Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation, leading to widespread hardship and anger. Some Nigerians are demanding a reversal of government policies one year after authorities embarked on bold but unpopular economic reforms. President Bola Tinubu has so far refused to change course, insisting his reforms will improve Nigeria’s ailing economy. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
Camera: Timothy Obiezu
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Lusaka, Zambia  — Police in Zambia have arrested five people on espionage charges following their earlier allegations via social media that the government was involved in the apparent abduction of independent lawmaker Jay Jay Banda last week.

Police spokesperson Danny Mwale confirmed to journalists in Lusaka on Thursday the arrests of opposition lawmakers Munir Zulu and Maureen Mubonga, opposition activist Brebner Changala, and opposition party chiefs Edith Nawakwi and Danny Pule.

All suspects earlier this week were charged with spreading hate speech related to last weekend’s alleged abduction of Banda, who has since resurfaced. Mwale further said that police charged Zulu, Mubonga and Pule with proposing a tribal war.

In Zambia, espionage charges carry up to a maximum 25 years in prison upon conviction while hate speech charges carry a punishment of up to $6,000 in fines and two years in prison.

Makebi Zulu, a lawyer representing some of the suspects, all of whom are awaiting court appearances in police custody, called the charges “unacceptable” and demanded immediate courtroom hearings.

Political analyst Boniface Cheembe at the University of Zambia has urged political leaders from both the ruling United Party for National Development and the opposition to focus on improving the lives of ordinary Zambians.

“We need to do more as a country,” Cheembe said, “Our citizens need to demand more from their political leaders to focus on issues” such as economic difficulties, infrastructure needs and provision of services.

Earlier this week, President Hakainde Hichilema warned that anyone promoting hate speech and tribalism to disturb social peace would face the full force of the law.

Thursday’s arrests came barely a week after opposition Patriotic Front Secretary General Raphael Nakachinda was sentenced to 18 months of hard labor for violating a now-defunct presidential defamation law, stemming from his December 2021 allegations that Hichilema had coerced and intimidated Zambian judges into politically favorable rulings.

Human Rights Watch said Nakachinda’s sentencing has had a broad chilling effect on the right to freedom of expression in Zambia.
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Nairobi, Kenya — A Kenyan parliamentary committee is visiting central Kenya to hear from locals about the conduct of a British Army training unit that is accused of human rights violations, including the unresolved death of a woman more than ten years ago. The Kenya National Human Rights Commission prompted the inquiry by petitioning parliament to hold the British army accountable for alleged human rights abuses.

Kenya’s Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Foreign Affairs is visiting Laikipia and Samburu counties. They’re there to hear people’s complaints and look into reported abuses by the British army in the area.

The committee, which started its inquiry on Tuesday, listened to families who blame the deaths of their relatives on unattended explosives around British training camps.

The lawmakers also heard complaints of abuses at the hands of British officers, including mistreatment, torture, and unlawful detention and killings. 

The committee chair, Nelson Koech, outlines explains some of the other complaints they heard from Laikipia and Samburu residents.

“We’ve listened to people from different areas, to Lolldaiga Hills, where it’s believed that officers from British Army lit fire, were burning vegetation and an entire conservancy, and driving animals out of the conservancy to where the human population is because many people have been maimed or killed by animals that now are under distress because of the training that is happening in those grounds, to many other allegations of water becoming heavily polluted. People are now starting to get effects from the fire and having chest problems,” Koech said.

In March 2021, a British training exercise caused a fire in the Lolldaiga Conservancy that lasted for several days. 

Local activist James Mwangi wondered why the British army was allowed to train in water catchment areas with dangerous weapons. 

“Lolldaiga supports so many water streams. Why are they allowing the army to train with chemical and poisonous weapons that they don’t know how to use,” Mwangi said.

The inquiry was prompted by a petition to the parliament from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

Kenya has a defense cooperation agreement with the British government that allows up to 10,000 soldiers per year to conduct exercises in the East African nation.

