Dessau is notorious for two brutal deaths of Africans in separate incidents — one of which occurred in police custody and remains unresolved. Even today, few of the city’s white residents see racism as a daily problem. Ben Knight reports In the last 20 years, the eastern German city, where fewer than 4,000 of the 80,000 inhabitants are non-German, has …

Yemi Babalola, a Media and Communication student of Technische Universität Ilmenau, reports on the situation of African students in Germany as a result of the new coronavirus pandemic. News about the new coronavirus started getting prominence in the earlier part of the year, but March saw a lot of countries begin to enforce lockdown measures. Germany enforced the lockdown in …

Now available across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Messenger Kids enables kids to safely video chat and message with family and friends when they can’t be together in person. The app also Giving parents supervision over their children’s online activity JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, June 10, 2020/ — Today, Facebook (www.facebook.com) is rolling out Messenger Kids, a video chat and messaging app that …

As tens of thousands in Germany flock to anti-racism protests, two prominent Green politicians have called for the term “race” to be removed from German discrimination law. “We need to unlearn racism,” they said. Elliot Douglas reports The term “race” should be removed from the German constitution, two leading Green politicians said Monday (8 June). In recent weeks, Germany has …

Nigeria has commenced enrolment and issuance of National Identification Numbers (NIN) to its citizens in 16 countries across five continents. The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Mr Aliyu Aziz, made the announcement on Wednesday in Abuja. He was speaking on “Strategic Roadmap for ID Development’’ at a video conference with newspaper editors. The civic registration exercise, being …

Alice Bah Kuhnke and Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, both members of the European Parliament, in this opinion piece, note that Europe has seen an increase in right-wing extremism and a shift to the political right in the last decade. This, they argue, has led to an increase in both racially and religiously motivated attacks against minority communities. The authors call for …

The following is the statement issued by the Zentralrat der afrikanischen Gemeinde in Deutschland (Central Council of the African Community in Germany or ZAGD), an umbrella body for African associations in Germany, on the worldwide protests on the police murder of George Floyd on 25 May in the American city of Minneapolis. ———– Police Violence, Racism and Afrophobia! We, the …

Speech by Bob Hooda, founder of  power4africa e.V., at the demonstration against racism tagged “I can’t breath” in Dresden on Saturday, 6 June —— As the lawyer of the Floyd family said, the corona pandemic is not the reason why we gathered here today. Another type of pandemic brought us here today, which has been up to mischief in our …

Tens of thousands of people joined Black Lives Matter protests across Germany on Saturday (6 June) against the police murder of George Floyd on 25 May in the US city of Minneapolis. According to The African Network of Germany (TANG), more than 200,000 protesters took part at rallies, which also drew attention to racism and discrimination against people of African …

Burundi’s outgoing president, Pierre Nkurunziza, died unexpectedly on Monday after suffering a heart attack, the government says. He was admitted to hospital on Saturday after feeling unwell, his condition improved but on Monday he had a cardiac arrest and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, officials say. The death of 55-year-old Nkurunziza, who was due to stand down in August …

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group advocating for a separate state for the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria, has been accused of working to discredit the Nigerian government internationally. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, made the allegation in a statement on Sunday. According to him, the group is leading a …

Africa against all predictions of international organisations has until now been the least affected region by the new coronavirus pandemic. Mabingue Ngom, Director of the West and Central African Regional Office of the United Nations Population Fund, explains how the lessons learnt from earlier outbreaks of the Ebola epidemic have largely helped the continent avoid the worst predicted for it …

The African Network of Germany (TANG) is currently carrying out a campaign against anti-Black racism on social media. The organisation explains in this press statement why Germany must act decisively now against discrimination against people of African descent in the country —- Following the death of the African-American George Floyd after a brutal police operation in Minneapolis on 25 May, …

The city-state’s new law explicitly bars public authorities, including police, from discriminating based on skin colour, gender and other factors. Lawmakers say the new rules help to address systemic racism in Germany. Rebecca Staudenmaier reports Berlin became the first German state to pass its own anti-discrimination law on Thursday, with a majority of state lawmakers approving the law. The law …

Tens of thousands of people joined Black Lives Matter protests across Germany on Saturday despite coronavirus containment measures that discourage such large gatherings. Even though many wore masks, but social distancing rules were impossible to observe as protesters rally across 26 towns and cities in Germany to protest racial discrimination and police brutality. The passion of participants about racism was …

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated the country’s former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for the position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation. NAN reported on Thursday that Buhari withdrew the candidacy of Yonov Agah, Nigeria’s permanent representative to WTO, for the same position. The election is scheduled to hold in Geneva, Switzerland in 2021 for a four-year term that …

The Zentralrat der afrikanischen Gemeinde in Deutschland (Central Council of the African Community in Germany or ZAGD) has moved its office to Berlin. The organisation, an umbrella body for African associations in Germany, has been operating from Hanover since its founding in 2012. The chairman of Zentralrat, Abayomi Bankole, said moving to the federal capital would enable the organisation to …

The Zentralrat der afrikanischen Gemeinde in Deutschland (Central Council of the African Community in Germany or ZAGD) is currently running a digital training programme for individuals and associations in the African community. The initiative, tagged ‘Setting the future right through digital empowerment’, especially seeks to equip associations with digital skills to enhance their administrative capacity. Akinola Famson, a member of …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says governing parties have agreed on a €130 billion stimulus package to help revive the virus-hit economy. Under the wide-ranging measures, value-added tax will be temporarily slashed. Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that Germany was set to plow 130 billion euros ($146 billion) into rebooting an economy severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The measures include …

The controversy surrounding accusations of malpractices against the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, seems to have been resolved for now on Thursday. Some officials of the Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire-based Bank had accused Dr Adesina of lack of respect of internal rules and regulations in recruitment, citing numerous cases of nepotism and favouritism. The AfDB’s Ethics …