own family were killed when the fire swept through their mountain village of Ouled Riyah on the night of August 22–23, with three more relatives still unaccounted for. The victims included women, children, and elderly residents trapped in their small rural homes before they could escape. Thousands of livestock — cattle, sheep, goats, mules and donkeys — also perished in the flames, their charred remains scattered along the steep mountain paths leading to destroyed villages, where little remains of residential structures except smoking piles of rubble.

    All private and public media in Algeria operate under state oversight, and most have stuck to the official 12-death toll in their coverage, while focusing heavily on ministerial visits and state-led relief efforts. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune cut short his summer vacation to oversee the response, visiting burn victims in specialized Algiers hospitals, declaring a three-day national period of mourning, and calling an emergency Cabinet meeting. The meeting designated the Jijel region a disaster zone and unlocked emergency funding for response and recovery operations.

    A spontaneous grassroots movement of national solidarity has emerged across the country, with convoys of private and volunteer trucks carrying emergency food, medication, bottled water, and clothing streaming into fire-ravaged mountain villages. Tebboune has also announced state-funded compensation for all affected families and pledged that the government will cover the full cost of rebuilding destroyed homes. Priority has been given to repairing damaged schools to ensure they are ready for the new academic year scheduled to begin September 21.

    The disaster has sparked a heated national political debate over the president’s proposal to reinstate capital punishment for anyone found guilty of arson connected to the wildfires. Tebboune has dismissed unsubstantiated claims of organized intentional sabotage, known locally as conspiracy theories, and instead aligned his explanation with global scientific consensus: he noted that numerous Mediterranean countries, including France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, all faced extreme wildfire outbreaks this summer, driven by rising temperatures and arid conditions linked to climate change. Climate researchers have repeatedly warned that human-caused global warming is increasing both the frequency and intensity of heatwaves and droughts across the Mediterranean basin, creating ideal conditions for destructive wildfires.

    Even so, Tebboune acknowledged that “criminal hands” may have played a role in starting some blazes, and announced that all investigations are ongoing. He went on to announce that anyone convicted of arson in connection with the fires will face the death penalty, confirming that the country will end a moratorium on executions that has been in place since 1993. That year marked Algeria’s last confirmed executions, when three Islamist militants were put to death for a deadly attack at Algiers International Airport.

    Reaction to the announcement has split sharply along political lines. Parties that support Tebboune’s administration, including major Islamist political groups, have backed the proposal. However, opposition parties linked to Algeria’s pro-democracy movement and multiple leading human rights organizations have condemned the move, describing it as a dangerous retreat into authoritarian practice and a deliberate distraction from perceived failures in government wildfire management and prevention.

  • Were Christians the target of the Palm Sunday attack in Nigeria?

    Were Christians the target of the Palm Sunday attack in Nigeria?

    On March 29, a violent outbreak of gunfire shook the city of Jos, Nigeria, leaving investigators and local communities grappling with a critical question: were Christians specifically targeted for attack on one of Christianity’s most sacred holy days, Palm Sunday?

    The attack, which unfolded in the bustling central Nigerian city, saw unidentified gunmen launch a sudden assault, opening fire on civilian targets before fleeing the scene. In the immediate aftermath of the violence, conflicting reports have emerged about the motivation behind the shooting, with regional security forces yet to release a full breakdown of the attack’s perpetrators, casualties, or underlying motives.

    Jos, located in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, has long been a flashpoint for intercommunal tensions, which often overlap with religious and ethnic divides. The timing of the attack, falling on Palm Sunday – a day that marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christian communities around the world – has fueled speculation that the attack was deliberately planned to target worshippers gathered for religious observances.

    Local security agencies have launched a manhunt for the assailants, while community leaders have called for calm as investigations continue. Nigerian authorities have not yet confirmed whether the attack was religiously motivated, but the incident has already drawn international attention to the persistent security challenges facing the West African nation, where violent attacks targeting civilian populations remain a recurring crisis.

  • UN warns of ‘supersized’ El Niño as countries prepare for impact

    UN warns of ‘supersized’ El Niño as countries prepare for impact

    United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has issued a stark warning that the globe has entered a ‘danger zone of extreme weather’ as a historically powerful El Niño event begins to send disruptive impacts across every continent. New data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a UN specialized agency, indicates this climate event could become the strongest El Niño recorded in more than 70 years, with its far-reaching effects expected to persist through at least February 2027.

