A surge of coordinated violent assaults against Christian communities in Ethiopia’s Oromia region has left more than 60 people dead, including five children, according to official statements from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s Holy Synod. The series of targeted attacks unfolded across three localities in the Shirka district, leaving 20 residential structures completely incinerated and thousands of displaced residents fleeing to safer adjacent areas. One grieving local resident, who lost his 75-year-old father in the onslaught, recounted the unforeseen nature of the violence to BBC Amharic, noting that assailants surrounded their community from all four directions with zero prior warning, leaving families completely unprepared to defend themselves. A senior church representative characterized the assaults as an unprovoked massacre, adding that regional security forces did arrive at the affected sites but were unable to intervene in time to halt the bloodshed. A local administrative official has attributed the coordinated violence to the newly established rebel coalition known as the Alliance for Survival, which counts the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) among its member factions. To date, the OLA has not released an official statement addressing this latest incident, though it has repeatedly rejected claims of involvement in similar civilian-targeted attacks in past months. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which has documented a steady, alarming rise in targeted assaults against Christian followers across parts of the country in recent periods, released a public statement condemning the bloodshed and emphasizing that such violent acts directly erode Ethiopia’s long-held cultural values of cross-community mutual respect and centuries-long tradition of peaceful interfaith coexistence. Church leadership also noted that they have repeatedly escalated their security concerns to federal, regional and local government authorities over successive months, but no tangible, effective protective measures have been implemented to end the pattern of targeted violence. Independent human rights monitoring group the Ethiopian Human Rights Council released a report in July 2026 that recorded 458 civilian fatalities from similar attacks in the Oromia region’s Shirka district over the preceding four years, marking this latest incident as one of the single deadliest episodes of that multi-year period. The watchdog organization’s analysis classifies many of these recurring assaults as religiously motivated, with armed factions disproportionately targeting followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has previously framed civilian and religious site targeted violence as a deliberate plot to destabilize the nation’s fragile social cohesion, and federal government officials have long pointed to the OLA as the primary perpetrator of such assaults. The OLA, which states its core mission is advocating for expanded political and cultural rights for the Oromo ethnic majority, has consistently denied all allegations of targeting civilian communities on religious or ethnic grounds. Local residents have also reported recurring instances of violent assaults against Muslim communities in the same Oromia territories, with multiple eyewitness accounts describing the ongoing cycles of communal violence as driven by a toxic mix of ethnic and religious tensions. Demographically, roughly two-thirds of Ethiopia’s 120 million residents identify as Christian, the vast majority affiliated with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, while approximately one third of the population practices Islam, with interfaith coexistence forming a foundational pillar of the nation’s historic social fabric. The Oromia regional government has publicly pledged to launch a full investigation into the latest massacre and pursue full legal accountability for every individual responsible for the fatal assaults.
标签： Africa
非洲
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Algeria to send troops to Niger in first foreign deployment since 1973
In a landmark shift away from its decades-long non-intervention military policy, Algeria has formally approved the deployment of its armed forces to Niger, marking the country’s first foreign troop dispatch since it committed personnel to Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. The historic decision was greenlit after consecutive emergency sessions of Algeria’s two parliamentary chambers: the upper house voted 148 out of 174 senators in favour of the measure on Sunday, with the lower house subsequently ratifying the proposal. The deployment also represents the first time a 2020 constitutional clause permitting overseas military missions has been activated in the North African nation.
The deployment framework was laid following a recent official visit by Niger’s defence minister to Algiers, as the Sahel state grapples with a persistent wave of violent extremist activity, including insurgent factions affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State operating across remote border zones. Algerian legislator Belkacem Boulghiti clarified to reporters in the aftermath of the parliamentary vote that the operation is not an offensive combat mission, but a targeted assignment to safeguard high-priority economic assets across northern Niger, in territories adjacent to the Libyan border. No official timeline for the troop rollout, nor the total number of personnel to be deployed, has been publicly disclosed by either government to date.
