Applications have opened for the third cohort of Google’s Black Founders Fund for Startups in Africa and Europe. The company has committed $4m to support eligible Black-founded startups in 2023. Startups operating and headquartered in Africa or having a legal presence on the continent are eligible to apply for the Black Founders Fund. Other eligibility criteria for startups that wish …

French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated Thursday (2 March) that France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering in Africa after he began a four-nation tour of the continent. “The age of Francafrique is well over,” Macron said in remarks to the French community in Gabon, referring to France’s post-colonisation strategy of supporting authoritarian leaders to defend its …

The long wait for the result of Saturday’s Nigerian presidential election ended in the early hours of Wednesday when Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The three days of waiting seemed like weeks due to the tension that enveloped the country and even the west African subregion, not …

In a strong show of support for Guineans fleeing Tunisia, President Mamadi Doumbouya was at the airport in Conakry on 1 March to welcome 49 citizens who were repatriated via a special flight. Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, who came to power through a coup two years ago, greeted the returnees as they alighted the aircraft. The flight was organised by by …

The case of the asylum seeker Oury Jalloh, who burnt to death in controversial circumstances in a police cell in Dessau in 2005, has gone the European Court of Human Rights. Recently, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court confirmed the closure of the investigation even though experts insist that the official version of the incident is “impossible” and Jalloh’s family accuses the …

March brings some relief for the pockets for millions of consumers in Germany. The energy price brakes come into force and students will now also receive relief payment for their energy costs. Here’s an overview of important changes in March. —— Energy price brakes take effectThe energy price brakes for millions of gas, electricity and district heating consumers will take …

According to the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA), around 966,000 asylum applications (including subsequent applications) were submitted in the European Union in 2022. This is around 50 percent more than in the previous year. The figure does not include refugees from Ukraine who received “temporary protection” in the European Union. Most asylum applicants came from Syria (around 132,000), Afghanistan (129,000), …

German analyst Gerd Eckert* looks at the potential benefits of greater German engagement in Ghana as the West African country marks its 66th independence anniversary — Ghana – a former British colony – gained its independence under the leadership of the first Prime Minister, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who is now respected as a visionary of his time. Today we hear …

Ndi Igbo Germany (NIG), a socio-cultural organization and the umbrella body for all Igbo unions in Germany, has called for peaceful elections in Igboland and Nigeria on 25 February, when citizens of Africa’s most populous nation go to the polls to elect a new president. In the press release, signed by Chief Benjamin Chinaka, Co-ordinator, and Engr. Ikechukwu Eriobu, General …

Nigerians will vote on Saturday (25 February) for a new president and members of its national assembly. It’s the country’s 7th general election since the restoration of democracy in 1999. The four leading candidates for the top job are Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, who is running on …

Germany wants to recruit more skilled workers from Ghana. Federal Development Minister Svenja Schulze and Federal Labour Minister Hubertus Heil (both SPD) presented an initiative to this effect on Tuesday in Accra during their visit to the African country. The Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration in the capital city, which has been supporting Ghanaian deportees and returnees since …

The victims of the racist terrorist attack three years ago were remembered in Hanau on Sunday. At noon, around 500 representatives from politics, civil society and religious communities gathered at the market square for a memorial service. Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser (SPD), the Chairwoman of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Annette Kurschus, and Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris …

Nigerians will go to the polls on Saturday, 25 February to elect the successor to President Muhammadu Buhari who is finishing his second and last term in office. A Nigerian diaspora group has thrown its weight behind Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is running on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and is asking diaspora Nigerians to call their …

A 16-year-old Senegalese boy was shot last year in the course of a police operation in Dortmund. Five police officers have now been charged to court over the tragic incident, which sparked protests in the African community. One officer is accused of manslaughter, three of dangerous bodily harm and another of incitement to dangerous bodily harm, as Dortmund senior public …

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is not allowed to analyse the mobile phones of asylum-seekers without a concrete reason. This practice is inadmissible if other available findings and documents are not sufficiently taken into account, the Federal Administrative Court ruled in Leipzig on Thursday. For years, the BAMF, which is the central migration authority in Germany responsible …

Despite an illegal deportation to his home country, a former asylum-seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo is not entitled to be brought back to Germany. This is the decision of the Administrative Court of Düsseldorf, which rejected an urgent application by the man. A repatriation of the asylum-seeker to Germany would not make sense because the man had no …

Dr Sylvie Nantcha, chairman of The African Network of Germany (TANG), has called for an improved recording of the numbers of politically motivated attacks against Black people in Germany. She made the plea during the official presentation of the first situation report on Racism in Germany in Berlin recently. The event, which took place at the office of the chancellor …

The International Tourism Bourse (ITB) Berlin is back as a physical event after a three-year absence caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It will hold from 8 to 12 March on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds ICC. In 2020 the ITB Berlin did not take place. And it took place entirely as virtual events in 2021 and 2022. ITB Berlin, the world’s …

The number of international students at German universities has risen to a new high in the current winter semester. According to a quick survey, between 360,000 and 370,000 foreign students are currently enrolled, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has announced. Last winter semester, the number was just under 350,000. According to DAAD projections, the number of international first-year students …

A university teacher has taken the government of Berlin, one of Germany’s 16 federal states, to court over what he describes as “racist mistreatment at the Immigration office Berlin”. The case, filed by Mbolo Yufanyi Movuh, a lecturer at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences (ASH), Berlin, will be heard on Thursday (9 February) at the Berlin District Court, …