    El Niño, a natural climate pattern originating in the tropical Pacific Ocean driven by shifting trade winds that push warm surface water eastward, triggers profound disruptions to global weather systems. It creates prolonged drought in some regions while supercharging typhoons and catastrophic flooding in others, and amplifies global surface temperatures on top of the long-term warming already driven by human-caused climate change.

    “El Niño is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up,” Guterres stated in his warning.

    Latest ocean temperature readings confirm the rapid strengthening of this event. In recent months, sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific have spiked dramatically, with key monitoring regions recording readings more than 2°C above the long-term average. Forecasts project monthly anomalies could approach 4°C above average in the coming months, pushing this event past the ‘very strong’ threshold to become the most intense El Niño since at least 1950, potentially by a substantial margin. Even more striking anomalies have been recorded below the ocean surface, where some areas are more than 8°C warmer than average.

    Above-normal ocean temperatures are also projected across the Indian Ocean, tropical Atlantic, and sections of Australia’s coastline, bringing heightened risk to the country’s unique marine ecosystems. Australia has already seen a string of climate change-fueled marine heatwaves in recent years, and El Niño typically amplifies the extreme ocean heat that drives these events.

    Dr. Alistair Hobday, chief researcher at Australia’s national science agency, told the BBC that while forecasts predict the Great Barrier Reef will avoid the most severe heat stress this year – giving vulnerable coral populations valuable additional recovery time – southern parts of the country face extreme impacts. When the region last suffered a major marine heatwave, the event caused mass penguin starvation, large-scale fish die-offs, toxic algal blooms, and widespread jellyfish invasions. Australia has rolled out new early warning systems for marine crises that allow policymakers to activate financial support for fishing industries, relocate at-risk species, and step up coral monitoring, but Hobday acknowledged deep concern over the unprecedented intensity of the approaching event.

    The WMO projects major shifts to global rainfall patterns over the coming months, with impacts that will ripple through communities and global trade. Much of Southeast Asia, Central America, and northern South America are forecast to see far drier conditions than average, raising the risks of severe drought and destructive wildfires. In anticipation of low rainfall that will limit water levels along its key shipping route, the Panama Canal will cut daily vessel transits by more than 10% starting this week. The canal supports 14,000 annual ship passages, serves as a critical artery for global trade, and generates roughly $3 billion in annual revenue for Panama, making the cuts a significant economic concern.

    In Indonesia, authorities are already working to contain wildfires that have burned over 107,000 hectares of land across the country this extended dry season. A Central Kalimantan resident told BBC News Indonesia that blazes have burned for more than a month, leaving thick smoke that stings the eyes and lingers in the air. The government has deployed cloud-seeding aircraft to trigger rainfall, allocated emergency resources, and arrested dozens of people accused of intentionally setting fires to clear land for development.

    Across the globe, other regions face the opposite risk: above-average rainfall and devastating flooding. Eastern Africa, southern Brazil, and the southern United States all face elevated flood risk, while China has already seen a surge in typhoon activity linked to the super El Niño, with seven storms projected to make landfall this year. Three typhoons hit the country in July alone, leaving dozens dead, and more than one million people were evacuated as Typhoon Dolphin brought destructive winds and torrential rain in August.

    WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo warned that El Niño “has the potential to deliver a massive blow to communities and economies across the world. We are already seeing disruption and devastation from droughts and floods and we expect these impacts to increase as El Niño intensifies.”

    All these risks are compounded by long-term anthropogenic climate change, which amplifies the intensity of extreme weather events linked to El Niño. While some research suggests climate change may be making individual El Niño events stronger, this hypothesis has not yet been confirmed by consensus science.

    Peru, which borders the warming eastern Pacific, is among the most vulnerable nations to this event. Past strong El Niños have brought extreme rainfall, deadly flash floods, and destructive landslides to Peru, neighboring Ecuador, and parts of Brazil, particularly in densely populated urban areas with poor drainage.

    Miguel Aréstegui, climate resilience lead at the non-profit Practical Action which supports extreme weather preparedness in vulnerable nations, said that while the scale of the event warrants serious concern, that urgency should translate to preparedness rather than panic. Aréstegui noted that Practical Action and its partners have spent years expanding public access to early warning systems, including real-time data on river levels, flood risk, and weather forecasts. At the end of last month, the U.S. announced it would deploy the hospital ship USNS Comfort to the Peruvian coast to provide additional medical support and technical equipment ahead of the event’s peak intensity.

