Global Pulse

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  • Senegal’s ousted PM Sonko boycotts new government, raising fears of political deadlock

    Senegal’s ousted PM Sonko boycotts new government, raising fears of political deadlock

    A widening political fracture in Senegal has thrown the West African nation into uncertainty, after ousted Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko announced his majority ruling party will boycott the newly formed national government — escalating months of public tension with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and raising fears of crippling governance gridlock as the country grapples with a record-level debt crisis.

    The pair once rose to power together as close allies within the Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l’Éthique et la Fraternité, commonly known by its French acronym Pastef. Led by Sonko, Pastef commands an overwhelming legislative majority, holding 130 of the 165 total seats in Senegal’s national parliament. This dominant control gives the party significant power to derail Faye’s new administration if the confrontation continues.

    Last Monday, newly appointed Prime Minister Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo unveiled his cabinet. Notably, the lineup excludes all prominent Pastef figures aligned with Sonko, as well as any of the ousted prime minister’s close associates who previously held key ministerial portfolios. Sonko was removed from office alongside his entire cabinet in May, a move that formalized the months-long growing rift between the former allies.

    In a statement following the cabinet announcement, Sonko confirmed that Pastef would formally refuse to participate in the new government, citing unresolved points of disagreement with Faye and Lo. Babacar Ndiaye, a political analyst with Dakar-based think tank Wathi, noted Tuesday that the country has now shifted to a new political landscape where the ruling party’s dominant parliamentary bloc is acting as a formal opposition. Ndiaye added that Pastef has the legislative power to table a no-confidence vote against Faye’s new government, a move that would almost certainly push the country into full governance gridlock.

    The political unrest comes at a particularly precarious moment for Senegal. The country is currently facing a deepening sovereign debt crisis and soaring cost of living, with one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios across the African continent. A 2023 government audit uncovered that the national debt, accumulated by the previous administration, totals $13 billion — far larger than previously reported to the public. In recent months, public disagreements between Faye and Sonko have centered on high-stakes policy decisions, most notably ongoing negotiations for a new loan from the International Monetary Fund that the struggling economy desperately needs.

    The ongoing confrontation has raised alarm across regional political circles, as the unresolved standoff threatens to delay critical economic reforms and debt restructuring efforts that are essential to stabilizing Senegal’s fragile economy.

  • 9 students appear in court over Kenya school arson that killed 16 girls

    9 students appear in court over Kenya school arson that killed 16 girls

    NAIROBI, Kenya — A devastating arson attack that claimed the lives of 16 teenage girls at a Kenyan girls’ boarding school has led nine accused students to make their first court appearance this Tuesday, as investigators push for extended detention to advance their probe into one of the country’s deadliest recent school fire incidents.

    The tragedy unfolded on May 28 at Utumishi Girls School, located in central Kenya, when a fast-spreading fire tore through a school dormitory housing 202 students. Investigators’ initial findings reveal critical compounding errors that turned a controllable blaze into a mass fatality event: the school’s matron failed to unlock an emergency exit during the chaos, leaving all trapped students to flee through just one narrow doorway. The blaze ultimately left 79 additional people injured, alongside the 16 fatalities, many of whose bodies were burned beyond recognition. Officials announced that DNA test results to confirm the identities of these remains will be released Wednesday, the same day the court will issue a ruling on the prosecution’s request to detain the nine accused students for 30 days to complete ongoing investigations.

    Closed-circuit camera footage recovered from the damaged dormitory compound captured six of the accused students igniting the fire just moments before the dormitory’s residents would have woken for the day, according to interrogations. Investigators have laid out detailed claims that the group intentionally set a mattress ablaze at the dormitory exit using paraffin and a matchstick. As of Tuesday, no clear motive for the attack has been made public. The nine defendants have already spent five days in police custody following the incident.

    The deadly fire at Utumishi Girls School has drawn renewed attention to a persistent public safety crisis in Kenya’s education system: widespread school fires that have killed hundreds of students over the past two decades. Data from the Kenya Red Cross confirms the organization has responded to 37 separate school fire incidents across the country since the start of 2024, with five additional blazes reported in different regions just in the days after the Utumishi Girls attack. None of these other recent incidents have resulted in casualties, but the pattern of unrest and safety failures has raised alarm among education and public safety officials.