The move is underpinned by deepening economic and strategic ties between the two neighbouring nations, which only recently emerged from a major diplomatic falling out in 2025. That rift erupted after Algeria shot down a Malian drone that violated its airspace, prompting Niger to withdraw its ambassador to Algiers in a show of solidarity with its military-ruled Malian ally. The two states’ relationship had already been strained earlier in the decade, when Algeria publicly condemned the 2023 coup that ousted Niger’s democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum and installed the military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani.
Bilateral relations have undergone a rapid thaw in 2026, however: Tchiani made an official state visit to Algiers in February, and as recently as late August, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune deployed fighter jets to Niger to help quash an attempted counter-coup, followed by a donation of four military helicopters to Niger’s armed forces. The security collaboration is closely tied to Algeria’s multi-billion-dollar energy interests in its southern neighbour, most notably a planned trans-Sahel gas pipeline that would transport Nigerian natural gas through Niger’s territory to Algerian export terminals on the Mediterranean coast. State-owned Algerian energy giant Sonatrach has also recently signed a formal exploration partnership with Niger’s petroleum ministry to drill for crude oil in the remote Kafra region, where preliminary geological surveys by Reuters indicate two identified wells hold estimated reserves of 168 million and 100 million barrels respectively.
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All you need to know about the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics
After a four-year delay triggered by global COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, the highly anticipated 2026 Youth Olympic Games are poised to make history as the first Olympic-branded competition ever held on the African continent, kicking off in Senegal on 31 October and running through 13 November across three host locales: Dakar, Diamniadio, and Saly.
Organized under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), this elite multi-sport gathering caters primarily to athletes aged 15 to 17, drawing an estimated 2,700 participants to contest 153 official medal events across 25 core sports, alongside 10 non-medal engagement sports designed to drive local community participation. Launched in 2010 with its inaugural edition in Singapore, the Youth Olympics blend core elements of the senior Olympic Games with innovative additions including emerging urban sports, mixed-gender competitive formats, and immersive cultural programming, with subsequent editions hosted in Nanjing, China (2014) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (2018). A long roster of Youth Games alumni have gone on to claim top podiums at the senior Olympics: South African swimmer Chad le Clos and British taekwondo champion Jade Jones both competed at the 2010 Singapore event before earning gold at the 2012 London Games, while American sprint star Noah Lyles secured a 200m Youth Olympic title in Nanjing before taking 100m gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
IOC senior official Christophe Dubi emphasized the event’s transformative significance for the entire African continent, noting that while Africa has hosted countless global sporting competitions, this marks the first time the iconic five Olympic rings have been formally affixed to a major multi-sport event on local soil. Thierno Cisse, Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the Dakar 2026 Local Organising Committee (LOC), echoed that sentiment, stating that Senegalese citizens across the nation are stepping into the role of continental ambassadors to demonstrate that Africa can deliver world-class Olympic standard operations. The Games also carry a unique connection to the highest levels of Olympic leadership: Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, who made history last year as the first woman and first African ever elected IOC President, previously served as chair of the Dakar 2026 coordination commission.
Against the backdrop of widespread youth unemployment across Africa, the world’s youngest demographic continent, organizers have structured the event to deliver tangible, long-term community benefits rather than operating as a standalone sporting spectacle. Over 400 young African trainees have already completed specialized certification in event operations, logistics, digital technology, athlete accreditation, and venue management, with additional projected gains spanning local employment growth, expanded tourism revenue, expanded volunteer networks, and sustained skills development for regional youth cohorts. A deliberate choice to prioritize renovation and adaptive reuse of existing public facilities, rather than constructing costly purpose-built venues from scratch, ensures that post-Games infrastructure will continue to serve local communities for decades. Competition venues are spread strategically: Dakar’s historic Iba Mar Diop complex will host athletics, rugby sevens, and futsal, while the waterfront Tour de l’Oeuf complex will stage swimming, 3×3 basketball, breaking, skateboarding, and the newly debuted Baseball5. Diamniadio, the newly developed urban hub southeast of Dakar, serves as the Games’ operational core, with the 50,000-capacity Abdoulaye Wade Stadium hosting the opening and closing ceremonies alongside archery competitions, and the Dakar Expo Centre housing gymnastics, fencing, table tennis, judo, and Wushu Taolu events. The Atlantic coastal town of Saly will host sailing, triathlon, beach handball, and coastal rowing competitions along its scenic shoreline.