According to the Kenyan government, the presence of the British Army Training Unit in Kenya, or BATUK, provided 3,000 people with jobs and contributed $45 million to the economies of Isiolo, Laikipia, and Samburu.

Koech says the parliamentarians will listen to all those who allegedly suffered from British Army activities and other government agencies to verify any abuses and human rights violations. 

“You must remember this is one side of the story we have listened to. We will be visiting BATUK, and we will be going there personally to get information from the British army. This inquiry is important to mention that in an inquiry of this nature, the verdict of this inquiry is equivalent to the verdict of a high court of Kenya,” Koech said.

A spokesperson for the British High Commission in Kenya told the French news agency AFP that they intend to cooperate with the inquiry. 

In 2012, Agnes Wanjiru was killed, allegedly by a British soldier. An investigation did not begin until 2019 and the findings of that probe were never made public. 

In 2021, the Sunday Times reported that a British officer confessed to killing a 21-year-old in central Kenya to a colleague. Afterward, Kenyan police said they were reopening the inquiry.  Wanjiru’s family told the parliamentary committee to take her killing seriously and remove obstacles that may stop the prosecution of the British soldier. 

The killing of Wanjiru has led to tensions between Kenya and Britain regarding the jurisdiction of British soldiers who commit crimes in Kenya.  The committee found that while some victims received compensation, it was usually less than what they were promised. 

The committee will present its findings to the full parliament and also closely examine the Kenya’s defense cooperation agreement with the British government.  
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NAIROBI, KENY — Africa has what it takes to transform and grow its economy but faces rigid barriers, including a sometimes unfriendly global financial architecture, say leaders who gathered in Nairobi this week for the African Development Bank’s annual summit. 

While the continent’s average GDP growth is estimated to have slowed in 2023, African economies remain resilient, Africa Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said at the meeting.  

“The African Development Bank projects that Africa’s real GDP growth will rise from 3.1 percent in 2023 to 3.7 percent in 2024 and 4.3 percent in 2025. Importantly, more than half — that is 31 countries — achieved higher GDP growth rates in 2023 than in 2022,” Adesina said. 

GDP, or gross domestic product, is used to measure the economic health of a country. 

As Africa’s bank, the AFDB — which turns 60 this year — has the responsibility to mobilize financing to develop the continent, said Adesina, the former Nigerian agriculture minister. 

That work is done, he added, against the backdrop of major global challenges including “heightened geopolitical tensions, the disruption of global value chains, rising food and energy crisis, increasing debt service payments and, of course, the devastating effects of climate change … from droughts to floods, cyclones to unpredictable weather patterns, the loss of lives and poverty. And enormous fiscal cost to countries.”  

Heavy rains and flash floods recently killed hundreds and displaced thousands across East Africa, where the U.N. estimates that 1.6 million people were affected. 

In Kenya, the rains killed more than 280 people, displaced about 53,000, and destroyed thousands of crops.  

Kenya’s President William Ruto was among those who attended the summit, along with leaders and officials from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Namibia, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, Libya and others.  

Ruto said with the world’s 10 fastest growing economies being in Africa, the continent has what it takes to succeed, but it faces the rigid barrier of the global financial architecture that is misaligned with the continent’s aspirations. 

“We routinely borrow from international markets at rates far above those paid by the rest of the world, often up to 8 or 10 times more,” he said. 

Ruto, Adesina and other leaders called for a reform of the global financial architecture to mobilize even more financial resources they say are needed to accelerate Africa’s growth and development.  

“The debt problem faced by many countries, which consume the largest share of national resources and starve [the] development agenda, we are a direct result of [this] unjust financial architecture,” Ruto said. “This situation not only makes debt unsustainable but also undermines growth, prevents countries from investing in resilience.” 

That sentiment was echoed by African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, who said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which tested economies worldwide and especially in Africa, is still being felt. 

