Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • Migrants clash with police at a deportation site in South Africa where thousands have gathered

    Migrants clash with police at a deportation site in South Africa where thousands have gathered

    JOHANNESBURG – Violent confrontations broke out Wednesday between police and hundreds of migrants waiting for repatriation outside a processing center in Durban, South Africa, bringing renewed attention to the simmering immigration tensions roiling the continent’s most economically developed nation.

    Footage broadcast by local South African television networks captured protesters hurling rocks, wooden sticks and fallen logs at law enforcement officers stationed near the community processing hall. In response, police deployed stun grenades and fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, marking one of the most visible flashpoints since a wave of anti-immigrant demonstrations and targeted attacks on foreign nationals began spreading across the country in recent weeks.

    Most of the migrants gathered at the Durban site are Malawian citizens who first arrived at the facility more than seven days ago. They had come voluntarily to board government-arranged buses returning them to their home country, after rising anti-foreign violence left many feeling unsafe in South Africa. KwaZulu-Natal Premier, the top official for the province that contains Durban, confirmed that nearly 10,000 Malawian migrants have been camped in a nearby park while waiting for the repatriation process to move forward.

    However, lengthy delays in organizing the departures prompted South Africa’s Ministry of Home Affairs to step in, setting up an on-site immigration court and launching formal deportation proceedings for the gathered migrants. Local media reports confirm the clashes were fueled by mounting frustration over the extended wait to return home, a journey many migrants began voluntarily to escape growing hostility.

    To date, South African officials have confirmed that at least 1,876 of the migrants at the center have been verified as residing in the country without valid immigration documentation, and will be processed for formal deportation. Verification for remaining migrants is still ongoing, with Durban’s mayor estimating that more than 6,000 Malawian citizens could ultimately be deported from the country.

    Malawi is not alone in arranging voluntary repatriation for its citizens in South Africa. It is one of at least five African nations that have organized trips to bring their residents home following reports of targeted threats and violent attacks on foreign nationals. Malawi has already successfully moved hundreds of its citizens back across the border via chartered buses, while Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe have also arranged flights and buses to facilitate the exit of their citizens who wish to leave.

    The South African national government has publicly condemned the recent string of attacks on foreign nationals, which have been ignited by a sharp surge in anti-immigrant sentiment among certain domestic political and community groups. For the past two years, the country has been engaged in a widespread crackdown on unauthorized immigration: Home Affairs data shows more than 100,000 people staying in the country illegally have been deported in that period, and an additional 500,000 people were turned away at the border before they could enter South Africa illegally.

  • A 16-month-old and his mother recover from Ebola in rare good news from outbreak in Congo

    A 16-month-old and his mother recover from Ebola in rare good news from outbreak in Congo

    In the conflict-stricken eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a glimmer of hope has emerged amid a rapidly spreading Ebola crisis: a 16-month-old infant and his mother have successfully overcome the deadly virus and been discharged from a local treatment center. The pair left the Rwampara Treatment Center near Bunia, the capital of Ituri province — the current epicenter of the outbreak — on Tuesday, alongside five other patients who also achieved full recovery from Ebola.

    For Kahindo Mireille Pierrette, the mother of the recovering infant, the relief and joy of her child’s survival are overwhelming. “The joy is immense given the state he was in at first,” she shared. “If you had seen him before, you wouldn’t believe he could have this strength now.” Pierrette explained that she rushed her son to the treatment center in late May, after he developed frightening Ebola symptoms: uncontrollable bleeding from the mouth and nose, and extreme weakness that left him barely able to move. Dr. Modet Camara, a clinical lead at the treatment facility, confirmed that the infant received a positive Ebola result via PCR testing on his second day of admission, and was immediately placed on targeted supportive care including antibiotics to manage secondary infections.

    As of Tuesday, Congo’s Ministry of Health has confirmed 837 Ebola cases and 196 confirmed deaths since the outbreak was formally declared on May 15. However, public health officials warn the true case count is almost certainly higher, because the virus began spreading undetected for weeks before official confirmation was announced. To date, only 49 patients across the affected region have recovered from the virus, according to government data.

    What makes this outbreak particularly challenging for response teams is that it is driven by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola strain, a variant for which no approved vaccines or specific antiviral treatments currently exist. This marks a departure from Congo’s 16 previous Ebola outbreaks, which were overwhelmingly caused by the more common Zaire strain — a variant for which an effective, approved vaccine is already available.

    More than 90% of all current cases are concentrated in Ituri province, though infections have also been documented in neighboring North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, and the virus has already crossed the international border into Uganda. Speaking during a virtual meeting of African heads of state on Tuesday, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jean Kaseya issued a stark warning about the outbreak’s trajectory: if spread is not rapidly contained, it could surpass the 2014–2016 West African outbreak to become the deadliest Ebola event on record. Kaseya highlighted that tens of thousands of close contacts of confirmed Ebola patients have not yet been traced and monitored, creating a large pool for potential further transmission.