The 2026 Dakar Games will also see three sports make their Youth Olympic debut: Baseball5, a no-equipment urban simplified iteration of traditional baseball that will kick off competition a day ahead of the opening ceremony on 30 October; Wushu Taolu, a competitive modern Chinese martial art focused on choreographed performance sequences; and skateboarding, whose local popularity has surged since Senegal opened its first public skate park in Dakar’s Ngor neighborhood in 2022. Nineteen of the 25 core medal sports featured at Dakar 2026 were also contested at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with the full event marking the first Youth Olympic Games to achieve full gender parity across all competitive events.
Deeply rooted in local Senegalese and pan-African cultural heritage, the Games’ official identity leans heavily on regional symbolism: the event mascot Ayo, a young lion whose name derives from a Yoruba word meaning “joy,” was designed by a local student, while the competition medals feature a lion on one face and a baobab tree on the other to represent African heritage, resilience, and intergenerational longevity. The official theme song “Teranga” — named for the Wolof term for “hospitality” — is performed by celebrated Senegalese artist Mamy Mbaye, and the athletes’ village hosts immersive cultural workshops teaching traditional sabar and djembe drumming and dance. The Olympic flame, originally lit in Athens on 10 September, arrived in Dakar two days later and has since traveled more than 3,600 kilometers across all 14 of Senegal’s administrative regions, carried by 450 torchbearers across 30 relay stages ahead of the opening ceremony cauldron lighting.
A star-studded roster of sporting icons has been recruited to support the event’s mission, including Nigerian wrestling Olympic medalist Blessing Oborududu, Algerian gymnastics champion Kaylia Nemour, Senegalese men’s national football team captain Kalidou Koulibaly, and Kenyan marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge. Kipchoge has taken on a dedicated mentorship role for the historic first-ever refugee athlete team to compete at a Youth Olympic Games: six young athletes selected through East African trials and development programs, who will compete in athletics, judo, and taekwondo while receiving dedicated education and mental wellbeing support.
While neither the LOC nor IOC has released a full finalized total budget figure, the Senegalese government has committed a minimum of $60 million under the host contract, with additional infrastructure loans estimated to reach $90 million for long-term sporting facility upgrades; the 50,000-seat Abdoulaye Wade Stadium, completed in 2022, carried a reported construction cost of $270 million. Organizers have emphasized that the event’s true value should be measured not by its price tag, but by its lasting legacy: expanded access to underrepresented sports across the continent, the discovery of new generations of African athletic talent, and a reimagining of the Olympic movement through a distinctly African cultural lens.
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Uganda imposes 21-day quarantine on citizens returning from DR Congo
Uganda’s Ministry of Health has rolled out a suite of enhanced public health restrictions aimed at shielding the East African nation from a catastrophic Ebola outbreak, as a deadly ongoing epidemic in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo continues to spread across regional borders.
The new rules, formally announced by Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi during a Sunday press briefing, mandate that all Ugandan citizens returning home from DR Congo complete a full 21-day supervised isolation period at their own personal expense. Additionally, no travellers with a recent travel history to DR Congo will be permitted to transit through Ugandan territory, with only a narrow exception carved out for essential cross-border travellers from DR Congo, who will still be subjected to rigorous, multi-layered public health screening protocols before being granted entry. Officials have also ramped up infectious disease screening operations at Entebbe International Airport, every official land border crossing, and a network of newly established designated road checkpoints across the country.
