Global Pulse

标签： Africa

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  • Kenyan court dismisses Rastafari case seeking to legalize marijuana

    Kenyan court dismisses Rastafari case seeking to legalize marijuana

    NAIROBI, KENYA – In a landmark ruling delivered Wednesday, Kenya’s High Court has thrown out a legal petition that sought to grant Rastafarian worshippers an exemption from national cannabis prohibition laws for religious use. The decision has ignited fresh public conversation over the intersection of religious freedom and national drug regulation, while the petitioners have already announced plans to challenge the outcome in the country’s Court of Appeal.

    Justice Bahati Mwamuye, who presided over the case, ruled that Kenya’s existing laws banning the cultivation and consumption of marijuana do not infringe on the constitutional right to religious freedom protected for all Kenyan communities. He emphasized that any carve-out for the Rastafarian community would require clear, robust legal and constitutional grounding that the petitioners had failed to provide in their filing.

    Despite upholding the current prohibition, Justice Mwamuye used the ruling as a platform to call for a broad, inclusive national dialogue on Kenya’s decades-old drug policy framework. He noted that the question of cannabis regulation is not a niche concern limited to the Rastafarian community, but a pressing social issue that touches every corner of Kenyan society.

    Kenya’s current regulatory regime, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, outlaws all cultivation, possession and use of cannabis across the country. Penalties for personal use are steep: violators can face fines of up to $2,000, prison sentences of as long as 10 years, or both, while trafficking convictions carry even harsher sanctions including longer prison terms and larger financial penalties.

    For the Rastafarian petitioners, cannabis is a sacred sacrament core to their religious identity and practice, making the ban a direct violation of their most deeply held religious rights. They turned to the courts to seek a formal exemption from the act’s provisions, arguing that the state had no right to bar their religious ritual.

    Shadrack Wambui, the lead attorney for the petitioners, confirmed immediately after the ruling that the legal team would move forward with an appeal to the Court of Appeal, vowing to continue fighting for their clients’ religious freedoms.

    Following the court’s decision, dozens of Rastafarian advocates gathered at Nairobi’s iconic Freedom Corner to stage a peaceful protest, where they chanted slogans, beat traditional drums, and openly smoked cannabis to demonstrate their defiance of the ruling. Wanjiru Gakiu, a 60-year-old Rastafarian who has practiced the faith for 34 years, told reporters she felt profound disappointment with the decision, describing Kenya’s current drug laws as “satanic.”

    “I’m sure if we were seeking to legalize something satanic, we would have been allowed. But when it comes to religion, the country is deaf and doesn’t want us to enjoy our religious rights,” Gakiu told the Associated Press.

    The ruling has divided public opinion across Kenya, with many Kenyans from other faith backgrounds supporting the court’s decision to maintain full prohibition. Nairobi resident Jedidah Ng’ang’a, a Christian, publicly welcomed the ruling, saying she could not support any move to legalize cannabis use in the country.

    The decision sets up a new legal battle over religious freedom and drug policy in East Africa, as advocates push for broader reform of outdated national drug laws that many argue have failed to address changing social attitudes toward cannabis both regionally and globally.

  • Boss of fake government agency arrested in Nigeria after weeks on the run

    Boss of fake government agency arrested in Nigeria after weeks on the run

    A long-running manhunt for the self-proclaimed leader of a bogus Nigerian government agency set up within the presidential office complex has come to an end, with law enforcement officials confirming the suspect’s arrest after weeks of him evading capture.

    Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who claimed the title of Director General of the non-existent Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), was taken into custody in Osun State, a southwestern region of Nigeria. The arrest was executed following an arrest warrant issued earlier this week by the Federal High Court based in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The warrant was activated after Matthew failed to appear at a scheduled court hearing to answer to multiple charges of forgery and official impersonation.

    The fraud scandal has dominated national headlines in Nigeria since President Bola Tinubu ordered a full corruption probe into the fake agency just one week ago. While full details of the tactical operation that led to Matthew’s arrest remain limited as of Tuesday, Nigeria’s police force confirmed that specialists from two elite units — the Force Intelligence Department and the Intelligence Response Team — took part in the detainment. Following his arrest, Matthew is set to be transferred to the national police headquarters in Abuja to undergo further interrogation over the alleged scheme.

    The search for Matthew launched last week after allegations of the PFIPC’s illegitimacy first came to light. In an official statement shortly after the scandal broke, Tinubu’s office confirmed that an official-looking document purporting to establish the agency was entirely fabricated. The Nigerian presidency added that forensic analysis conducted by police had verified that the signature of Femi Gbajabiamila, President Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, appearing on the supposed founding appointment letter had been forged.

