Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Why Europe’s top clubs are eyeing Morocco’s teenage sensation Bouaddi

    Why Europe’s top clubs are eyeing Morocco’s teenage sensation Bouaddi

    Four years after capturing global attention with a historic run to the 2022 World Cup semi-finals, Moroccan football is once again stealing the spotlight on the world’s biggest stage — and this time, a teenage midfield prodigy is leading the charge.

    At just 18 years old, Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi has emerged as one of the most talked-about players at the 2026 World Cup, turning heads with a dominant display against Brazil in Morocco’s tournament opener that outshone the opposition’s star-studded midfield pairing of Real Madrid’s Casemiro and Newcastle United’s Bruno Guimaraes. That standout showing has sent shockwaves through European football, triggering a transfer race that already includes some of the continent’s most elite clubs: England’s Manchester City and Arsenal, Spain’s Real Madrid and Barcelona, and France’s Paris Saint-Germain are all closely tracking the teenager’s progress.

    Bouaddi’s trajectory has long marked him as one of the most promising young talents in European football. Born in Senlis, just north of Paris, he made his professional debut for Lille at only 16 years and three days old, and has now racked up 96 senior appearances for the French Ligue 1 side. Last season, he set a new benchmark for under-18 players across Europe’s top five leagues: he logged more total minutes (2,329) and more first-team appearances (30) than any other player in his age group, outpacing high-profile prospects including Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, Werder Bremen’s Karim Coulibaly and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Mateus Mane. He also topped age-group rankings for defensive actions, winning possession 151 times, notching 59 tackles and 27 interceptions over the course of the campaign.

    Only earning his first senior cap for Morocco back in May, Bouaddi has already featured three times at this World Cup, helping the Atlas Lions book their spot in the last 16, where they are set to face Canada on Saturday. Against Brazil, his composure on the ball was unmatched: he recorded more touches (87) and more completed accurate passes (60) than any of his Moroccan teammates, anchoring the midfield through a famous upset over the five-time world champions.

    Former Moroccan international Hassan Kachloul told BBC Sport that Bouaddi’s performance against top-tier opposition revealed a rare maturity for an 18-year-old. “Against players like Casemiro, Lucas Paqueta and Bruno Guimaraes, he showed not just quality but personality — a kind of positive arrogance,” Kachloul said. “He had confidence, a great aura and a strong presence on the pitch. He thrives in that environment.”

    Moroccan football journalist Amine el Amri compared Bouaddi’s playing style to that of legendary Barcelona and Spain holding midfielder Sergio Busquets, noting that the 6ft 1in prospect shares the iconic anchor’s ability to stay calm under intense pressure. “At first glance, he reminds you a lot of Sergio Busquets,” el Amri explained. “He is very tall but also not very muscular. Normally you would get players with muscles in the number six or eight position. What he does best is keep his cool when he has the ball and when he is pressing. He doesn’t commit a lot of fouls, which is what made Busquets a complete midfielder.” El Amri added that Bouaddi has the raw talent to become one of the greatest midfielders in the modern game, but warned that the current transfer speculation creates a delicate moment for his development. “He is 18 years old, he needs to keep his feet on the ground and not to be taken out of his context,” he said.

    Off the pitch, Bouaddi has also earned widespread respect: he earned his high school diploma in mathematics and physics, a detail that speaks to his natural intelligence and discipline, and is widely regarded as a humble, grounded figure in Moroccan football. “Everybody loves Bouaddi in Morocco,” el Amri said. “Not just because he is such a good player but off the field he is — as we say — the perfect son in law. He has got what it takes to be not only a fantastic player but a very good human being too and people in Morocco identify with that.”

    Among the suitors, Manchester City has emerged as one of the most serious contenders for Bouaddi’s signature. The Premier League giants have already agreed a club-record £116 million deal to sign England international Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest, and are in the market for further midfield reinforcements amid uncertainty over the long-term future of star holding midfielder Rodri, who is entering the final year of his current contract at the Etihad Stadium. City were also linked with a move for Italy international Sandro Tonali, but Tonali has already agreed a transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, leaving a gap to fill.

    Sources have confirmed to BBC Sport that Bouaddi features on City’s shortlist of targets, and football tactics analysts note that the teenager’s versatility would make him a strong fit for manager Enzo Maresca’s preferred 3-2-2-3 system. Primarily a holding midfielder, Bouaddi’s ability to dribble out of tight spaces under pressure and retain possession under pressure would align perfectly with City’s possession-first style, and his composure echoes that of City veteran centre-back and occasional midfielder John Stones. He is also capable of playing at right-back, a position City are actively looking to strengthen this transfer window; Maresca favors inverted full-backs who can push into midfield when in possession, a role Bouaddi would be well-suited to fill. His aggressive pressing style can leave him exposed out of position at times, but analysts note that positional discipline is an area that can be refined with coaching, and his long frame already helps him win tackles at an impressively high rate.