These tightened safeguards come in the wake of two separate recent Ebola cases in neighbouring Kenya and Nigeria, both involving individuals who transited through Ugandan territory earlier this month. The Kenyan case was a businessman with commercial interests in DR Congo, who tested positive shortly after returning to Nairobi and died only two days after his arrival; his subsequent contacts have led to eight additional confirmed Ebola cases in Kenya, with a second family member of the original patient dying over the past weekend. The Nigerian case is a Ugandan-born spouse of a Swiss diplomat who had travelled to Kampala for a holiday. Regional public health authorities initially stated the Nigerian patient had only transited through Uganda en route from eastern DR Congo, but Ugandan officials confirmed Sunday that they are now collaborating directly with Nigerian health agencies to map her full travel itinerary and identify any potential points of exposure to the virus. Health ministry permanent secretary Diana Atwine also noted that closed-circuit television footage from Entebbe International Airport confirms the two international Ebola patients had no direct physical interaction during their shared day of transit through the facility, eliminating the possibility of cross-transmission between them on Ugandan soil.
Ugandan health officials emphasized that the country has not recorded any local Ebola transmissions this month, and the World Health Organization formally declared Uganda Ebola-free back in August, shortly after a small cluster of 20 cases and two fatalities emerged in the earliest weeks of the DR Congo outbreak. That ongoing DR Congo outbreak, which began in May, is the deadliest Ebola epidemic ever recorded in the country, having already claimed more than 4,500 lives to date, and has spread to multiple nations beyond DR Congo’s borders.
The 60 people who were placed under mandatory monitoring after coming into contact with the Kenyan Ebola patient during his transit through Uganda have all been officially cleared and discharged as of the Sunday announcement. Baryomunsi stressed that the new measures are a proactive precaution, noting that Uganda and DR Congo share extensive, porous borders, with communities on both sides deeply interconnected through cross-border trade, regular travel, and extended family networks. The strain of Ebola driving the current regional outbreak is the rare Bundibugyo variant, for which no licensed vaccine or targeted specific treatment is yet available, though multiple clinical trials are currently in progress. Ebola spreads exclusively via direct contact with the infected bodily fluids such as blood, vomit, or other secretions of a symptomatic patient, making targeted screening and quarantine the most effective frontline defences for at-risk border nations. -
Gabon says access to social media restored after eight-month ban
Gabon’s national media regulatory body, the High Communication Authority (HAC), formally announced the full reversal of an eight-month-long nationwide social media restriction in a televised public statement on Saturday, marking a notable policy shift that follows widespread public pushback against the original ban when it was first enforced earlier this year.
The original ban was implemented on February 17, with the HAC justifying the measure by claiming unregulated online content was inciting communal tensions and widening societal rifts across the Central African nation of roughly 2.5 million residents. The sudden restriction caught the public largely off guard, as platforms including Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram had become deeply embedded in daily life for Gabon’s youth population, who relied on the services for both recreational use and small-scale commercial operations to generate household income. In response to the block, a large share of internet users turned to virtual private network (VPN) tools to circumvent the restrictions and maintain access to their usual social media channels.
The ban was first imposed during a period of heightened domestic unrest, falling less than 12 months after President Brice Oligui Nguema secured electoral victory. At the time, public sector workers including teachers and civil servants had organized widespread labor strikes to protest stagnant wages and inadequate working conditions, prompting concerns from opposition groups who characterized the social media suspension as a blatant overreach of state authority and an abuse of executive power.