    School fires are an endemic issue in Kenya, rooted in systemic shortcomings: overcrowded dormitories and classrooms, a near-total lack of accessible firefighting equipment on most school campuses, and recurring student unrest linked to disciplinary conflicts that has led to deliberate arson attacks in past cases. The 2001 fire in Machakos County remains the deadliest in Kenyan history, killing 67 sleeping students, and the country already suffered another fatal mass incident earlier this year, when 21 children died in a blaze in Nyeri County.

    The High Court in Naivasha, a town roughly 55 miles west of Nairobi that is handling the case, announced it will deliver its decision on the 30-day detention request Wednesday morning, as families of the victims await answers and public pressure grows for systemic reforms to prevent future mass tragedies.

  • Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill to be scrutinised before approval, president says

    Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill to be scrutinised before approval, president says

    During an official visit to the United Kingdom, Ghanaian President John Mahama has confirmed that a newly parliament-passed bill criminalizing LGBTQ+ activities will go through a multi-stage review process before it can receive formal presidential approval. Introduced as a private members’ motion rather than an official government-sponsored piece of legislation, the bill will first be examined by Mahama’s legal council and the country’s attorney general, the head of state clarified.

    Approved by Ghana’s parliament on a Friday, the controversial draft legislation proposes harsh penalties including up to three years of imprisonment for individuals who openly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. It also imposes a legal mandate requiring people to report any prohibited activities related to LGBTQ+ identity to local law enforcement. Mahama stressed that the administration will conduct a thorough check to ensure all provisions align with legal and constitutional standards, noting that any provisions flagged for issues will be forwarded to the Council of State, the president’s top advisory body, for further review.

    Since taking office last year, Mahama has faced sustained pressure from influential religious leaders across the country to toughen existing anti-LGBTQ+ laws, a framework that first originated from colonial-era legislation inherited from British rule. During a public question-and-answer session held in London on the Monday of his visit, Mahama also acknowledged that procedural irregularities occurred during the bill’s parliamentary passage, issues that are currently being addressed by the Speaker of Ghana’s parliament.

    This marks the second time Ghanaian lawmakers have backed a restrictive bill targeting sexual minorities. The first iteration of the legislation was tabled in parliament back in August 2021, shortly after authorities shut down an LGBTQ+ community resources center in the capital city of Accra. Then-president Nana Akufo-Addo, Mahama’s predecessor, never granted his assent to the 2024 version of the bill, citing ongoing legal challenges filed against it at Ghana’s Supreme Court as his justification for withholding approval.

    The bill was reintroduced to the current parliament earlier this year by a coalition of cross-party legislators. Members of Ghana’s parliamentary minority have voiced criticism of the updated version, arguing that recent amendments have weakened its restrictive provisions. Minority spokesperson John Ntim Forjour explained that the current draft has “substantially lost the force and the bite and the thrust, the deterrence, the efficacy that it contained and carried in 2024.” Key changes in the current iteration include exemptions from punishment for legal, healthcare, and media professionals who provide services to LGBTQ+ people or cover LGBTQ+ related news. However, the updated bill still allows for prison sentences for anyone who identifies as an open ally to LGBTQ+ communities.

    Both versions of the legislation have drawn widespread condemnation from international and local human rights organizations, which warn the bill fundamentally infringes on the basic human rights of sexual minority Ghanaians. Human Rights Watch has issued a formal submission to Accra’s constitutional and legal affairs committee, which is currently reviewing the bill, calling for the legislation to be scrapped entirely. Supporters of the bill, by contrast, argue that the restrictive measures are necessary to protect and preserve what they frame as traditional Ghanaian family values.

    The proposed Ghanaian law fits into a broader regional trend of growing restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights across several African nations in recent years. In March of this year, Senegal’s parliament passed similar legislation that sets a maximum 10-year prison sentence for same-sex sexual activity and criminalizes the “promotion” of homosexuality. Two years prior in 2023, Uganda enacted a law that allows the death penalty for certain same-sex sexual acts, a move that sparked global outcry from rights advocates.

