Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • School bus crash kills at least 20 pupils in Uganda

    School bus crash kills at least 20 pupils in Uganda

    A devastating road accident in eastern Uganda has claimed the lives of at least 20 schoolchildren and one adult supervisor, marking one of the deadliest incidents involving young people in the country in recent memory. The crash took place on Thursday evening in Kapchorwa’s Chekwatit Hill area, as the group of students returned from a educational field trip to the popular Sipi Falls tourist site.

    Local law enforcement and government officials confirmed that the vehicle, operated by King David Junior School based in Ndejje, crashed around 20:00 local time (17:00 GMT) in Chekwatit village, Kawowo sub-region. Dozens of other passengers, including additional school staff members, sustained injuries of varying severity in the incident.

    Preliminary probe findings point to a combination of mechanical failure and hazardous road conditions as the core causes of the tragedy. Police officials detailed that the bus developed a mechanical fault before the driver lost control on the hilly stretch of road, a location that has been the site of multiple severe crashes in the past. “The driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle, which veered off the road, struck a large stone along the roadside, and overturned,” the Uganda Police Force shared in a public statement.

    Rory Balaam Ateenyi Barugahara, Uganda’s Minister of Local Government, who visited the crash site shortly after the incident, confirmed the identities of the fatalities on his social media platform X account. “Sadly, 20 children and 1 adult, who happens to be the founder and director, Mr Tadeo Ssekade, have gone to be with the Lord,” he wrote.

    Eyewitness footage shared in the immediate aftermath of the crash shows the bus crumpled and heavily damaged, with local community members rushing to extract trapped passengers and provide first aid to injured children before emergency services arrived.

    This fatal crash has reignited long-simmering public concern over road safety and school transportation standards in Uganda, coming just weeks after a string of other serious bus accidents involving civilian and student passengers across the country. Uganda’s national traffic authorities have long documented that the country records thousands of preventable road fatalities annually. Key contributing factors consistently cited include overspeeding, inadequate vehicle maintenance, poorly engineered infrastructure, and unaddressed hazards on high-risk rural road corridors like Chekwatit Hill.

  • Watch: What we know about newly discovered monkey species

    Watch: What we know about newly discovered monkey species

    A groundbreaking new finding in primatology has rocked the global conservation and scientific communities: researchers have formally identified a previously unknown species of monkey, a discovery conservation leaders are already calling extraordinary. While full details of the research, including the species’ specific geographic range, physical characteristics, and genetic sequencing data, are still being prepared for formal peer-reviewed publication, early confirmations have confirmed the discovery is legitimate.

    Conservation biologists and field researchers have spent years surveying understudied forest habitats in search of unrecorded primate species, as many remote ecosystems remain underexplored by modern science. This new monkey, which was first documented through camera trap footage and later verified through genetic sampling of hair and fecal samples, fills a key gap in scientific understanding of primate biodiversity in the region where it was found.

    Leading conservationist who was involved in the research project described the find as an “amazing discovery”, noting that new large mammal species are exceptionally rare to identify in the 21st century. Most new vertebrate species discovered in recent decades are smaller amphibians, reptiles, or rodents, making the identification of a new monkey species a particularly notable event for the scientific community.

    The discovery also carries important implications for conservation efforts: the newly identified species is believed to occupy a limited habitat range, which means conservationists will immediately begin work to assess its population status and protect its ecosystem from threats like deforestation and illegal logging. Scientists are currently planning additional field surveys to learn more about the species’ behavior, social structure, diet, and overall population numbers to inform future protection plans.

  • Orphanage fire in Algeria kills 11 children, injures 19 others

    Orphanage fire in Algeria kills 11 children, injures 19 others

    On Thursday, a devastating blaze ripped through a two-story orphanage in Mohammedia, an eastern suburb of the Algerian capital Algiers, leaving 11 children dead and 19 others injured, local authorities confirmed.

    According to Algeria’s official Civil Protection agency, the fire ignited at approximately 3:30 a.m. local time while children and staff were resting at the childcare facility. As of the latest update, officials have not released the ages of the deceased victims, and have reported no fatalities or harm to adult workers at the site. The root cause of the blaze remains under official investigation, with no preliminary findings released to the public.

    Lt. Col. Nassim Bernaoui, communications director for the Civil Protection department, outlined the details of the emergency response: five children with reduced mobility were successfully pulled from the burning structure by rescue teams, while multiple injured children were rushed to a specialized burn treatment hospital for urgent care.

