Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Kenya police shake up president’s protection team after security breach

    Kenya police shake up president’s protection team after security breach

    A shocking security lapse at a public thanksgiving gathering in eastern Kenya on Sunday has triggered a sweeping restructuring of President William Ruto’s personal protection detail, after an unidentified man successfully bypassed multiple layers of security to approach and briefly embrace the head of state.

    Viral footage circulating across social media platforms shows the man, who was carrying an item widely identified as a Bible, climb onto the event stage before wrapping his left arm around Ruto. Plainclothes presidential bodyguards reacted within seconds, tackling the intruder to the ground in a brief scuffle that ended the encounter quickly. Remarkably, no injuries were reported to either the intruder, the president, or any members of the security team following the incident.

    Inspection General of Police Douglas Kanja has labeled the security failure “unacceptable,” emphasizing that any breach of the president’s personal protection qualifies as a matter of “the gravest national concern.” In response to the lapse, authorities have already implemented immediate personnel changes: a new leader has been appointed to head the Presidential Escort Unit, while multiple senior security officials assigned to the president’s detail have either been removed from their posts or placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an official investigation.

    Kanja issued a stern public warning following the overhaul, reminding attendees at all events attended by the president and other senior national leaders that strict adherence to established security protocols is mandatory. “Any attempt to breach security will be met with the full force of the law,” he stressed.

    Despite the alarming breach, President Ruto remained calm immediately after the incident, intervening to de-escalate the situation by telling security personnel, “Leave that young man alone. That young man has no problem.” As of the latest updates, the intruder has not been publicly named, and no formal arrests have been announced in connection with the incident.

    Law enforcement officials have assembled a specialized investigative task force to trace exactly how the man was able to get past multiple tiers of security screening that are supposed to block unauthorized individuals from approaching the president. The incident has reignited long-simmering public debate over the adequacy of security arrangements for presidential open-air rallies, where large crowds of supporters often gather in close proximity to the head of state.

    Notably, Sunday’s breach is not an isolated incident. It comes just three months after security officers intercepted another young man who managed to get close to Ruto’s podium during a public event. In an even earlier incident in May 2025, an attacker threw a shoe toward the president during a crowded rally, adding to a pattern of security gaps that have now prompted this major leadership shakeup within the presidential security apparatus.

  • Ugandan health officials report new Ebola virus infections, bringing cases to 7

    Ugandan health officials report new Ebola virus infections, bringing cases to 7

    KAMPALA, UGANDA – In a fresh update to the expanding Ebola outbreak that originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ugandan health officials announced two additional confirmed infections on Monday, pushing the total number of active cases in the East African nation to seven. All Ugandan cases can be traced directly to the ongoing outbreak centered in eastern DR Congo, which health experts confirm was circulating for days or even weeks before Congolese authorities officially declared the public health emergency on May 15. The cross-border spread first reached Uganda on May 11, when a 59-year-old Congolese national sought care at a Kampala hospital. He died three days later, before clinicians confirmed he was infected with the Ebola virus. Two more Congolese travelers seeking medical treatment in Uganda subsequently tested positive for the virus. Over the weekend, Ugandan authorities confirmed the first locally transmitted infections: a commercial driver and a frontline health worker who had both been exposed to the initial Congolese patient who died in mid-May. Monday’s announcement added two more local cases, both health workers employed at a private Kampala facility who tested positive for the virus. Dr. Charles Olaro, Uganda’s national director of health services, confirmed in an official statement that both newly identified patients have been transferred to a specialized Ebola treatment unit and are currently receiving targeted care. To slow community transmission, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has rolled out a series of urgent public health measures, including a national appeal to residents to abandon the common cultural practice of handshakes to reduce viral spread. He also issued an order postponing a major annual religious gathering that typically draws thousands of pilgrims from the Congo and other neighboring countries to a Catholic basilica on the outskirts of Kampala, scheduled to take place before June 3. Additional containment measures include a temporary halt to all cross-border public transportation and commercial flights between Uganda and the DR Congo to limit unchecked movement across the shared border. The crisis unfolding in the DR Congo is far more severe: Congolese authorities reported Sunday that suspected Ebola cases have surpassed 900, with the vast majority concentrated in eastern Ituri province, the epicenter of the current outbreak. Response efforts in the region have been severely hampered by widespread public fear, anger, and deep-seated frustration among local communities, a legacy of decades of armed conflict that has also eroded trust in national authorities. Violent attacks on Ebola treatment centers have further disrupted emergency response work. The DR Congo has recorded more than a dozen Ebola outbreaks since the virus was first identified, but public health experts warn that recent cuts to international aid from wealthy nations including the United States have left eastern Congo uniquely vulnerable to large-scale spread. Aid organizations on the ground confirm they lack critical personal protective equipment for frontline health workers, including face shields and full-body hazmat suits, as well as insufficient diagnostic testing kits and materials for safe burial of contagious victims, a core step to halting transmission. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a variant for which no approved vaccine or targeted treatment currently exists. The World Health Organization has already declared this outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the highest global alert level for infectious disease events. Public health officials identify contact tracing and rapid isolation of exposed individuals as the most critical interventions to stop the virus from spreading widely. Ebola typically causes severe hemorrhagic fever, and the WHO notes that a species of fruit bat is the natural reservoir for the virus. The pathogen spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person, or contact with contaminated surfaces and materials.