Nguema won last year’s national elections with over 90% of the popular vote, two years after a military coup ousted the Bongo family, which had held uninterrupted control of Gabon’s government for more than 50 years. When he initially took power, Nguema publicly committed to sweeping institutional reforms for the oil and timber-rich coastal state, where previous administrations had frequently deployed full digital blackouts as a tactic to suppress the spread of unvetted information. The BBC has since reached out to the HAC to request further official comment on the timeline of the policy reversal and any new regulatory frameworks that may be applied to social media platforms moving forward. -
‘I cannot teach you integrity’: How employee theft is hurting small businesses in Africa
When beloved Kenyan food content creator That Girl Boina embarked on her first international European vacation in 2025, she expected a well-earned break after building her Nairobi-based Waxaholic Studio, a premium waxing and hydrafacial parlour launched just over a year prior. A single unexpected Instagram direct message from a disoriented customer shattered that peace a week into her trip: the patron noted they had been asked to send payment to a personal phone number completely different from the official business contact posted on the studio wall. This small, seemingly trivial alert unraveled a pattern of systemic employee theft Boina had never suspected, despite her close oversight of the compact, three-person operation. She had initially brushed off months of declining revenue as a predictable seasonal slump, but soon realized she was the only stakeholder not profiting from the studio’s steady stream of client traffic. Rather than confront her trusted receptionist and two service specialists, Boina made the painful decision to shut down the business in October 2025, selling off loose equipment and hauling home remaining decor after failing to find a buyer for the full operation. The closure hit far harder than a mere financial setback: Boina had poured her savings into the venture as a long-term pillar of future financial security, and she described breaking down in tears at a friend’s consolatory dinner as the lowest point of her adult life. Nearly a year later, after months of emotional healing, Boina shared her story in a TikTok video that went viral across X (formerly Twitter), racking up nearly a million views and sparking an outpouring of shared experiences from hundreds of African small business owners who faced identical fates of payment diversion, stock theft, and unauthorized equipment sales by staff. Her story is far from an isolated case. Industry data and widespread anecdotal evidence confirm employee fraud is a crippling, underaddressed crisis for enterprises across East and West Africa. A 2022 PwC survey found 63% of East African organizations reported experiencing economic crime, a rate far higher than the 46% global average. Even major national retail giants were not spared: Kenya’s iconic Nakumatt and Tuskys supermarket chains, which once operated dozens of locations across Kenya and Uganda and employed thousands of workers, collapsed in recent years in part due to rampant internal theft. A 2015 audit commissioned by Tuskys found the chain was losing more than 100 million Kenyan shillings monthly to staff colluding to manipulate till transactions, pocket cash, and falsify supplier delivery records, while Nakumatt lost over $100 million in unaccounted stock before its 2020 collapse. John Wanjohi, CEO of loss-prevention firm Hipora Business Solutions East Africa, estimates internal employee theft accounts for over 60% of all recorded losses for small businesses across the region, noting that theft rings have evolved into coordinated cartels that collude with external clients and suppliers to siphon funds in increasingly subtle, hard-to-detect ways. Kenyan ready-to-wear fashion brand founder Cris Njoki faced one such sophisticated scheme when she discovered a senior procurement staffer was colluding with raw material suppliers to inflate invoice prices, splitting the excess payments before the company could spot the discrepancy. She dismissed the employee and overhauled her entire procurement workflow, centralizing all purchasing processes, creating full auditable paper trails, and shifting payment responsibilities exclusively to her independent finance team to eliminate future loopholes. In Accra, Ghana, Muftawu Nabila, a prominent sports journalist who used YouTube channel earnings to launch a local electronics shop, nearly lost his entire business to a newly hired attendant he left in charge while traveling to cover the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States. The staffer systematically siphoned up to $30 from daily $200 sales over two months, leaving Nabila with insufficient cash to restock inventory until a mandatory daily morning stock count uncovered the massive gap between recorded sales and physical inventory. He relied on his steady journalism salary to rebuild the operation, noting the betrayal was extra stinging because he had launched the shop explicitly to create local jobs for community members. For African small businesses, the stakes of internal theft are exponentially higher than for large multinational corporations: most operate on razor-thin profit margins, face exorbitant borrowing costs, navigate unpredictable regulatory and tax environments, and serve consumer markets with limited discretionary purchasing power that prevents them from raising prices to offset losses. Many have no financial buffer to absorb even moderate theft, and losses that would be a minor line item for a large firm can force them to lay off staff, halt operations, or shut down permanently. Wanjohi notes most small business owners only reach out to loss-prevention specialists after theft has already caused catastrophic damage, but targeted, low-cost overhauls to cash tracking, stock management, and transaction audit systems can deliver dramatic results: one struggling pharmacy that implemented his recommended controls saw daily sales jump from 80,000 to 200,000 Kenyan shillings almost overnight. Legal advocate Judith Guserwa also reminds employers that they must follow formal, legal procedures when addressing suspected theft, requiring full evidence gathering, a chance for accused staff to formally respond, and written repayment agreements if staff choose to make amends before pursuing formal termination or criminal charges. For Boina, the harrowing experience has permanently reshaped her approach to entrepreneurship: she now says she will be far more deliberate about hiring, and will not hesitate to take swift action at the first sign of unethical behavior, noting that workplace integrity is a value no employer can reasonably be expected to teach a fully grown adult.