    Lille has set an asking price of between £69 million and £86 million for Bouaddi, a figure in line with the current market rate for elite midfield talents, matching the scale of City’s record deal for Anderson. Kachloul noted that if Bouaddi expresses a desire to make the move, Lille will likely have no choice but to sell to the highest bidder. For now, though, Bouaddi’s full focus remains on helping Morocco exceed their 2022 semi-final finish and go even deeper in this year’s World Cup, as the teenager continues to cement his status as the most exciting young prospect in global football.

  • Egypt uncovers lost Byzantine-era city in the western desert

    Egypt uncovers lost Byzantine-era city in the western desert

    CAIRO – Egyptian authorities announced two groundbreaking, well-preserved archaeological discoveries on Saturday, a move that comes as the country pins renewed economic hopes on its heritage tourism industry, a key driver of foreign revenue for the cash-strapped nation.

    The first and most significant find is a largely intact Byzantine-era residential city uncovered in the Western Desert’s Dakhla Oasis, a site already on UNESCO’s Tentative List, just one step removed from formal World Heritage Site designation. According to Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the settlement offers unprecedented insight into daily life, urban planning, and commercial activity in 4th-century Egypt, when the region fell under Byzantine imperial rule.

    Hisham el-Leithy, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that the excavated settlement follows a grid layout: wide north-south main roads intersect with smaller east-west streets to create public plazas and open community spaces. At the northern head of the settlement, overlooking the city’s primary thoroughfares, sits a fully mapped basilica church dating to the mid-4th century, flanked by the stone remains of two watchtowers built to guard the settlement’s outer edges.

    Mahmoud Massoud, head of the archaeological mission leading the Dakhla Oasis excavation, noted the city was constructed with heavy defensive infrastructure, including thick fortified perimeter walls. Inside the walls, archaeologists have uncovered dozens of residential structures, many featuring large reception halls and distinctive vaulted roofing. One standout discovery is the home of Tisous, a documented church deacon whose dwelling dates to the second half of the 4th century. Researchers believe the home functioned as an informal house church before the larger central basilica was completed.

    Excavations have also yielded a range of everyday artifacts that paint a vivid picture of the city’s daily routines: well-preserved bread ovens, communal kitchens, and stone grinding tools used for food preparation have all been documented. The mission has also uncovered a large collection of bronze coins minted with portraits of Byzantine emperors, alongside Latin inscriptions and early Christian religious symbols. A separate cache of gold dates to the reign of Roman emperor Constantius II, who ruled from 337 to 361 CE.

    Diaa Zahran, head of the Ministry’s Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities department, added that roughly 200 inscribed pottery fragments known as ostraca have also been recovered. These fragments, commonly used as a cheap writing material in antiquity, bear inscriptions recording commercial transactions, personal correspondence, and other small details of daily life that are rarely preserved in the archaeological record.

    In a separate announcement, the ministry confirmed a second major discovery at the Marina el-Alamein archaeological site, located roughly 62 miles west of the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria. The site, first excavated in 1986, is believed to be the remains of Leukaspis, a thriving Greco-Roman port city founded in the 2nd century BCE that remained active through the 4th century CE. The new find adds 18 previously undocumented tombs to the site, bringing the total number of excavated burial sites there to 48.

    Of the newly found tombs, 11 are cut deep into bedrock, averaging 8 meters in depth, while seven are built above ground from cut limestone. Artifacts recovered from the tombs include ceramic vessels, transport amphorae, oil lamps, dining plates, ritual altars, and limestone washing basins. Eman Abdel-Khaliq, head of the Marina el-Alamein excavation, said the mission also uncovered a 2.5-meter-long granite sarcophagus holding human remains that are currently undergoing analysis. Near the sarcophagus, researchers found the partial remains of a plaster sphinx statue.

    A particularly notable funerary find was four small gold pieces placed inside the mouths of some deceased individuals, a tradition archaeologists refer to as the “golden tongue,” tied to widespread ancient Mediterranean funerary religious beliefs of the era.

    For Egypt, the announcement of these finds is about more than advancing historical knowledge: alongside the Suez Canal, tourism is one of the country’s largest sources of foreign currency, a critical economic pillar for a nation facing persistent foreign currency shortages. After decades of disruption from political instability following the 2011 uprising and widespread travel bans during the COVID-19 pandemic, Egypt’s tourism sector has been steadily rebounding. Official government data shows 2025 drew a record 19 million international visitors, a 21% increase from 2024, with 6.1 million tourists visiting in the first four months of 2026, up from 5.7 million in the same period the previous year. Antiquities tourism is a core draw for international visitors, and the government hopes high-profile new discoveries will accelerate this recovery.