    The 2014 West African outbreak remains the worst Ebola event in recorded history, with more than 28,000 confirmed cases and over 11,000 reported deaths across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

    Multiple structural challenges are hampering containment efforts in eastern Congo. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that years of ongoing armed conflict have displaced nearly one million people across Ituri province. As communities flee persistent attacks and move frequently through the region’s vast, dense forest landscape, which is crisscrossed by poor roads and dotted with remote villages that can take days to reach, contact tracing teams struggle to track exposed individuals and limit new transmissions. Additional complications come from the region’s large population of artisanal miners, who regularly move between remote mining sites in the mineral-rich province, making consistent monitoring of potential exposures nearly impossible. Local cultural preferences for traditional healers over formal hospital care have also slowed response efforts, as many infected people delay seeking treatment and continue to interact with their communities while contagious.

  • Search for six-year-old Ebola patient after armed men storm DR Congo hospital

    Search for six-year-old Ebola patient after armed men storm DR Congo hospital

    A violent attack on an Ebola treatment facility in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has triggered an urgent search operation for a 6-year-old confirmed Ebola patient and her mother, who were abducted from the hospital by armed men armed with knives, local health authorities have confirmed.

    According to a formal statement released by Dr. Lubambo Maboko Gaston, a senior local health official, the pair were taken from Wanamahika Hospital in the conflict-affected city of Butembo by what he described as a group of ‘very angry’ assailants. It remains unclear whether the attackers had any prior personal connection to the child or her family, but the incident fits a dangerous pattern of rising violence against Ebola response infrastructure that has plagued the current outbreak.

    Deep-seated suspicion and misinformation around Ebola treatment efforts have created a volatile environment for medical responders across the affected region. In a conversation with Reuters, Dr. Gaston issued an urgent appeal to the abducted pair to voluntarily turn themselves in at a formal health facility, warning that delayed care would not only put their own health at severe risk of worsening outcomes but also threaten the health of their family and community by enabling further virus transmission.

    This attack is not an isolated event. During the current outbreak, Ebola treatment centers have been targeted repeatedly by community members distrustful of medical efforts. Official counts from response teams have already confirmed 840 total cases and nearly 200 deaths from the virus to date.

    Just last month, tensions boiled over in two separate communities. In Mongbwalu, local police were forced to fire warning shots into the air to disperse an angry crowd that attempted to forcibly retrieve the bodies of Ebola victims from a local health facility. Just a few days before that incident, residents of Rwampara — a town located 85 kilometers southeast of Mongbwalu — set fire to hospital isolation tents after authorities blocked them from collecting the body of a man who had died from suspected Ebola.

    Health experts emphasize that the bodies of people who die from Ebola carry an extremely high viral load, making them far more infectious than living patients in most cases. Unregulated contact and traditional burial preparations with infected remains are one of the most common drivers of new Ebola clusters, making these forced retrievals an especially major public health threat.

    Local leaders say much of the unrest stems from widespread misinformation that has spread through rural and remote parts of the affected provinces. ‘People are not properly informed or sensitised about what is happening. For a certain segment of the population, especially in remote areas, Ebola is an invention by outsiders – it does not exist,’ local politician Luc Malembe Malembe explained to the BBC in an interview last month. ‘They believe it is the NGOs and hospitals creating this to make money, and this is tragic.’

    Complicating response efforts further, the current outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo, a rare strain of Ebola that has no licensed vaccine currently available for use. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that it will take months of development and testing before a specific vaccine for this strain is ready for widespread deployment.

    The abduction took place on Monday in North Kivu, one of three eastern DRC provinces currently at the center of the outbreak, alongside Ituri and South Kivu. Ituri province remains the epicenter of ongoing transmission. The WHO has repeatedly warned that ongoing armed conflict in the region is a major barrier to containing the spread of the virus. The M23 rebel group currently occupies large swathes of both North and South Kivu, leaving vast areas inaccessible to medical response teams.

    More coverage of the DRC Ebola outbreak and other news from across the African continent is available at BBCAfrica.com, and audiences can follow BBC Africa’s reporting on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

  • Leader of South Africa’s second biggest party wants his predecessor sacked as minister

    Leader of South Africa’s second biggest party wants his predecessor sacked as minister

    South Africa’s ruling governing coalition is facing an internal shake-up, as the new head of its second-largest partner party has formally requested President Cyril Ramaphosa remove a high-profile former party leader from his cabinet post. Geordin Hill-Lewis, who took over leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA) from John Steenhuisen this past April, has proposed a sweeping set of changes to the party’s representation within the national unity government, led by the African National Congress (ANC). His top demand is the dismissal of Steenhuisen, one of South Africa’s most recognizable political figures, from his current role as Minister of Agriculture.