    The unfolding controversy has triggered widespread demands from across Nigeria’s political and civic sphere for an independent public inquiry. Civil society organizations, opposition political figures and senior legal professionals have all joined the call for greater transparency into how a fake agency was able to secure official-looking credentials and space within government facilities.

    Prior to his arrest, Matthew had repeatedly maintained his innocence in conversations with local Nigerian media. According to local reporting, Matthew had claimed his life was under threat, though he initially stated he would appear in court to clear his name. Despite this pledge, he did not attend this week’s scheduled hearing. Matthew’s legal representative, Genesis Francis, told the court he had been unable to convince his client to attend the proceedings, citing Matthew’s stated concerns for his personal safety. The lawyer also confirmed that Matthew had submitted an open letter to President Tinubu outlining these safety worries.

    Matthew had previously claimed that the PFIPC was founded in 2024 with the explicit goal of attracting new foreign direct investment to Nigeria. To date, however, there is no public or official record of any investment deals being successfully completed by the supposed agency.

    A reporting team from BBC News Pidgin uncovered that the fraudulent organization had managed to secure dedicated office space inside Abuja’s Federal Secretariat, the large central government complex that houses most of Nigeria’s federal ministries. Reports also emerged that the PFIPC was listed in the 2026 Nigerian Appropriation Act with a proposed public allocation of 1.3 billion naira, equivalent to approximately $950,000 or £700,000, and was said to hold official accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria. However, Nigeria’s Accountant-General’s Office has since refuted these claims, confirming that the PFIPC never opened any active accounts with the central bank, never received any public funding, and never paid salaries to any supposed staff.

    Court documents outline that Matthew and two additional co-accused face charges of using forged government documentation to create and run the fake council, opening multiple bank accounts under the agency’s false name, and repeatedly seeking official state recognition for the unregistered, non-existent organization.

  • Kenyan court dismisses Rastafarians’ bid to legalise cannabis

    Kenyan court dismisses Rastafarians’ bid to legalise cannabis

    Kenya’s highest judicial body has thrown out a legal challenge from the country’s Rastafarian community, which had pushed to exempt religious practitioners from national cannabis bans on the grounds of constitutional protection for freedom of belief. The case, which has drawn widespread public attention across the East African nation, centers on a longstanding tension between controlled drug policy and religious autonomy.

    The Rastafarian community has long held that cannabis, referred to in their doctrine as a sacred herb, is an integral part of their spiritual practice. In their submission to the court, the group argued that the blanket national prohibition on cannabis use directly violated the fundamental right to religious freedom enshrined in Kenya’s constitution.

    In the widely watched ruling delivered by Justice Bahati Mwamuye, the court dismissed the petition on the basis that the Rastafarian group failed to present sufficient evidence proving that existing drug legislation infringed on their constitutional rights. While the outcome fell short of the community’s demands, Justice Mwamuye used the ruling as an opportunity to call for a far-reaching, inclusive national conversation on the country’s cannabis policies.

    “This is not an issue that concerns only the Rastafarian community. It is a national question that touches every segment of our society,” Justice Mwamuye stated in his judgement. “We need to hold open, frank discussions about what direction our cannabis policies should take moving forward.”

    The ruling comes amid a growing movement across Kenya to review the country’s strict cannabis laws. Advocates for reform have put forward a range of economic and social arguments for loosening restrictions, noting that regulated commercial cultivation could generate new employment opportunities for thousands of Kenyans, increase public tax revenues, and unlock the potential of industrial and medical applications of cannabis that remain off-limits under current law. For the Rastafarian community, however, the debate is first and foremost a matter of religious equality, with members maintaining that their sacred use of cannabis deserves legal recognition and protection under the law.

  • More health workers strike as Ebola cases in Congo exceed 2,000, including 754 deaths

    More health workers strike as Ebola cases in Congo exceed 2,000, including 754 deaths

    In the conflict-wracked eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a devastating Ebola outbreak driven by the rare Bundibugyo virus has reached a grim milestone, with confirmed cases climbing to 2,011 and total deaths hitting 754, according to newly released official government data. World Health Organization (WHO) officials confirm this is the fastest-expanding Ebola event ever recorded, outpacing containment efforts at every turn.

