Global Pulse

标签： Africa

非洲

  • UN votes to adopt new world map showing Africa’s true size

    UN votes to adopt new world map showing Africa’s true size

    In a landmark vote that addresses centuries of geographic bias in global mapping, the United Nations General Assembly has backed a plan to replace the ubiquitous but deeply flawed Mercator projection with a more geographically accurate map that properly reflects Africa’s true scale. The initiative, dubbed the “Correct the Map” resolution, was introduced by the West African nation of Togo and earned unified support from the 55-member African Union ahead of the vote. When the final tally was counted, 164 member states had thrown their support behind the measure, with major European powers France and the United Kingdom among the backers. The United States stood alone as the only country to vote against the resolution, while six other nations abstained from the vote.

    For more than 450 years, the Mercator projection has dominated classroom walls, atlases, and popular world maps across the globe. Created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, the projection was originally designed to aid European mariners in navigating transoceanic trade routes and exploration voyages. Its enduring popularity stems from its unique ability to preserve straight lines of constant compass bearing, a feature that made it invaluable for 16th-century navigation. However, the projection carries a well-documented flaw: an unavoidable distortion inherent to flattening a three-dimensional spherical globe onto a two-dimensional plane. To preserve the straight-line navigation property, Mercator’s design systematically inflates the size of landmasses near the poles while drastically shrinking the apparent area of continents and countries near the equator.

    The most striking distortion of the projection shrinks Africa to such an extent that it appears roughly the same size as Greenland on most Mercator maps, even though Africa’s actual land area is 14 times larger than the Arctic island. Proponents of the change have long argued that this persistent misrepresentation is not just a trivial geographic error, but a distortion of global perceptions that undermines recognition of Africa’s geopolitical importance, economic potential, and development needs. By systematically minimizing the continent’s size on maps, critics argue, the Mercator projection has contributed to a longstanding underappreciation of Africa’s role in global affairs and the scale of challenges and opportunities it faces.

    The solution adopted by the UN and African Union is the Equal Earth projection, a modern equal-area map created by a team of independent cartographers in 2018. Unlike the Mercator projection, which prioritizes navigation shape over area accuracy, the Equal Earth projection preserves the proportional size of all landmasses across the globe, ensuring that Africa, South America, and other equatorial regions appear at their true size relative to northern landmasses such as Europe and North America. In February of this year, all 54 African Union member states formally adopted the Equal Earth projection, citing its ability to fairly represent all continents while retaining the visual clarity needed for general use.

    Speaking ahead of Friday’s General Assembly vote, Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey framed the initiative as a matter of global equity. “A fair world begins with a fair map,” Dussey told Reuters news agency. In an earlier briefing to UN delegates, he expanded on this reasoning, noting that maps are never neutral political or cultural objects. “A map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood,” Dussey explained.

    While the non-binding resolution does not legally require all UN member states to alter their official maps, policy analysts and cartographers expect it to drive widespread changes to mapping standards across international institutions, educational systems, and global publications in the coming years. The vote marks a historic step toward addressing long-standing geographic bias that has shaped popular understanding of the world for centuries.

  • At least 37 killed by toxic fumes during alleged petrol theft in Nigeria, reports say

    At least 37 killed by toxic fumes during alleged petrol theft in Nigeria, reports say

    A deadly incident in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern region has left at least 37 people dead after they inhaled toxic fumes while siphoning fuel from an illegal pipeline tapping operation in Rivers State, according to the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), a local environmental and community advocacy group.

    YEAC reports that more than 100 people arrived at Okari Jetty in Okrika under the cover of darkness aboard small vessels to collect the stolen refined fuel, and dozens remain unaccounted for following the disaster. Local eyewitness accounts confirm that many victims collapsed after exposure to the toxic fumes, with some falling into the adjacent Bonny River and others rushed to nearby medical facilities for emergency care. Nigeria’s police force confirmed to the BBC that a formal investigation is currently underway to confirm the exact number of casualties and establish a full timeline of the incident.

    Illegal oil theft and pipeline tapping have plagued the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s core oil production hub, for decades. Rivers State is one of several key producing states that make up the vast coastal Niger Delta region, a landscape of mangrove swamps and wetlands that holds the bulk of Nigeria’s massive oil and natural gas reserves. For generations, criminal networks have illegally tapped into operational pipelines to siphon crude oil and refined petroleum products, which are then either sold directly on the black market or processed at unregulated illegal refineries across the region.

