There is an ongoing legislative process to legalise female genital mutilation in The Gambia. Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana*, member of the European Parliament, writes on the position of the European MPs on the controversial move as well as on the concerns of African organisations in Germany should the harmful practice be legalised in The Gambia The practice of female genital mutilation …

Black people, Asians and Muslims are more often affected by poverty in Germany, according to a survey. This is true even if they are well educated and employed. Marcel Fürstenau reports Racism is widespread in Germany. But what does this really mean for the people affected? The German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) in Berlin has published a …

Immigration authorities are working against the spirit of the law on skilled labour immigration, according to the association for foreign students in Germany. Many international students feel “downright fear and despair” when going to the authorities, the body said, suggesting how the situation could be improved The Federal Association of Foreign Students (Bundesverband ausländischer Studierender or BAS) has sharply criticised …

Almost every new month of the year brings new laws and regulations that affect various areas of everyday life. In May 2024, people living in Germany can once again expect important changes: higher minimum wages in elderly care, flights from Germany will become more expensive, new field added on identity cards etc. Here’s an overview of these and other new …

30 April, Geneva – Better Cotton, the world’s largest cotton sustainability initiative, is to conduct sustainability mapping and assessments in West and Central Africa to enhance its understanding of the needs of smallholder farmers in the region and identify context-specific interventions. Funded by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), these assessments will inform ways in which targeted support can aid the production of more …

The African cloud ecosystem represents untapped potential of nearly $1bn, with only 17% of 6,000 companies, with over 250 employees, fully on the cloud. Despite the growing demand for cloud services, both African startups and global cloud orchestration firms are not capitalising on this opportunity. There is a vast gulf in the rate of cloud adoption between emerging and mature …

Plans to eliminate the blinding disease trachoma from 16 African countries have been boosted with $36.5m (about €34.24) in new funding. Twelve of the countries supported through the Accelerate programme, led by the non-profit Sightsavers, hope to eliminate trachoma by 2027 and three will make significant progress towards this goal in that time.  Trachoma begins as a bacterial infection, with symptoms similar …

The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship are just around the corner, and with summer fast approaching, many people across Europe will be supporting their country’s squad in Germany. With ten different German cities hosting the games from 14 June to 14 July 2024, knowing where you’ll spend most of your money or how much to take with you is important. …

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of twelve consuls-general and five chargés d’affaires to represent Nigeria in fourteen countries. The announcement was made by Alkasim Abdulkadir, the Special Assistant on Media and Communications Strategy to Yusuf Tuggar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a statement released on Tuesday. Among the new appointees is Ambassador Yakubu Dadu, who is …

In a recent study, the Netherlands emerged as Europe’s most active online nation. SEO agency Digital Climax analysed data from Eurostat to compare the percentages of individuals engaged in six selected categories of online activity across each country in Europe. The data was then used to create an overall ‘Online Activity Score’ out of ten, for each European country.  The …