  • Cape Verde fans ‘proud’ despite 3-2 defeat to Argentina

    Cape Verde fans ‘proud’ despite 3-2 defeat to Argentina

    One of the biggest underdog stories of this World Cup cycle has come to a close, but the tiny Atlantic island nation of Cape Verde is stepping off the global stage not with defeat, but with collective pride. After a tightly contested, high-scoring 3-2 clash against two-time world champions Argentina that eliminated Cape Verde from tournament contention, supporters from across the country and around the globe made one message clear: their team exceeded every expectation, and there is nothing but pride in their historic run.

    What made the result even more remarkable for Cape Verde was their ability to go toe-to-toe with a heavily favored Argentine side, pushing the global powerhouse all the way to the final whistle before seeing their World Cup dreams cut short. Even in elimination, the team’s fearless performance and fighting spirit turned new fans onto the side, cementing their status as one of the tournament’s most beloved surprise entrants. For a nation with a fraction of the population and soccer infrastructure of global giants like Argentina, simply reaching this stage of the competition was already a historic milestone, and the narrow, hard-fought loss only amplified the respect the side earned from neutrals and opponents alike.

    In post-match interviews and on social media, Cape Verde supporters repeatedly emphasized that their pride in the team’s effort outweighed any disappointment from the elimination. Many noted that the team put their small island nation on the global soccer map in a way that will inspire a new generation of young players, turning a heartbreaking end to the tournament into a watershed moment for Cape Verdean soccer.

  • Mali government reports rebel attacks targeting northern towns

    Mali government reports rebel attacks targeting northern towns

    On Saturday, Mali’s official military command confirmed that a wave of rebel assaults hit multiple population centers across the country’s northern region, naming the major urban hubs of Gao and Sévaré among the targeted locations. This confirmation came shortly after a separatist faction publicly announced the launch of a fresh offensive aimed at seizing control of another northern Malian settlement. In a public post shared to the social media platform Facebook, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesperson for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), confirmed that the separatist force was actively conducting an attack on the town of Anefis. As of the latest updates, no official figures for injuries or fatalities connected to the new attacks have been released.

    Decades of instability have plagued northern Mali, driven by two overlapping security threats: long-running separatist agitation for an independent Azawad state, and a growing insurgency by transnational jihadist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State. Separatist movements have waged an on-again off-again fight for self-determination in the region for generations, while the jihadist insurgency that expanded across the Sahel following the 2011 Libyan civil war has turned the tri-border region of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso into one of the world’s most active conflict zones.

    All three Sahel nations have seen military coups in recent years, and the new ruling juntas that took power pivoted sharply away from the Western security partnerships that had guided counter-insurgency operations for a decade. Instead, the juntas turned to Russia for military support, bringing in Russian mercenary fighters to assist national forces in battling the militant groups. Contrary to the juntas’ promises of improved security, the security landscape has deteriorated sharply across the region, with 2023 and 2024 recording a record high number of militant attacks targeting both civilian and government infrastructure. Human rights organizations have also documented widespread accusations that government and allied forces have extrajudicially killed dozens of civilian civilians accused of collaborating with militant groups, fueling resentment among local populations.

    The latest unrest follows a major coordinated assault in late April that saw the FLA join forces with Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the regional al-Qaida affiliate. That joint attack killed Mali’s sitting defense minister at his private residence and allowed the combined force to seize control of multiple strategic northern towns, dealing a significant blow to the Malian military’s control over the region.

  • Washington faces pressure to redefine its role in Africa

    Washington faces pressure to redefine its role in Africa

    As the United States prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of its declaration of independence this week, Africa-based policy and diplomatic analysts are highlighting a growing, urgent pressure on Washington to fundamentally reimagine its engagement with the African continent — a region that is increasingly asserting its own strategic and economic independence on the global stage.

    Shifting global trade dynamics, evolving development aid frameworks, and the United States’ growing focus on great power geopolitical competition have combined to push a growing number of African nations to actively diversify their international partnerships, analysts note. This strategic shift, they add, is a clear reflection of a changing global order, where African governments now prioritize partnerships that directly advance their own domestic development goals, rather than remaining overly reliant on any single external power.

    Raphael Obonyo, a Kenyan public policy analyst, argues that Washington must make significant, tangible upgrades to its engagement with Africa if it hopes to retain its status as a relevant, influential long-term partner to the continent. “US President Donald Trump inherited a situation where American influence in Africa was already waning. Far more targeted effort is needed to build stronger, more reciprocal US-Africa relations,” Obonyo explained. He emphasized that the United States should deepen partnerships through expanded investment in key priority areas including trade, infrastructure development, and agricultural modernization, rather than allowing the bilateral relationship to be shaped almost entirely by geopolitical competition.