    The crisis has been compounded by growing unrest among frontline medical teams, who have walked off the job over unmet pay promises. On Wednesday, staff at Bunia General Hospital — the largest medical facility in the outbreak’s epicenter — launched a strike, barricading the hospital entrance to demand long-delayed wages earned while working in high-risk, resource-strapped conditions. This industrial action follows a similar strike just two days earlier at an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, another Ituri Province hotspot that has borne the brunt of the outbreak. That strike ended after workers secured a government commitment to issue back pay within 72 hours, but many frontline staff report they have not received any compensation since the outbreak began in mid-May, leaving deep lingering frustration.

    Public health experts warn multiple overlapping barriers are making the outbreak extremely difficult to contain. The most pressing issue is the unprecedented rate of spread: roughly 80% of all new confirmed cases stem from unknown transmission chains that officials have been unable to map. To date, authorities have only successfully traced 67% of known close contacts of infected patients, a rate far too low to halt transmission. Complicating tracing efforts further, health teams have still not identified the outbreak’s index case (patient zero), while widespread population displacement from ongoing armed conflict and frequent cross-community movement of artisanal miners have scattered thousands of potentially exposed people across the region.

    Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks in Congo that were caused by the more common Zaire strain — for which effective, approved vaccines and treatments already exist — there are no licensed medical countermeasures for the Bundibugyo virus driving this current event. In a small glimmer of hope for the response, enrollment for a clinical trial testing two promising investigational treatments has recently launched in Ituri, though results will not be available for months.
    Additional systemic challenges continue to undermine response work: a critical funding gap has left operations under-resourced, repeated attacks on health facilities have forced care closures in high-risk areas, ongoing armed violence in eastern Congo prevents teams from reaching remote communities, and deep-seated mistrust between local populations and public health workers has reduced cooperation with contact tracing and isolation efforts.
    As of the latest data release, 753 patients remain in isolation care at hospitals across the region, while 366 people have recovered from infection so far. More than 100 frontline healthcare workers have already contracted the virus since the outbreak began, according to WHO figures. WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, who recently completed an assessment visit to Bunia, noted that many of the newly recorded deaths are people who never accessed care, dying in their home communities before medical teams could intervene.

  • The new malaria vaccine helps in Africa but faces a test: Completing all 4 doses

    The new malaria vaccine helps in Africa but faces a test: Completing all 4 doses

    In the sweltering hills of central Cameroon, Mabel Djoumessi trekked for miles along rain-soaked, mud-caked dirt roads, her 9-month-old son Kenfack strapped securely to her back. Her destination: a local clinic, where Kenfack was scheduled for his malaria vaccine — an appointment too urgent to skip, even in poor conditions.

    For generations, malaria has reigned as one of the deadliest threats to young children across the African continent, leaving millions of families grappling with repeated sickness and unmanageable medical costs. Today, Kenfack has never contracted the disease, a outcome his mother credits directly to the new malaria vaccine that has entered routine childhood immunization schedules across the country. “My other children, who never had access to the vaccine, get sick all the time,” Djoumessi explained, as she sat alongside other mothers holding their infants at Soa District Hospital.

    It has now been more than two years since Cameroon made history as the first nation to integrate the RTS,S malaria vaccine into its standard routine immunization program, and frontline health workers are already documenting clear public health gains: severe malaria cases among children have dropped noticeably, and pediatric hospital wards that once overflowed with sick young patients are now far emptier. But a critical gap threatens to undermine these hard-won gains: too few families are returning for the fourth and final booster dose that the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms is essential to sustaining long-term immunity against the parasite.

    This low fourth-dose coverage is not an isolated challenge limited to Cameroon. It reflects a systemic issue that plagues multidose vaccine rollouts across the entire African continent, where barriers ranging from travel costs to competing work and childcare responsibilities keep families from returning for follow-up doses months after the initial rounds of vaccination.

    Global public health data underscores just how high the stakes are: the WHO and UNICEF estimate that malaria kills one child under the age of five every single minute worldwide, with more than 90% of those deaths occurring in Africa. Cameroon alone is among 11 nations that bear roughly 70% of the world’s total malaria burden; the country recorded an estimated 7.6 million cases and 11,700 deaths from the disease in 2024. Early 2025 data from Cameroon’s National Malaria Control Program shows a 33,000-drop in cases compared to the previous year, though experts caution that the vaccine is not the sole driver of this decline.

    “Isolating the specific impact of malaria interventions requires advanced statistical modeling, and we do not yet have a framework to quantify the vaccine’s exclusive contribution,” explained Dr. Bomba Amougou, head of prevention at the National Malaria Control Program. “It is accurate to say the vaccine has contributed to falling cases and deaths, but it is not the only cause.”