He said that all of the African Union’s member states have been caught in the spiral of an ever-pernicious debt which keeps them under the control of lenders with suffocating demands, despite numerous promises to alleviate this burden. 

An economic outlook published during the summit by the bank lays out a mixture of policies that are needed to address some of the continent’s challenges. These include promoting local production and diversifying import sources to address rising food prices, and helping reform the current global financial architecture to help with debt restructuring.
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Brussels — Action must be taken immediately to address the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel or other countries will be drawn in and it will “become a problem for the world,” a UNHCR official warned Wednesday.

The volatile situations in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso risks overflowing into neighboring countries, the U.N. refugee agency’s director for west and central Africa, Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde told AFP in an interview in Brussels.

“The Gulf of Guinea, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire are already suffering because of the spiral of insecurity and the humanitarian situation — the same with Mauritania, the same with Algeria,” he said.

“If we don’t act now, if we don’t respond now, if we don’t find a way to remain there, stay and continue to remain engaged, finding a solution, then somehow those countries will be overwhelmed, the state will be overwhelmed, and it will become a problem for the world,” he said.

The official was on a visit to Brussels to stress to EU officials the need to stay focused on the African regions where some 10.5 million people have been displaced by conflict, even as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza dominate international news.

“Despite all the change, all the crises that we see in the world, despite all the conflict that we have, things are happening in the Sahel and that merits our attention,” Gnon-Konde said.

The day before, he participated in an EU-hosted donors’ conference for the Sahel. At the event, the European Commission pledged 201 million euros ($218 million) for vulnerable people in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria.

Military regimes in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali have pushed out troops from France, the former colonial ruler, and are increasingly turning to Russia for support as they battle jihadist insurgencies, causing wariness from Western donors.

Gnon-Konde said, for UNHCR, “it doesn’t matter who is in charge” in those countries, as the most important thing was to respond to the needs of the civilian populations.

He added that Chad, located between Niger and Sudan, was emerging as “a testing case” for countries in the region, international donors and the U.N.  

Chad — which has just announced its first government after three years of military rule — is hosting nearly one million Sudanese refugees and “there is a risk that that number will increase by the end of the year,” the UNHCR director said.
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Investigators using satellite imagery to document the war in western Sudan’s Darfur region say 72 villages were burned down in April, the most they have seen since the conflict began. Henry Wilkins talks with the people who do this research about how so-called open-source investigations could be crucial in holding those responsible for the violence to account.
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Abuja, Nigeria — Representatives from more than 80 civil society and rights organizations in Nigeria held a moment of silence May 28 to remember some 9,000 people who have died in the last year due to various forms of violence. 

The annual National Day of Mourning initiative was launched seven years ago to pay tribute to victims of attacks and demand the government restore security in the country. 

“These incidents of violence have reduced citizens’ rights to life and dignity,” said Lois Auta of the nonprofit Cedar Seed Foundation, one of the event’s organizers. “The frequency of these atrocities have kept Nigerians in a state of perpetual fear and uncertainty, and is impacting social cohesion, the economy and education across the country. All Nigerians suffer the manifested consequences of food insecurity and economic hardships resulting from hindrances imposed by perennial insecurity.” 

Nigeria is struggling to reduce multiple forms of widespread insecurity, including kidnappings, communal clashes, terrorism, extrajudicial killings and secessionist violence. 

The coalition said more than 30,000 people have died in the last six years as a result. 

This year’s commemoration coincides with the one-year anniversary of President Bola Tinubu taking office.  

Tinubu pledged to improve security and boost the economy if elected president. But one year later, critics such as Frank Tietie, founder of Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights, say Tinubu has not only failed on his promises, but the situation has gotten worse.  

“His primary responsibility is to protect the Nigerian people. If nobody has told President Tinubu that he’s failing at this point, at the celebration of his one-year anniversary in government, we are telling him that he has not only failed [but] he has exhibited gross irresponsibility,” Tietie said. “Nigerians are suffering, there’s hardly any family that has not been touched by this level of insecurity.” 