    The tragedy occurred on a day of national celebration: Algeria’s National Children’s Day. In a statement released from Berlin, where he is currently conducting an official state visit, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune extended his deepest condolences to the families and communities affected by the disaster. “It is with a heart resigned to the will of Allah that I learned of the death of children and the injuries suffered by other children of Algeria following the fire that broke out in a childcare institution,” the president said.

    The fatal orphanage fire comes as Algeria grapples with a widespread heatwave that has fueled nearly 1,000 blazes across the country in recent days, Civil Protection data shows. The extreme heat has created high fire risk conditions across the North African nation, straining emergency response resources as teams work to contain multiple simultaneous blazes.

  • No radiation leak after ‘contamination’ events at Africa’s only nuclear plant, regulator says

    No radiation leak after ‘contamination’ events at Africa’s only nuclear plant, regulator says

    CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Africa’s only operational commercial nuclear power plant, the Koeberg Power Station located off South Africa’s west coast, has been the site of three separate airborne radioactive contamination events in early July, but national regulators have confirmed there is zero risk to the general public and no release of radioactive material into the surrounding environment.

    The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) released a public statement Thursday detailing the nature of the incidents, which took place on June 30, July 2, and July 7 respectively. All three events stemmed from temporary power outages that knocked out ventilation systems during scheduled maintenance work at the facility, leading to elevated levels of airborne radioactive contamination confined within the plant’s controlled boundaries.

    According to the NNR, all contamination was successfully contained within the power station’s secured structures, with no off-site radiological impact detected. Workers who may have encountered elevated radiation levels during the incidents underwent immediate mandatory screenings, and results showed recorded contamination levels were lower than the radiation exposure a patient receives during a routine dental X-ray, well below international safety thresholds.

    Regulators added that the events do not meet international criteria for classification as a nuclear or radiological incident or emergency, though ongoing supplementary inspections are underway to confirm plant safety and identify root causes for the ventilation failures.

    Located approximately 40 kilometers north of Cape Town, South Africa’s second-largest urban center, Koeberg Power Station first entered service in the 1980s. Operated by South Africa’s state-owned national power utility Eskom, the plant’s two reactors contribute roughly 5% of the country’s total electricity generation. Late last year, the facility secured official 20-year life extensions, approving continued operation through the 2040s.

    The three incidents come as South Africa pursues plans to expand its commercial nuclear energy capacity, a move driven by the country’s long-running unreliable coal-reliant energy grid that has struggled to meet the needs of its growing population. For years, South Africa’s energy supply has been dominated by coal-fired power generation, a source that contributes heavily to carbon emissions and has been plagued by persistent maintenance failures and rolling blackouts.

    South Africa is not alone in shifting toward nuclear power to meet rising energy demands and cut carbon emissions. Despite ongoing safety concerns voiced by anti-nuclear activists, who reference historic disasters including the 1986 Chernobyl explosion and the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, a growing number of nations are expanding nuclear development. Across the African continent, multiple countries are advancing their own first commercial nuclear projects: Egypt, for example, is currently constructing its first nuclear power plant featuring four large Russian-built reactors, which the World Nuclear Association projects will come online around 2030 and supply roughly 10% of Egypt’s total electricity needs.

  • Fraud crackdown on Ghana ID cards makes digital checks compulsory – photocopies banned

    Fraud crackdown on Ghana ID cards makes digital checks compulsory – photocopies banned

    Ghana has implemented sweeping new regulations requiring all businesses and public institutions across the country to verify the Ghana Card, the nation’s official biometric national identity document, through a dedicated mobile biometric scanning application, in a major push to strengthen national security and crack down on widespread identity-related fraud.

    Previously, most organizations relied on superficial visual inspections or simple photocopying of the national ID card to record customer or visitor information. This lax verification system created critical loopholes that allowed criminal actors to successfully carry out identity impersonation, enabling fraudulent activities ranging from financial scams to unauthorized access to public and private services.

    Under Ghana’s national identification framework, all citizens and legal foreign residents are required to hold the plastic biometric Ghana Card, which was rolled out progressively over the past 10 years. Today, the document has become an indispensable part of everyday life for Ghanaians: access to banking services, mobile SIM card registration, passport applications, and driver’s license issuance all require a valid Ghana Card.