    Obonyo pointed to measurable indicators of strained economic ties: US trade volume with Africa has fallen sharply over the past several decades, he said, while recent cuts to US development assistance and new tariff policies have sparked widespread concern across the continent about Washington’s long-term commitment to the region. “There has been a long-held, widespread perception across Africa that the United States does not prioritize the continent — that Africa simply ranks far lower on Washington’s list of strategic interests compared to other regions,” he added.

    Gordon K’achola, founder of the Kenya-based Africa Center for Diplomatic Affairs, noted that recent shifts in US policy toward the continent have actually encouraged African nations to expand, rather than limit, their range of international partners. “The long-standing America First policy has created greater turbulence in US-Africa relations, but this outcome has actually left African countries with far more partnership options than they had decades ago, as they deepen engagement with other global actors,” K’achola said.

    He stressed that this strategic diversification is not about rejecting the United States or picking one external power over another. “This is about protecting Africa’s core interests by working with any partner that is willing to contribute to the continent’s development on the basis of equal mutual respect,” K’achola explained. He added that Africa’s fast-growing population, vast untapped natural resources, and rapidly expanding consumer market create massive opportunities for global partners — if those partners focus on investing in manufacturing, technology transfer, and clean energy development, rather than viewing the continent solely through the lens of great power strategic competition.

    Lemmy Nyongesa Mulaku, a Kenyan scholar specializing in China-Africa relations, pointed to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the 2000 US trade framework designed to expand commercial ties between Washington and eligible sub-Saharan African nations. While AGOA has remained the cornerstone of US economic engagement with Africa for 26 years, it has failed to deliver on its full potential due to deep structural economic imbalances between the two sides, Mulaku said.

    He noted that a growing share of African governments now favor a policy of strategic neutrality, refusing to align exclusively with any single global power. Instead of partnerships centered on extraction of unprocessed raw materials, African nations are actively seeking cooperation that supports local industrialization, value addition for domestic commodities, and meaningful technology transfer, Mulaku added. “Most African governments are eager to build mutually beneficial economic ties with any foreign development partner whose interests do not clash with the continent’s collective economic, social, and political aspirations,” he said.

    Crucially, analysts warn against framing Africa’s shift toward diversified partnerships as a wholesale rejection of the United States. Instead, they explain, most African governments are embracing a deliberate policy of “multi-alignment” — expanding cooperative ties with multiple global powers while actively working to avoid overreliance on any single country.

    As the United States enters its next 250 years as an independent nation, analysts conclude, its long-term relationship with Africa will increasingly hinge on Washington’s ability to adapt to a continent that is more diplomatically assertive and economically diverse than at any point in modern history.

  • Autism remains widely misunderstood in parts of Africa. A mother in Guinea fights for her child

    Autism remains widely misunderstood in parts of Africa. A mother in Guinea fights for her child

    In the small Guinean town of Fria, 15-year-old Kazaliou Balde’s journey through life has been shaped by deep-rooted misconceptions about autism and a systemic lack of support for neurodivergent people in one of West Africa’s poorest nations. From his earliest childhood, Balde’s unusual social behaviors—avoiding eye contact, struggling to connect with others, and later, an inability to walk unassisted—left his family confused and desperate for answers.

    Like many Guinean families facing unfamiliar developmental conditions, Balde’s parents first turned to traditional healing, seeking protective amulets to ward off what many community members already whispered was a curse from evil spirits. When his condition did not improve, the family traveled to the capital Conakry for a formal diagnosis, where doctors confirmed what none of them had ever heard of: autism spectrum disorder.

    The stigma that followed the diagnosis was immediate and cruel. Neighbors whispered about the boy, made demeaning comments to his family, and even urged his mother, 55-year-old trader Kadiatou Diallo, to abandon Balde in the remote bush. “Some suggested that I take him to the bush and throw him away,” Diallo recalled.

    Deep-seated misinformation about autism is not an isolated issue in Guinea. Across much of sub-Saharan Africa, a crippling lack of reliable population data, public awareness campaigns, and government support has allowed harmful myths about neurodevelopmental conditions to persist. Experts confirm these misconceptions routinely delay life-changing diagnosis and force generations of autistic children and their families to carry unnecessary social stigma. Many families still hide their autistic loved ones away at home to avoid public mockery and rejection.

    Autism spectrum disorder is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that impacts people in wildly varying ways. It can cause delays in language development, learning, and social-emotional processing, ranging from profound nonverbal autism accompanied by intellectual disability to milder symptoms that allow for independent living. The World Health Organization estimated that one in every 127 people globally lived with autism in 2021, but prevalence data for most low- and middle-income countries, including Guinea, remains uncollected and unknown. The Guinean government currently keeps no official records of autism diagnoses or cases nationwide.