  • How collecting DNA samples in the wild could transform conservation

    How collecting DNA samples in the wild could transform conservation

    Nestled in the mist-shrouded slopes of Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, conservationists have long faced a daunting challenge: tracking and protecting endangered wildlife, from the iconic mountain gorilla to the vivid golden monkey, across rugged, vegetation-choked terrain that often hides even the largest animals from view. Now, a cutting-edge tool is transforming how experts safeguard biodiversity across the park, part of the transboundary Virunga Mountain range shared by Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The new approach, environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring, is being rolled out by the African Wildlife Foundation in partnership with the Rwandan government, bringing a technique more commonly used in marine conservation to one of Africa’s most important terrestrial conservation sites.

    eDNA works by collecting and analyzing tiny fragments of genetic material that animals leave behind in their environment—from shed fur and feces to skin cells left in soil or water. For decades, biodiversity monitoring in the region relied on two core approaches: camera traps, which activate when animals cross their sensor path, and direct observations by trained rangers. But both methods have critical limitations in the Virungas: steep ridges, dense fog and thick vegetation make on-the-ground surveys slow and dangerous, while periodic insecurity along the shared Congo-Uganda-Rwanda border restricts ranger access to remote areas. Camera traps also only capture species that pass directly in front of their lenses, leaving gaps in population data.

    Conservation leaders say eDNA addresses many of these gaps, while acting as a complement—not a replacement—for traditional monitoring techniques. “We selected eDNA as a new technology to bring solutions and to complement existing methods used in ecological monitoring,” explained Patrick Nsabimana, country manager for the African Wildlife Foundation in Rwanda. Unlike traditional surveys that focus on a small number of target species, eDNA can identify dozens of species from a single soil or water sample, including mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Samples can be collected easily from downstream ponds, which accumulate genetic material from animals ranging across higher slopes, cutting down on the need for researchers to trek into inaccessible, dangerous terrain. The method is also far more cost-effective for large, rugged ecosystems like the Virungas than sustained on-the-ground monitoring.

    A core goal of the current eDNA project is to build a complete inventory of all species living in Rwanda’s protected areas, a critical foundation for protecting biodiversity that faces growing threats from climate change and rapid human population growth around park boundaries. This work comes at a key moment for Rwanda’s conservation sector, as the country expands its national park network by restoring previously cultivated agricultural land to wild habitat. With eDNA monitoring, conservationists can track how endangered and rare species are colonizing these newly restored areas over time, measuring the success of restoration efforts and spotting invasive species before they can spread. The technology also delivers a practical security benefit: by creating more accurate maps of where endangered species live, park managers can better target anti-poaching patrols to high-risk areas.

    Despite its promise, the technology still faces notable challenges, particularly for conservation work in Africa. First, eDNA can confirm a species is present in an area, but it cannot reliably estimate the size of the local population. Genetic material can also linger in the environment for weeks or months after an animal has left the area, meaning positive detections do not always confirm a current population. More structural barriers also remain: early samples collected in the Volcanoes project had to be shipped all the way to Europe for processing, a time-consuming and costly step. Maintaining the cold storage required to preserve eDNA samples before testing is also a major challenge across many parts of the continent, and contamination of samples during collection can skew results.

    The largest gap facing the project is the lack of region-specific genetic reference data. Most existing genetic libraries that researchers use to match eDNA samples to known species were built from specimens collected in Europe and North America, leaving critical gaps for African biodiversity. This makes it much harder to correctly identify less-studied local species from collected samples. To address this, researchers on the project are now working to build the first dedicated regional genetic reference library for the Virunga ecosystem.

    An important part of the initiative is also building local capacity: the project team is currently training local community members and park rangers to collect eDNA samples, expanding monitoring capacity and creating opportunities for local stakeholders to participate in conservation. Combined with traditional monitoring methods, project leaders say eDNA will help fill long-standing gaps in species data, strengthening conservation efforts for the Virungas’ most iconic endangered wildlife for decades to come.

    This reporting was supported by private foundation funding for AP’s climate and environmental coverage, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • In Sudan’s war economy, gold keeps flowing as miners risk mercury and collapse

    In Sudan’s war economy, gold keeps flowing as miners risk mercury and collapse

    Perched across the arid, mountainous terrain of northern Sudan’s Dalgo Mahas, a small crew of artisanal gold miners moves slowly across the landscape. Each man carries a handheld metal detector, sweeping the dry earth for traces of the precious metal that has come to define their nation’s tragedy. One kneels, driving a simple digging tool into the dirt, working without hard hats, respiratory protection, or any of the most basic safety protocols that govern formal mining operations around the globe.