    The current political arrangement in South Africa stems from the 2024 national general election, where no single political party secured an absolute parliamentary majority. This forced the formation of a multi-party coalition government, and as part of the power-sharing agreement, the DA now holds six full cabinet positions, in addition to multiple deputy minister posts across government departments. To date, President Ramaphosa has not issued a public response to Hill-Lewis’s request, but political analysts widely expect the president will not reject the proposed reshuffle, as coalition custom requires the president to accept a partner party’s proposed changes to its own cabinet representatives.

    While Hill-Lewis has not publicly stated an explicit reason for pushing for Steenhuisen’s removal, political and agricultural observers widely link the move to Steenhuisen’s widely criticized handling of South Africa’s recent foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. The viral epidemic has caused catastrophic damage to South Africa’s $80 billion livestock industry, and Steenhuisen has faced sustained backlash from farming communities across the country for what they call his slow and inadequate action to contain the spread of the disease.

    Under Hill-Lewis’s reshuffle plan, current Agriculture Deputy Minister Willie Aucamp would be promoted to replace Steenhuisen as full minister, with an immediate mandate to resolve outstanding legal disputes tied to the foot-and-mouth outbreak. For Steenhuisen, the proposed change would represent a significant demotion: the former DA leader has been nominated for the far lower post of Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. This shift is not entirely unexpected, as Steenhuisen already opted not to run for re-election as DA leader earlier this year, a decision partially driven by an earlier financial scandal that eroded his support within the party.

    Hill-Lewis also outlined a full slate of other personnel changes for the DA’s government representation. Under the proposal, David Maynier would move into the role of Minister of Environment, replacing the outgoing Willie Aucamp. Alexandra Abrahams, who previously served in a senior role on Steenhuisen’s leadership team, would be appointed Deputy Minister of Electricity and Energy. Yusuf Cassim would take up the post of Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, while Jack Bloom would become Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation.

    The reshuffle marks a sharp public split between two politicians who were once close political allies, highlighting the internal pressures facing South Africa’s young unity government as it works to address ongoing economic and agricultural challenges across the country.

  • Equatorial Guinea government resigns after failing to meet targets

    Equatorial Guinea government resigns after failing to meet targets

    The entire cabinet of Equatorial Guinea has stepped down after the government was formally accused of failing to meet its policy targets, enabling systemic corruption, and stalling long-planned economic diversification efforts, according to Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.

    Vice-President Obiang Mangue — who is the son of long-ruling President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the world’s longest-serving incumbent head of state — confirmed that Prime Minister Manuel Osa Nsue Nsua submitted the collective resignation of all government ministers this week. The outgoing administration, which was only appointed in early 2024, delivered less than 10 percent of its stated policy goals, the vice-president confirmed in a public post on X, the social platform formally known as Twitter.

    While the vice-president did not outline specific unmet targets in his announcement, an official statement from the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) laid out the full scope of presidential dissatisfaction. According to the party’s statement, President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo identified endemic corruption, misappropriation of public funds for personal gain, and widespread stagnation in national development projects as core failures of the outgoing administration. The president also criticized the cabinet for failing to advance policies to diversify the national economy, particularly a lack of progress supporting growth in the domestic agricultural sector, a key step to reduce the country’s reliance on imported goods that can be produced locally.

    For decades, Equatorial Guinea’s economy has been almost entirely dependent on oil and gas exports, which generate the vast majority of the country’s total export revenue and government budget. Despite its significant national oil wealth, widespread poverty remains pervasive across the country of 1.8 million people, with most residents seeing little benefit from the nation’s natural resource reserves. In recent years, the economy has also faced growing headwinds driven by declining oil production and shifting global demand for fossil fuels, making economic diversification a higher priority for policymakers.

    President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has held uninterrupted control of the West African nation since 1979, and has drawn longstanding international criticism for concentrating political power in the hands of his family, with multiple close relatives holding key senior government positions. The vice-president framed the mass resignation as a commitment to accountability in public governance, noting on X that “the principle that responsibility in public management must be accompanied by results” demanded the cabinet’s exit. He added that the low level of policy delivery achieved by the outgoing cabinet was “clearly insufficient in relation to the expectations and commitments undertaken.”

    Local political observers expect President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to announce a new full cabinet appointment in the coming days to replace the outgoing administration, with formal nominations expected to be made public shortly after the resignation is formalized.

  • Taiwan’s foreign minister says Chinese pressure on countries over the island is a ‘new normal’

    Taiwan’s foreign minister says Chinese pressure on countries over the island is a ‘new normal’

    MOMBASA, Kenya and TAIPEI, Taiwan — A fresh incident of Taiwan being blocked from a major international conference has underscored what Taiwan’s top diplomat describes as a persistent, growing pattern of Chinese pressure to shut the self-ruled island out of global engagements. On Wednesday, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung publicly condemned the recent detention and exclusion of two Taiwanese delegates from the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya, an incident Taipei attributes directly to coercive pressure from Beijing on Kenyan organizers.