    For Diallo, the diagnosis did not lead to despair—it sparked a fierce determination to secure care and dignity for her son. After her late husband spent years traveling across Guinea searching for support before dying in a road accident, hope finally arrived in their own hometown. In 2023, the newly opened Salim Foundation for Children with Autism, a rare tuition-free facility for autistic youth, conducted a community outreach sweep, identified Balde’s unmet needs, and enrolled him in their program.

    Founded by social worker and philanthropist Mariam Aisha Barry—who launched the initiative inspired by her own autistic daughter—the Salim Foundation currently serves 15 students in a repurposed residential home, with three specialized teachers, bright educational toys, and sensory-friendly learning spaces. Unlike traditional schools that failed to accommodate Balde’s needs, the foundation focuses on building foundational daily living skills: identifying common objects, assembling educational toys, and mastering practical tasks like using a television remote. Registered with Guinean educational authorities but entirely self-funded, the foundation made history last year by organizing Guinea’s first ever international autism awareness seminar.

    “Our mission is to break the stigma surrounding autism through awareness-raising, family training and advocacy for better care,” Barry explained. “These children deserve acceptance, understanding, education and unconditional love.”

    Even with Balde now enrolled in the program, stigma still follows him outside the school’s walls. Many community members continue to view his condition as a mark of evil and demand he be shunned from public life, but Diallo has refused to bow to this pressure. She rejected repeated calls to pull him out of school and hide him away, standing firm against the negative judgments that have followed her son for his entire life.

    Across Guinea, a country of 15 million people, only a tiny number of schools cater to autistic children, and most charge monthly fees of up to $300—an unimaginable sum for most Guinean households. The national minimum wage sits at just $63 per month, and the World Bank estimates 43.7% of Guineans live below the international poverty line. “In Guinea, the care for autism is very poor,” noted Dr. Alhassane Cherif, a Conakry-based clinical psychologist. “Private organizations and nonprofits are the only ones addressing this disorder and training staff to try to identify children.”

    Advocates at the Salim Foundation estimate that hundreds of autistic children remain hidden in family homes across Fria alone, kept out of sight by parents terrified of social stigma. “We have 15 autistic children here, but there are several hundred in this city,” said Hassanatou Diallo, the foundation’s advocacy officer. “Some parents hide them in their homes to avoid mockery and stigmatization.”

    Global research gaps compound these local challenges. A 2023 study published in the Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders labeled sub-Saharan Africa a “critically understudied” region for autism research, noting that the region’s extraordinary genetic diversity could unlock critical global insights into autism’s origins and interventions. Without targeted investment in research and support, however, millions of autistic children across the continent will continue to be left behind.

    For Diallo, the fight is personal. Despite every obstacle placed in her path, she remains committed to securing an education for Balde, holding fast to a simple, heartfelt dream: “My most ardent wish is that he knows how to read and write,” she said.

  • Africa’s World Cup surge fades as Ghana falls to Colombia, leaving Morocco and Egypt still standing

    Africa’s World Cup surge fades as Ghana falls to Colombia, leaving Morocco and Egypt still standing

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The 202X FIFA World Cup has already cemented a historic milestone for African football, as the continent secured an unprecedented nine spots in the tournament’s knockout Round of 32. Yet despite this breakthrough, seven of the nine African sides exited the competition in their opening knockout fixture, leaving just Morocco and Egypt to carry the hopes of the entire continent into the Round of 16.

    Ghana, the final African team to kick off its Round of 32 match on Friday, suffered a quiet 1-0 defeat to Colombia, ending the Black Stars’ tournament run. That left Morocco — which captured global attention with a shock run to the World Cup semifinals in Qatar 2022 — and Egypt to compete for places in the final quarterfinals. Morocco is set to face Canada in the first Round of 16 matchup on Saturday in Houston, while Egypt earned its spot after a tense penalty shootout victory over Australia earlier Friday, and will face Lionel Messi’s defending champion Argentina in Atlanta on Tuesday.

    The tournament already served up one of its most thrilling matches on Friday, when tiny Cape Verde — an African island nation off West Africa — pushed Argentina to extra time, coming within minutes of a historic upset that would have eliminated the defending champions. Argentina ultimately edged out the underdogs 3-2 to advance.

    For African football, the nine-team Round of 32 haul already marks a historic achievement that has never been matched before. Previously, the maximum number of African sides to reach the Round of 16 was two: Senegal and Morocco in 2022, and Algeria and Nigeria at the 2014 Brazil World Cup — both times, the two advancing African sides were eliminated in their first Round of 16 fixture.

    “It’s a source of great pride so many African teams qualified for the round of 32,” said Sébastien Desabre, head coach of Congo.