    These unregulated small-scale miners are just a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of Sudanese who have turned to informal gold extraction in recent years, a sector that has become both a lifeline for desperate families and the core driver of the devastating civil war that has pushed millions to the brink of famine.

    Sudan’s reliance on gold traces back to 2011, when the secession of South Sudan stripped the country of more than two-thirds of its historic oil revenues. Overnight, the nation’s economy was left reeling, and gold quickly emerged as the replacement backbone of government finances. In the years following South Sudan’s independence, gold exports accounted for 70% of Sudan’s total national revenue, supplying the cash-strapped state with critical foreign currency to keep basic operations running.

    But today, that same gold wealth is funding the brutal ongoing conflict between Sudan’s regular military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to independent United Nations expert investigators commissioned to track war financing. The RSF, which maintains tight control over major gold-producing regions across Darfur and Kordofan, has overseen the smuggling of massive volumes of unregulated gold out of Sudan to fund its military operations, the experts confirm.

    The human cost of the conflict has already been catastrophic. U.S.-based conflict monitoring organization the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project estimates that at least 59,000 people have been killed since the war began, though the group stresses this count is almost certainly a major undercount, given widespread restrictions on on-the-ground reporting and access to conflict zones. The war has also spawned the world’s largest humanitarian disaster, forcing more than 10 million Sudanese to flee their homes to escape violence. For many of these displaced people, artisanal gold mining has become the only viable way to put food on the table for their families.

    “Gold mining is the only thing I can rely on,” explained 28-year-old Atta al-Khazin, who abandoned his career as a small-scale farmer when rising global oil prices made agricultural inputs too expensive to turn a profit.

    Zahir Adam, a 35-year-old father from el-Fasher in Darfur who has worked in gold mining for more than a decade, said the sector has seen a massive influx of new workers since the war erupted three years ago. “They had no other option,” he said. “Many young people, and many families, depend on mining.”

    Official industry figures confirm Sudan’s gold production is growing, even as its war rages. The country produced 70 tons of gold in 2025, up from 64 tons in 2024, cementing its position as one of the top gold-producing nations in Africa. State-run Sudanese Mineral Resources Company data shows the sector generated roughly $1.8 billion in revenue for 2025.

    More than half of this production comes from informal, artisanal small-scale mines that operate almost entirely outside government oversight, with almost no adherence to global safety or environmental standards. The extraction process used by most informal miners carries major health risks for workers and nearby communities: after digging ore from the ground, miners crush the rock, then mix it with toxic mercury to bind gold particles into an amalgam. The mixture is then heated over an open stove to evaporate the mercury, leaving pure gold behind. The process releases dangerous mercury vapor into the air and leaches toxic waste into local water supplies, creating long-term public health risks that extend far beyond the mines themselves.

    The U.N. expert panel’s 2024 report found that more than 50% of all gold mined in Sudan never enters formal, regulated trade channels, and is instead smuggled across borders to illicit markets in neighboring countries.

    Lethal safety failures are also routine in the unregulated sector. Just last month, a mine collapse in Sudan’s Red Sea Province killed at least seven miners. Another collapse in South Kordofan Province in January claimed 13 lives.

    Efforts to bring the critical sector under government oversight have repeatedly fallen apart amid political upheaval. After the military ousted longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, a civilian-led transitional government that ruled for more than a year launched an initiative to regulate informal gold mining and crack down on smuggling. Those reform efforts were cut short by a military coup in October 2021, which paved the way for the full-scale civil war that broke out in 2023, leaving the gold sector more unregulated and conflict-fueled than ever before.

  • Morocco wants tourists to visit Western Sahara. Some say it’s tightening its control

    Morocco wants tourists to visit Western Sahara. Some say it’s tightening its control

    A low-cost promotional email from Irish carrier Ryanair, advertising cheap €30 return flights from Madrid to the coastal Saharan city of Dakhla as a “Moroccan adventure”, has pulled back the curtain on a growing controversy at the intersection of global tourism and a 50-year-old unresolved territorial dispute. As the $35 ticket price and a flood of new accommodation options from budget hostels to luxury retreats draw growing numbers of international tourists to the region, the labeling of Dakhla and other Western Sahara destinations as part of Morocco has ignited fierce debate over international law, corporate responsibility, and the sovereignty of the Sahrawi people.

    Western Sahara, classified by the United Nations as a non-self-governing territory, has been mired in conflict since Spanish colonial withdrawal in 1976. Morocco promptly claimed the resource-rich territory as its own “southern provinces”, launching an armed conflict against the indigenous Sahrawi independence movement, the Polisario Front. A 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire established a framework for a binding referendum on self-determination, but the vote has never been held. Today, Morocco occupies and administers roughly 80% of the territory, while the Polisario Front controls a small eastern sliver and continues to advocate for full independence.