    Even with these preparedness measures, Aréstegui emphasized that El Niño’s impacts are worsened by long-standing structural vulnerabilities that take far longer to address. “El Niño does not arrive in a vacuum,” he said, pointing to unplanned housing in high-risk flood zones, fragile water and sanitation infrastructure, and under-resourced healthcare systems as persistent challenges that amplify harm from extreme weather.

    To respond to the event, the WMO has launched a major global mobilization effort to distribute El Niño-linked extreme weather forecasts to as many at-risk communities as possible. While many nations have strengthened early warning systems and pre-positioned emergency medical support, the unprecedented intensity of this event has raised sharp concerns about outcomes for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

  • ‘The crowd shouted that we’d stolen someone’s genitals’ – deadly rumours spread on social media

    ‘The crowd shouted that we’d stolen someone’s genitals’ – deadly rumours spread on social media

    Between October 2025 and July 2026, more than 80 people have been killed by mobs across six African nations following baseless accusations of so-called ‘genital theft’, an investigation by the BBC Global Disinformation Unit has confirmed. The killings are tied to a dangerous viral rumor that claims a simple tap on the shoulder from an alleged thief can cause a man’s genitals to shrink or disappear entirely — a myth that has been amplified and supercharged by widespread misinformation shared across major social media platforms.

    Boniface Mgala, a 40-something mechanic from Tanzania, survived a brutal attack in April that left his friend dead. In an interview with the BBC from his home in Mpemba, near the border trading hub of Tunduma, Mgala described the terrifying ordeal that left him with permanent physical scars. He and his friend had stopped for lunch at a local restaurant after meeting a client about a car sale, when a large mob dragged them both outside. The crowd was screaming that the pair had stolen a man’s genitals, and there was no way to escape.

    Mgala lost consciousness during the beating, and woke up two days later in a hospital to learn his friend had been killed by the mob. Today, he walks with a limp, suffers from constant headaches, and has not been able to return to work at his mechanic shop. Visible scars mark his head and chin, and he lost a tooth in the attack. Even months later, the emotional trauma remains raw. “It still hurts me deeply when I think back to the senseless manner my friend died,” Mgala told the BBC. “To suddenly find yourself being pelted with stones for no reason, and then end up losing your life?”

    On the same day of Mgala’s attack, a 23-year-old commercial photographer named Michael Silavwe witnessed a second fatal assault in Tunduma. He told the BBC that anxiety had been building for weeks after videos about genital theft began circulating on TikTok. He saw a crowd beat a man accused of theft, then set him on fire before police arrived and the crowd scattered. Locals like 50-year-old tailor Asha Steven Mwakilasa say they now understand the rumors are untrue, but the fear lingers. “I still get anxious when my husband or sons are out,” she said, though she added that increased police patrols have helped ease some of the tension.

    Local officials say some of the violence has been deliberately stoked for personal gain. “Local investigations suggest there was deliberate criminal intent behind some of the incidents,” Momba district commissioner Elias Daniel Mwandobo told the BBC. “Individuals conspired to commit a crime and incite public panic for their own benefits.”

    The current wave of rumors traces its origins back to last year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where similar accusations first emerged in 2008. From there, the false claims spread across the region to Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, and Kenya. In Zambia, the first fatal lynching linked to the rumors occurred in March, before the panic crossed the border into Tanzania.

    The BBC Global Disinformation Unit has verified multiple videos of these attacks circulating across TikTok and Facebook, including one recording of a beating that has been viewed more than 100,000 times. Many of the videos, including those that show graphic mob violence, remain accessible on the platforms. A Meta spokesperson told the BBC the company is reviewing the shared content and will remove any posts that violate its policies. TikTok has not responded to requests for comment from the BBC.

    Anthropologist Julien Bonhomme, author of *The Sex Thieves: The Anthropology of a Rumor*, explains that social media has fundamentally changed how these rumors spread. Unlike previous outbreaks, today’s rumors are amplified by user-generated videos that show distressed men claiming to be victims, and crowds attacking alleged thieves. “Videos shared on social media can make unverified claims appear more believable because of their immediacy,” Bonhomme says. “That’s one of the most significant differences between the current digital environment and earlier outbreaks.”