    YEAC confirmed that the fatal incident involved exposure to what local communities call “Indorama fuel”, a grade of refined Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the standard gasoline used for road vehicles across Nigeria. Nigeria’s Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has issued a public statement urging both media outlets and local residents to only rely on officially verified information as security agencies work to piece together the details of the early Thursday morning incident. The NSCDC also reiterated its longstanding condemnation of illegal pipeline tapping and oil siphoning, warning that these criminal activities pose severe, ongoing threats to human life, local ecosystems, and Nigeria’s already fragile national economy. Environmental campaigners have long echoed this warning, noting that rampant oil theft and illegal refining are responsible for widespread, long-lasting ecological damage across the Niger Delta, destroying fishing grounds and contaminating drinking water supplies for local communities.

    In recent years, Nigeria’s federal government has ramped up security operations targeting illegal oil theft networks across the region. Speaking on Thursday to Nigerian broadcaster Channels TV, Captain Abiodun Folorunsho, director of naval information, issued a stark warning to oil thieves: that there is no safe hiding place for criminal actors across the Niger Delta’s waterways and coastal areas, which are continuously patrolled by the Nigerian Navy. “Their days are numbered, and if we catch you, of course, we’ll ensure that you face the law,” Folorunsho said.

    Alongside expanded Nigerian Navy maritime patrols, the Nigerian military and other security agencies have carried out repeated raids on illegal oil theft operations and refineries, where criminal groups often exploit the region’s dense, remote mangrove forests to avoid detection.

    The crackdown on oil theft comes as Nigeria works to reverse years of declining production caused by rampant theft, widespread insecurity, and chronic underinvestment in the country’s oil sector. The government has set an ambitious target to boost national oil production to roughly three million barrels per day by 2030, a goal that relies heavily on improved security in the Niger Delta and broad regulatory reforms to attract much-needed foreign direct investment to the sector.

  • Tunisia’s top court upholds opposition convictions in a state security case

    Tunisia’s top court upholds opposition convictions in a state security case

    TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisia’s highest judicial body, the Court of Cassation, has delivered a final ruling upholding long prison sentences for dozens of high-profile opposition leaders, legal practitioners and human rights advocates convicted in a widely divisive state security conspiracy case, according to judicial sources cited by Tunisia’s state-run news agency TAP Thursday evening. The court rejected all appeals filed by the defendants, leaving intact sentences of up to 45 years originally issued by a lower appellate court in 2023. This verdict has amplified already widespread international scrutiny of President Kais Saied’s administration, deepening alarms over the erosion of judicial independence and political pluralism in the North African nation. The conspiracy case stands as a central pillar of a sweeping government crackdown that has unfolded since Saied seized nearly unchecked executive power in July 2021, when he moved to suspend parliament, dismiss the sitting prime minister’s cabinet, and rule the country via presidential decree. The charges brought against the defendants include conspiracy against the state’s internal and external security, membership in a terrorist organization, and plotting to alter the country’s system of governance — all allegations that the accused have consistently and vehemently denied, with their legal teams repeatedly challenging the legitimacy of the judicial process. Speaking at a Friday press conference, Faiza Rahem, wife of detained opposition activist Issam Chebbi, announced that families of the convicts would shift their legal fight into a broader political movement following the top court’s ruling. “After four years of ongoing harassment and persecution, we will not stop our work to defend the detainees. We will never grow tired or surrender,” Rahem stated. She added that the government’s repressive tactics have only hardened the opposition’s commitment: “As authoritarianism has grown more brutal, our ranks have grown, too. Every time they try to silence our voices, we only speak louder.” Saied has publicly backed the convictions, framing the prosecutions as a critical measure to safeguard Tunisia’s national security and hold what he calls enemies of the state accountable. He has previously labeled his political opponents “traitors” and “terrorists,” claiming the defendants in this case plotted to destabilize the country and incite widespread social unrest. Elected to the presidency in 2019 on a populist platform promising to dismantle Tunisia’s corrupt, dysfunctional post-Arab Spring political system, Saied has repeatedly rejected accusations that he is engineering a full authoritarian takeover to suppress all dissent. He maintains his sweeping executive actions are necessary to root out systemic corruption and shield Tunisia from foreign interference. Defense lawyers for the convicted individuals have already raised sharp objections to the handling of the appeal process, noting they received just three days’ advance notice of Thursday’s final hearing. The extremely short timeline, they argue, deprived them of adequate time to prepare a robust defense for their clients. The list of high-profile figures handed lengthy sentences includes veteran opposition leader Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, prominent activist Chaima Issa, and seasoned politicians Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, Ghazi Chaouachi, Ayachi Hammami, Khayam Turki and Abdelhamid Jelassi. A number of the defendants spent multiple years in pretrial detention before their convictions, while others who were released on bail during the lengthy appeals process have now been rearrested to begin serving their sentences after this final ruling. Global human rights organizations have harshly condemned the convictions. Amnesty International had publicly urged the Court of Cassation to overturn the guilty verdicts ahead of the ruling, describing the entire case as blatantly politically motivated and noting the trial was plagued by repeated violations of due process and basic legal rights. The organization has also raised urgent alarms over poor prison conditions for the detained opposition figures, warning that many convicts are already suffering from declining health, conditions that have been severely exacerbated by recent repeated heat waves in overcrowded, poorly ventilated prison facilities. In August, Haifa Chebbi, a lawyer and the daughter of 82-year-old Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, shared that her father, one of the most high-profile detainees, was experiencing severe shortness of breath and chronic extreme fatigue, with prison officials only providing minimal monitoring of his fragile health condition.