  • As Congo grapples with Ebola, volunteers cook up meals to support patients and health workers

    As Congo grapples with Ebola, volunteers cook up meals to support patients and health workers

    In the sweltering heat of Bunia, the epicenter of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak, one quiet act of service forms an unexpected backbone of the regional response effort. Arlette Basekawike, a volunteer with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), spends nearly every waking hour in a cramped open-air shed outside a local health facility, stirring large pots of food and planning menus for patients on the frontline of this public health crisis.

    Clad in a protective pink bonnet covering her hair, Basekawike starts each day early, preparing porridge, fluffy omelets, and fresh bread for patients admitted to the Evangelical Medical Center. For afternoon and evening meals, she serves up seasoned fresh fish paired with fufu — the region’s beloved starchy staple made from mashed plantains — followed by ripe seasonal fruit. On a recent Monday, as she diced vegetables, potatoes and goat meat for a large batch of stew, she explained the quiet purpose that drives her work.

    “Even though patients carry this terrible disease, a warm, good meal still lifts their spirits and helps them feel stronger,” Basekawike told the Associated Press. “And for the doctors and nurses working endless shifts, this food gives them the energy they need to treat patients and administer care. I’m here for them like a parent would be — I just want to make them feel as comfortable as possible through this.”

    On paper, Basekawike’s work may look like a simple, unremarkable task. But public health officials say her contributions, and the work of the entire WFP nutrition team here, have emerged as critical support for a region grappling with the fast-moving spread of Bundibugyo virus — the rare Ebola species confirmed in eastern Congo back in May.

    As of this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 321 total cases of Ebola disease across three eastern Congolese provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu, with 48 recorded deaths. Neighboring Uganda has detected nine cases and one fatality, prompting authorities to close the entire shared border between the two countries to slow transmission.

    Long before this outbreak was declared, this already beleaguered region was grappling with one of the world’s most severe food insecurity crises. Years of ongoing armed conflict between government forces and rebel groups have displaced millions of people, leaving vast communities without reliable access to consistent, nutritious food. The emergence of Ebola has layered a new, deadly crisis on top of pre-existing fragility, creating a devastating cascade that the United Nations warns complicates every effort to contain the outbreak among a population already deeply strained by hardship.

    “We operate in a region where huge portions of the population already face acute food insecurity tied directly to war and displacement,” explained Olivier Nkakudulu, head of WFP’s Ituri province operations. “These needs already existed — Ebola is just an additional crisis stacked on top of a crisis.”

    Compounding these challenges, the already resource-strapped WFP now faces severe operational disruptions driven by major aid cuts from the United States and other key global donor partners. With global partners pulling back or reducing their funding pledges, the overall effort to contain the outbreak — which WHO has already classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern — has been severely hampered by the funding shortfall.

    On top of funding gaps, responders also face persistent threats: attacks on health care workers by local residents suspicious of the outbreak response, and constant delays to aid delivery caused by ongoing fighting in the region have both worked together to slow efforts to curb transmission.

    Even against these stacked obstacles, WFP and local health teams confirm they have managed to meet the basic nutritional needs of Ebola patients and frontline workers so far. Still, as case counts climb, that balance is becoming harder to maintain.

    “Today we need to increase the volume of food we provide, because the number of patients has gone up,” said Esther Bao, a nurse and volunteer on the response team. She added that many patients, weakened by the progression of Ebola, require specialized, tailored meals that cannot follow a one-size-fits-all menu.

    Unlike some more common Ebola species, the Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccine or targeted treatment currently available. Care teams can only treat symptoms as they appear, but even that supportive care has yielded small victories: five patients have successfully recovered from the virus to date.

    The scope of the outbreak continues to expand at an alarming rate. According to Congo’s Ministry of Health, what began with transmission limited to just three initial health zones has now spread to 22 affected zones as of last weekend.

    To date, WFP has served 120 meals across four treatment facilities in a single recent Sunday, bringing the total number of meals provided since the nutrition program launched on May 28 to 404, according to Nkakudulu. But he stressed that the financial situation remains extremely precarious.