    The WHO first endorsed broad use of the RTS,S vaccine in 2021, after multi-year pilot programs in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi found the shot cut child mortality from malaria by 13% among eligible children. Separate clinical trials across several African nations found that both RTS,S and the newer R21 vaccine reduced clinical malaria cases by more than 50% in the first year after three doses. To date, more than 52 million doses have been delivered to 25 high-risk African nations, supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. But the rollout faces major funding constraints following sweeping cuts to foreign aid from the Trump administration and other donors. Currently, Gavi is only able to guarantee vaccine supplies to cover up to 70% of eligible children in the world’s lowest-income countries.

    In Cameroon, coverage for the first three doses of the vaccine — given at six, seven, and nine months of age — has slowly improved since the program launched, climbing from 66% to 68% for first doses, 53% to 58% for second doses, and 48% to 59% for third doses between 2024 and 2025, according to Amougou. But coverage for the fourth dose, scheduled when a child turns two years old, remains stuck at just 25% as of 2025.

    Amougou noted that gaps stem from both parent and provider awareness issues: “Parents and even some health workers sometimes forget the fourth dose, particularly because it is administered more than a year after the third, and this is still a relatively new vaccine.” Receiving all four doses is critical, he emphasized: “Getting every shot makes the protection far more potent, and vaccination must work alongside other tools like bed nets, early treatment, and improved sanitation to beat malaria.”

    Data from the earlier pilot programs across Ghana, Kenya and Malawi confirms that the low fourth-dose coverage problem is widespread. While 80% of eligible children received their first dose in those countries, coverage dropped to just 46% for the fourth dose, according to a 2024 study published in the peer-reviewed Malaria Journal. Researchers found that high parent acceptance of the vaccine itself — driven by widespread familiarity with malaria’s deadly toll — but barriers like transport costs, lack of appointment reminders, poor care follow-up, and competing work and family obligations keep families from returning for the final booster months later.

    Gavi Chief Executive Officer Dr. Sania Nishtar emphasized that low late-dose coverage is an early, solvable challenge that should not overshadow the vaccine’s life-saving value. Nishtar noted that malaria vaccine actually has the lowest rate of parental hesitancy of any routine vaccine, a reflection of how desperate communities are for tools to protect their children from a preventable killer. “There is huge demand from governments and communities for this vaccine,” she said.

    In response to the coverage gap, Cameroon and other affected African nations have launched national “Big Catch-up” campaigns to remind parents and health workers to prioritize the fourth dose and bring eligible children who have missed their booster in for vaccination. Looking ahead, global health researchers are actively developing a single-dose malaria vaccine, which would eliminate the need for multiple follow-up visits and dramatically improve coverage. “The fewer the doses of a vaccine to be administered, the higher the uptake and the easier the administration,” Nishtar explained.

    For many low-income families across Cameroon, preventing malaria is not just a matter of child health — it is also a matter of financial survival. Georgette Caroline Mengbwa, a mother of three waiting for her youngest daughter’s third dose at Soa District Hospital, explained that her two older children were born before the vaccine was available, and face repeated bouts of sickness that drain the family’s limited income. “They fall ill every two or three months, and I have to spend between $53 and $107 every time one or all of them get sick,” she said. “It’s a lot of money.” Those costs are devastating in a country where the official monthly minimum wage is just $76, and nearly 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.

    For mothers like Djoumessi, the vaccine is already a life-changing tool, and she says she has every intention of returning for Kenfack’s fourth dose when he turns two. “I don’t want him to suffer like the others,” she said.

  • How a former ‘street kid’ is key to South Africa’s police corruption inquiry

    How a former ‘street kid’ is key to South Africa’s police corruption inquiry

    After a year of dominating the headlines around South Africa’s landmark public inquiry into systemic police corruption, controversial businessman Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala is finally scheduled to give his long-awaited testimony before the Madlanga Commission on Wednesday. The 49-year-old, who has remained in police custody for over 12 months pending an unrelated attempted murder charge, will face questions from the commission’s panel led by retired Constitutional Court judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga, answering to a sweeping set of corruption and criminal allegations that have shaken the country’s law enforcement establishment to its core.

