A South Korean appellate court increased the sentence of former president Yoon Suk-yeol for obstruction of justice and other charges related to his 2024 martial law declaration to seven years. The punishment, two years more than the first ruling, was handed down by the Seoul High Court in a live broadcast on Wednesday. Yoon was sentenced on Jan 16 to five years in prison for abusing the presidential security service to hinder the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials, or CIO, from executing its arrest warrant in January 2025. “The degree of illegality is severe,” said Judge Yoon Sung-sik of…
Author: Special Correspondent
People streamed into the central square of Slavutych in the early hours of Sunday, placing candles on a large radiation hazard symbol laid out on the ground as a midnight commemoration began for those killed in the Chernobyl disaster 40 years ago and the thousands who risked deadly radiation exposure to contain its aftermath. Residents show up for the vigil each year to commemorate the April 26, 1986, disaster. That day, Reactor No 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine exploded, releasing more than 8 tons of highly radioactive material. Over 60,000 square…
By Dr Samuel Ndogo In this article, I offer a comparative analysis of two towering figures in Kenya’s intellectual and political history: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Raila Amolo Odinga. My reflections are shaped by years of engagement with Ngũgĩ’s works as a literary scholar and teacher, as well as my research interests in good governance and democratic movements across Africa. Ngũgĩ, the novelist and cultural theorist, and Raila, the politician and activist, stand as parallel embodiments of resistance—each confronting authoritarianism in their own sphere, one through the pen and the other through the podium. This exploration is not merely biographical;…
South African opposition politician Julius Malema, 45, has been sentenced to five years after being found guilty of the illegal possession of a gun and firing it in public. Malema’s lawyer immediately appealed against the decision to prevent the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters and member of parliament from being taken to prison. Standing in the East London court in a dark suit and red tie, Malema showed little emotion as Magistrate Twanet Olivier read out the sentence. Last year, he was convicted of five offences, including the unlawful possession of a firearm, discharging it in a public space…
US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the US Navy would begin blocking ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz, after peace talks with Iran failed to produce a deal. “Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” Trump continued, adding that “no one…
Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh has won an election with 97.8% of the vote, keeping him at the helm of the strategically-placed Horn of Africa nation for a sixth term, preliminary official results show. The 78-year-old’s sole challenger Mohamed Farah Samatar got 2.19% of the vote, in a poll boycotted by most of the opposition. In power for 27 years, Guelleh had promised to step down, but ran for re-election after the constitution was amended in November to remove the upper age limit of 75 for presidential candidates. Guelleh’s campaign focused on the fact that he had maintained stability in…
For all their swagger, intimidating appearance and reputation for extreme violence, the Africa Corps have not been noticeably effective in securing the regions they have been paid to secure Africa Corps’ predecessor, the infamous Wagner Group, from which it evolved in 2023, was under the personal control of its chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin. He ran it as a marauding militia that remained at arms-length from the Kremlin but ultimately followed Putin’s orders from afar. Wagner Group primarily provided ‘security’ and military training and, in return, received benefits such as access to minerals. That was until Prigozhin fell foul of Putin. Soon…
By Martin Minns In 2018, a scandal erupted when the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that servers in the China-built African Union (AU) Conference Centre and Office Complex (AUCC) in Addis Ababa were transferring data to servers in Shanghai. It was alleged that this had been occurring nightly since the AUCC’s inauguration in 2012. Although Le Monde cited multiple sources, China reacted quickly, denying the allegations and rejecting the evidence. This style of Chinese surveillance was characterised as a ‘Trojan Horse’ approach. The incident gave voice to a concern already quietly held by many officials in Africa about the potential…
Autopsy examinations on 33 bodies exhumed from a suspected mass grave in Kericho County have been delayed after the county mortuary cited a lack of resources and capacity to process such an unusually large number of remains at once. The bodies, believed to include 25 children and 8 adults, were uncovered at Makaburini Cemetery earlier this week following a tip-off that led homicide detectives and forensic teams to apply for and secure a court order to exhume the gravesite. The discovery intensified public concern and raised questions about how the remains were buried without clear identification. Authorities initially expected to…
By Muchira Gachenge The biennial International Exhibition of Extractive and Energy Resources, SIREXE, will be held in Côte d’Ivoire’s capital Abidjan later this year. The second edition of the energy event, dedicated to the mining, oil, and energy sectors, is set to take place between November 18-22, 2026. It follows the great success of the inaugural event held in 2024, which brought together players in the energy and extractive sectors with a keen focus on fostering investment, partnerships, and sustainable resource development across Africa. This year’s event returns to the Abidjan Exhibition Centre, with a renewed ambition: to establish itself…