    Mozambique has been the worst-affected country, with 55 people killed in just six weeks ending in May, according to local police. The fatalities include a police officer and two healthcare workers, who were attacked at their home and workplace in Cabo Delgado province — a region already grappling with a decade-long Islamist insurgency that has displaced thousands of people. Following the attacks, local health facilities were closed for weeks while authorities launched public awareness campaigns to counter the false claims.

    Mozambican President Daniel Chapo has publicly condemned the rumors and the resulting violence, emphasizing that the claims are completely baseless and that the government has found no medical evidence to support any claims of genital theft. Officials have noted that some of the widespread fear may be linked to Koro syndrome, also called genital retraction hysteria, a well-documented mental health condition characterized by the false belief that one’s genitals are shrinking or disappearing.

    The most recent violence has occurred in Kenya, where five people were killed by mobs in the coastal counties of Kwale and Mombasa. Mombasa County Commissioner Mohamed Noor blames content creators for spreading the false claims to boost their own engagement. “These creators spread misinformation simply to attract views and attention,” Noor said. “Such misinformation can easily lead to loss of life.” Police have since contained the violence and made multiple arrests, including a father and son who were sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a woman they accused of genital theft. In neighboring Malawi, eight people have been killed in mob attacks linked to the same rumors.

    While the rumors themselves are rooted in longstanding superstitions about witchcraft that persist in many rural African communities, the speed and scale of the current violence is directly tied to the power of social media to amplify misinformation and incite panic.

  • Sharpeville massacre survivors start legal fight for justice in South Africa

    Sharpeville massacre survivors start legal fight for justice in South Africa

    Sixty-six years after surviving one of the defining atrocities of South Africa’s apartheid regime, 86-year-old Abraham Mofokeng still bears the physical scars of the Sharpeville massacre. A bullet remains embedded in his spine, and a decades-old gunshot wound to his leg leaves him with a permanent, gentle limp. For Mofokeng, however, the unhealed wound is not physical: it is the absence of justice that has lingered through three decades of post-apartheid democracy. Now, he and fellow survivors are launching a groundbreaking legal challenge to tear down the last legal barrier holding that justice back.

    On March 21, 1960, a 20-year-old Mofokeng joined thousands of peaceful Black demonstrators who gathered in the Gauteng township of Sharpeville to protest the racist pass laws that defined apartheid oppression. Enforced by the white-minority government, these laws required all Black South Africans to carry a dompas – an identity document that restricted their movement, barred them from “whites-only” areas, and allowed authorities to arrest, beat, or expel anyone caught without proper documentation. What began as a peaceful march to the local police station devolved into a bloodbath when security forces opened fire on the unarmed crowd.

    Recent historical research has revised the official death toll upward to as many as 91 people killed, with more than 200 injured. Another survivor, 90-year-old Larazus Magotsi, still carries vivid, traumatic memories of that day. Hiding in a local store as gunfire erupted, he watched police shoot wounded protesters who tried to rise from the ground, and hack at still-moving victims with machetes. More than 1,300 rounds were fired into the crowd, leaving bodies strewn across Sharpeville’s streets. Archive photos from the immediate aftermath show officers walking calmly among the fallen.

    The massacre shocked the world, exposing the inherent violence of South Africa’s apartheid system and becoming a turning point for the global anti-apartheid movement. But just one year after the killings, the apartheid government passed the 1961 Indemnity Act, a law that granted full legal immunity to all police officers and government officials involved in the massacre, shielding them from both criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. Remarkably, more than 30 years after apartheid ended and South Africa transitioned to democratic rule under Nelson Mandela in 1994, this racist law remains on the country’s statute books.

    That is about to change. This Thursday, a new legal challenge led by South African human rights group Lawyers for Human Rights, in partnership with UK-based law firm Leigh Day, will be launched at the South African High Court. The case argues that the 1961 Indemnity Act is unconstitutional under the country’s post-apartheid bill of rights, which came into force in 1994. If the court grants class action certification – a core part of the application – up to 70 survivors and family members of those killed will be able to launch a collective lawsuit against the South African state. A ruling against the indemnity law could also open the door to criminal prosecutions for any surviving perpetrators.