    Tourism to the Morocco-controlled portion of Western Sahara has surged in recent years, official data from Morocco’s Ministry of Tourism shows. Visitor numbers have jumped more than 50% over the past seven years, rising from 490,297 in 2019 to 743,133 in 2025. This rapid growth has been driven heavily by expanded air access: alongside Morocco’s national carrier Royal Air Maroc, major European airlines including Ryanair, Transavia France, and Binter Canarias now operate direct routes to the territory from European hubs. Most of these carriers, including Ryanair and Transavia France, explicitly list Western Sahara destinations as part of Morocco in their marketing and booking platforms. Only Binter Canarias breaks from this approach, correctly labeling the territory as Western Sahara. Transavia France has stated it only operates routes in line with official authorizations it has received, while Ryanair has declined to comment on the controversy.

    Tourists who have traveled to the region note the tourism sector is still in its early stages. Tom Ruck, a 29-year-old British traveler who flew to Dakhla with Ryanair, reported that dozens of new resort developments remain largely empty, with only a small trickle of family holidaymakers visiting so far. Ruck added that he received a Moroccan entry stamp in his passport, and Moroccan flags are displayed universally across the city, reflecting Rabat’s de facto control of the area.

    The practice of labeling Western Sahara as part of Morocco has drawn sharp criticism from human rights campaigners, legal experts, and the Polisario Front, who argue that it normalizes and legitimizes what they view as Morocco’s illegal occupation in violation of international law. Erik Hagen, a spokesperson for advocacy group Western Sahara Resource Watch, warned that mislabeling the territory distorts public understanding of its status and raises critical questions about corporate due diligence in occupied, politically sensitive regions. Major international travel booking platforms, including Expedia, Booking.com, and Trivago, have also been drawn into the row: all three currently list hotels in Western Sahara as located in Morocco. Booking.com says it adds general disclaimers for disputed regions and advises travelers to check official government travel advisories, while Expedia has declined to comment and Trivago has not yet issued a statement.

    Andrea Maria Pelliconi, an expert in international human rights law at the University of Southampton, argues that airlines and booking platforms have a clear legal obligation to distinguish Western Sahara’s disputed status from sovereign Moroccan territory. She warns that companies that fail to make this distinction could face potential litigation on multiple fronts, including violations of international law and the Sahrawi people’s inherent right to self-determination, as well as breaches of EU consumer protection and fair competition rules.

    Pressure from advocacy groups has already yielded some shifts in industry practice: last year, home-sharing platform Airbnb changed its policy and stopped labeling Western Sahara listings as part of Morocco.

    For the Polisario Front, the growing tourism push is a deliberate strategy by Morocco to cement its claim to the territory through a fait accompli, while leaving most tourists uninformed of the underlying dispute. Sidi Breika, the Polisario Front’s representative to the UK and Ireland, emphasized that all economic and tourism projects in the illegally occupied territory violate the Sahrawi people’s inalienable right to self-determination, a right explicitly recognized by the United Nations. Breika added that the movement is monitoring Ryanair’s activities closely and is actively considering legal action against the carrier.

    Recent diplomatic developments have tilted in Morocco’s favor: in October 2024, the UN Security Council voted to prioritize Morocco’s proposal for an autonomous status for Western Sahara as a path forward, while extending the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in the region for another year. The push for the resolution was led by the United States, which first formally recognized Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara in 2020 under the Trump administration, as part of a deal that saw Morocco normalize relations with Israel. Despite this shift, the formal international legal position still requires a mutually agreed political solution to the dispute under UN supervision, and the Polisario Front has repeatedly rejected Morocco’s autonomy proposal.

    Breika stressed that the Sahrawi people’s position remains unwavering: investments in tourism and other economic projects can never replace the Sahrawi people’s right to freely determine their own future.

  • Young men storm a Congo hospital treating Ebola patients to demand bodies of their kin

    Young men storm a Congo hospital treating Ebola patients to demand bodies of their kin

    On Sunday evening, violent unrest disrupted the frontline of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s fight against a rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak, when a group of angry young men breached the compound of Mongbwalu General Hospital — a key facility treating Ebola patients in the heart of the epidemic zone in eastern Congo. As gunfire echoed through the surrounding area, medical personnel were forced to make a frantic, rushed evacuation of all patients receiving care at the site.

    Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, confirmed to the Associated Press in a phone interview that the attackers’ core demand was the handover of two bodies of their relatives held at the facility. In the chaos of the incursion, no immediate information on injuries or casualties was available. Lokudu noted that the entire hospital had been placed on full alert amid the unfolding situation, and he was unable to provide additional details as events continued to develop.

    This attack marks the third act of violence targeting Ebola healthcare infrastructure in just seven days, laying bare the deep, multi-layered challenges facing public health workers as they attempt to contain an outbreak the World Health Organization has already designated a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Local resistance to Congolese public health rules has been driven by cultural traditions around burial, which conflict with mandatory safety protocols designed to stop Ebola transmission.

