Christ Wamba fled Congo Brazzaville in 2015 and arrived at the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos a few months later. There, he had only one goal: to become a professional basketball player. His gamble paid off: today he is a member of Aris Thessaloniki, a renowned Greek basketball club. Leslie Carretero reports. “I wasn’t planning to …

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest leader at 85, has easily won a seventh term, according to the Constitutional Council. Biya won 71.3 percent of the October 7 election, far ahead of opposition candidate Maurice Kamto’s 14.2 percent, council president Clement Atangana said, announcing the official results in a state television broadcast on Monday. The council, which …

According to the Federal Statistical Office, the number of people dependent on social assistance dropped in 2017 and, in particular, the number of recipients under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act declined sharply. The number of people in Germany who depend on minimum social assistance (Sozialhilfe) has fallen. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Friday (20 October), …

The puzzle over the whereabouts of Nnamdi Kanu, who has not been since 14 September 2017 when soldiers invaded his home in south-eastern city of Aba, was solved in an unexpected manner last week. Videos suddenly emerged on social media on Thursday, showing the founder of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group agitating for a separate country for …

Benin City in Nigeria’s south is a hub for illegal migration in West Africa. That’s why the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), within the framework of its 77 Percent youth project, held a town hall debate on 18 October. DW’s Maja Braun was there and she sums up the event. Aigbe Omoregie is one of those who made it. …

With about three weeks to the annual general meeting of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE), the body’s chairman, Hon. Kenneth Gbandi, has called on members to update their membership. Gbandi made the call on Thursday to draw the attention of members to NIDOE‘s rule which demands that only members who have paid their dues up to date would …

A young man from Gambia who had been living in Italy for two years has committed suicide. The Babele association, a refugee support group, said that his asylum request had been rejected and that ”he wanted to go back to Africa but he was afraid that he would be seen as a failure and was ashamed. He thought he had …

Bloggers from across Africa and its Diaspora will gather in Berlin on 2 November for the first “Afro-Bloggers Convention”. The event, organised by Afrobizgermany.com, an online platform that projects the Black community in Germany to the outside world, is aimed at bringing Afro-bloggers together to discuss “The impact of blogging in our community”. The one-day event features discussions, workshops and …

The Tunisian parliament approved on Tuesday (16 October) the country’s first law on the elimination of all forms of racism in a provision that organisations advocating minorities’ rights considered as “historical.” Tunisians of sub-Saharan origin have long complained that racism and discrimination are everyday occurrences for them. Unofficial estimates say 15 percent of the 11.5 million population identify as Black. …

Migrant agricultural workers in some parts of southern Italy are “enduring extreme levels of labour exploitation and coercion, and inhumane working and living conditions,” the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Urmila Bhoola, said after a 10-day visit to Italy. The rapporteur said that she was concerned about the fact that the basic needs of workers for water, …

Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE) has congratulated all the presidential candidates for their victory at the recent primary elections of their respective political parties. In the message sent to the contestants on Monday, 15 October, NIDOE expressed the concerns of Nigerians living abroad over the situation in the country. Nigerians in the Diaspora have been debating among themselves the …

More than 200 Nigerians in the Diaspora have indicated interest to participate in the maiden Nigeria Diaspora Investment Summit (NDIS) slated to hold on 27-29 November in Abuja. This was revealed by Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, at a joint news conference with other stakeholders in Abuja on Monday (15 October). …

The annual African Youth Education Awards (AYEA) took place on Saturday and was attended by more than 400 guests from across Germany. The event, which showcases the success of young people with African background in their educational endeavours, was attended by, among other dignitaries, the Mayor of Hamburg-Mitte, Falko Drossmann, and the ambassadors of Ghana and Nigeria to Germany, H.E …

Germany’s statistics office has published new figures for net migration to the country in 2017 with some surprise findings. The figures show more Germans are returning to the country and staying put. In 2017, net migration to Germany dropped by around one-fifth year-on-year to about 416,000, the Federal Office for Statistics (Destatis) said on Monday. The agency noted that net …

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has announced that no fewer than 10,000 Nigerians, have voluntarily returned from Libya between April 2017 and October 2018. The South West Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Yakubu Suleiman, made this disclosure while receiving a new batch of 161 returnees, who arrived Lagos on Friday (12 October). Suleiman said the Nigerians were assisted back in …

Thousands rallied in Berlin on Saturday against racism, xenophobia and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in one of the country’s biggest rallies of recent years. Organisers put the turnout at 242,000 people, who came from across Germany. The demonstration followed neo-Nazi anti-immigration protests in several eastern cities during the summer. The protests, organised by a broad alliance of associations, …

A Nigerian-born man, who became a local celebrity in a small Russian steel-casting city after marrying a local woman and moving in, has died under murky circumstances, the Russian news organisation Russia Today has reported. Gabriel Segun Ajayi, 32, was reported dead by the local authorities on Monday (15 October), triggering a police investigation. His wife Natalia, 50, said her …

Pierre Kompany, father of the Belgian national footballer Vincent Kompany, has been elected mayor of Ganshoren, a commune in the north-west of Brussels. The father of Vincent Kompany, the captain of Manchester City and a star of the Belgian national football team, has been elected as Belgium’s first first sub-Saharan-born mayor, in what has been described as a “historic” moment …

Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), recorded a disaster in regional elections on Sunday (14 October). The CSU – led by Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, which has governed the wealthy German state since the Second World War, lost its absolute majority in the regional parliament, as it struggles …

Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has reportedly indicated a drop in irregular migration numbers. He had made a tough stance on irregular migration a hallmark of his Interior Ministry. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer last week said he does not expect Germany to see as many irregular migrants and refugees this year as projected. Earlier reports estimated that up to …