  • Charlton’s Sichenje out for season with knee injury

    Charlton’s Sichenje out for season with knee injury

    A major injury blow has hit Charlton Athletic ahead of the 2026-27 campaign, with young defender Collins Sichenje set to miss the rest of the season after sustaining a serious knee injury. The 22-year-old Kenyan, who joined the League side from Serbian top-flight club Vojvodina back in February 2026, picked up the injury during the Addicks’ Carabao Cup matchup against Premier League giant Tottenham Hotspur.

    Since the injury occurred, Sichenje has gone through a surgical procedure to address the damage to his knee. Confirming the disappointing update on Wednesday, Addicks manager Nathan Jones shared the club’s statement via the official team website, acknowledging the harsh setback for the young centre-back.

    “It’s a tough injury for Collins and everyone at the club,” Jones said. “He underwent surgery this week, which went well, but he’ll be out for an extended period. Our thoughts are with him, and we’ll be supporting him every step of the way during his recovery. He’s a resilient character and we know he’ll come back stronger.”

    Since arriving at The Valley in the winter transfer window, Sichenje has made 10 senior appearances for Charlton Athletic, establishing himself as a promising young prospect for the club’s future. Fans and club staff alike have already shared messages of support for the defender as he begins what is expected to be a lengthy rehabilitation process.

  • Kenya’s Ruto orders Indian company Tata Chemicals to leave the country

    Kenya’s Ruto orders Indian company Tata Chemicals to leave the country

    In a bold announcement delivered at a public rally Thursday, Kenyan President William Ruto has ordered Indian industrial firm Tata Chemicals to end its decades-long operations in the country, accusing the company of failing to deliver tangible economic benefits to one of Kenya’s key natural resource export sectors.

    Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited, the firm’s local subsidiary, has held rights to extract and process soda ash from Kenya’s Lake Magadi since 2005. Soda ash, a critical raw material used in manufacturing glass, soaps and detergents, is derived from trona deposits found naturally in the lake, where large-scale commercial extraction of the mineral first launched more than a century ago, in 1911. Official Kenyan government data shows that between August 2024 and July 2025, soda ash exports from the country totaled 254,779 tons, with a combined market value of $56.9 million, marking the sector as a notable contributor to Kenya’s export revenue.

    But President Ruto has rejected the company’s argument of its contribution to the national economy, arguing that Tata Chemicals has extracted billions of dollars worth of Kenyan natural resources for decades without delivering on local development commitments. Ruto specifically emphasized that the firm has failed to make meaningful infrastructure or industrial investments in Kajiado County, the administrative region that hosts Lake Magadi. “They have not built any factory or employed people [locally],” Ruto told attendees of the rally, adding that “they have been taking our resources and shipping them to India.” Under the president’s order, Tata Chemicals must “pack and leave” to clear the way for a new investor that will be required to build a domestic glass manufacturing facility to create local jobs and add value to Kenya’s natural resource exports before they are shipped overseas.