    According to Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry, the two delegates were detained for more than 20 hours after Kenyan authorities seized their passports and mobile phones, barring them from entry on the grounds that their Taiwan-issued passports were not legally recognized. In response to the incident, the entire remaining Taiwanese delegation withdrew from the high-stakes conference, which gathers global stakeholders to tackle pressing ocean governance challenges ranging from climate change-driven ocean degradation to biodiversity loss and plastic pollution.

    Kenyan officials have defended their decision to block the delegates, aligning with Beijing’s longstanding “One China” policy that claims Taiwan as an inalienable province of China. “Our foreign policy recognizes only one China,” Korir Sing’oei, Principal Secretary of Kenya’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters. “Any person purporting to hold a Taiwanese passport would ordinarily not be allowed through our borders for lacking proper documentation and would not in any event be part of a formal state meeting convened by Kenya government.”

    Lin pushed back sharply against Kenya’s justification, arguing that Nairobi had “unilaterally distorted and unwarrantedly expanded” its interpretation of the One China principle to exclude Taiwan’s delegates. “The obstruction of our delegates from attending the meeting is absolutely wrong, and we strongly condemn and protest against it,” Lin stated during an event hosted by the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club Wednesday.

    The Mombasa incident is far from an isolated case, Lin emphasized: Beijing’s campaign to pressure third-party countries to restrict Taiwan’s access to international forums has become “the new normal” for cross-strait and global diplomatic engagement. The Chinese government has for decades pushed to limit Taiwan’s participation in multilateral bodies, barring the island from full membership in the World Health Organization and forcing it to compete under the altered name “Chinese Taipei” at the Olympic Games. In recent months, however, Lin said Beijing has ramped up these coercive efforts, particularly targeting developing and emerging economies in the Global South that are increasingly vulnerable to Chinese economic influence.

    “Some Global South countries are manipulated by the Chinese government in every way,” Lin said, adding that “some democratic countries are trying to fight against it.”

    A high-profile earlier incident this year laid bare the extent of Beijing’s pressure: In April, Taiwan’s president was forced to postpone a planned visit to Eswatini — one of the 13 countries that still officially recognize Taipei — after three neighboring nations reversed earlier approvals for his plane to fly through their airspace, a move widely attributed to Chinese coercion. The president eventually traveled to the African kingdom days later aboard a chartered plane provided by Eswatini’s monarch.

    The 2024 Our Ocean Conference, hosted for the first time by an African nation, has been framed by organizers as a landmark moment for African leadership in global ocean stewardship. The event draws hundreds of delegates from across the African continent, the United States, the European Union, and small island developing states that are disproportionately impacted by rising ocean levels and climate change. China has not yet issued any public comment on the accusations of pressure related to the Kenya incident.

    Cross-strait relations have been defined by separate governance since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when defeated Nationalist Party forces retreated to Taiwan after the Communist Party seized control of mainland China. The island has since transitioned from decades of martial law to a full multi-party democracy, but Beijing has never renounced its claim to Taiwan and has repeatedly stated it reserves the right to use military force to annex the island if it formally declares independence.

  • Africa’s Ebola outbreaks complicated by victims who prefer traditional healers over hospitals

    Africa’s Ebola outbreaks complicated by victims who prefer traditional healers over hospitals

    In the conflict-torn eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a decades-long battle against Ebola has entered a new, particularly challenging phase, as deep-seated cultural beliefs, widespread misinformation, and systemic mistrust of modern medicine continue to cost lives during the country’s 17th recorded outbreak of the deadly virus.

    First identified in the biodiverse Congo Basin in 1976, Ebola remains misunderstood by many communities across central Africa. For countless residents, the onset of the virus’ brutal hemorrhagic symptoms is interpreted as a spiritual curse or affliction brought by outsiders, driving them to seek healing from traditional healers and faith leaders rather than formal medical facilities. This pattern has repeated itself in the current outbreak, centered in Congo’s Ituri Province, where delayed care and unregulated gatherings of worshippers have contributed to a rising death toll that has already reached at least 181 people.

    What makes this outbreak especially alarming is its cause: the Bundibugyo strain, a rare variant of Ebola for which no officially approved vaccines or antiviral treatments currently exist. The outbreak was formally confirmed on May 15, though public health experts suspect infections may have begun as early as February, when initial tests targeted a different Ebola variant, delaying detection and response. The World Health Organization quickly designated the event a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and the U.S. government has since implemented a temporary entry ban for non-U.S. passport holders who have recently traveled to Congo, Uganda, or South Africa.

    In Ituri’s epicenter town of Bunia, dangerous misinformation has further undermined response efforts. One pervasive rumor claims the virus is spread by malicious actors who plant enchanted charms wrapped in dollar bills in public pit latrines. “Some people still describe Ebola as something mysterious, spiritual, or brought by outsiders, rather than a disease that needs medical care,” explained Onesphore Bangenza, a field worker with the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, speaking from Bunia. “When people do not trust the health system, they often go first to traditional healers, faith leaders, or people they already know. The danger is that many only reach the hospital when they are already very sick.”