    Matlala first entered the public spotlight just three years ago, when his name was linked to reported tender irregularities at a state-run hospital — a connection he has consistently denied. What is known of his early life comes almost entirely from testimony he gave to a parallel parliamentary corruption inquiry last November, where he detailed a harsh childhood growing up in a township east of Pretoria during the final decades of apartheid. Raised for much of his youth by a single mother who eventually left him, Matlala told lawmakers he grew up as a street child, only reuniting with his mother in 2002 as she battled terminal illness. After her death, he learned she had been sexually assaulted because of her albinism, a condition targeted by harmful myths that claim intercourse with an albino person can cure disease.

    After leaving school, Matlala built up an informal small business to survive, a path that brought him repeated run-ins with the law. In 2001, he was convicted and served prison time for possession of stolen property. Over subsequent decades, he was arrested on charges ranging from house robbery and cash-in-transit heist to assault; he has denied all involvement in these allegations, and in every case, he was either acquitted or saw the charges withdrawn. Contrary to popular speculation that his nickname ‘Cat’ refers to an ability to escape legal trouble like a cat with nine lives, Matlala has explained the moniker comes from his large family: he and his wife share nine children.

    According to Matlala’s own account, he turned his life around in 2017, when he registered his first formal security services company. He later expanded into healthcare service provision, eventually landing lucrative government contracts first with a public hospital and then with the South African Police Service — a remarkable feat he admitted to parliament, given he had no prior track record in the healthcare sector. His current legal troubles began in May 2025, when he and his wife Tsakane were arrested and charged with attempted murder, a charge both vehemently deny. While his wife was granted bail, Matlala has remained in custody ever since. He was later hit with additional corruption charges tied to his police healthcare contracts; he initially pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal with prosecutors last month, but withdrew the plea after the agreement collapsed.

    The allegations against Matlala that will be front and center at Wednesday’s testimony are wide-ranging. Prosecutors and commission witnesses claim Matlala secured influence and won police contracts by peddling lavish gifts to senior law enforcement and political figures. These gifts include 20 impalas, doses of the popular weight-loss drug Ozempic, and thousands of dollars in unsecured personal loans. Most seriously, Matlala has not yet been forced to address claims that he was a core member of a major drug trafficking syndicate known locally as the Big Five.

    In his November 2024 parliamentary testimony, Matlala pushed back against early accusations, saying he had no personal connections to senior police officers or leading politicians, and denied all core corruption claims. He did admit to making donations to activities affiliated with the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling coalition party.

    Over the 10 months the Madlanga Commission has held public hearings, a string of explosive testimonies has tied Matlala to some of the most senior figures in South African law enforcement and politics. Witnesses have claimed Matlala provided indirect campaign funding to suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to support his political activities, a claim Mchunu has outright denied. Matlala has also been linked to Mchunu’s predecessor, Bheki Cele. During his parliamentary testimony, Matlala claimed he paid Cele a 500,000 rand (equivalent to roughly $31,000) facilitation fee after police returned firearms that had been seized from him, and that Cele additionally asked for help funding a home purchase and his son’s university tuition — requests Matlala says he refused. Cele has acknowledged knowing Matlala and staying twice at his rented Pretoria penthouse, but denies ever receiving any payments from the businessman.

    The commission has also scrutinized Matlala’s relationship with suspended deputy police chief Major-General Shadrack Sibiya. Both men have repeatedly claimed their interactions were strictly professional, but commission testimony has contradicted this account. Witnesses allege Sibiya received 20 impalas from Matlala around the same time the businessman was awarded his major police contract; Sibiya has denied this, saying he would never accept gifts from a government service provider. One witness also told the commission that after his May 2025 arrest, Matlala openly bragged about his close connections to top-tier police leadership, including Sibiya.

    Multiple other senior police officers have been implicated in the alleged corrupt network tied to Matlala, and two have already been fired from the force. Brigadier Rachel Matjeng, the senior officer who oversaw the awarding of the controversial police contract to Matlala, told the commission she had an on-again off-again romantic relationship with the businessman, who showered her with expensive gifts including Ozempic injections. Major-General Richard Shibiri, head of the police’s organized crime unit, admitted to accepting a $4,000 personal loan from Matlala to cover repairs for his son’s car, which he has since repaid. Shibiri, who oversees anti-gang, narcotics and illegal mining investigations, denies having any close personal connection to Matlala or knowing he was allegedly part of a criminal cartel. Both Matjeng and Shibiri have been dismissed from the police service.

    Further allegations have emerged tied to suspended Ekurhuleni acting police chief Julius Mkhwanazi, who is accused of arranging to have blue lights and sirens installed on Matlala’s personal vehicles — a privilege reserved only for official security use. Mkhwanazi has denied this specific claim, but admitted to receiving money from Matlala, whom he described as a ‘blood brother’ during his commission testimony.