    Bodies of Ebola victims carry extremely high levels of the virus, and traditional funeral practices — including close contact during preparation for burial and large community gatherings — are major drivers of further spread. To curb this risk, Congolese authorities have issued a mandate requiring that all burials of suspected Ebola victims be overseen by trained official personnel wherever possible. This policy has sparked repeated backlash from local communities, who often reject restrictions on accessing their loved ones’ remains. Just two days before the hospital attack, the government announced a ban on funeral wakes and any gatherings of more than 50 people in the affected northeastern region to slow transmission.

    The string of attacks began on Thursday, when a separate treatment center in the nearby town of Rwampara was burned to the ground by community members after officials blocked family members from retrieving the body of a local man who had died from suspected Ebola. Two days later, on Saturday, residents of Mongbwalu attacked and set fire to an isolation tent set up by the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases. In that incident, 18 patients with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and remain unaccounted for, a development that poses major new transmission risks, according to Lokudu.

    As violence against health workers has escalated, official case counts have shown a sharp jump in the scope of the outbreak. Earlier on Sunday, the Congolese Ministry of Communication announced via the social platform X that the country had recorded 904 suspected Ebola cases, most concentrated in northeastern Ituri Province. That number marks a significant increase from the previous count of just over 700 cases shared just days prior. The ministry also reported a total of 119 suspected deaths from the virus, though a breakdown of regional figures it released added up to 220 fatalities. Officials could not be reached immediately to clarify the discrepancy in the death toll.

    This outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a rare variant for which no targeted vaccine is currently available. The virus spread undetected through Ituri for weeks after the first reported death in late April in Bunia, the provincial capital, because authorities initially tested for a more common Ebola strain and returned negative results, delaying detection and response.

    New developments have also called into question the timeline of the outbreak’s origins. On Saturday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced that three of its volunteer workers had died from Ebola in Mongbwalu. The agency reported that the three workers believe the volunteers contracted the virus on March 27, while handling dead bodies during a humanitarian mission unrelated to the Ebola response. If this infection date is confirmed, it would push the start of the outbreak back by nearly a month, explaining how the virus was able to spread widely before being detected. The WHO has assessed that the outbreak poses a “very high” risk to Congo — an upgrade from its previous “high” rating — while noting that the risk of global spread remains low.

  • Mamelodi Sundowns win African Champions League title

    Mamelodi Sundowns win African Champions League title

    South African club side Mamelodi Sundowns has secured its second continental African Champions League crown, holding on for a 1-1 away draw against Morocco’s AS FAR that was enough to seal a 2-1 aggregate victory in the competition’s 2025 final.

    Heading into the second leg hosted at Rabat’s 70,000-capacity Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, the South African side already held a 1-0 advantage from the opening fixture last Sunday, earned via a well-taken strike from defender Aubrey Modiba. The atmosphere in the ground was tense and intimidating for the visitors from kickoff, with nearly a full crowd overwhelmingly rooting for AS FAR, who were chasing their first African top-flight club title since 1985.

    The deadlock on the night was broken five minutes before halftime, when Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review prompted referee Omar Artan to award the hosts a penalty. Mamelodi Sundowns left-back Divine Lunga was judged to have fouled Moroccan winger Reda Slim while attempting a clearance, and forward Mohamed Hrimat stepped up to calmly slot the spot-kick past goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, drawing the overall tie level.

    But just seven minutes into first-half stoppage time, Mamelodi Sundowns responded with a stunning equaliser that would ultimately decide the title. A cross from Brayan Leon was flicked into space by Tashreeq Matthews, and midfielder Teboho Mokoena unleashed a blistering 15-yard half-volley that crashed in off the underside of the crossbar. The goal put the South Africans back ahead on aggregate, and under the competition’s away goals rule, it left AS FAR needing two more strikes to claim the trophy.

    AS FAR had a golden chance to turn the tie back in their favour in the 77th minute, when another VAR review awarded the Moroccans a second penalty. The spot-kick came after Williams spilled a low shot from Ahmed Hammoudan and brought down Youssef El Fahli while trying to recover the loose ball. Hrimat stepped up for a second attempt from 12 yards, but Williams, who gained fame for saving four penalties in a 2023 Africa Cup of Nations shootout against Cape Verde, produced another heroic stop, diving left to push the effort over the bar with his left arm.

    Late substitute Jalal-Eddine El Khfiyef sent a late opportunity over the crossbar as AS FAR pushed for the winning goal they needed, and Mamelodi Sundowns held firm through eight minutes of stoppage time to confirm their win. This title marks the club’s first African Champions League triumph since their maiden victory in 2016, and it comes one year after the side fell to Egyptian club Pyramids in the 2024 final.

    Alongside the title, Mamelodi Sundowns claims a record-breaking $6 million in prize money and secures a automatic spot at the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup. Notably, the continental victory comes just 24 hours after the side lost their eight-year streak as South African domestic league champions, finishing second behind Orlando Pirates in the 2025 season.