    The card stores detailed biometric information collected by Ghana’s National Identification Authority (NIA), including all 10 fingerprints, high-resolution iris scans, a portrait photograph, and the cardholder’s official signature. The new regulation replaces the outdated verification process with a mandatory digital check: any entity processing ID-based transactions must now use the official NIA mobile app to scan the card and cross-validate its embedded biometric data against the card’s presented details.

    In an official statement, NIA Chief Wisdom Yayra Koku Deku confirmed that the old practices of photocopying or visually inspecting Ghana Cards for transaction verification are now criminal offenses. “Biometric verification is now mandatory,” Deku emphasized.

    Penalties for non-compliance are strict: organizations that continue to rely on the old verification methods face prosecution and fines as high as 24,000 Ghanaian cedis, equivalent to approximately $2,100 or £1,550. Individual violators will face fines of up to 6,000 Ghanaian cedis, around $525 or £390.

    The NIA has called on all institutions that have not yet completed onboarding to the official digital verification system to begin the registration and integration process immediately. Deku added that the Ghanaian government will host public briefings in the coming days to outline implementation timelines for the amended regulations and outline support measures to help organizations achieve full compliance.

    This report was supplemented with additional on-the-ground reporting by Thomas Naadi in Accra. For more coverage of news across the African continent, visit BBCAfrica.com, and follow BBC Africa on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

  • ‘Moment of joy’ as Uganda discharges last Ebola patient

    ‘Moment of joy’ as Uganda discharges last Ebola patient

    Uganda has reached a critical milestone in its fight against the ongoing regional Ebola outbreak, with the country’s last confirmed active patient discharged from treatment facilities. No confirmed active infections remain across the nation, officials confirmed, triggering a 42-day mandatory waiting period that will end with an official declaration of Ebola-free status if no new cases are documented.

    The outbreak in Uganda traces back to early May, when health authorities confirmed the first case of the Bundibugyo Ebola strain in a patient who crossed into the country from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to seek medical care. The DRC has been the epicenter of the current regional outbreak. Over the course of the response, Uganda recorded a total of 20 confirmed cases, the vast majority of which were travelers crossing from the DRC, with just two fatalities reported.

    In contrast, the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has grown far more severe: official government data from the central African nation shows more than 2,000 confirmed infections and 796 deaths to date. Experts warn the actual caseload is likely far higher, with a World Health Organization official noting earlier this week that the true number of infections could be four times the official recorded figure. The virus is also believed to have circulated undetected in DRC communities for months before the outbreak was formally declared just two months ago, leaving authorities playing catch-up in their response.

    Speaking after the discharge of Uganda’s final patient, Health Minister Dr. Chris Baryomunsi called the milestone a momentous occasion. “It demonstrates that with early detection, prompt treatment and a strong health system, Ebola can be defeated,” he said. Despite the positive development, Uganda’s Ministry of Health has urged the public to maintain caution and remain vigilant against a potential resurgence of the virus. In a public statement posted to X, the ministry advised, “If you develop symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhoea or unexplained bleeding, seek immediate medical care.”

    Uganda has built up robust response protocols over the past two decades, having weathered multiple Ebola outbreaks during that period. Current measures include immediate isolation of suspected cases, comprehensive contact tracing to stop chains of transmission, and widespread public outreach to educate communities on symptom recognition and prevention. From the earliest days of the current outbreak, Uganda activated tightened entry screening and other public health protocols to limit the spread of the virus from the DRC, a strategy that public health experts say has contributed to its successful containment so far.

    As Uganda celebrates its progress, the DRC continues to struggle to bring the outbreak under control. The escalating crisis has prompted new travel restrictions from the United States, which recently announced that all U.S. citizens returning home after visiting the DRC must complete a 21-day quarantine in a third country before being allowed entry into the U.S. Previously, travelers from the DRC were able to enter the U.S. through designated airports after passing through routine health screening.

    This new policy has drawn concern from international aid groups. Franklin Graham, CEO of an organization that operates multiple Ebola treatment centers in the region, told Reuters the restriction could discourage U.S. medical workers from volunteering to respond to the outbreak in affected areas, worsening the already strained public health response.

    Ebola is a viral illness that targets the body’s immune system and organs. The virus is naturally hosted by wild animals, most commonly fruit bats, and zoonotic spillovers to humans typically occur when people handle infected animal carcasses. Once established in human populations, the virus spreads exclusively through direct contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood.

  • DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreading faster than reported: UN

    DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreading faster than reported: UN

    Two months after an Ebola outbreak emerged in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations has issued a stark warning that the epidemic is spreading far more rapidly than official tracking has captured, with its true scale potentially reaching two to four times the size of published case counts.

    As of July 11, official data logged nearly 2,000 confirmed infections and more than 700 deaths across five affected provinces, already ranking this event as the third-largest recorded Ebola epidemic in history and the fastest-growing outbreak the global health community has faced in modern history. Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, confirmed the alarming acceleration following a visit to the outbreak’s epicenter in Bunia, Ituri Province, telling reporters in Geneva that the past month has seen the sharpest single-month case growth of any Ebola outbreak the WHO has ever responded to.

    In recent days, Ihekweazu noted, the outbreak has hit some of its highest single-day infection peaks, with more than 80 new confirmed cases recorded in a single 24-hour window. The most worrying trend, health officials emphasize, is that a large share of new fatalities are occurring in community settings, with patients dying before they can reach formal treatment facilities. Caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola strain – for which no approved vaccines or targeted treatments currently exist – the outbreak has already spread beyond its original Ituri Province epicenter to neighboring Haut-Uele and Tshopo provinces. While roughly 95 percent of cases remain concentrated in Ituri, hidden, untraced transmission chains are driving the epidemic’s expansion.

    WHO epidemiological modeling estimates that the true caseload is vastly undercounted. “You have to imagine that this is a fire. There’s something driving the fire in its heart, and it’s also expanding at the same time,” Ihekweazu said. Even with improvements to diagnostic testing and disease surveillance, roughly 80 percent of new confirmed cases are not linked to already known contact chains, confirming that large portions of transmission remain undetected by response teams.

    The outbreak has also taken a heavy toll on the frontline workforce: the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has confirmed at least 112 infections and 35 deaths among healthcare workers responding to the crisis. For aid organizations operating on the ground, rapidly shifting outbreak dynamics have made containment efforts far more challenging. Frederick Lai Manantsoa, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in DR Congo, explained that persistent insecurity, large-scale population movement and internal displacement have made routine surveillance and contact tracing increasingly difficult. “The success of the response depends on how quickly we can identify suspected cases, isolate them and cut the chain of transmission,” Manantsoa said. “There are several dynamics of the outbreak which make surveillance and contact tracing extremely complex.”

    Despite the grim outlook, global and local health authorities have recorded important progress toward addressing the outbreak. This week marked the launch of new clinical trials focused on developing effective treatments and preventive interventions for the Bundibugyo strain, marking a new phase in the global response. The EBO-PEP platform trial, based in Ituri Province, aims to recruit nearly 1,000 high-risk contacts across DR Congo and neighboring Uganda to test whether antiviral medications can prevent infection after exposure to the virus.

    Africa CDC has pledged $1 million to support the trial, while the governments of DR Congo and South Africa have committed an additional $5 million in combined funding. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the trial a potential turning point for Ebola response, noting that the research could create a “game-changing approach” for preventing infection among exposed people and improve global capacity to bring future outbreaks under control quickly.

  • Eleven people die in fire at Algerian foster care home

    Eleven people die in fire at Algerian foster care home

    A devastating fire that broke out at a foster care facility in central Algiers, the capital city of Algeria, has claimed 11 lives and left 19 others hurt, according to the country’s General Directorate for Civil Protection. As of 6:50 a.m. local time on Thursday morning – which translates to 5:50 a.m. GMT – emergency response teams and firefighters were still on site working to fully extinguish the blaze and secure the area.

    In an official statement released Thursday, the civil protection department confirmed that five people with special needs were successfully evacuated from the burning structure and moved to a secure location, where they are now receiving care. At the time of this report, local authorities have not released further details about the age ranges of the deceased or injured, nor have they shared preliminary information about the possible cause of the fire.

    This is an active, developing breaking news story. Additional updates will be published as more official information becomes available to the public. For more coverage of news across the African continent, audiences can visit BBCAfrica.com, and follow BBC Africa’s social media channels on Twitter at @BBCAfrica, Facebook at BBC Africa, and Instagram at bbcafrica.