    After 10 months of shocking revelations that have gripped public attention across South Africa, expectations are high for Matlala’s Wednesday testimony. Many South Africans, who have followed the commission’s proceedings closely, believe Matlala holds key information that could unpack the full scale of systemic corruption within the national police force, and are eager to hear his response to the full scope of allegations against him.

  • Villa warned over sportswashing after Visit Rwanda deal

    Villa warned over sportswashing after Visit Rwanda deal

    English Premier League side Aston Villa has landed the largest sponsorship agreement in its century-long history, a multi-year £20 million-per-year deal with Rwandan tourism board Visit Rwanda that has quickly reignited global debate over alleged “sportswashing” of Rwanda’s alleged human rights abuses and military interference in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

    The deal will see Visit Rwanda replace betting brand Betano on the front of matchday kits for Aston Villa’s men’s senior team, women’s senior team, and youth academy squads. The partnership marks the first major major commercial agreement negotiated by Francesco Calvo, who took over as the club’s president of business operations last year following the departure of Chris Heck. In a formal statement announcing the partnership, Calvo framed the deal as a milestone in the club’s global growth strategy, saying it unlocks cross-sector opportunities across tourism, foreign investment, and grassroots sports development.

    “This is a very exciting partnership for Aston Villa and a symbol of the club’s continuing expansion and growth into international markets,” Calvo said. “There is a great range and depth of opportunities for collaboration, learning and innovation and we are looking forward to working with Visit Rwanda to deliver meaningful activations through tourism, investment and sporting development.”

    But the agreement has drawn immediate condemnation from human rights advocates and political leaders, who accuse Rwanda of using high-profile football partnerships to distract the global public from systemic human rights violations at home and its role in fueling ongoing deadly conflict in eastern DRC. Felix Jakens, head of campaigns for Amnesty International UK, said the pattern of Rwanda leveraging elite football sponsorships for positive public relations is nothing new, and that Aston Villa and the Premier League have a responsibility to address the allegations.

    “It’s not new that Rwanda is using sportswashing to deflect attention from its terrible human rights record,” Jakens said in a statement to BBC Sport. “Aston Villa should be well aware that Rwanda is seeking to leverage this partnership to create positive PR. The country is prolific in arbitrary detention, torture and the repression of free speech – these are abuses at home. We are seeing bloodshed right before our eyes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda is playing a significant role in fuelling that conflict – both through its support to the M23 rebels and the direct actions of its military in Eastern Congo. Rwanda’s sportswashing needs to be called out, and we’d like Aston Villa and the Premier League to play their part in this.”

    The criticisms come amid a long-running international dispute between DRC and Rwanda. Just last month, DRC formally filed a case against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing the neighboring country of violating multiple international treaties by deploying military forces and arming rebel groups to carry out illegal operations on DRC territory. The allegations stretch back decades, rooted in regional instability that followed the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda has repeatedly denied all claims that it supports armed groups in eastern DRC, but independent United Nations experts and several Western governments have verified that Rwanda provides backing for the M23, one of the most active and violent insurgent groups in the region.

    Aston Villa’s deal marks the latest high-profile Rwandan tourism sponsorship in global football that has faced public scrutiny. Visit Rwanda already holds partnerships with clubs across Europe’s top leagues, including Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Atletico Madrid, and previously Arsenal and Bayern Munich, and each of these deals has sparked protests and campaigns from fans and human rights groups.

    Last year, amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC tied to the M23 insurgency, DRC Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner openly called on Arsenal, Bayern, and PSG to end what she labeled “blood-stained” sponsorship deals, questioning the moral standing of accepting revenue from a nation she accuses of military aggression. “It is time Arsenal ended its blood-stained sponsorship deals with this oppressor nation. If not for your own consciences, then the clubs should do it for the victims of Rwandan aggression,” Wagner wrote in open letters to the clubs’ leadership.

    Fan campaigns have also pressured clubs to cut ties: PSG supporters launched a national petition demanding an end to the partnership in 2024, while Arsenal’s fan-led group Gunners for Peace ran a public campaign urging the club not to renew its Visit Rwanda sleeve sponsorship, even suggesting rival Tottenham Hotspur would be a more ethical alternative.

    In response to past criticisms, the Rwanda Development Board has repeatedly rejected the accusations as misinformation, saying the Visit Rwanda initiative is designed to showcase the country’s progress toward peace, stability, and inclusive economic growth, and that DRC has attempted to undermine the partnerships through unfair political pressure.