  • Ebola outbreak poses massive challenges, warns nurse

    Ebola outbreak poses massive challenges, warns nurse

    As the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) grapples with a rapidly accelerating Ebola outbreak that has already claimed hundreds of lives, a senior leader from international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has sounded the alarm over crippling gaps in the global response to the crisis.

    Kate White, an MSF programme manager with hands-on experience responding to previous Ebola outbreaks across Africa, departed Manchester Airport on Sunday to join the international relief mission deployed to the affected region. In the lead-up to her departure, she outlined the cascading challenges that aid groups are facing on the ground, starting with a critical shortage of deployable resources.

    Already, the outbreak has taken a devastating toll on frontline responders: three Red Cross volunteers, who were working to manage remains of Ebola victims — one of the highest-risk roles in any outbreak response — died earlier this month after contracting the virus. Official figures place the current toll at more than 200 suspected deaths and over 850 suspected cases across the affected regions, with the World Health Organization (WHO) confirming last week that transmission is outpacing early projections. The WHO has already designated the event a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the highest level of global public health alert.

    What makes this outbreak uniquely dangerous, responders and public health officials agree, is the absence of ready-to-use medical tools to fight it. No approved vaccine exists for this specific strain of Ebola, and while experimental candidates are in late-stage development, none have been cleared for widespread deployment. There are also no approved antiviral treatments targeted at this variant, leaving clinicians only able to provide supportive care rather than curative treatment.

    White called the lack of accessible, scalable countermeasures decades after the first major Ebola outbreaks a stark indictment of global public health priorities. “After all these years of responding to Ebola outbreaks across the continent, we still don’t have comprehensive medical countermeasures — vaccines, treatments, rapid-rollout diagnostic testing — that we can deploy immediately,” she said. “That says a great deal about the current state of global health equity.”

    She also raised alarms over additional logistical barriers, including airspace closures that are slowing the movement of frontline workers and critical life-saving supplies into affected zones. “The sheer volume of resources we need to get into the DRC right now is massive, and any delay puts more lives at risk,” she added.

    Beyond treatment and supplies, White emphasized that major improvements to diagnostic capacity are urgently needed across all affected geographic areas. Faster, more widespread testing ensures that patients without Ebola are not unnecessarily held in treatment centres, allowing them to return to their families quickly once they recover from other unrelated illnesses. Current testing gaps mean that goal remains out of reach, she said.

    A years-long pattern of small, contained Ebola outbreaks in remote rural African regions has shifted in recent decades, as urbanization brings growing human populations into closer contact with the natural animal reservoirs that host the virus. Ebola, a viral hemorrhagic fever that jumps from animals to humans, typically causes flu-like symptoms including fever, headache and fatigue that emerge between 2 and 21 days after exposure. As the disease progresses, patients develop vomiting, diarrhoea, and in severe cases organ failure and uncontrolled bleeding. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or vomit, making proper personal protective equipment for frontline workers non-negotiable.

    This specific outbreak carries additional unique challenges: the epicentre is located in a conflict-affected region of the DRC, where insecurity complicates access for aid workers, and the virus circulated undetected for a significant period of time before being identified. “By the time we picked it up, it had already been spreading for quite a while, which means we don’t have a full picture of all transmission chains,” White explained. “Without that clarity, getting the outbreak under control becomes far more difficult.”

    As responders on the ground work to screen travellers, trace contacts, and slow transmission, White stressed that immediate scaled-up support from the international community is critical to turning the tide of the outbreak.

  • Attacks on Ebola treatment centers are one of several problems affecting Congo’s outbreak response

    Attacks on Ebola treatment centers are one of several problems affecting Congo’s outbreak response

    The declaration of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as a global public health emergency has laid bare the cascading, interconnected crises that are crippling authorities’ and aid groups’ efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Most vividly highlighted by recent arson attacks on two Ebola treatment centers in Ituri Province — the core of the current outbreak — these overlapping challenges range from long-running violent conflict to systemic underfunding and deep-rooted community distrust, turning what should be a coordinated public health response into one of the world’s most intractable humanitarian emergencies.

    Decades of persistent instability have left eastern Congo mired in chronic insecurity, with dozens of separate rebel factions operating across the region, many with alleged foreign backing or ties to extremist groups like the Islamic State. While Ituri Province, where the outbreak was first detected, remains nominally under Congolese government control, that authority is extremely fragile. The Ugandan Islamist Allied Democratic Forces, a faction linked to IS, has carried out consistent attacks on civilian targets across the province, and worsening insecurity in the years leading up to the outbreak already forced hundreds of medical workers to flee their posts. A pre-outbreak assessment from Doctors Without Borders described overwhelmed local health facilities and “catastrophic” living conditions across large swathes of Ituri, setting the stage for a rapid, unchallenged spread of the virus.

    The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that nearly 1 million Ituri residents have been displaced from their homes by ongoing conflict, meaning the Ebola outbreak is unfolding in a region already shattered by displacement and broken public infrastructure. Public health experts have flagged particularly high risk of explosive spread in large overcrowded displacement camps surrounding Bunia, the provincial capital where the first confirmed Ebola cases were recorded.