    Many across the African football ecosystem have framed the 202X tournament as a turning point, pushing back against longstanding skepticism about African nations’ competitiveness at top global football competitions.“For a long time, African nations have been doubted in what they can do at major competitions,” Ghana forward Brandon Thomas-Asante said earlier this week, “and I’m glad to see so much success among all the African nations, and it just shows how much talent there is all across the world, and Africa is no different.”

    Even in defeat, most of the eliminated African sides earned praise for their competitive performances against top-ranked global opposition. Congo held a lead over England for most of their knockout match before Harry Kane scored two late goals to secure a comeback win for the Three Lions. Senegal pushed 202X contenders Belgium all the way to extra time, conceding a winning goal only in the final seconds of stoppage time after Belgium notched two late equalizers in regulation. Ivory Coast remained level with Norway until Erling Haaland’s 86th-minute strike put Norway through to the next round.

    The only other eliminations came for South Africa, who fell to a low-scoring defeat to Canada, and Algeria, who lost to Switzerland after failing to find the back of the net — a fate that also befell Ghana against Colombia.

    “Well, all teams that get to the Round of 32 have the will to go forward,” said Algeria head coach Vladimir Petkovic. “Some get there wanting to continue — wanting to continue their adventure — and others will be happy (just to be there). There are certain teams that are a lot stronger on paper, but at this World Cup, we realize you can’t really be sure of anything. You can’t be sure that the strong teams will prevail over the less strong ones. We’ve had several examples of that.”

    The remaining two African sides now look to break the longstanding Round of 16 barrier, aiming to become the first tournament where three African nations advance to the quarterfinals, building on the historic foundation set by this year’s breakout qualifying run.

  • Farewell Cape Verde – the underdogs the World Cup will never forget

    Farewell Cape Verde – the underdogs the World Cup will never forget

    When the 2026 FIFA World Cup knockout round kicked off in Miami, few gave tournament debutants Cape Verde — the smallest nation competing in this edition of the tournament — a fighting chance against reigning champions Argentina, led by global superstar Lionel Messi. What unfolded over 120 minutes of play would go down as one of the most memorable underdog stories in World Cup history, cementing Cape Verde’s place in football lore long after their exit from the competition.

    Entering the tournament ranked 67th in the world, Cape Verde defied all pre-tournament predictions to claw their way out of the group stage, notching three draws that included a stunning 0-0 hold against European champions Spain in their opening match. Heroics from 40-year-old clubless goalkeeper Vozinha, who made seven saves to shut out Spain, turned the unheralded shot-stopper into an overnight global sensation. A viral photo of Vozinha in tears after the Spain draw, holding his country’s flag aloft with unbridled pride, circulated across social media, and his consistent elite performances — 18 total saves through four matches, the third-highest total of any keeper at the tournament — only amplified his growing fanbase. Former England right-back Gary Neville predicts Vozinha will not be without a club for long, calling his performances at the tournament calm, composed, and world-class.

    Against Argentina, Cape Verde’s Cinderella run nearly delivered the biggest upset in modern World Cup history. After Messi put the defending champions ahead early, Cape Verde fought back to level the score at 1-1, forcing the match into extra time. Argentina retook the lead late in extra time, only for Sidny Lopes Cabral to strike a sensational long-range wonder goal that drew the Blue Sharks level once more. A late cruel deflection off Diney Borges from Cristian Romero’s header ultimately broke Cape Verde hearts, sealing a 3-2 win for Argentina that sent the defending champions through to the last 16.

    When the final whistle blew, Cape Verde’s players collapsed to the turf, their magical run cut short just 10 minutes short of a penalty shootout. But while the scoreline put them on the exit lane, the small island nation left the United States having won over millions of fans around the world, and earned universal praise from football legends for their courage, unity, and unwavering competitiveness against the world’s best.

    “Cape Verde have lost, but they’ve won,” former Scotland international James McFadden told BBC Radio 5 Live. “They have shown courage, togetherness, unity and unwavering belief in what they are and what they can do. The story of this tournament is Cape Verde. That is what you want to see in a football side.”

    Neville described Cape Verde’s performance as “one of the greatest performances” he had ever seen from an underdog, adding: “They are crying because they are going home. They don’t want to go home. They want to be here for the rest of their lives. This is a moment that’s probably not going to come back for some of these players. It’s magical but also upsetting.”

    Cape Verde manager Bubista said he was bursting with pride for his players’ historic effort, noting: “We showed that we may be a small country but we can play against the best teams in the world. That’s a reason for pride. We made history for our country. To be able to play the way we did against the world champions, and to draw level twice, is something incredible.”

    Roberto ‘Pico’ Lopes, a centre-back for Shamrock Rovers who featured in all four of Cape Verde’s tournament matches, summed up the team’s legacy: “One of the best things to come from this World Cup is nobody asks where Cape Verde is on the map any more – this is history in itself for us. We’ve put ourselves on the map. We’re a small nation but with big hearts and we showed what is possible – and if you believe, you can achieve.”