    In recent months, a handful of high-profile clubs have moved to end their commercial sponsorship deals with Visit Rwanda. Arsenal announced last November that its eight-year sleeve sponsorship agreement would conclude at the end of the 2025-26 season, a deal that was reportedly worth more than £10 million annually at its peak. Bayern Munich announced last August that it would transition away from commercial branding to focus solely on expanding its existing youth academy partnership in Kigali with Rwanda’s Ministry of Sports. However, other clubs have expanded their ties: just two months ago in April 2025, PSG extended its Visit Rwanda sponsorship until 2028, while La Liga side Atletico Madrid signed a new three-year deal to feature the Visit Rwanda logo on both its men’s and women’s senior team kits.

    Aston Villa’s need for a new front-of-shirt sponsor arose after all Premier League clubs agreed to remove all gambling industry sponsorship from the front of matchday kits by the end of the 2024-25 season, requiring the club to find a replacement for outgoing sponsor Betano. The BBC has reached out to Aston Villa for additional comment on the new sponsorship following the human rights criticisms, and the club has not yet issued a further response.

  • Diamond giant De Beers halts work at flagship South African mine as demand plummets

    Diamond giant De Beers halts work at flagship South African mine as demand plummets

    The global diamond industry is facing unprecedented market upheaval, forcing mining giant De Beers to take drastic action: a two-year production suspension at Venetia Mine, South Africa’s largest diamond-producing operation. The shutdown comes as shifting consumer demand and rising competition from affordable lab-grown alternatives have sent industry profits and prices into a steep decline.

    Industry data underscores the severity of the downturn: the International Diamond Consultants rough diamond price index has nearly halved since 2022, driven by flagging consumer demand – particularly in key Chinese markets – and the growing market share of lower-cost lab-grown gems. In justifying the decision, De Beers noted that the depressed state of the global diamond market makes immediate cost-cutting and operational streamlining a necessary priority.

    Located in the far northern region of South Africa, Venetia Mine contributes over 40% of the country’s total national diamond output and provides direct employment for more than 4,000 workers. The shutdown casts a shadow over South Africa’s broader mining sector, which supports nearly 500,000 jobs nationwide and contributes more than 4% of the country’s gross domestic product. Local workers’ unions have long warned of the devastating economic ripple effects of widespread layoffs in the industry.

    De Beers, which is majority-owned by mining conglomerate Anglo American, has already announced plans to use the two-year shutdown to upgrade infrastructure, boost production efficiency and increase total output capacity, positioning the mine to resume operations once market conditions rebound. Reports have also indicated that Anglo American is actively seeking to sell its stake in De Beers as part of a strategic shift toward expanding copper production, a commodity in surging demand driven by the global artificial intelligence boom.

    The rise of lab-grown diamonds as a disruptive competitor stems from more than just lower price points. Many modern consumers have embraced the synthetic stones over ethical concerns linked to traditional diamond mining, including poor working conditions, unfair miner compensation, and extensive environmental damage from mining operations. Ironically, many established natural diamond producers including De Beers have adapted to the shift by launching their own lines of affordable lab-grown diamonds, turning market disruption into an additional revenue stream.

    While other large diamond producers have scaled back operations in recent years, De Beers’ decision carries unique symbolic weight due to the company’s 150-year history rooted in the colonial era of southern Africa. Founded in 1871 by British colonist Cecil Rhodes, the company grew out of a colonial project that saw Rhodes’ forces dispossess indigenous African communities of their land and deny them basic political and economic rights, amassing enormous personal wealth in the process. Today, Rhodes’ legacy remains one of the most contentious flashpoints for global conversations about decolonizing institutions that continue to honor his name, from statues to the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford, whose past recipients include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

    For more coverage of economic and political developments across the African continent, visit BBCAfrica.com or follow BBC Africa on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

  • Majority of new Ebola cases are ‘from unknown chains of transmission,’ WHO official says

    Majority of new Ebola cases are ‘from unknown chains of transmission,’ WHO official says

    GENEVA — The World Health Organization’s top emergencies official issued a stark warning Tuesday, stating that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is still moving faster than international and local response teams can contain, following a firsthand assessment trip to one of the crisis’s hardest-hit areas. Chikwe Ihekweazu, WHO’s emergencies chief, returned this week from Bunia, located in Ituri province, the epicenter of the current outbreak, where he uncovered deeply troubling trends driving the virus’s spread.

