Germany

German-Nigerian heavyweight Emanuel Odiase delivered a sensational performance on Friday night, knocking out Britain’s Nick Webb in the second round to claim the European heavyweight title. Fighting before a sold-out crowd of 13,000 at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Odiase needed less than two rounds to dismantle his experienced opponent. The decisive moment came early, as Webb was sent crashing …

The Bundesrat, the upper chamber of the German parliament, has called on the federal government to reverse its recent decision to restrict access to integration courses, warning that the policy shift risks weakening one of Germany’s key integration instruments at an early stage. In a formal resolution, the body, which represents the country’s 16 federal states (Bundesländer), criticised the narrowing …

A new wave of laws and regulations takes effect in Germany this month, affecting everyday life — from fuel costs and wages to housing, travel, electric vehicles, short-term rentals and healthcare. Many of these measures are a direct response to the energy price shock triggered by the conflict in the Middle East. Here’s what you need to know. Newborn Screening …

Germany’s courts and authorities are sending a clear message: foreign nationals who commit serious crimes can lose their right to stay in the country and face deportation. A recent court ruling in Karlsruhe has renewed debate over how far Germany may go in removing foreigners — especially Syrians — from the country. Germany’s Administrative Court in Karlsruhe has issued a …

The Third International Sudan Conference in Berlin, co-hosted by Germany and the African Union, together with the European Union, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, mobilised historic levels of humanitarian funding and gave Sudanese civilian voices their biggest international platform yet. But with neither warring party present, a durable end to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis remains as …

A high-level Nigerian government team visited Berlin and Munich in March to strengthen a pioneering EU-funded programme that offers rejected asylum seekers and undocumented Nigerians in Germany a structured, supported path home rather than the sudden trauma of forced deportation. For Nigerians living in Germany without secure residency — including those whose asylum applications have been refused — the threat …

On the third anniversary of the outbreak of the Sudanese civil war on 15 April, the German government will host an international conference on Sudan in collaboration with France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU). Representatives of the United Nations, humanitarian organisations and Sudanese civil society are expected to attend the …

– SPECIAL REPORT – Three years after the guns first sounded in Khartoum on the morning of 15 April 2023, the Sudanese people remain trapped in what the United Nations has declared the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. On its anniversary on 15 April 2026, the German capital is playing host to the third International Ministerial Conference on Sudan — an …

Germany is sending an important diplomatic signal on its future engagement with Africa as Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to receive Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, at the Federal Chancellery on 14 April. The planned meeting, which precedes a major international conference on Sudan in Berlin the following day, is being closely watched by business …

A package of legislative and regulatory changes come into force in Germany in the new month, affecting everything from how much you pay at the petrol station to how you cross the EU’s external borders. For Africans living in Germany, several of these changes are directly relevant. Fuel Prices: One Rise Per Day, at NoonAs from 1 April, German petrol …

Millions of people living in Germany regularly support parents who live abroad – but doing so often comes with significant financial, emotional and professional strain, according to a new study by the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM). The research sheds light on what scholars call “transnational family relationships” – family ties that extend across national borders. In …

A free online information session on 24 March will connect asylum-seekers, refugees and other newcomers from Africa with one of Berlin’s leading student advisory services to help them navigate the city’s higher-education system. ________ For many asylum-seekers and newly arrived migrants in Berlin, the path to university education can seem daunting — complicated by unfamiliar bureaucracy, language barriers and uncertainties …

Discrimination remains a widespread reality in Germany, affecting millions of residents in their daily lives — from interactions with public authorities to experiences in shops, workplaces and public spaces, according to new research. A large-scale study based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) reveals that 13.1% of adults in Germany, roughly one in eight people, experienced discrimination within a …

Germany is poised to make political history as Cem Özdemir, a veteran Green Party politician and the son of Turkish immigrants, prepares to become the first person with Turkish roots to lead a German federal state following his party’s victory in the Baden-Württemberg state election. In the vote held on 8 March, the Green Party narrowly won the election with …

Germany’s parliament voted on Thursday to overhaul the country’s social welfare system, replacing the Bürgergeld — an unemployment benefits system introduced in 2023 — with a new one called Grundsicherung (Basic Security). The vote passed with 321 members of the Bundestag in favour and 268 against, with two abstentions, backed by the ruling coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD. The …

The German Bundestag has passed a major overhaul of the country’s asylum laws. The new rules — enacted on Friday, 27 February 2026 — implement a European Union asylum reform while also introducing new national measures that go further. They aim to process asylum applications faster, reduce so-called “secondary movement” across EU borders and return people who are not eligible …

A series of new laws and regulations, affecting retirees, consumers, women, migrants and businesses alike, will enter into effect in March 2026. Key changes include reforms to credit scoring, expanded breast cancer screening, higher health insurance contributions, extension of war refugee protection and updates to vehicle registration rules. Here are the most important changes in March SCHUFA: Transparency in Credit …

The number of asylum-seekers challenging rejected protection claims in Germany has risen sharply in recent years, putting growing pressure on the country’s administrative courts, according to media reports. Figures reported by the Deutsche Richterzeitung (German Judges’ Journal) show that the number of lawsuits filed by rejected asylum-seekers has doubled within two years. In 2023, Germany’s administrative courts received 71,885 appeals …

A migration expert, Olayinka Adekunle, has called on Africans living in Berlin to actively seek out and make use of the wide range of support services provided by public and private institutions across the city. She made the appeal at an information and networking event on Social Participation and Community Networking organised by the German-African Initiative for Development and Integration …

Berlin rejected almost one in every 20 citizenship applications in 2025, as the city’s immigration authorities combine faster digital processing with significantly tougher checks aimed at combating fraud. According to figures released this week by the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA), 4.9 percent of all naturalisation applications reviewed last year were refused. At the same time, the authority approved a record …