    Lead lawyer Charne Tracey explains that the fight is not just about individual damages. For the residents of Sharpeville, which remains a neglected, crumbling township decades after apartheid, the case is also about long-overdue reparations and collective healing. “Apart from the individual damages, what the community’s looking for is basically reparations to enable their healing. They feel as though Sharpeville is a forgotten community,” Tracey said. “Nothing has been done that assists with their healing and improvement of their quality of life, or remedy the long-term effects of what they’ve suffered.”

    Constitutional law expert Professor Frans Viljoen supports the challenge, noting that South Africa’s post-1994 constitution retained existing laws until they are formally repealed or struck down. Striking down the indemnity act, he says, would be a critical step to “cleanse us of that past” and close a dark, unfinished chapter of South African history. “Although South Africa has a very transformative constitution… The principle of continuity of statehood still applies, which is why the case can be brought against the current state,” Viljoen explained.

    South Africa’s post-apartheid government did establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to investigate apartheid-era crimes. The TRC offered amnesty to perpetrators who fully disclosed their actions, and it was widely praised for advancing national dialogue. But for Sharpeville survivors, the process fell far short: no police officers involved in the massacre ever applied for amnesty, and no perpetrators were held criminally responsible. The South African government told the BBC it has supported apartheid victims over decades, having distributed roughly $31 million in individual grants to 560 TRC-recognized victims, and it does not oppose the current legal action.

    Today, Sharpeville’s Human Rights Precinct memorial stands with 69 white pillars, each honoring one of the originally counted victims who lost their lives that day. But the township itself remains marked by neglect: once-paved roads have eroded back to dirt, many residents still live in the small, cramped brick homes built under apartheid, and piles of rubbish accumulate across the dry, barren landscape. For survivors like Mofokeng, a court victory overturning the indemnity law would not just deliver justice for the dead and injured – it would bring long-delayed healing for survivors and future generations alike.

    “Apartheid is dead and buried. A win would bring complete healing, not just for us, but for future generations as well,” Mofokeng said. “Considering how people died, many have not completely healed.”

  • Wolves announce signing of defender Konan

    Wolves announce signing of defender Konan

    English Championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers has pulled off an unusual late addition to its squad, confirming the signing of Ivorian international left-back Ghislain Konan nearly a full day after the summer transfer window officially closed. The 30-year-old, who has earned 57 caps for the Ivory Coast national team and featured in this summer’s World Cup tournament, has put pen to paper on a one-year contract with the Midlands side.

    The transfer fills a sudden vacancy in Wolves’ first-team squad that opened up when full-back David Moller Wolfe completed his deadline-day move to German club SV Hamburg. Konan also brings existing familiarity with Wolves’ newly appointed head coach Cesar Peixoto, having played under Peixoto during a 2024-25 season stint at Portuguese top-flight side Gil Vicente.

    A product of famed Ivorian youth academy ASEC Mimosas, Konan launched his professional career in his home country before making the move to European football with Portugal’s Vitoria Guimaraes. In 2018, he joined French Ligue 1 side Stade de Reims, where he established himself as a regular starter over five seasons. After his time in France, Konan’s career took him across multiple leagues: he spent two stints in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Nassr and later Al-Fayha, played half a season in Spain’s Segunda Division with Burgos, and most recently lined up for Gil Vicente in Portugal’s Primeira Liga last term.

    The signing wraps up Wolves’ summer transfer business, addressing a last-minute departure with an experienced defensive option who already has a working relationship with the club’s new coaching staff.

  • Uber shuts operations in Nigeria and Uganda with immediate effect

    Uber shuts operations in Nigeria and Uganda with immediate effect

    The global ride-hailing powerhouse Uber has delivered a sudden shake-up to its African operations, announcing an immediate full withdrawal from Nigeria — the continent’s most populous nation — and the East African country of Uganda. The company framed the exit as a “difficult decision” reached following a comprehensive review of its global business portfolio, ending 12 years of service in Nigeria and 8 years in Uganda, where it launched in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

    The pullout comes as the company faces broader cost-cutting pressures worldwide: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently confirmed the firm would slash 10% of its global workforce to align with shifting economic conditions. This latest exit marks the fourth African market Uber has abandoned in just 12 months, following earlier departures from Ivory Coast and Tanzania. After the restructuring, only four African countries will retain Uber operations: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.