    Local cultural dynamics add extra layers of risk. Many communities adhere to traditional burial customs that require close physical contact with deceased loved ones, a practice that has consistently driven Ebola transmission throughout past outbreaks. Faith leaders, who often hold more social trust than outside medical workers, are expected to lay hands on the sick to pray for healing, turning religious gatherings into potential super-spreading events. To date, the outbreak’s victim list includes frontline health workers lacking proper personal protective equipment, as well as pastors and worshippers who gathered for prayer services amid active transmission.

    The Bundibugyo strain has a long history of being misunderstood. The first recorded outbreak of this variant occurred in 2007 in Uganda’s Bundibugyo District, the namesake mountainous farming region home to roughly 200,000 people. That outbreak killed 36 people and left lasting community trauma, with many residents still frustrated that the rare strain bears their home district’s name. Even in that initial outbreak, cultural misunderstanding drove many sick residents to traditional healers before seeking care. Samuel Kuule, the Ugandan nurse whose blood sample confirmed the 2007 outbreak, recalled that many early patients blamed witchcraft for their symptoms. Kuule himself experienced terrifying symptoms including peeling skin, bloodshot eyes, and severe headache, but never turned from modern care, even as others around him sought spiritual solutions. “For those who are weak in faith, they may (think) that they are being bewitched. Maybe they can believe it,” he said.

    Local traditional healers themselves acknowledge that many residents turn to spiritual and herbal remedies only after modern medicine fails to deliver quick results. “For us in African traditional societies, in most cases when you fall sick and you go to the hospitals and they give you some injections and there is no improvement, there and then you switch to your neighbor, or anybody, and say maybe he is the one bewitching you. Then you decide to go to the witch doctor,” said Amon Balinda, speaking for a veteran traditional healer from the 2007 outbreak region.

    Public health experts emphasize that Ebola begins when the virus spills over from an infected wild animal — most commonly fruit bats — into human populations, usually through the handling or consumption of bushmeat. It spreads exclusively through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected people or corpses, making early testing, isolation, and contact tracing the most effective tools to slow spread. Even so, deep-seated beliefs continue to hinder these efforts.

    Humanitarian groups have begun adapting their approach, working to enlist religious and traditional leaders as partners in public health outreach rather than sidelining them. A viral video shared widely across Ituri recently featured Deogratias Kasereka, a catechist who recovered from Ebola after finally seeking care in Mongbwalu, a high-transmission area. Kasereka admitted he nearly died after putting off hospital care to tend to his fields, crediting his children with convincing him to seek medical treatment.

    Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni recently echoed public health warnings in a televised address, rebuking faith leaders who continue to physically touch sick believers during prayer. “The pastors, the pastors, the pastors. The people of God — they are the ones who touch patients. … God is not deaf. You can pray without touching,” Museveni said, noting that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had informed him that a large share of Congo’s current victims are religious people engaging in high-risk prayer practices.

    As response teams work to contain the outbreak in a remote region already destabilized by rebel violence and mass displacement, the core challenge remains changing community attitudes to encourage early care-seeking and disrupt unsafe cultural practices that fuel transmission.

  • Sudan’s young women return to international soccer as war and taboos linger

    Sudan’s young women return to international soccer as war and taboos linger

    Against a backdrop of devastating civil war, deep-rooted cultural conservatism, and overwhelming systemic challenges, Sudan’s under-17 women’s national soccer team made history last week in Casablanca, Morocco, marking the first appearance of any Sudanese women’s soccer side on the international stage since conflict ripped through the northeast African nation in 2023.

    Walking onto the turf of Larbi Zaouli Stadium, the team’s bright red jerseys cut a striking figure against the lush green pitch. Most of the squad members are teenage schoolgirls; several fled their homes to escape ongoing fighting, and many had never competed in an organized league or stepped onto a professional stadium before this qualifying tournament for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

    For 17-year-old captain Nura Mohamed, the opportunity to represent her country outweighed any pressure of competition. “My goal is to lift up soccer in my country,” Mohamed told the Associated Press in an on-site interview. “It’s a beautiful, unique feeling because, at the end of the day, I just love playing.”

    The road to Casablanca was anything but smooth. When Sudan’s national soccer federation needed to field a squad to avoid forfeiting its spot in the Olympic qualifiers, it could not assemble a full senior women’s team amid the chaos of war. Instead, officials turned to this young, inexperienced group, which only began formal training just weeks before the qualifying matches. The outcome on the scoreboard was lopsided: the squad conceded 30 goals across two matches against Comoros, ending with an 18-0 defeat after a 17-0 opening loss. Many players wept after the final whistle, even as a small crowd of loyal fans cheered them off the pitch.

    Veteran coach Burhan Tia, who oversees all of Sudan’s women’s national teams, acknowledged the massive gap between his side and more established competitors after the first match. “The difference between us and the others is huge. We cannot yet compete at the highest level,” Tia said. “Comoros has many players competing in Europe, our team is mainly made up of schoolgirls.”