    According to Ihekweazu, the most worrying observation from his visit is that a large share of newly reported fatalities are people who never accessed formal medical care, passing away in their home communities before they could reach a treatment facility. As of this week, he added, roughly 80 percent of all new confirmed cases are not linked to existing contact tracing lists, meaning they originate from unknown transmission chains that response teams have not been able to track or pre-empt.

    The DRC has been fighting this outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo Ebola variant since undetected community transmission began in early May, with no approved vaccine or specific antiviral treatment currently available for this strain. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention labeled the event the fastest-expanding Ebola outbreak the African continent has ever seen last week.

    Congolese health authorities released updated figures Monday showing at least 1,926 confirmed and probable infections across three affected provinces, with a total of 702 recorded deaths. The outbreak has already spilled across national borders, with confirmed cases detected in neighboring Uganda, raising concerns of a wider regional spread. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a U.S. citizen working for a humanitarian organization in the DRC had tested positive for the virus, though no additional details about the patient’s condition or location were released.

    Ihekweazu noted that his trip to Bunia revealed mixed progress: while response capacity has expanded significantly in recent weeks, systemic barriers continue to prevent teams from getting ahead of the virus. Local treatment capacity now stands at nearly 800 beds, with new spaces added every week, and laboratory testing capacity has jumped dramatically from just one operational lab at the start of the outbreak to 14 fully functional facilities. Other core response operations have also seen incremental improvements.

    Still, Ihekweazu emphasized that even with these gains, response teams have not managed to overtake the virus’s spread. “Despite our best efforts … we have not caught up in the race,” he told reporters in Geneva.

    The response effort has been held back by a range of interconnected challenges, including a critical shortfall in funding, repeated violent attacks on health facilities operating in the region, ongoing armed conflict that makes large parts of eastern DRC inaccessible to response teams, and widespread mistrust of medical authorities among local communities. These barriers compounded this week, when dozens of staff members at an Ebola treatment center in northeastern DRC launched a strike Monday over months of unpaid salaries and performance bonuses, further disrupting care delivery.

    The Congolese government only officially declared the outbreak on May 15, after the virus had been spreading undetected through local communities for multiple weeks, the WHO confirmed. Last week, researchers finally launched long-awaited clinical trials for experimental treatments, marking the first formal effort to test targeted interventions against the current circulating strain.

  • EU bans gold imports from Sudan to curb money financing conflict

    EU bans gold imports from Sudan to curb money financing conflict

    More than two years after Sudan’s devastating civil war erupted between the country’s regular military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, the European Union has enacted sweeping new restrictive measures targeting the gold trade that has emerged as a core revenue stream for both warring factions. The new rules, formally approved by EU foreign ministers, ban all EU-based individuals and companies from purchasing, importing, or transferring any gold originating in Sudan, alongside an export prohibition on two chemicals critical to artisanal and industrial gold processing: mercury and cyanide. Exemptions are in place for mercury and cyanide intended strictly for humanitarian and public health uses, the bloc clarified.

    As one of Africa’s top gold producing nations, Sudan’s extensive untapped gold reserves have become a lifeline for financing military operations on both sides of the conflict, according to global human rights and monitoring groups. Territorial control of the country’s gold resources is split along front lines: the RSF holds sway over most major goldfields in the western Darfur region and central Kordofan, while the Sudanese Armed Forces manages production in northern and eastern parts of the country. UN analysts and independent experts estimate that between 50% and 70% of Sudan’s annual gold output is smuggled out of the country illegally, with most trafficked through neighboring states including Egypt, Chad and Libya before reaching the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai, one of the world’s largest centers for gold refining and global trade.

    In an official statement following the approval of the sanctions, the EU Council emphasized that gold has become a foundational source of funding that allows the conflict to continue. “The measures are designed to curb sources of financing for the conflict and further increase pressure on those fuelling the war,” the council said, noting that the new restrictions expand an existing EU sanctions regime that already targets dozens of individuals and entities accused of prolonging violence across Sudan.

    The war in Sudan has already spawned one of the worst global humanitarian catastrophes of the 21st century. To date, the conflict has forced more than 14 million Sudanese people to flee their homes, and aid organizations estimate that more than 28 million people across the country now face acute food insecurity. International pressure has been mounting on external backers of both warring parties to cut support for the conflict, but independent sanctions experts warn that the EU’s new measures alone will not be enough to halt the illicit gold trade. For the ban to have a meaningful impact, major global gold trading hubs and regional transit countries must also strengthen enforcement efforts to block entry for smuggled Sudanese gold, experts say.