    In an official statement shared with the BBC, the company emphasized that the exit is isolated to Nigeria and Uganda, noting, “This decision is limited strictly to these two markets and does not impact our operations across the rest of the continent. We remain committed to sub-Saharan Africa, where we continue to see strong growth and opportunity.”

    Long before the exit announcement, Uber had faced mounting operational headwinds in Nigeria. For years, local drivers have organized protests over uncompetitive app fares that failed to keep pace with skyrocketing fuel costs, alongside criticism that Uber’s commission fees cut too deeply into drivers’ already thin profits. Intense competition from rival platforms, including European rival Bolt, Russian-founded inDrive, and a growing cohort of domestic ride-hailing startups, also squeezed Uber’s market share in the country.

    Over its decade-long tenure in Nigeria, Uber experimented with innovative service expansions to adapt to local conditions. In Lagos, the economic heartbeat of the country and one of the most gridlocked cities on Earth, the company launched a water taxi service in 2019 to help commuters avoid the city’s legendary daily traffic jams that routinely disrupt commercial and daily life. However, even these adaptations could not offset the increasingly challenging operating environment that has plagued all ride-hailing operators in Nigeria in recent years.

    The situation worsened dramatically after Nigerian President Bola Tinubu removed decades-old national fuel subsidies following his 2023 election, a policy shift that sent fuel prices soaring and pushed up the cost of living across the country. This year, drivers were hit by a second wave of price increases, driven by global market volatility tied to the ongoing tensions between the United States and Iran.

    For commuters in Uganda’s capital Kampala, Uber’s exit will bring significant changes to daily travel, local newspaper Daily Monitor reports. However, industry analysts note that the gap left by Uber will almost certainly be filled quickly by existing local and regional competitors, including Faras, Bolt, and motorcycle ride-hailing platform SafeBoda.

    Uber has stated that it will provide support to all employees and drivers affected by the exit in both markets. The company’s local support centers will remain operational through September 23 to resolve any outstanding payments, account issues, or other concerns for users and workers in the two countries.

  • Uganda names its crude oil blend ‘Pearl Sweet’ ahead of commercial production

    Uganda names its crude oil blend ‘Pearl Sweet’ ahead of commercial production

    KIKUUBE, UGANDA – In a landmark step toward launching full commercial oil production by the end of 2024, Ugandan energy officials announced Wednesday that the East African nation’s first prospective crude oil blend will be branded “Pearl Sweet.” The official naming ceremony was held at the Kingfisher oil infrastructure site, operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), drawing government leaders and project stakeholders to mark the country’s imminent transition to an official oil-producing state.

    The carefully selected name carries dual meaning that blends national heritage and commercial practicality, Uganda’s Ministry of Energy explained in an official statement following the event. The “Pearl” moniker references former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s iconic 20th-century description of Uganda as “the pearl of Africa,” while the “Sweet” designation highlights the blend’s key commercial advantage: a naturally low sulfur content that makes it more desirable for refiners. Ministry representatives added that formal branding is a critical precondition for advancing marketing outreach and building partnerships with prospective global crude buyers.

    Geological surveys confirm Uganda holds approximately 1.6 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, split between two major development projects led by international energy firms. French energy giant TotalEnergies holds the largest stake in the upstream operations, while CNOOC leads the separate Kingfisher project. The Uganda National Oil Company retains a 15% equity share in the developments on behalf of the Ugandan public.

    Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni framed the milestone as a turning point for national economic transformation. “This marks an important milestone in our journey to develop Uganda’s oil and gas resources for value addition and economic transformation,” Museveni said, emphasizing plans to capture maximum domestic value from the reserves through onshore refining, domestic petrochemical manufacturing, and electricity generation from associated natural gas. He added that developing the country’s oil sector will cut Uganda’s heavy dependence on imported petroleum products, strengthening national energy security.

    At full buildout, production is projected to plateau at roughly 230,000 barrels of crude per day, with blended crude set for export through a major new export network. Despite Wednesday’s celebration of progress, the two-decade journey from initial crude discovery to commercial production has been marked by repeated legal, regulatory, and environmental setbacks.

    The center of global controversy is the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline, a 1,443-kilometer heated pipeline that will connect the Lake Albert oil fields in western Uganda to the export terminal at Tanga, Tanzania. Environmental campaigners and climate activists have fiercely opposed the project, arguing that developing new fossil fuel reserves directly contradicts global emissions reduction commitments laid out in the Paris Climate Agreement.

