EUROPE

More details have been released about the man all Europe’s police are now looking for. It appears the main suspect in the Berlin truck attack was previously known to German police, and a 100,000 euro reward is being offered for his capture. He has been identified as Tunisian-born 24-year-old Anis Amri, who had previously served four years in an Italian …

German chancellor Angela Merkel has called Monday’s crash at a busy Berlin Christmas market a “terrorist attack”, but she faces criticism from political rivals who are blaming her welcoming refugee policy for the incident. In her first comments after the attack, in which 12 people died and dozens were wounded, Merkel said she was “shocked, shaken and deeply saddened”. But …

The news of Delali Afiwoa Assigbley’s death in a horrific manner went round the world. It’s a death that would shake the most hard-hearted human being. On Wednesday, 7 December Delali’s husband, Koffi W., poured petrol on her in the streets of Kronshagen, near the northern German city of Kiel, and set her ablaze. Before the fire could be put …

The study, covering 14 federal ministries, the federal armed forces and eight federal agencies, showed that 14.8 per cent of all public servants are of migrant origin. A similar study conducted in 2013 discovered that only 6.7 per cent of federal employees had a migration background.

Passers-by describe the scene as horrific as an African man poured petrol on his wife in broad daylight in the northern German town of Kronshagen, near Kiel on Wednesday. The Kieler Nachrichten, a daily newspaper, reports that the man poured fuel over his wife, both originally from Togo, as she left a clinic in the town before setting her ablaze. …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a ban on the burka in public life “wherever possible” during her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party congress in Essen, officially launching her election campaign to hold on to Germany’s Chancellery. Speaking to sustained applause from her CDU delegates, Merkel said the full-face veil worn by some Muslim women in Germany was …

Gambians make up the third largest group of African refugees in Germany. With Gambia on the road to democracy and Germany’s goverment getting tough on immigration, will they be allowed to stay?

Lawmakers in the lower house of the Dutch parliament have backed a partial ban on “face-covering clothing”, including Islamic veils and robes such as the burqa and niqab. The legislation still requires Senate approval before it becomes law. Studies suggest that only a few hundred women in the Netherlands wear such clothes, but successive governments have attempted to ban the …

Refugees that were accepted by Germany over the past years have shown a deeper devotion to European democratic principles in a whole range of aspects than their host citizens.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will stand in next year’s elections for a fourth term. She made the announcement in Berlin on Sunday evening. Addressing the media from a platform with the word “The Center” (Die Mitte) written on it in Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party colours, Merkel said on 20 November that her decision to stand was not a trivial …

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is poised to become Germany’s next president, after the two main parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s grand right-left coalition agreed to back his nomination, party sources said Monday. Party leaders have been wrangling for months over whom to nominate as a potential successor to President Joachim Gauck, a 76-year-old former pastor from the former communist East …

Kenneth Gbandi has been elected the new chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE). The election took place at the weekend in Athens, Greece, during the annual general meeting of the body. The event was graced by, among others, Hon. Rita Odichimma Orji, Chairperson of the Federal House of Representatives’ Committee on Diaspora …

Germany’s interior ministry reportedly wants people seeking international protection stopped at sea and returned to north Africa to then apply for asylum in the EU. A spokesperson for the ministry told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday (6 November) that the plan would save lives and undermine a lucrative smuggling trade. “The goal must be to remove the basis …

The Hamburg-based communal politician, journalist, business consultant and media entrepreneur spoke in an exclusive interview with Femi Awoniyi in Berlin on the challenges facing NIDO, how Nigeria can attract more German investment and how best President Muhammadu Buhari should handle Biafra agitation and the Niger-Delta militants. He also talked about his aspiration to the chair of NIDO Europe and what he plans to do to bring about a more active Diaspora involvement in national development.

In the majority of cases Romanians are convicted for petty crime, such as shoplifting, burglary and pickpocketing.

The German government  approved a new law on Wednesday, 26 October to curb social benefits for EU citizens who arrive in the country without a job, as it responds to pressure to get tough on migrants. Under the draft legislation, which still needs to go through parliament, EU nationals who have never worked in Germany will have to wait five …

The French authorities, helped by more than 3,000 police, have begun to dismantle a massive migrant camp near the northern French port of Calais. There were some clashes on Sunday (23 October), with dozens of people throwing rocks at police officers, who replied by shooting tear gas. But on Monday morning, many of the camp’s estimated 7,000 inhabitants calmly queued …

Descendants of the victims of genocide have marched in Berlin to demand their direct involvement in reparations talks.

Under the theme Restorative Justice after Genocide, the German NGO community meets descendants of the victims of the Ovaherero and Nama genocides 1904-1908 from all over the world on 14-16 October in Berlin. The conference is organised by Berlin Postkolonial in cooperation with AfricAvenir International, the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu Genocide Foundation (OGF), the Nama Technical Committee on Genocide, the Association of the …

Growing xenophobia and right-wing extremism could threaten peace in eastern Germany, the government has warned [], voicing fears over the impact of a series of attacks on refugees in the region. In a new report presented in Berlin on 21 September, urging mainstream society to take a stronger stand against anti-migrant action, it highlighted a worrying trend — that in …