    “Without additional emergency funding, we won’t be able to prioritize every suspected case for nutritional support,” Nkakudulu said. “We might be forced to only provide for some patients, and leave others with no food to help them through their treatment.”

    This report was compiled by AP correspondents, with additional contribution from Adetayo reporting from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Two people shot dead amid Kenya protests against US Ebola quarantine centre plan

    Two people shot dead amid Kenya protests against US Ebola quarantine centre plan

    Deadly violence has erupted in central Kenya over a controversial proposal to build a US-operated Ebola isolation facility, leaving two local residents dead and deepening public divisions over the public health and diplomatic initiative. The unrest unfolded in Nanyuki, a town adjacent to Laikipia Airbase, the planned site for the 50-bed treatment center, after hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets to oppose the project.

    According to preliminary reports, one fatality was shot near the perimeter of the airbase itself during peak protest activity. Friends transported the wounded individual to Nanyuki’s main hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries. A second victim was already deceased when military personnel brought his body to the same medical facility. To date, no senior Kenyan official has released an official statement confirming the circumstances of the deaths or assigning responsibility for the gunfire that killed the two men.

    The unrest built on growing public anger that first emerged after details of the US plan were made public. The facility is designed to treat American citizens who contract Ebola during the ongoing outbreak in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, and would be staffed entirely by US medical personnel. Kenya has not recorded any confirmed Ebola cases to date, but critics warn that bringing infected patients into the country creates unacceptable risks of cross-border transmission that could devastate local communities.

    Mass demonstrations first organized on Monday saw hundreds of protesters block major thoroughfares through Nanyuki and set burning tires across roads to draw attention to their opposition. In response, police deployed tear gas to clear the crowds and disperse the gathering. The controversy has already made its way through Kenya’s judicial system: last week, a local rights group filed a lawsuit arguing that the facility poses “grave and imminent risks” to Kenyan public health, prompting the High Court to issue an initial order halting all work on the project.

    In his first public comments on the dispute Monday evening, Kenyan President William Ruto defended his decision to approve the plan. Ruto framed the initiative as a gesture of long-standing friendship between Kenya and the United States, telling reporters that “When President [Donald] Trump asked Kenya to support them by having a centre in Laikipia Airbase I gave the ok because it was an agreement with friends who have walked with Kenya for 30, 40 years.” He added that the Kenyan government had “deployed every arsenal” to safeguard the country from Ebola risks, and urged opposition politicians not to politicize what he called a critically important public health matter. “We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing,” Ruto said.

    Despite the president’s defense of the plan, the High Court doubled down on its suspension on Tuesday, extending the pause on construction and opening and ordering the national government to release full documentation detailing the terms and specifications of the proposed facility. Even with the court order in place, however, independent observers and local experts confirm that military aircraft have continued making regular trips in and out of Laikipia Airbase, indicating that preparatory work for the center is still ongoing.

    The proposal has drawn widespread opposition from key Kenyan public health and accountability groups, including Kenya’s national doctors’ union and independent government watchdogs. Both groups reiterate that bringing Ebola patients into Kenya, even for treatment at a secured military facility, creates an unnecessary and avoidable risk of infection for local populations that the government has not adequately addressed.

  • Kenyan president defends US Ebola quarantine center amid protests

    Kenyan president defends US Ebola quarantine center amid protests

    NAIROBI, Kenya – A heated public and legal debate has erupted over a planned U.S.-funded Ebola quarantine facility at Kenya’s Laikipia Air Base, drawing pushback from local activists and a court suspension even as President William Ruto has publicly defended the cross-border health partnership for the first time.

    Ruto, speaking publicly on the issue for the first time on Monday evening, framed the project as a logical extension of decades of health-focused bilateral cooperation between Washington and Nairobi. He confirmed that the Laikipia site is only one of 24 Ebola preparedness facilities developed across the country under the partnership, which includes a $13 million U.S. investment in regional outbreak response. He noted that he approved the request — first made during the Trump administration — out of long-standing mutual trust between the two nations.