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Gunmen kill at least 10 villagers and loot shops in northeast Nigeria
A previously unreported violent assault unfolded on Friday in the isolated community of Binnari, located in Karim Lamido local government area of Nigeria’s northeastern Taraba State, as a group of unidentified armed assailants launched a coordinated, hours-long attack on unsuspecting residents, according to official police statements. Eyewitness accounts and independent non-profit sources indicate the casualty count may be far higher than the 10 fatalities initially confirmed by responding law enforcement units.
Witnesses on the ground report the attackers descended on the village immediately following midday Friday Muslim congregational prayers, arriving in a convoy of roughly 50 motorcycles carrying two armed men each. The rampage stretched for up to four hours, during which the perpetrators looted local shops of cash, food supplies and essential provisions, seized abandoned motorcycles left by fleeing residents, and set multiple residential structures on fire before vanishing into the surrounding dense bush terrain.
By the time police units dispatched in response to emergency distress calls reached Binnari, the armed group had already fled the scene. Officers confirmed they recovered 10 bodies bearing visible gunshot wounds in the immediate aftermath, but Taraba State police spokesperson Assistant Superintendent Victor Mshelizah told reporters Saturday that search teams are still combing the vast, difficult-to-navigate surrounding wilderness for additional unaccounted for casualties, warning that the final death toll is almost certain to rise.
“We were able to clear the area and disperse the remaining unknown gunmen, with no casualties reported on either side of our teams or the attackers during the response, as the local terrain is extremely familiar to the assailants who use it to their advantage,” Mshelizah explained, adding that extended patrols have been deployed across the district to restore public safety.
Local community leader Malam Abubakar Saifullahi corroborated the scale of the looting and destruction, noting that dozens of families have been displaced by the violence. Multiple surviving residents interviewed by AFP confirmed they counted at least 20 dead bodies scattered across the village and surrounding farmland, with dozens more still listed as missing after fleeing into the bush to escape the gunfire. One Binnari resident, Isiyaku Musa, described the chaos as residents scattered in all directions with no clear safe route to shelter.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria director Isa Sanusi told BBC News that the human rights organization has collected testimony from bereaved local families indicating the total death toll could be as high as 50, with the first mass funeral held for 37 victims in the days following the attack. Sanusi issued a sharp rebuke of federal and state security authorities, accusing them of systematically abandoning vulnerable rural communities across Nigeria to repeated cycles of violent attacks by armed groups, who operate with near total impunity in many remote regions.
The Binnari massacre is the latest in a string of escalating violent security crises sweeping across multiple regions of Nigeria, including the northwest, northeast and central middle belt states. The northeast has also been grappling with a nearly 20-year long jihadist insurgency, for which successive Nigerian federal governments have faced sustained widespread criticism over ineffective security policy and failure to protect civilian populations in at-risk rural areas.
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From Chelsea reject to Watkins ‘upgrade’ – Jackson makes fast Villa start
On a pivotal Premier League Saturday, 25-year-old Senegal international striker Nicolas Jackson delivered a masterclass two-goal performance to hand Aston Villa a landmark victory over reigning champions Manchester City, shattering City’s perfect winning record to open the new season. The heroics capped a blistering early run of form for the summer signing, who arrived at Villa Park in a £65 million maximum-value transfer from Chelsea as the direct, high-stakes replacement for long-serving fan favorite Ollie Watkins, who departed for Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal in August after a six-year tenure that saw him notch 91 Premier League goals in 221 appearances, never failing to hit double-digit league tallies in any of his Villa campaigns.