    The national government first paused the company’s operations back in July, when the Kenyan Ministry of Mining suspended all activities pending a broad compliance review. The president’s order comes as the review is still ongoing, and the development raises immediate concerns over potential economic fallout: industry analysts warn that an abrupt exit by Tata Chemicals could lead to widespread layoffs for local workers and a significant short-term drop in national export revenue before a new operator can fully ramp up operations.

    In an official statement filed with the National Stock Exchange of India on Friday, Tata Chemicals pushed back against the Kenyan government’s claims, asserting that it remains “fully compliant” with all local regulatory requirements. The company noted that it has not yet received formal official notification of Ruto’s exit order, and said it remains committed to “constructive engagement” with the Kenyan government to resolve the ongoing dispute over its operations.

  • Civil rights groups urge a halt to South Africa data centers boom amid water and power fears

    Civil rights groups urge a halt to South Africa data centers boom amid water and power fears

    As South Africa emerges as the leading digital infrastructure hub on the African continent, attracting billions in investment from major U.S. tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft, and Equinix, a growing coalition of civil society and human rights organizations is pushing for a moratorium on new data center projects until a full, transparent audit of their strain on the country’s limited water, energy, and land resources can be completed.

    President Cyril Ramaphosa has framed South Africa’s existing market dominance — which already holds 70% of the entire continent’s data center capacity — as a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity in the fast-growing global digital economy, and the national government has actively courted foreign tech firms to expand their footprint in the country. But as the sector explodes in growth, just as it has in the United States and other major markets, questions about unregulated expansion and its long-term social and environmental costs have moved to the forefront of public debate.

    The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), the country’s independent national rights watchdog, opened a public call for input on data center development this past May, and has already received more than 250 submissions from community groups, environmental activists, and other concerned stakeholders. Dr. Eileen Carter, who leads the SAHRC’s preliminary inquiry into the sector, highlighted that a core barrier to accountable development is the complete lack of accessible, consistent, and transparent data on critical metrics: how much electricity and water each facility will consume, how land will be allocated, what environmental risks the projects pose, and how they will impact nearby residential communities.

    One high-profile project that has drawn particular backlash is Equinix’s planned hyperscale data center in Cape Town, a metro region that still carries vivid public memory of the 2018 Day Zero water crisis, when authorities warned the city could run out of municipal water entirely. Beyond water concerns, activists have raised alarm over the facility’s projected 160-megawatt power demand, coming just years after the country faced crippling, rolling nationwide blackouts known locally as loadshedding that disrupted daily life and economic activity for millions.

    While national power utility Eskom has recently reported a temporary power surplus during this year’s winter peak demand season, civil society groups remain skeptical that excess capacity should be prioritized for data center operations, rather than directed toward households and small businesses that bore the brunt of years of power shortages.

    Industry representatives have pushed back against calls for a construction moratorium, arguing that critics often misjudge the resource footprint of South African facilities. Sasha Booth-Beharilal, chair of the Internet Service Providers Association, which represents local and foreign tech firms operating data centers in the country, claimed that data center growth does not contribute to energy scarcity or drive increases in household electricity tariffs. Booth-Beharilal also noted that modern South African facilities use cutting-edge efficiency technology to cut water use to levels well below the global average, and many operators are increasingly shifting to renewable energy sources to power their operations. Operators also add that South African data centers have far smaller resource requirements than the massive hyperscale facilities common in the U.S., making direct comparisons misleading.

    Still, many policy experts side with civil society, framing the call for a temporary halt not as anti-investment, but as a necessary step to build long-term regulatory clarity that benefits all stakeholders. Pitso Tsibolane, a senior lecturer in Information Systems at the University of Cape Town, explained that clear, binding regulations do not discourage serious foreign investors — instead, it is unregulated expansion and the uncertainty it creates that undermines market confidence. Currently, Tsibolane noted, data center operators are not required to disclose binding, verifiable figures for their water, energy, and land use ahead of approval, meaning municipal and national regulators evaluate project proposals without the critical data needed to make informed decisions that serve the public good.