    The project sparked widespread public anger among Kenyans last week after U.S. officials clarified that any American Ebola patients treated under the program would not be repatriated to the United States, and would instead be held and treated exclusively at the Kenyan facility. The Law Society of Kenya and constitutional advocacy group Katiba Institute quickly filed a legal challenge to the plan, arguing that Kenya’s already overstretched, fragile public health system lacks the capacity to safely manage foreign Ebola patients.

    Kenya’s High Court acted swiftly on the challenge, first issuing an order suspending facility construction and the entry of foreign patients last Friday, before extending that blocking order this Tuesday. Despite the legal pause and widespread public protests against the project, Ruto struck a confident tone in his address, pushing back against critics by emphasizing that all 24 facilities, including the Laikipia site, would be available to treat Kenyan patients if a domestic Ebola outbreak occurs.

    “We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing. People should relax,” Ruto said. “Politicians should avoid reckless, unnecessary talk that doesn’t mean anything.”

    The debate over the quarantine facility comes as Kenya navigates a series of concurrent domestic crises, including recent deadly civil unrest linked to sky-high fuel prices, a tragic dormitory fire that killed 16 schoolgirls, and widespread public frustration over the cost of living. Ebola outbreaks across central Africa have raised regional preparedness concerns in recent years, turning this infrastructure project into a flashpoint over sovereignty, public health capacity, and bilateral cooperation.

  • ‘I gave birth in the street’: Conflict makes childbirth risky in parts of Africa

    ‘I gave birth in the street’: Conflict makes childbirth risky in parts of Africa

    Near the Sudan-Central African Republic border, in the sweltering, dust-choked Birao refugee camp, Maude Ahmad Fadala’s story of childbirth encapsulates a growing public health catastrophe unfolding across conflict-stricken sub-Saharan Africa. Weakened by typhoid after fleeing Sudan’s ongoing civil war, Fadala went into labor at the camp that offered no obstetric care, and she had no money to pay for transport to the nearest medical facility. Staggering along rough dirt roads, stopping every few steps to ride out crippling contractions, she eventually could go no further. “I gave birth in the street,” she recalled. “There was no doctor, no midwife, and no one holding my hand.”

    Fadala’s experience is far from an isolated tragedy. It is one of hundreds of thousands of preventable maternal deaths recorded every year across sub-Saharan Africa, a region home to the world’s fastest-growing population and 70% of all global pregnancy-related maternal deaths – roughly 182,000 fatalities annually. Data from the World Health Organization confirms that nearly two-thirds of all maternal deaths worldwide occur in nations grappling with armed conflict or systemic fragility. For women like Fadala, who cross borders to escape war, the danger of dying in childbirth does not end when they reach safety; displacement itself amplifies risk at every turn.

    Displacement strips pregnant women of access to routine prenatal care, forces dangerous multi-mile journeys to access even basic health services, and strains already depleted health systems in host regions. The United Nations estimates that women in the Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest nations, face a maternal mortality rate of 829 deaths per 100,000 births – 40 times higher than the rate recorded in the United States. Years of internal conflict have gutted the country’s health infrastructure, leaving critical care concentrated almost exclusively in major urban centers. Despite the Central African Republic’s extensive gold reserves, one in three residents survive on less than $2 per day, and health services remain nonexistent for many communities in remote border regions.

    In 2024, the Central African government acknowledged the depth of its maternal mortality crisis and announced a plan to increase funding for skilled birth attendants and reproductive care, but officials have not responded to requests for updates on the initiative’s implementation. What has worsened the crisis dramatically in recent years is sweeping cuts to humanitarian aid from the world’s top donors, led by the United States. In Birao, the border camp where Fadala now lives, all four local midwives who had received support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) lost their jobs last year, after the Trump administration cut all U.S. funding for the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency.

    Before the funding cuts, UNFPA operated four “safe birthing spaces” across Birao that served nearly 50,000 women, providing emergency transport for pregnant people to the local district hospital. All of those facilities have closed, along with two additional U.S.-backed health clinics. Across the entire country, UNFPA’s operating budget has been cut in half over the past two years, falling to just $6.5 million. Before the cuts, the agency was the sole provider of reproductive health supplies across Birao. “The risk of maternal death is going to increase if there is no solution,” said Victor Rakoto, UNFPA’s country director for the Central African Republic. U.N. data underscores this warning: conflict-affected settings like Birao account for six in 10 maternal deaths globally.