Jackson’s immediate impact has exceeded even the most optimistic projections from Villa’s hierarchy: across his first 11 appearances for the claret and blue side, he has notched 7 total goals, with 6 coming in his last 6 outings. His red-hot form has not only steadied Villa after a tentative opening stretch of the domestic season, but also fueled the club’s flawless 100% winning start to their Champions League group stage campaign. The striker, who previously spent two full seasons at Chelsea and a loan spell at German powerhouse Bayern Munich before his Villa move, has posted dramatic statistical improvements compared to his Stamford Bridge tenure. At Chelsea, he averaged a goal every 210 minutes across 65 Premier League appearances, with a 15% shot conversion rate, and was frequently criticized for wasting high-quality scoring chances. By contrast, through his first seven Premier League matches for Villa, he is scoring once every 138 minutes, boasts a 21% shot conversion rate, and has outperformed his expected goals tally by exactly two goals, a mark of far sharper finishing. Both of Villa’s shots on target against Manchester City came off Jackson’s right foot, and both found the back of the net.
The victory landed on the fourth exact anniversary of Unai Emery’s appointment as Aston Villa’s head coach, a tenure that has already transformed the club from a mid-table Premier League side into a consistent top-flight contender, regular Champions League participant, and Europa League winner that ended a 30-year major trophy drought. Jackson’s pre-existing working relationship with Emery dates back to their shared time at Spanish side Villarreal, where the forward developed his game before Chelsea signed him for £35 million in 2023, a familiarity that club legends and analysts say has accelerated his adaptation to the Villa system dramatically.
Former Villa and England defender Martin Keown hailed the striker as a transformative upgrade, noting, “I’ve liked him all season. I think he’s key to Villa’s success. I think he’s an upgrade on Ollie Watkins, I really do. Ollie was magnificent for them, but this guy is more of a predator in and around the penalty area. Pace will always trouble top defenders and he’s got it in abundance. Having worked with the manager before at Villarreal, he’s sort of fast-tracking his quick development. He looks like a really good piece of business right now. The team suffered and you need a striker who can give you belief you can win games when suffering and this guy is a special talent. With a talent like that you can go a long way.”
Speaking to BBC Match of the Day after the Man City win, Jackson said, “The players, the manager, the team – everything is incredible. I’m very happy that I’m here and hopefully we can do amazing things together.” Emery echoed that praise, noting, “I knew him at Villarreal and he started playing the level he is now. I know his capacity to exploit his qualities and I know, as well, his humility. The mentality is coming through – how focused he is in life and professional career.” Former Scotland international and WSL Aston Villa alum Rachel Corsie highlighted Emery’s famously obsessive, detail-oriented management style as a core driver behind the club’s track record of elevating incoming players, noting his near-constant presence at the training ground to refine individual player skills and tactical execution. Jackson added in comments to TNT Sports, “It’s not easy to settle at a new club but easier because of the coach and the players. It’s an incredible dressing room with an incredible manager. I’m very happy to be here and hopefully I will score many goals.” If his current trajectory holds, the £65 million transfer fee will rapidly be regarded as one of the shrewdest striker signings in recent Premier League history.
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Seven missing after multi-storey building collapses in Kenya’s capital
A large-scale search and rescue operation is in full swing in Nairobi’s densely populated Eastleigh neighborhood, after a high-rise under construction crumpled unexpectedly on Friday afternoon, leaving seven people feared trapped beneath tons of concrete and steel rubble. The mid-rise structure, estimated to stand between 16 and 18 storeys, was captured on viral on-site footage failing catastrophically when its ground level gave way first, triggering a cascading collapse that sent a thick billowing cloud of dust surging out onto adjacent streets.
Remarkably, nearly all of the dozens of construction personnel working on the upper levels of the development escaped the disaster with almost no injuries. Interior ministry official Kipchumba Murkomen confirmed that out of the 67 builders present inside the site at the time of the collapse, 66 walked away completely unharmed, while the sole remaining worker sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The seven missing individuals, however, are believed to have been inside 11 retail shops that had already begun operating on the lower ground floors of the structure, even as scaffolding still wrapped the building’s exterior to signal ongoing construction work.