  • Denmark says it hopes to start deporting migrants to non-EU ‘return hubs’ as early as next year

    Denmark says it hopes to start deporting migrants to non-EU ‘return hubs’ as early as next year

    Five leading European nations are pushing forward with a controversial plan to establish external asylum processing and deportation hubs outside the European Union, with Denmark confirming it aims to launch the first non-European facilities as early as 2027. The high-stakes meeting, hosted by Copenhagen this Friday, brought together migration and foreign policy leaders from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Greece to coordinate progress on the initiative, which received formal approval from EU legislators back in June.

    Under the new EU framework, individual member states or small coalitions are permitted to negotiate bilateral or collective agreements with third countries to host rejected asylum seekers, rather than deporting migrants directly back to their countries of origin. The policy, often referred to as ‘return hubs,’ represents a major shift in how the bloc approaches irregular migration, shifting processing and detention infrastructure outside the EU’s 27-nation border.

    Opening the summit, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen framed the plan as a pragmatic response to a shared policy challenge, arguing that the bloc cannot allow individuals without legal residency status to remain in European countries indefinitely. He added that the initiative also includes a cooperative component, noting that partner third countries would offer irregular migrants a second chance to build new lives outside the EU. The five-nation coalition has already been in active negotiations with several national governments, most of them located across Africa, to secure host agreements for the facilities, acting as pioneers for the broader EU-wide adoption of the model.

    Denmark’s Immigration and Integration Minister Morten Bødskov shared a concrete timeline for the plan in an interview with Danish public broadcaster DR, published ahead of the summit. Bødskov confirmed that negotiations with potential third-country hosts have entered a critical phase, with the goal of having fully operational return hubs up and running by 2027. Austrian asylum and migration minister Bart van den Brink echoed this urgency, telling reporters in Copenhagen that Friday’s meeting marks the next key step toward delivering the offshore facilities in the coming years.

    The plan has already drawn interest from potential host nations: in early August, a Rwandan government spokesperson told local media that negotiating to host the facilities would be a natural step, adding that Rwanda is open to hosting rejected asylum seekers who cannot settle in other countries.

    However, the initiative has faced widespread condemnation from global and regional human rights groups, which warn that offshoring migration control creates unacceptable risks for the rights of detained asylum seekers. Critics point out that external facilities would be far harder for international monitors to access, creating gaps in oversight that could lead to abuse.

    Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, argued that vague promises of compliance with international human rights law are insufficient to protect vulnerable people. ‘States need to commit to the guardrails necessary to prevent setting up human rights black holes,’ he said in an emailed statement.

    Brussels-based migration rights organization PICUM also condemned the Copenhagen meeting, with director Michele LeVoy rejecting framing the plan as an innovative solution to migration pressures. ‘Outsourcing migration control is an old tactic to simply move people out of sight and evade human rights obligations,’ LeVoy said. Contributions to this report came from Associated Press journalists Philipp Jenne in Vienna and Sam McNeil in Brussels.

  • Body of world’s youngest traditional king returns home to Uganda amid succession row

    Body of world’s youngest traditional king returns home to Uganda amid succession row

    The repatriation of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV’s remains to Uganda has kicked off an official nine-day period of national and royal mourning, while also sparking an unprecedented public dispute over who will succeed the beloved traditional ruler. Aged 34, the 13th monarch of the Tooro Kingdom passed away last week in the United States while receiving treatment for an aggressive form of cancer, cutting short a decades-long reign that captured global attention from its very start.

    King Oyo made history in 1995 when he ascended the Tooro throne at just 3 years old following the death of his father, earning a place in the Guinness World Records as the world’s youngest reigning monarch. He was formally crowned when he turned 18 in 2010, and grew into a progressive leader who ruled over more than two million people in the Tooro Kingdom, a culturally significant traditional institution based in western Uganda that retains strong cultural influence despite holding no formal political power in the country’s elected constitutional system.

    On the day his remains touched down at Entebbe International Airport, top Ugandan political leaders including President Yoweri Museveni joined hundreds of royal mourners to pay their respects. After a short formal welcome ceremony at the airport, President Museveni laid a wreath on the king’s sealed coffin. The remains were then airlifted via military helicopter to Kyegegwa in western Uganda, before being transported by road to the Karuziika Royal Palace in Fort Portal, where Oyo’s body will lie in state for the full mourning period. Members of the public are welcome to visit the palace to pay their respects, with evening prayer services scheduled each night through the funeral.