    Despite the heavy losses, federation leaders frame the team’s debut as a pivotal victory for women’s soccer in Sudan, which collapsed entirely when civil war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023. For organizers, just getting the young squad to Casablanca represents a critical step in keeping the fragile women’s program alive through the conflict. “Some traveled long distances just to attend training. Many are separated from their families, yet they continue to work hard and pursue their dream,” said Manal Ali Bushra, a businesswoman who leads the federation’s women’s soccer committee. To build long-term stability for the program, Ali Bushra added, the federation is developing new infrastructure projects, including a planned dedicated sports city and stadium renovations in relatively safe regions of Sudan, though she declined to share details of the program’s budget.

    Building the team from scratch required extraordinary effort from Tia, who stepped into the role knowing the magnitude of the challenge he faced. “First, I had to find girls who played soccer. Then, once I found girls who played, I had to make sure they were the right age,” he explained. “Then I needed to convince their parents to let them miss classes for training.” With the domestic women’s league suspended indefinitely due to the war, Tia conducted scouting trips across Sudan and into neighboring Egypt, where hundreds of thousands of Sudanese families have sought refuge from the fighting. He ultimately recruited 10 players from Cairo-based soccer academies and teams, with the remaining members coming from safer cities across Sudan. Tia had hoped to recruit young talent from conflict-battered regions like Darfur and Kordofan, an area long known for producing Sudan’s top athletes, but widespread displacement and the loss of official identification documents made it impossible to verify player ages for international eligibility. The war has also destroyed much of Sudan’s transportation network, turning once-short intercity trips into days-long journeys marked by constant danger.

    On the pitch, the team’s lack of high-level competitive experience was clear: several players struggled with basic tactical positioning, struggled to maintain a consistent offside line, and repeatedly turned to the sideline for coaching guidance throughout both matches. But their presence alone carries enormous political and social weight in a country where women’s participation in public sports has faced decades of pushback.

    The ongoing conflict, which the United Nations has labeled the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis, has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced more than 14 million since it broke out in 2023, with famine and infectious disease spreading rapidly across contested regions. Before the war, women’s soccer in Sudan only just began to emerge: the first official women’s league was established after the 2019 revolution that ousted long-time Islamist president Omar al-Bashir, whose three-decade rule enforced strict public order laws that severely restricted women’s public freedoms. Even after the revolution, conservative religious leaders have condemned women’s soccer: prominent preacher Abdulhay Yousif has claimed the creation of a women’s league is an effort to undermine traditional Islamic values.

    Liv Tønnessen, a political scientist specializing in Sudanese gender politics, explained that for the Bashir regime, women competing in sports was framed as a source of fitna — a term understood in Sudan’s conservative context as moral or sexual chaos. “The idea of women running, jumping, sweating, and even something as simple as their bodies being visible in motion, was seen by Bashir’s Islamist regime as producing fitna,” Tønnessen, a former guest researcher at a women-only university in Sudan, told the AP. “So when women step onto a soccer pitch, they are directly confronting that entire logic. They are not just present in a male-dominated sports arena, they are moving freely in it, on their own terms.”

    Off the pitch, players have also faced widespread harassment: on the team’s official social media accounts, dozens of commenters have mocked the squad for their lopsided defeats, with many posting misogynistic messages telling the players to “go back to the kitchen” in multiple languages.

    The team’s participation in the qualifiers has also sparked political debate. While the military government led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has approved the team’s international trip, the United Nations has documented widespread sexual and gender-based violence committed by Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces. Tønnessen argues the military’s public support for the team is a calculated move to boost its international legitimacy, framing the state as functional and aligned with the progressive goals of the 2019 revolution.

    But prominent Sudanese women’s rights activist Hala Al-Karib pushes back on claims that the team is being exploited for political gain. Instead, she argues the core issue remains long-standing underinvestment in women’s soccer across Sudan, calling for sweeping reform of the national soccer federation. For Al-Karib, the team’s right to compete matters more than political posturing.

    Back on the Casablanca pitch, all the politics, conflict, and public debate faded into the background. For a few hours, there was only a group of young women, united by their love of the game, chasing a dream on the international stage.

  • ‘We fear for our lives’ – deadline for migrants to leave South Africa looms

    ‘We fear for our lives’ – deadline for migrants to leave South Africa looms

    As South Africa counts down to a self-imposed June 30 deadline for all undocumented migrants to leave the country, the nation has become a landscape of fear for thousands of foreign-born residents. What started as a series of mostly peaceful public protests led by anti-migrant groups and opposition political actors has erupted into widespread targeted intimidation, pushing even documented refugees and long-term residents to flee their homes and seek voluntary repatriation to their home countries.