    As of the latest updates, Congolese authorities have recorded more than 700 suspected cases and over 170 suspected deaths, the vast majority in Ituri. The outbreak has already spilled beyond the province’s borders: cases have been confirmed in North Kivu and South Kivu, eastern provinces partially controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, and across the international border into neighboring Uganda. This fragmented territory — with some areas under government control, others under rebel authority, and a patchwork of independent aid groups operating across all regions — has made unified, consistent outbreak response nearly impossible.

    Compounding the security and infrastructure challenges is a devastating wave of international aid cuts implemented last year by the United States and other wealthy donor nations. Public health experts say these cuts gutted local health systems’ already limited capacity to detect and respond to new infectious disease outbreaks, a critical gap in a region that has weathered more than a dozen previous Ebola outbreaks on its soil.

    Aid groups working on the ground in the outbreak zone report they lack almost all the essential supplies needed to mount an effective response: personal protective equipment for frontline health workers, diagnostic testing kits, and even body bags required for the safe burial of contagious Ebola victims. Julienne Lusenge, president of local aid organization Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, which runs a small hospital near Bunia, said the group has pleaded for additional support from international partners with little result. “We only have hand sanitizer and a few masks for the nurses,” Lusenge said. Complicating matters further, this outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no widely approved vaccine or targeted treatment currently exists.

    The deepest crisis facing response efforts, however, is widespread backlash and anger from local communities, a resentment that boiled over into the arson attacks on treatment centers in Rwampara and Mongbwalu, the two hardest-hit towns in the outbreak. Colin Thomas-Jensen, impact director at the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, explained that this anger stems from decades of neglect: local residents have endured years of violence from foreign-linked rebel groups, with little protection from their own government or international peacekeeping forces. A second major flashpoint has been strict Ebola burial protocols, which require authorities to take charge of burials to limit transmission when families would traditionally prepare bodies and host large funeral gatherings.

    Witnesses and police confirm the first arson attack in Rwampara was carried out by a group of local young people seeking to retrieve the body of a friend who had died of Ebola. The crowd accused the international aid group operating the center of covering up the true cause of death and lying about the scope of the outbreak. In response to rising spread and community unrest, Congolese authorities have now banned all funeral wakes and public gatherings of more than 50 people across northeastern Congo, and deployed armed soldiers and police to guard safe burials carried out by aid workers.

    Speaking on the overlapping emergencies derailing the response, the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights described the situation as a perfect storm of catastrophe. “A devastating set of emergencies are converging,” the group noted, turning a public health crisis into one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian disasters.

  • East Africa wants to curb imports of used clothes. But it’s not easy

    East Africa wants to curb imports of used clothes. But it’s not easy

    Even torrential downpours cannot dampen the energy of Nairobi’s Gikomba Market, East Africa’s largest open-air second-hand clothing hub. When a BBC reporting team visited, flooded walkways did not stop throngs of shoppers, many donning rubber boots, from squeezing through packed aisles in search of affordable, quality second-hand garments known locally as mitumba. This bustling scene sits at the heart of a decade-long regional debate: how can East Africa grow a vibrant domestic fashion industry when its markets are flooded with cheap, imported cast-offs from the U.S., Europe and China?

    Local clothing designers across the region say they stand no chance against the price point of mitumba. “We’re competing with second-hand clothing, but we can’t compete on price,” explains Zia Bett, founder of Kenyan womenswear label Zia Africa, who supports a full ban on mitumba imports. Elizabeth Paul, owner of Kuya Creations in Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam, echoes this frustration: a single new dress in her shop costs a minimum of 50,000 Tanzanian shillings (£14.50), a price that can buy shoppers 10 pre-owned garments at local mitumba markets.

    The debate over mitumba is not new. A decade ago, the East African Community (EAC), the regional bloc counting Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda among its members, moved to implement a region-wide ban on second-hand clothing imports to protect local manufacturing. The plan collapsed after heavy diplomatic pressure from the U.S., a top mitumba exporter, which threatened to revoke EAC nations’ access to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) — a trade deal that allows duty-free access to the U.S. market for thousands of African goods. Now, the conversation has reignited, with member states taking divergent approaches to regulation.

    Uganda has led the charge with a new 30% additional levy on mitumba imports, layered on top of existing 35% import duty and 18% VAT. Officials say the tax serves two goals: cutting environmental damage from textile waste and supporting domestic garment production. Uganda’s president has previously drawn controversy for describing second-hand clothing as cast-offs from deceased white people, framing the trade as incompatible with national economic development. The new tax has faced fierce pushback from mitumba traders, who note the industry supports millions of livelihoods across the region. “This has to be a free economy,” argues Ugandan mitumba trader Aaron Sekky. “The second-hand trade supports so many people.” His point is widely shared by proponents: the mitumba supply chain extends far beyond street retailers, supporting importers, wholesalers, tailors who repair damaged garments, and food vendors at markets. Industry research from the Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya (MCAK) estimates up to 4.9 million East Africans rely on the trade for income.