    A visit to Birao’s understaffed district hospital – the facility Fadala was never able to reach – reveals the full scale of the crisis. On a recent workday, dozens of pregnant women waited shoulder-to-shoulder on hard wooden benches in sweltering, unventilated waiting areas, many having walked for hours or risked complications by riding motorbikes over rutted dirt roads to reach care. Birthing assistant Delphine Zanabe moves between patients nonstop, saying most refugee women only arrive when labor is already well underway, skipping the eight prenatal checkups recommended by the World Health Organization.

    For displaced women, survival mode in unfamiliar territory compounds the existing barriers of generational poverty and limited education, all of which increase the risk of life-threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth. The hospital’s maternity ward houses eight beds crammed into a room so small the mattresses almost touch, and the ward serves 70,000 local residents plus 22,000 Sudanese refugees. Twelve hospital staff members – most from the maternity department – have already lost their jobs due to aid cuts.

    That staffing shortage has already had fatal consequences. Amna Adam Hessen arrived at the hospital the day before her labor, burning with malaria fever. Her unborn child was in a breech position, a complication discovered far too late because she had been unable to attend prenatal appointments. Rushed to the hospital by motorbike from the camp, Hessen suffered severe hemorrhaging during labor and lost her baby. As her mother fanned her in the suffocating heat the next day, Hessen writhed on a bare foam mattress crying out in pain. “Giving birth here is exhausting,” her mother said.

    Clara Abessendé, one of the four unemployed Birao midwives, described the guilt of leaving her post as demand for care surged after Sudan’s war broke out in early 2023. After the conflict began, the number of pregnant women arriving at the hospital tripled, and staff quickly ran out of critical supplies including antibiotics and malaria treatments. “As a result, there were more cases of infant and maternal deaths,” she said. “The children born in my hands … I abandoned them like that.”

    For women waiting to give birth, the uncertainty is crippling. Katidje Idrisse Tahire, a nine-month pregnant refugee who fled Sudan on foot four months ago, lost all her belongings to armed robbers at the border and has not seen her husband since they fled Darfur. Carrying one child on her back while leading two more to fetch water in the camp, Tahire said she constantly aches, feels exhausted and unwell, and has no way to pay for care when she goes into labor. “I don’t know if anyone will be there to help me,” she said. Currently, more than 40% of all births in the Central African Republic happen outside of medical facilities, a statistic that experts warn will only rise as more aid cuts take hold, turning avoidable complications into fatal outcomes for thousands of women.

  • How health workers in DR Congo are treating Ebola and staying safe

    How health workers in DR Congo are treating Ebola and staying safe

    As a rising tide of Ebola cases spreads across eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), frontline health workers are locked in a desperate race against time to contain the outbreak, treat infected patients, and protect themselves from a pathogen with no targeted approved treatment. This current outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola species, has already crossed provincial borders from its epicenter in Ituri to North and South Kivu, and even reached neighboring Uganda, fueled by early delays in case detection.

  • Ghana boss Queiroz no qualms over Partey selection

    Ghana boss Queiroz no qualms over Partey selection

    The controversial inclusion of Villarreal midfielder Thomas Partey in Ghana’s preliminary 2026 World Cup squad has sparked public discussion, with Black Stars head coach Carlos Queiroz making clear he has no misgivings about calling up the player ahead of the tournament.

    Partey, a 32-year-old former Arsenal midfielder who left the English Premier League club at the end of his contract last summer, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. The allegations stem from claims made by four separate women between 2020 and 2022, and his trial is scheduled to begin next year. Two additional rape counts were added to the charges against him back in April.

    Despite the ongoing legal proceedings, Partey has been named to Ghana’s 28-man preliminary squad that is currently in Cardiff for a pre-World Cup international friendly against Wales, set to take place on Tuesday 1 June at Cardiff City Stadium. The match, which will mark Queiroz’s first game in charge of Ghana after he was appointed head coach in April, will be broadcast live across multiple BBC platforms including BBC iPlayer, BBC One Wales, BBC Radio outlets and the BBC Sport website and app.