  • New monkey species with orange lips found ‘hiding’ in DRC forest

    New monkey species with orange lips found ‘hiding’ in DRC forest

    Deep in the dense tropical tree canopy of central eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lomami National Park, an elusive, black-furred monkey with eye-catching pinkish-orange lips has been formally confirmed as a species new to global science. Only the fifth new African monkey species identified in the last 75 years, this discovery marks a major milestone for primate research and highlights the unstudied biodiversity remaining in one of the world’s most intact tropical forest ecosystems.

    Local communities have long recognized the shy primate, calling it ‘Likweli’, but it took nearly 15 years of collaborative work between researchers from the DRC, the United States, and Germany to formally confirm it as a genetically distinct species. Conservation teams working in the park first documented an unusual primate matching Likweli’s description back in 2008, but only captured one low-resolution, blurry photograph that was insufficient for formal classification. A second confirmed sighting a decade later gave the international research team the opening they needed to launch a targeted study, combining field observations, audio recording of the monkey’s distinctive calls, high-resolution photography, and in-depth genetic analysis to prove the species was previously unknown to science.

    Junior Amboko, a PhD candidate at Florida Atlantic University who led the field work for the project, described the moment of seeing the little-known primate clearly as an ‘amazing feeling’. Unlike many new species discoveries that find entirely unknown organisms in remote regions, this confirmation formalizes what local people already knew, but it fills a major gap in scientific understanding of African primate evolution.

    Formally named *Colobus congoensis* by the research team, to honor the DRC’s extraordinary natural biodiversity, the new primate belongs to the colobus monkey group, a set of distinctive African primates defined by their lack of thumbs. As canopy-dwelling herbivores, these monkeys play a critical ecological role: they process tree seeds and support forest regeneration through their feeding habits, making them key to maintaining the health of the tropical forest ecosystem.

    Lead researcher Professor Kate Detwiler, also of Florida Atlantic University, notes that the species’ unique bright pink-orange facial markings likely serve an important social function, acting as a visual signal to help individual monkeys identify one another or attract potential mates. Like many canopy primates, *Colobus congoensis* is more often heard than seen: it produces a distinctive, resonant roaring call that allows researchers to detect its presence, even when the shy animals remain hidden high in the treetops.

    Field interviews with 52 local villages near the monkey’s range illustrate just how elusive the species is: only residents of eight villages reported ever having seen a Likweli monkey. Researchers currently believe the new species is rare, with a limited range restricted to a specific section of forest that provides the specialized habitat and food sources it requires. The species is also at risk from subsistence hunting for bushmeat, so the formal classification as a distinct species is a critical first step toward securing official protected status for the population.

    The research team’s findings were published this week in the peer-reviewed journal *PLoS One*. Much remains unknown about this secretive new primate, and the team plans to conduct follow-up surveys to estimate the total population size and observe the species’ social and feeding behavior in its natural habitat.

  • Zambia’s Guy Scott, who was Africa’s first white head of state in decades, has died at 82

    Zambia’s Guy Scott, who was Africa’s first white head of state in decades, has died at 82

    Zambian government has confirmed the passing of veteran politician Guy Scott, who made history as Africa’s first white head of state in over 20 years during his three-month tenure as acting president. He was 82 years old at the time of his death.

    Scott breathed his last on Wednesday at his personal farm located in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, according to an official statement released by the administration. Current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has granted Scott the honor of a state funeral, though organizers have not yet finalized and announced a formal date for the memorial service.

    Born to European parents with Scottish and English ancestry, Scott built a decades-long political career in Zambia following the southern African nation’s independence from British colonial rule in 1964. He first won a seat in Zambia’s National Parliament in 1991, marking the start of his years in public service. He later took on the role of Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, where he focused on policy related to the country’s key agricultural sector, before being appointed vice president in 2011. That appointment made him the first white politician to hold the vice presidency in Zambia’s post-independence history.

    Scott stepped into the acting presidency in 2014, following the sudden death of sitting president Michael Sata while he was still in office. Over the subsequent three months, Scott served as interim head of state, a role that carved out his unique place in African political history. Before Scott, the last white head of state to hold office on the continent was F.W. de Klerk, the final South African leader under the apartheid system. De Klerk left office in 1994 after South Africa’s first multiracial democratic election, which brought anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela to power, meaning 20 years passed between de Klerk’s exit and Scott taking the interim presidency.