    One of the thousands living in crisis is Esnat Joseph, a 36-year-old Malawian mother of one-year-old triplets. Sitting in an open-air Durban field where as many as 7,000 displaced foreigners have gathered over the past two weeks, the mother struggled to calm her crying infants as she recalled the armed attack that forced her family from their informal settlement home. “A group of 10 South African men showed up at my door carrying machetes and whips, telling me we had to go back to our country,” Joseph explained. “They grabbed my husband, cut his head and neck, holding his throat like they intended to kill him. By the grace of God he survived, but he is still recovering in a hospital.”

    Joseph, who moved to South Africa three years ago to work as a domestic servant before having her children, lost her passport and immigration paperwork in a robbery three years ago, leaving her with no formal legal status. Like hundreds of other Malawians stranded in Durban, she has signed up for a repatriation bus organized by the Malawian consulate, which has arranged voluntary departures with funding from public donations. She is far from alone: over the past four weeks, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe have all organized air and bus repatriation efforts, with roughly 3,500 foreign nationals having already chosen to leave South Africa voluntarily. South African authorities confirm that more than 500 recently repatriated Nigerians were in the country without valid documentation.

    Benjamin, a Nigerian returnee who arrived in Lagos last week after living nine years in South Africa, summed up the sentiment of many who have left. “South Africans do not welcome foreigners, especially Nigerians,” he told the BBC. “It is a place where your life can be taken at any moment, it is not safe to stay.”

    The June 30 deadline was first put forward by a coalition of anti-migrant groups including the organization March and March, as well as opposition party ActionSA. Marchers carrying wooden sticks have taken to streets across the country for months, chanting the Zulu phrase *Mabahambe*, which translates to “They must go.” Organizers reject accusations that their movement is xenophobic, arguing that they are pushing for enforcement of existing immigration laws and policy prioritization for South African citizens. “If you enter the country on a 30-day visitor visa and stay for 50 days, two years, even five years, you know you are breaking the law,” March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma told reporters at a Durban rally. “South Africa cannot become a refugee camp for every struggling state on the continent. Every country puts its own citizens first, and we demand our government does the same.”

    Protesters’ anger is rooted in deep-seated economic hardship that has plagued South Africa for years. Official government data puts national unemployment at 32.7%, one of the highest rates in the world, with 350,000 jobs lost in the first quarter of 2026 alone, most held by young workers. Protesters argue undocumented migrants strain already overstretched public services, taking scarce jobs, education seats and hospital access from native citizens. “We fight to get our own kids into school, we struggle to get our elderly into hospital beds,” Mecha Ramorola, a protester at a Pretoria march, explained. “Scarce resources should go to South Africans first.”

    Despite this economic context, the current wave of tension has also been amplified by political opportunism, analysts note. South Africa is set to hold local government elections this coming November, and multiple parties have weaponized migration anxiety to win votes. A widely debunked claim that South Africa holds 15 million undocumented migrants, first pushed five years ago by ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba (who is currently campaigning to become mayor of Johannesburg), continues to circulate on social media. “Political parties are scraping the bottom of the barrel, lying to voters that all of South Africa’s problems can be fixed by getting rid of migrants,” said Sharon Ekambaram, a human rights lawyer with the movement Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia. “This scapegoating has a long history in our politics, and it always gets worse around election season.”

    Worryingly, the current tension has echoes of past waves of deadly xenophobic violence that have struck South Africa: in 2008, anti-migrant riots killed 62 people (including 21 South African citizens) and displaced thousands more, with further outbreaks in 2015, 2016 and 2019. Just last month, the Mozambican government reported that five of its citizens had been killed in anti-foreigner attacks in Western Cape province, a claim South Africa’s foreign minister disputed, saying only two Mozambicans died and investigations into the circumstances are ongoing.

    Social media has played a major role in amplifying hostility in recent weeks. Viral videos showing protesters harassing foreign nationals have spread widely, including one clip of a Ghanaian man being ordered to leave the country that prompted the Ghanaian government to summon South Africa’s ambassador to demand improved protections for Ghanaian citizens. Another viral video features prominent anti-migrant activist Nkosikhona Ndabandaba, a Facebook creator with 1.4 million followers who is known publicly as Phakel’umthakathi, approaching a Congolese man at the roadside. Without asking for proof of his immigration status, Ndabandaba politely told the man: “June 30 is the deadline. You don’t have to wait until then. Leave now.” Ndabandaba has amplified fears further by warning that he cannot control public anger after the deadline passes.

    Critically, even foreign nationals with valid legal status in South Africa are being targeted. Dozens of documented refugees have camped outside Durban’s Home Affairs department to seek government protection. One Burundian mother of four, who has official refugee status, said she has been targeted regardless. “I have all the valid paperwork proving I can stay here, but we are all being chased out,” she said, wrapping herself in a blanket to ward off the southern hemisphere winter chill. “I fear for my life, my children are terrified. We get insulted just walking down the street, my kids get bullied even at school.”