    When asked directly whether he had any concerns about selecting Partey for the national squad, Queiroz rejected the premise of the question entirely. “If the player is here with me, my answer is clear,” the former Portugal and Real Madrid manager, who previously worked as an assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, told reporters. “I don’t have any comments about my own decisions. He is here so what are we talking about? This is not for me or you to make a judgement about. Let the events run their normal course; let the river flow and one day when the river meets the ocean we are going to find the truth.”

    Queiroz’s stance aligns with the position already taken by Ghana Football Association president Kurt Okraku, who previously stated that the national governing body stands behind Partey.

    Partey has already begun training with the squad, and most of the team’s European-based players have arrived in Cardiff, including Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo, who linked up with his teammates over the weekend.

    Ghana, which reached the World Cup quarter-finals in 2010, is drawn into Group L alongside England and Panama for this year’s tournament. The Black Stars will kick off their World Cup campaign against Panama on 17 June, and Queiroz says he is optimistic about his side’s chances ahead of the competition.

    “When you talk about football in Ghana, it is in the blood, it is everything,” he said. “And the talent is here so it is an explosive combination to succeed, which was the first and most important attraction to Ghana. We’re ready to take off and start to fly straight to the World Cup.”

  • US to drastically slash the number of embassies in Africa that can process visas

    US to drastically slash the number of embassies in Africa that can process visas

    In a sweeping policy shift aligned with a broader agenda of cutting immigration to the United States, the U.S. State Department is set to dramatically reduce the number of African diplomatic missions that can process visa applications for people seeking entry to the country, three anonymous U.S. officials and an internal department memo obtained by the Associated Press have confirmed.

    Right now, roughly 50 U.S. embassies and consulates across the African continent process incoming visa applications. That number will drop to just 20 regional processing hubs in the coming weeks, with the transition expected to take place in June, though no official final date has been announced. The restructuring was announced during a conference call last Friday attended by senior U.S. diplomatic staff, including regional consular leaders, who were informed of the continent-wide scaling back of visa services.

    The overhaul comes following a directive signed off last week by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and builds on long-running efforts to restrict both immigrant and non-immigrant visa issuance. The policy priority stems from a broader goal to limit overall immigration to the U.S. and crack down on visitors who overstay the terms of their temporary visas. This cut to African visa processing capacity also follows a broader drawdown of diplomatic staffing at U.S. missions around the globe in recent years.

    African visa processing has already faced major disruptions in recent years: existing barriers include a U.S. travel ban targeting multiple African nations, a requirement that some applicants post cash bonds of up to $15,000 to be considered for a visa, and recent service restrictions tied to regional Ebola outbreaks.

    Under the new structure, all full visa processing will be consolidated into the 20 designated hub locations: Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Cape Town (South Africa), Dakar (Senegal), Dar-Es-Salaam (Tanzania), Djibouti (Djibouti), Johannesburg (South Africa), Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Kinshasa (Congo), Lagos (Nigeria), Lome (Togo), Luanda (Angola), Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), Monrovia (Liberia), Nairobi (Kenya), Port Louis (Mauritius), Praia (Cape Verde), and Yaounde (Cameroon).

    For citizens of African countries that do not host a designated processing hub, the new rules mean they will need to travel to one of the 20 hub locations to submit their applications and complete required in-person consular screenings. This requirement creates significant practical barriers, adding heavy travel costs and logistical hurdles that did not exist previously for many applicants.

    Consular offices at non-hub missions will remain open, but their service offerings will be severely limited. They will still be able to support U.S. citizens with passport renewals and emergency assistance, process special visa requests tied to U.S. national interests, and handle diplomatic visa applications.

    When reached for comment, the State Department did not address specific details laid out in the internal memo, but issued a general statement defending the restructuring. The department noted that it “is constantly evaluating its overseas operations in order to deploy taxpayer resources in a way that advances America’s priorities as efficiently and effectively as possible.” It added that the overhaul “includes a visa process that maintains rigorous standards of security screening and vetting and aligns resources and operational capacity with America’s national interests.”

    The report was filed by correspondent Mednick from Tel Aviv.