Emergency response teams have been navigating major hurdles to reach the trapped victims, local reports from the Daily Nation indicate. Responders made the critical decision to pause the use of heavy excavation diggers over fears that large-scale earth-moving work would cut off vital air pockets that could be sustaining survivors under the rubble, forcing teams to rely on slower, precision tools including metal cutting saws to carefully navigate through stacked collapsed concrete slabs.
The catastrophic incident has reignited widespread public and official scrutiny of Kenya’s long-criticized construction regulation framework. Nairobi Governor Sakaja Johnson told local press that the property’s owners never secured the necessary legal documentation to allow any part of the building to be occupied, even as ground-floor shops opened for business. He has formally called on the national Kenyan government to expand enforcement powers for local municipal authorities, so they can impose harsher penalties on rogue developers who deliberately ignore approved architectural plans and mandatory construction safety standards. The National Construction Authority confirmed in an official statement that it has already identified the property’s development firm, its lead architect, and the project’s structural engineer for further investigation, though it did not confirm whether any pre-collapse safety inspections had ever been conducted at the site. High-profile building collapses are a recurring public safety crisis in Nairobi, with decades of previous incidents regularly linked to substandard building materials, unapproved design modifications, and lax regulatory oversight.
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Woman, 65, becomes second patient to die of Ebola in Kenya
Kenya’s Ministry of Health has confirmed the country’s second Ebola-related fatality, marking a critical update to its first ever recorded outbreak of the viral disease. The 65-year-old deceased woman was an immediate close family contact of the outbreak’s first victim, a Congolese traveller who arrived in Nairobi after seeking treatment at multiple medical facilities across the Democratic Republic of Congo in September, and died on 5 October. The latest fatality had been placed under mandatory quarantine when she first developed symptoms on 13 October, health authorities verified. At present, seven additional Ebola patients are receiving dedicated care across two specialized isolation facilities in the country: three are remaining relatives of the initial index case, three are frontline healthcare workers, and one is a hospital cleaning staff member. The health ministry has stressed that all confirmed cases belong to a single, contained transmission cluster, with zero verified evidence of widespread community spread to date. This outbreak is part of a broader regional crisis that has claimed over 4,000 lives across Africa since Ebola resurfaced in the DRC in May, making it the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in global history. The strain circulating in this cluster is the rare Bundibugyo variant, for which no fully approved vaccine or targeted therapeutic treatment is yet available, though multiple clinical trials are currently ongoing. The International Rescue Committee, which has been collaborating with regional governments to curb transmission, warns that Kenya faces sustained, elevated risk of new imported cases given the DRC’s tally of more than 9,500 total infections. In response, Kenyan authorities have rolled out strict, multi-layered cross-border screening protocols covering travellers arriving from 10 high-risk nations: the DRC, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Zambia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. All inbound passengers from these countries must complete a digital health surveillance form prior to boarding their flights, and present a corresponding QR code to port health officials for verification upon arrival, while all aircraft originating in the high-risk zones are subject to enhanced disinfection and public health checks. Domestically, the government has launched a widespread public awareness campaign to educate residents on Ebola’s transmission risks, urging prompt reporting of any suspected symptoms and immediate medical care-seeking, alongside guidance on core preventive measures including frequent handwashing and avoiding unprotected close contact with visibly ill individuals. The U.S. State Department has issued an official travel advisory warning its citizens against non-essential travel to Kenya, while neighbouring states including Uganda, Ethiopia, and Somalia have activated their own national public health alert systems to prepare for potential imported cases. In a separate related development, Nigerian Health Minister Professor Ali Pate announced that the single confirmed Ebola case recorded in Nigeria appears to be genetically linked to the strain circulating in Kenya. Pate noted that there is no current evidence that the Kenyan index case travelled to Nigeria directly, though additional confirmatory testing is still underway to clarify transmission links. Investigators are exploring whether Nigeria’s single patient and Kenya’s first deceased case crossed paths at Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport earlier in October, as both are confirmed to have transited through the facility.