Following President Paul Kagame’s 99% election win, his former chief of staff, Theogene Rudasingwa*, speaks out against the international community’s uncritical support for the president and he explains why the Rwandan leader seeks to remain in power indefinitely. On 4 August, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was re-elected with a near-perfect vote of 99%, earning himself a place in history alongside …

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa again survived a no-confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday in the most serious attempt yet to unseat him after months of growing anger over alleged corruption and a sinking economy. Zuma had survived six previous attempts to dislodge him in parliament, but this was the first to be held by secret ballot after parliamentary …

French parliament overwhelmingly backed a new law on Wednesday to clean up politics, a campaign promise of President Emmanuel Macron following a string of scandals. A total of 412 lawmakers backed the bill, which will notably scrap cash handouts for lawmakers to spend on areas and NGOs of their choice. Parliament had last week already voted through aspects of the …

More than 50 migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia were “deliberately drowned” when a smuggler forced them into the sea off Yemen’s coast, the UN migration agency said Wednesday, calling the drownings “shocking and inhumane.” International Organization for Migration (IOM) staffers found the shallow graves of 29 of the migrants on a beach in Shabwa during a routine patrol, the agency’s …

The annual summer season of African music and culture in Germany, which has been in full swing since April, is slowly nearing its close. However, there are still some outstanding festivals still to take place. Here are 7 Top Festivals, holding from now until the end of summer, promising an unforgettable experience: Afrika Karibik Festival Aschaffenburg  10 – 13 August …

The biggest festival dedicated to African filmmaking in Germany will mark an important milestone from 21 September to 1 October 2017. About 80 new feature films, documentary films and short films will be presented in the presence of 20 directors as Afrika Film Festival celebrates 25 years of its existence in Cologne. In June 1992, the organisation FilmInitiativ Köln e.V. …

With voting over and counting underway, a crisis is brewing in Kenya, which held a general election on Tuesday. Over 80% of the results have been announced and the opposition is trailing the incumbent by over 1.2 million votes. On Wednesday morning, the election commission website showed Kenyatta leading with 54.4 per cent of the votes against 44.8 per cent …

A group of Tunisian fishermen blocked the boat of far-right movement ‘Generation Identity’ from docking at the port of Zarzis in the southeast of Tunisia , dealing the latest blow to a controversial mission aimed at disrupting the flow of migrant boats from North Africa to Europe. The Identitarians had chartered the vessel C-Star to run their anti-migrant mission ‘Defend …

Germany is to send back asylum seekers to Greece, ending a five-year suspension of the EU’s asylum rules on transfers because of poor reception conditions. Greek migration minister Yiannis Mouzalas, speaking to the German public television channel ARD, in a program due to air on Tuesday (8 August), has confirmed that Greek authorities received 392 requests. Mouzalas said Athens approved …

Head of the European Union Elections Observer Mission in Kenya, Marietje Schaake, says Augsut 8’s elections should not be a life and death affair. She stated that Kenyans have shown that all they want is a peaceful, credible and transparent process in the exercise of their democratic rights. She was speaking in an interview with Daniel Finnan of Radio France …