    The breakout performance by Cape Verde has reignited debate around global football development, with pundits calling for global governing body FIFA to expand resources to smaller footballing nations. Former England striker Ian Wright told ITV that FIFA must ensure funding reaches all corners of the global game to create more “Cape Verde moments.”

    “That’s what you’re ideally hoping will happen around the world and this is why Fifa have to do so much to make sure the funds they get do reach everybody,” Wright said. “What this does show people is that when you give people the opportunity they can get onto the biggest stage no matter how small they are and they can have it with the world champions, with one of the greatest players in the world. It was a Herculean effort from them, absolutely.”

    The 48-team World Cup expansion, a hotly debated topic ahead of this 2026 tournament, has also found a new wave of support from pundits who saw Cape Verde’s run as proof that smaller nations can deliver magic on the global stage. Neville, a former sceptic of expansion, said he has changed his mind after watching the Blue Sharks’ historic run.

  • More cows than pupils – what is behind mass school closures in rural Kenya?

    More cows than pupils – what is behind mass school closures in rural Kenya?

    On a morning that would normally hum with the chatter of playing children and the scratch of pencils on paper, Kaliluni Primary School, a remote rural learning institution in southern Kenya, hosts only grazing cows. These animals wander between cracked, half-hanging classroom doors, which gape open to reveal neat rows of unoccupied wooden chairs. Three years ago, more than 200 students filled this small campus with noise and energy. Today, just five children remain enrolled – and on the day a BBC reporting team visited, even those five and their school’s only remaining teacher were nowhere to be found.

    Leaving the crumbling, overgrown school compound, where tattered textbooks lie scattered across dusty classroom floors, reporters spotted 12-year-old Maureen Mwisiwa in her starched blue school uniform, walking slowly and dejectedly toward her home. Maureen told the BBC she had shown up to Kaliluni every day for a week, only to find herself completely alone with no classes to attend. “I feel bad missing lessons all those days while pupils in other schools are still in class,” she explained.

    Her mother, Josephine Muasya, is one of the last remaining parents with a child enrolled at the school, and she is preparing to transfer Maureen to a distant campus where most of the girl’s former classmates have already relocated. The new school sits 8 kilometers (5 miles) away across unmaintained, rocky roads. With no public transit service in this isolated region of Kitui County, more than 200 kilometers east of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, children cut across steep, uneven terrain to shorten their commute. Even with the shortcut, Maureen will walk for more than an hour each way, compared to the 10-minute trip she took to reach Kaliluni.

    Muasya says she once held out hope that the national government would intervene to revive her local school, sending additional trained teachers and upgraded facilities to meet the requirements of Kenya’s new national curriculum. Today, that hope is gone. The curriculum Muasya refers to is the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system, a sweeping national education overhaul rolled out in 2017 designed to replace Kenya’s old exam-heavy model with a more creative, practical, skills-focused approach to learning.

    While the reform was intended to reduce educational inequality across the country, it has triggered an unforeseen crisis for Kenya’s most under-resourced rural primary schools. Kaliluni Primary is just one of more than 2,000 rural schools across the East African nation now facing permanent closure after catastrophic enrollment collapses.

    Under the previous education framework, primary school spanned eight grades, with students moving to senior secondary school around age 14. The CBE system restructures basic education to end primary school after grade six, adding a new three-year junior secondary stage for grades seven through nine, which places greater emphasis on science and hands-on technical subjects. The government ruled that existing primary schools would absorb these new junior secondary grades, pushing the transition to senior school to age 15.

    But the restructuring created an immediate, unmanageable burden for low-resource rural schools, which suddenly needed additional classrooms, fully equipped science laboratories, subject-specialized trained teachers, and updated learning materials to comply with the new requirements.

    “Infrastructure gaps are acute. Many rural schools lack basic facilities such as laboratories, yet learners are expected to pursue science and technical pathways,” Mark Kasyoki, a Kenyan education expert, told the BBC. He warned that the CBE curriculum, which was designed to close equality gaps in Kenyan education by making quality learning free for all students, could end up widening those gaps if implementation challenges are not addressed as a matter of urgency.

    Kitui County has been one of the hardest-hit regions. Sooma Primary School permanently closed its doors in 2023 after enrollment dropped to just six students. The following year, Manooni Primary shut down after only three children registered for the new term. There were no closing ceremonies, no goodbye gatherings under the giant shade trees that anchor most rural schoolyards. Students simply left one by one, quietly relocating to better-resourced schools farther from their homes.