    Across the country, tributes have poured in for the king, who was widely praised for his modernizing leadership and public advocacy. Uganda’s parliament held a special commemorative session last Thursday, where lawmakers from both the ruling party and opposition celebrated his work advancing access to education, expanding public health access, and creating economic opportunities for young Ugandans. Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja remembered him as a unifying national figure who led critical public awareness campaigns on HIV and AIDS for youth. Acting opposition leader Patrick Nsamba Oshabe echoed these sentiments, noting that King Oyo had successfully balanced respect for centuries-old cultural heritage with a commitment to national progress and development.

    In a mark of national respect, President Museveni has granted King Oyo an official state burial, and has ordered all national flags to fly at half-mast for three days leading up to the funeral. The service is scheduled for next Saturday, September 13 – the same date King Oyo had originally planned to mark the annual Empango celebration of his coronation, a dream he held until his final days. Tooro Kingdom Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki revealed that the monarch had asked officials to conceal the severity of his illness, as he remained confident he would recover and return home to mark the occasion with his people.

    As the nation mourns, a growing public rift over succession has cast uncertainty over the future of the Tooro monarchy. Because King Oyo was never officially married, there had been no publicly named heir until Akiiki announced last week that the late king did leave behind a young son, whose identity will be revealed at a later date in line with traditional Tooro customs. President Museveni also confirmed that Oyo’s mother, Queen Best Kemigisa, had told him the king had an heir.

    However, the head of the Babiito royal clan – the hereditary clan from which all Tooro kings are drawn – has publicly stated he has no knowledge of any such child. Other senior clan members have echoed the skepticism, questioning how the royal family could be kept unaware of an heir while the kingdom’s prime minister claimed knowledge of the child. “The prime minister is not supposed to talk about the king’s heir. It is a cultural process,” one anonymous senior clan member told Uganda’s state-owned New Vision newspaper. “How can we, blood relatives, not know of the child, and the prime minister says he knows? That is totally out of order.”

    Akiiki has since called for the dispute to be resolved privately out of respect for the mourning period, warning that inflammatory words spoken in grief could deepen divisions that would take generations to repair. The Ugandan national government has also stepped in to urge calm, calling on the public and cultural leaders to avoid spreading unfounded speculation on social media. Culture Minister Henry Tumukunde noted that the entire world is watching Uganda as it mourns King Oyo, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and respect. He added that any succession disputes will be resolved in accordance with Uganda’s existing laws governing traditional and cultural leaders.

    In line with longstanding Tooro tradition, King Oyo’s funeral will follow strict ceremonial customs. A church service will be held at a local congregation ahead of the burial, before a traditional royal procession carries his remains to the Karambi Royal Tombs. All burial rites must be completed by 2 p.m. local time, as tradition forbids burying Tooro monarchs after sundown.

  • Dozens die in Nigeria oil theft attempt after inhaling toxic fumes

    Dozens die in Nigeria oil theft attempt after inhaling toxic fumes

    Nigeria’s volatile oil-rich Niger Delta region has been marked by another fatal incident tied to rampant illegal crude siphoning, with at least 37 people confirmed dead after a botched oil theft operation in Rivers State, a local environmental and youth advocacy group announced Friday.

    According to the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Center, the tragedy unfolded Thursday when a group of people gathered to siphon crude oil from a commercial loading vessel via an illegal tapping point, transferring the stolen product into their small private boats. The operation went awry when the crude was released at high pressure, releasing concentrated toxic fumes that the entire group inhaled almost simultaneously. Beyond the 37 confirmed fatalities, a volunteer network tracking the incident reports that a number of other participants remain unaccounted for, leaving open the possibility that the death toll could rise further.

    Nigeria’s national police forces have officially confirmed the incident, though state authorities have not released an independent casualty count as of Friday. State police spokesperson Blessing Agabe confirmed in a statement that the deaths are tied to an attempted crude theft operation, noting that a formal investigation into the exact circumstances of the tragedy is currently underway.