    Even long-term residents with deep roots in the country live in fear. A Malawian beauty therapist who has lived in Cape Town for 16 years (and who does not have formal legal status) said even routine trips to the grocery store have become intimidating. She, her husband and their nine-year-old daughter were recently confronted by their Uber driver, who demanded to see their immigration papers and questioned their origin because of their accent. Her daughter has stopped attending school entirely because of the family’s fear of attack. She says she supports President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plans to reform immigration policy, but stresses that all people, regardless of status, deserve to be safe. “My child can’t even go to school because we are terrified,” she said. “We don’t know what will happen next.”

    President Ramaphosa has pushed back against the intimidation and scapegoating, warning in a recent national address that no individual or group has the right to demand proof of nationality from people in public spaces, and that the government will take action against vigilante harassment. “There is no place for xenophobia, racism, intolerance of any kind in South Africa,” he said, unveiling a five-point plan from his coalition government to address the migration crisis. The plan includes rejecting asylum claims from people who have already passed through other safe countries, introducing quotas for citizenship naturalization, expanding digital identity systems for non-citizens, and imposing jail sentences for employers that hire undocumented migrants for below-minimum wage work.

    Analysts say the policy targeting of underpaid informal work reflects a longstanding pattern of exploitation. “You see undocumented migrants taking jobs that South Africans won’t accept, paying less than the legal minimum, because migrants are desperate and open to exploitation,” noted Professor Shepherd Mpofu, an immigration analyst. Ramaphosa’s plan also includes cracking down on systemic corruption within South Africa’s border and immigration system, a problem that is well-documented. One 36-year-old Malawian salon owner in Johannesburg, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, told the BBC she has been paying border officials bribes every few months for years to get her passport stamped without having to leave the country. She has now closed her salon and plans to return to Malawi to keep her young children safe.

    In Johannesburg, the government’s enforcement campaign, called Operation New Broom, has already resulted in the bulldozing of hundreds of informal roadside shops that officials say are mostly run by undocumented migrants, which they label hotbeds of criminal activity. During a recent visit to the area, Ethiopian migrants watched in horror as their life’s work was demolished, even after advance warning from authorities.

    Across the country, the growing pressure has left all foreign-born residents feeling trapped. Even the third-largest political party, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) led by former President Jacob Zuma, which holds major support in KwaZulu-Natal, has stopped short of endorsing the June 30 deadline but backed the movement’s core anti-undocumented migrant stance. “We all agree that undocumented migrants are breaking the law, they must leave the country peacefully without violence or intimidation,” MK member Bonginkosi Khanyile said.

    Still, fear is tangible nationwide. Long lines of vehicles are backed up at border posts with Mozambique as foreign nationals rush to leave before the June 30 deadline. Back at the open displacement camp in Durban, where aid groups have been distributing blankets and food to thousands of displaced people, terrified Malawian migrants can’t wait to leave. When the first repatriation bus pulled in on Sunday, crowds cheered and chanted the Zulu phrase *Siyahamba*, meaning “We are leaving.”

  • Partey misled Canadian officials over previous arrest

    Partey misled Canadian officials over previous arrest

    A high-profile pre-tournament controversy has disrupted Ghana’s 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign, as experienced midfielder Thomas Partey has been barred from entering Canada, forcing him to miss the Black Stars’ opening group stage match against Panama. The 33-year-old Villarreal player, who previously earned 50+ caps for Ghana and featured at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, was denied entry ahead of Wednesday’s Toronto fixture due to ongoing criminal proceedings in the United Kingdom that he failed to disclose on his immigration application.

    Partey currently faces seven counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, linked to allegations from four separate women dating between 201 and 2022. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his trial is scheduled to begin next year in the UK. When Partey applied for entry to Canada for the World Cup, he falsely declared that he had never been arrested or charged with a criminal offense, a misrepresentation that triggered the initial entry refusal.

    The Ghanaian government launched an emergency appeal to the federal court in Ottawa, asking for a special exemption to allow Partey to enter the country temporarily just to compete in the opening match. However, the court rejected the appeal, ruling that there were “no serious issues” with the underlying entry refusal, and explicitly noted that Partey had failed to disclose his status as a defendant in multiple sexual violence charges.

    In a statement to BBC Sport, department Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada reaffirmed its consistent policy that even hosting a global event like the World Cup does not override the country’s immigration regulations. “Every person seeking to come to Canada is assessed individually, based on the facts available and the law that applies,” the department said.

    Partey’s exclusion comes even after Ghana’s head coach Carlos Queiroz publicly defended his decision to include the player in the World Cup squad ahead of the tournament. When asked about the situation on Tuesday, ahead of the ruling, Queiroz told reporters: “My business is to play with the cards that I have in front of me. We are waiting for a decision. When the decision arrives, we are ready.”

    Beyond the opening match against Panama, Ghana is scheduled to face England in Boston on June 23 and Croatia in Philadelphia on June 26 as part of their Group L fixtures. If the Black Stars finish as runners-up in the group, they could return to Canada for a knockout stage match in the round of 32, a path that remains open even without Partey’s participation in the opening fixture.