    Tabitha Katingu, a Kitui County mother who transferred both of her children to a new school 3 kilometers from her home after their local campus shut down, says the CBE reform was supposed to lift up low-income rural communities, not undermine their access to education. “The CBE curriculum should strengthen schools, especially for low-income communities, not weaken them. We want the best for our children. If a school has not enough trained teachers and other required facilities – why would we waste time there?” she said.

    The transition crisis has also left rural teachers frustrated and disillusioned. “The challenge is not that teachers are unwilling to embrace CBE. It’s that many of us have not been adequately prepared for it. The training has been inconsistent, especially in rural schools,” one Kitui-based teacher explained.

    Not all local residents blame the school closure crisis entirely on the curriculum overhaul. Some point to broader demographic shifts reshaping rural Kenya: falling national fertility rates have led to fewer school-age children in small villages, while working-age adults increasingly relocate to urban centers for better employment opportunities, taking their children with them.

    “Young people want to marry, but life is hard. Everything is expensive, and many fear they cannot provide for a family. That is why there are fewer children growing up in our villages nowadays,” Sarah Mumbua, a long-time resident of Kilukuya village, told the BBC. National statistics show roughly 70% of Kenyans still lived in rural areas in 2023, but UN-Habitat projects that more than half of the country’s population will live in urban areas by 2050 as migration continues.

    The enrollment decline is not limited to primary schools: government data shows 2,700 of Kenya’s 9,605 public secondary schools, most in remote rural regions, now enroll fewer than the 150 students deemed the minimum for viable operations. Local media reported earlier this year that 10 rural secondary schools were closed after teachers arrived for the new term to find zero students had registered for classes.

    In January 2026, the government celebrated a major milestone for the CBE reform: 1.1 million pioneer grade 10 students, the first full cohort to complete the entire new curriculum, transitioned to senior secondary school. But even as officials marked the occasion, they acknowledged the growing crisis in rural areas.

    Education Minister Julius Ogamba confirmed earlier this year that 2,145 under-enrolled public primary schools will be either closed or merged with neighboring campuses to optimize limited government resources. He also announced a nationwide school viability audit, noting that the government has set a minimum enrollment threshold of 45 students for a public primary school to remain open. “It makes no sense to have a school with just 10 students when you need a headmaster, a classroom, a watchman and a teacher. It doesn’t make sense. This tells us that we need to face reality. We now need to change course and ensure that our schools have all the necessary facilities and the right number of students,” he said.

    But the wave of rural school closures has created a new crisis for surviving regional schools, which are now facing crippling overcrowding as they struggle to absorb hundreds of displaced students. Dr. Emmanuel Manyasa, CEO of Usawa Agenda, a Kenyan non-profit education research organization, warns that rapid mass closures carry long-term risks for the entire regional education system.

    “CBE is a good curriculum but we’re failing in the implementation. We skipped critical early stages like a cost and implementation plan. We have been just crisis-managing the transition, which is not sustainable,” Dr. Manyasa told the BBC.

    Bernard Musyoki, a 36-year-old teacher who worked for seven years in a rural Machakos County school (a region neighboring Kitui), saw the impact of closures firsthand. His small community school, which had fewer than 20 students enrolled, was merged into a larger regional campus, and Musyoki transferred to the new overcrowded facility. He says policymakers have swung from one extreme to another, leaving children in larger schools stuck in overcrowded classrooms that lack sufficient resources.

    Musyoki argues the government should reverse course on mass closures, instead capping class sizes and distributing teachers and resources more evenly across rural institutions to ensure the CBE reform benefits all students, regardless of where they live. “Every child, whether they are in a small rural school or a large one, deserves equal access to teachers, classrooms and learning materials,” he said.

  • The friends who drove from Ghana to the World Cup

    The friends who drove from Ghana to the World Cup

    Football fandom has long inspired supporters to push boundaries to cheer on their national teams, but one tight-knit group of friends from Ghana has turned that devotion into an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Rather than booking a flight or joining an organized tour to reach the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the group chose to hit the open road, starting their journey in Ghana’s bustling capital Accra and navigating their vehicles across multiple continents to follow the Ghana men’s national football team, affectionately known as the Black Stars. Their route took them through North Africa, across Europe, and onward to North America, where they stopped in the United States and Canada to continue following the team’s campaign. BBC News Africa caught up with the travel crew in Boston, where the group opened up about the adventure that has strengthened their decades-long friendship and turned a simple pilgrimage into a global story of grassroots football passion. The report was produced by Celestine Karoney and Ian Williams, with filming by Alassane Dia and editing by Emmanuel James, and was published as part of BBC News Africa’s Africa Sport coverage just 55 minutes after it was finalized. What makes their journey stand out among thousands of fan travel stories is the sheer scale of their self-planned expedition: traversing multiple borders, navigating unfamiliar road networks, and overcoming logistical challenges all for the love of their national team and the shared joy of adventure with friends.