    Neighboring Kenya recently saw a proposed overhaul of mitumba taxation dropped quickly after widespread public backlash over fears it would push up prices for consumers. Kenya already charges a 30% customs duty on used clothing imports, 5 percentage points higher than the tariff on new clothing imports. Current trade data confirms Kenya is Africa’s largest mitumba importer: the country brought in nearly 180,000 tonnes of second-hand clothing in 2022, a 76% jump from 2013 import volumes. A 2024 government-backed study in Uganda found mitumba is the most popular category of clothing in the country, outstripping both imported new clothing and locally manufactured garments.

    Critics of the unregulated mitumba trade argue the employment argument masks deeper economic downsides. “Retail is the most limited form of job creation you can have in an economic sector, versus production, marketing and distribution,” explains Dr Andrew Brooks, a King’s College London academic and author of *Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-hand Clothes*. “If you’re just importing things and selling things, you’re doing very, very little to contribute to your nation’s economy.” Kenya Fashion Council board member Lisa Kibutu adds that most mitumba-related jobs are low-income, hand-to-mouth roles that offer little room for upward social mobility. Still, Kibutu acknowledges mitumba fills a critical gap for low-income Kenyans: “When I left Kenya in the 80s, you would see poor people without clothing. Right now even the poorest person has decent clothing.”

    Affordability is no longer mitumba’s only draw, however. Today, shoppers across income levels seek out second-hand garments for their quality and unique style. “Most of the clothes have good quality… they last long,” says Najma Issa, a shopper at Dar es Salaam’s Ilala mitumba market. Twenty-two-year-old Juma Awadh agrees, noting he buys mitumba “because of quality and they look unique.” Even with Tanzania’s 35% import tax on used clothing, Ilala Market remains constantly crowded with shoppers.

    Rwanda is the only EAC member that held firm to its 2015 commitment to restrict mitumba, after other nations backed down to U.S. pressure. In 2016, Rwanda raised mitumba import taxes from $0.20 to $2.50 per kilogram, prompting the U.S. to impose a 30% retaliatory tariff on Rwandan clothing exports. Rwandan authorities say the policy has delivered clear results: before the tax hike, mitumba made up 26% to 32% of all garment and textile imports, a figure that dropped to just 2% to 7% in the two years after the change. Local garment exports have also grown, indicating the domestic industry is expanding, officials say. Even so, smuggling of mitumba from neighboring countries remains widespread, with police regularly seizing illegal bales of second-hand clothing. Rwanda also hit an unexpected hurdle: with mitumba supply reduced, many consumers shifted to buying cheap new fast fashion imports from Asia, rather than purchasing locally made garments.

    Environmental concerns have added new urgency to the mitumba debate. Environmental activists note that more than one in three second-hand garments shipped to East Africa are too low-quality to be resold, and end up in local landfills. A 2023 estimate from the non-profit Changing Markets Foundation confirmed this trend for Kenyan imports. “There is no infrastructure to dispose of these massive amounts of textile waste, and official dump sites have been overflowing for years,” Greenpeace says. MCAK chairperson Teresia Wairimu Njenga pushes back on this framing, arguing mitumba is actually more environmentally friendly than mass-producing new clothing: “Can you imagine what would happen to Kenya if we are manufacturing 198,000 tonnes [of new clothes] per year?”

    Global regulation could soon reshape the mitumba trade: signatories to the Basel Convention, the global treaty governing waste, are currently debating whether to reclassify used garments — most of which now contain plastic-based synthetic fibers — as controlled waste, which would lead to tighter restrictions and higher import costs globally.

    Many industry stakeholders across East Africa say a full ban on mitumba is impractical right now, given the gaps in local manufacturing capacity. Ugandan designer Joel Okalany, whose brand Ekikumba Fusion upcycles mitumba into new statement pieces, says the region’s garment sector is still underdeveloped: “The reality is, we are not yet ready for our own manufacturing to take off. In farming, the person who uses a tractor is more efficient than the person who uses the horse. In the tailoring industry, we are still at the level where we are using the horse.” Even Rwanda’s government acknowledged this reality in a 2022 report, saying it would delay implementing a full mitumba ban because of “current domestic gaps in the production of textiles and apparels.”

    A shared frustration across both mitumba traders and local designers is the flood of cheap new clothing from China and Turkey, which undercuts both sectors. Designers like Zia Bett say cheap counterfeit garments copy high-end designs and sell for a fraction of the price of authentic local pieces. Still, Bett remains optimistic about the future of East African fashion, arguing the region should focus on building premium, desirable local brands rather than just competing on price: “We need to focus on storytelling and content and quality. I think what the question should be now is: ‘How do we build brands that people choose – and not just afford?’”

    For Njenga and other mitumba proponents, the solution is not a ban, but coexistence. “We should allow them to coexist,” Njenga says. “Let’s not kill mitumba – give the consumer power of choice.”