    Illegal oil theft has long been an endemic issue in the Niger Delta, the core oil-producing region of Africa’s largest petroleum producer. Decades of large-scale commercial oil exploration have left the area grappling with two overlapping crises: widespread systemic poverty that pushes many local residents toward illegal activity to survive, and severe, long-lasting environmental degradation from frequent oil spills and unregulated extraction. The Nigerian federal government has repeatedly highlighted the severe economic cost of the practice, estimating that annual losses from stolen crude reach into the billions of U.S. dollars. In recent years, authorities have ramped up enforcement efforts to crack down on illegal tapping and theft operations across the region, though the persistent poverty and lack of alternative economic opportunities have kept the practice widespread.

  • Liverpool target Minteh can still get dream move – Hurzeler

    Liverpool target Minteh can still get dream move – Hurzeler

    The 2025 summer Premier League transfer window has closed with one of its most high-profile sagas ending in a standstill, as Brighton & Hove Albion held firm on their valuation of young Gambian winger Yankuba Minteh, turning down two successive bids from Liverpool totalling up to £60 million. The outcome has left the future of the 22-year-old wide player unresolved, but Brighton’s young head coach Fabian Hurzeler has left the door open for a potential future move if Minteh continues his upward trajectory at the AMEX Stadium.

    Liverpool, under manager Andoni Iraola, had identified Minteh as a key target to strengthen their attacking options ahead of the new season, tabled an initial £50 million offer before upping their proposal to £60 million. Both bids were firmly rejected by Brighton, who are understood to value the pacey right winger at a figure closer to £70 million. Minteh only joined the Seagulls 12 months prior to this transfer window, arriving from Newcastle United in 2024 for a £30 million fee. Since his move to the south coast, he has established himself as a fan favorite and key first-team contributor, notching 10 goals and nine assists across 73 appearances for the club.

    Speaking ahead of Brighton’s opening Premier League fixture of the new season against Leeds United, Hurzeler made clear that while Minteh had been the subject of major transfer interest, the winger remains fully committed to the club’s project for the coming campaign. “He wears the Brighton colours, he wears the Brighton badge. He has been with us for two years now as part of the squad, he has achieved great things together with the boys,” the German head coach told reporters. “It’s also about him now to commit. In the end, we always say we want to be successful as a club, and then you can shine as individuals. That is what we have proved in the past. If we achieve things together, the attention will come to the individual players, and that will be the case also this season.”

    Hurzeler added that Minteh’s dream of a big-money move to a top club could still come to fruition down the line if both he and the club continue to deliver results. “If the whole team is successful and the individual shines then Yankuba will get a lot of attention again and he can then maybe fulfil his dream in the next transfer window,” Hurzeler said.

    While Minteh’s departure fell through, Brighton still pulled off a successful summer window in terms of transfer balancing, generating significant revenue from other player sales to reinvest in new talent. Their biggest outgoing saw highly rated central midfielder Carlos Baleba complete a £70 million move to Manchester United, opening up a spot in Brighton’s midfield that the club moved to fill on deadline day with the signing of 21-year-old Spanish defensive midfielder Chema Andres from Bundesliga side Stuttgart for a fee of £15.5 million.

    Andres’ career path has been rapid: a product of Real Madrid’s famed youth academy, he made his La Liga debut for the Spanish giants in January 2025 before moving to Stuttgart that same summer. In his single season in the German top flight, he made 41 first-team appearances and helped Stuttgart secure a top-four finish and qualification for the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League. His dominant performances in front of the defence earned him comparisons to Manchester City and Spain superstar Rodri, with fans and pundits dubbing the young Spaniard “baby Rodri”.

    Hurzeler says he understands the comparison, but stressed that Andres still has room to develop into the elite level midfielder many expect him to become. “He has this motivation of wanting to improve every day,” Hurzeler said of his new signing. “He comes on the first day and wants to go outside on the pitch, he wants to have ball touches and you can really feel that he is very ambitious. Therefore, I can understand this comparison [with Rodri] but he has a long way to go and hopefully he can get there one day. It would be a big one for us but also for the whole football world.”

    The summer 2005 transfer window marked the second consecutive season that the Premier League broke its all-time total spending record, capping a busy period of movement across the top flight that saw Brighton reinforce their reputation as one of the league’s shrewdest operators in the transfer market.