News

Thuli Madonsela, South Africa’s Public Protector who famously took on President Jacob Zuma over the use of taxpayers’ money to upgrade his country home, was honoured at a lavish ceremony on Wednesday in Berlin. Ms Madonsela, who resigned from the office only last month after completing her 7-year term, received the prestigious Africa Prize awarded annually by the German Africa …

More than 1,000 skulls and bones belonging to East Africans and brought to Germany for racial “scientific” research during the colonial era are still in storage in Berlin, a media report said Tuesday, 22 November. Public broadcaster ARD said it had obtained lists of the human remains that are still held by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which administers the …

Four of the 10 countries hammered hardest in 2015 by climate-boosted extreme weather are in Africa, according to a report released during the just concluded UN climate talks in Marrakesh, Morocco. “Africa is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” said Sonke Kreft, lead author of the Global Climate Risk Index 2017 report, issued annually by risk analysts Germanwatch. …

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 …

US President Barack Obama paid a farewell visit on Thursday to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seen by many as the new standard bearer of liberal democracy since the election of Donald Trump. On the last leg of his final European tour as president, Obama aimed to ease fears about the future of the transatlantic partnership and thank  Angela Merkel for …

Anu Parvatiyar, Lucy Chambers, Jennifer Bencivenga and Natalya Nepomnyashcha of the organisation eHealth Africa write on the ongoing transnational efforts to fully eradicate polio in Nigeria, one of the only three countries in the world where the virus still occurs.

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 …

Out of more than 160 nations assessed, Germany was ranked first, followed by Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland (equal fifth).

The American election has ended with an outcome unexpected and undesired in most parts of the world. Since almost all opinion polls did not reckon with a Trump’s victory, almost no efforts were made to analyse the likely impact of a Trump presidency on African relations. This is why journalists across Africa and its Diaspora are just getting started scrutinizing …

Climate change is once again the focus of global diplomacy as the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP22,’ is underway in Marrakech, Morocco. The convention is being held just four days after the Paris Climate Agreement entered into force and aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the temperature rise this …

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 …

Deutsche Welle (DW) has unveiled the new format for its AfricaLink radio program. The show is being relaunched as “social radio”. The content of the new format brings together conventional radio programming and social media.0-minute radio show will bring listeners’ broadcast content Monday through Friday at 16:00 UTC, featuring currents affairs from Africa, Germany and the rest of the world. The African editorial …

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.

Mike hasn't told any of his friends or family that he's left France, even though he's been back in Nigeria for nearly six months. "They'd say I was mad," he said.

With restrictions on migration tightening in Europe, many would-be asylum seekers from Ethiopia are choosing to return home. An organization funded by the European Union is helping them to return to their country. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in the last couple of months thousands of illegal Ethiopian migrants have been forced to return home from countries …

The foundation set up to guard the legacy of the late Nelson Mandela on Tuesday blamed South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma for the “wheels coming off” Africa’s most industrialised nation and urged a change in political leadership. Since coming to power in 2009, Zuma has survived a string of corruption scandals almost unscathed. But South Africa has had to bear …

“This victory means a lot to me, that I can still become African champion, despite my age. It shows that nothing is impossible.”

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