    Much of the activist pressure has focused on TotalEnergies, which has been named as a defendant in at least two separate lawsuits filed in French courts by advocacy groups and local communities. The suits allege that the pipeline and associated oil development have violated local communities’ land rights and access to food, forcing thousands of people from their homes to make way for infrastructure.

    Additional ecological risks stem from the location of oil drilling and pipeline routing. Oil wells are being drilled within the boundaries of Murchison Falls National Park, a biodiverse wilderness on the Nile River home to hippopotamuses, giraffes, rare antelope species, and hundreds of native bird species. The pipeline itself will cut through protected forest reserves and game management areas, running along the shoreline of Lake Victoria, the continent’s largest freshwater body that supplies drinking water to more than 40 million people across the region.

    TotalEnergies has pushed back against criticism, stating that the pipeline uses cutting-edge construction and monitoring design that will guarantee safe operation for decades, with minimal risk of leaks or ecological harm. But the combination of climate risks and sensitive ecological positioning has kept opposition to the projects strong globally.

    Ugandan government officials have rejected external criticism, framing climate-focused opposition to the oil projects as an overreach that infringes on the country’s sovereign right to develop its natural resources to lift its population out of poverty. Officials note that an estimated 20 million Ugandans live on less than $2 a day, and oil sector revenues are projected to drive widespread investments in healthcare, education, and infrastructure that would deliver long-term benefits to millions of citizens.

  • South African airline behind daring stadium stunt cancels next flyby, regulator says

    South African airline behind daring stadium stunt cancels next flyby, regulator says

    A controversial low-altitude aerial stunt performed by regional South African carrier Airlink has triggered regulatory scrutiny and forced the cancellation of a planned repeat performance at a major national sporting event, South Africa’s civil aviation authority (SACAA) confirmed this week.

    Last Saturday, two Airlink jets completed a close-formation flyover of Cape Town’s packed DHL Stadium, just moments before kickoff of a highly anticipated rugby test match between South Africa’s Springboks and New Zealand’s All Blacks. Video footage of the stunt, which quickly spread across global social media platforms, captured the twin jets roaring past the stadium amid coloured smoke, with onlookers capturing dramatic angles that showed the aircraft mere feet from the stadium’s roof structure.

    Independent analysis from flight tracking service Flightradar24 has verified that the lead jet passed less than 50 feet (15 meters) above the stadium’s upper roof line. The stunt immediately split public opinion: aviation enthusiasts and spectators praised the extraordinary precision and skill of the flight crews, while critics slammed the manoeuvre as a reckless, unnecessary risk taken with thousands of spectators packed inside the venue below.

    In an official statement released after the stunt, Airlink defended the operation, noting that the flypast was planned and executed within pre-approved, thoroughly rehearsed limits for altitude and speed. The airline added that the manoeuvre was carried out by a team of highly experienced veteran pilots with specialized training in aerial display operations.

    Originally, Airlink had been scheduled to repeat the close-formation flypast this coming Saturday at Soweto’s FNB Stadium, which will host the decisive third test of the current series between the Springboks and All Blacks. However, SACAA confirmed Wednesday that Airlink has withdrawn its plan for the second stunt, following widespread public debate and media scrutiny over the safety of the original Cape Town flyover.

    The South African aviation regulator noted that it had granted formal approval for the initial stunt, after reviewing Airlink’s submitted safety plans and procedural documentation. It confirmed that the airline had followed all required regulatory protocols to secure permission for the event. SACAA has now launched a deeper post-stunt investigation, having obtained full flight data recordings from the two aircraft and completed reviews of all additional operational documentation related to the event.

    “As the independent safety oversight body for South African skies, SACAA gives the public its full assurance that aviation safety and security compliance will always remain our top priority, and this mandate is not negotiable,” the regulator said in its statement. SACAA also highlighted that South Africa maintains a strong global reputation for excellent air safety standards, a track record it is committed to upholding through rigorous regulatory oversight.

    Low-altitude flypasts have long been a popular ceremonial addition to major national events in South Africa, ranging from high-profile international sporting fixtures to presidential inauguration ceremonies, with past events featuring both military aircraft and commercial passenger jets. As of Wednesday evening, Airlink has not issued any public comment on the cancellation of the planned Soweto flyover or the ongoing regulatory investigation.