The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a US$31.6 million grant from the Government of China for the construction of a new headquarters for the regional body in Abuja. The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Brou, and the Ambassador of China to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Zhou Pingjian, signed for both …

Israel’s Supreme Court has suspended a controversial government plan to deport thousands of African migrants. The court issued its ruling on Thursday, following a legal challenge by a group of migrants from Eritrea and Sudan. The government now cannot deport African migrants until the court receives additional information Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January announced the implementation of the programme …

New Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has said Islam is not part of German culture. His comments underscore his efforts to push the government to the right. Rebecca Staudenmaier reports. Germany’s new government may now finally be in place, but Chancellor Angela Merkel’s grand coalition appears to be off to a rocky start. On Thursday, newly inaugurated Interior Minister Horst Seehofer …

The German soccer federation says it has fired Steffi Jones as coach of the women’s national team following recent poor results. The Afro-German (45) was sacked following a disappointing showing at the SheBelieves Cup, in which the team failed to win a single game. The 2016 Olympic champions were last in the four-team competition, which was won by the host …

Frankfurt police have praised the actions of a man who thought he stumbled across the fortune of a lifetime and still turned it over to the authorities. In the early hours of Monday morning, a 56-year-old bakery worker came across an astonishing find, police said in a statement on Tuesday (13 March). Sitting in a food waste bin, the man …

Facebook has banned a far-right UK party that came to global attention after US President Donald Trump retweeted some of its anti-Islamic posts. The social media giant said it had blacklisted Britain First for repeatedly violating rules designed to stop the incitement of hatred against minority groups. It comes a week after the group’s leader and deputy — Paul Golding …

Germany’s parliament has elected Angela Merkel as the country’s new leader. The conservative Merkel will govern in a grand coalition with the Social Democrats. But the vote was much closer than expected. Merkel’s election by Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday ends 171 days of waiting after Germany’s national election on September 24, 2017. Merkel was elected …

Less than a day after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Rex Tillerson has been fired as the US Secretary of State. President Donald Trump fired Tillerson on Tuesday. “Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State,” the US leader announced on Twitter. “Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will …

Nigerian Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji has been elected president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a three-year term. He takes over from Judge Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi whose term has ended. Judge Robert Fremr from the Czech Republic was elected First Vice-President with Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut of France as Second Vice-President. ICC in a statement said judges elected …

A memorial church service for Kenneth Chukwudi Alaekwe, who passed away recently, will hold on Saturday 17 March in Berlin Schöneberg. The president of the German chapter of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) died on17 February at the age of 55 in a Berlin hospital after a brief but serious illness. Kenneth is survived by his wife Ulla and …