According to a security tracker by Nigerian-based Beacon Security and Consulting Limited, incidents of attacks increased from 5,500 between 2022 and 2023 to 7,800 between 2023 and 2024. 

The number of fatalities and abductions were also higher during the same period. 

Security analyst Kabiru Adamu said despite the government making an effort, poor accountability and unwise appointments in the security sector pose major hurdles.

“It’s very obvious that the government is committed to addressing the security challenges as indicated in policy imperatives and those policy imperatives are very clear. As an expert, if they’re implemented, I believe they’ll reduce or even eliminate the security challenge,” Adamu said. “But the major challenge has been one of implementation, especially due to the absence of capability by some of the security sector leadership.” 

Last Friday, a local district head in Nigeria’s Niger state said gunmen made tea and cooked food as they terrorized villagers, killing 10 and abducting 160 others.  

Adamu said one year is not enough time for the insecurity issues to be fully addressed by a new administration, but that authorities should be able during 12 months to show a positive trajectory towards addressing the problem. 

But for now, rights groups and families of the victims will be reminding the president about the promise he made to keep their loved ones and the country safe.
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Yaounde — Cameroon is observing World Menstrual Hygiene Day (May 28) with caravans visiting schools and public spaces to educate people about social taboos that women should not be seen in public during their menstrual periods. Organizations are also donating menstrual kits to girls displaced by terrorism and political tensions in the central African state.

Scores of youths, a majority of them girls, are told that menstruation is a natural part of the reproductive cycle.

Officials in Cameroon’s social affairs and health ministries say the monthly flows are not a curse and girls and women should never be isolated from markets, schools, churches and other public places because of their menstrual cycle.

The government of the central African state says it invited boys to menstrual health day activities because boys often mock girls in schools when they see blood dripping on their legs or skirts.

Tabe Edwan is the spokesperson of Haven of Rebirth Cameroon, an association that takes care of victims of sexual and gender-based violence. She says she participates in in activities to mark World Menstrual Health Day to battle taboos about menstruation that persist in Cameroon.

“We are looking at instances of stigmatization such as prohibition from cooking, prohibition from attending religious ceremonies or visiting such spaces,” she said. “Most often a young girl who is having her menstrual flow is considered to be unclean and so anything that she touches becomes unclean or it also becomes contaminated.”

Cameroon’s government says World Menstrual Day activities took place in many towns and villages, especially in the northwest and southwest regions, where a separatist conflict, now in its seventh year, has displaced about 750,000 people.

The country’s Social Affairs Ministry says displaced women and girls have lost nearly everything and lack even the $2 needed to buy sanitary pads each time they are on their monthly cycle.

Mirabelle Sonkey is founder of the Network for Solidarity Hope and Empowerment, a founding member of the International Menstrual Hygiene Coalition.

Sonkey says she is disheartened when women and girls use rags, papers and tree leaves or just anything unhealthy to stop blood flow because they cannot afford sanitary pads.

“We usually give about 1,000 dignity kits which include buckets, soap, pants and reusable, washable menstrual pads,” she said. “We are still advocating for pads to be free. Our mission is to have an environment where pads will be accessible, that is why we are opening pad banks now where vulnerable women and girls can go there and have pads.”

Sonkey pleaded with donors to provide sanitary pads to give to several thousand northern Cameroonian girls and women displaced by Boko Haram terrorism.

Cameroon’s government says 70% of menstruating women and girls lack access to regular basic sanitation products but it has not reacted to pleas from NGOs to distribute sanitary pads free of charge.

The central African state’s officials say families and communities should help put an end to stigmas by openly discussing menstrual flow and letting everyone know that menstruation is a normal and natural biological function.
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WARSAW, Poland — Polish President Andrzej Duda has spoken on the phone with Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi to try to obtain the release of a Polish traveler who was sentenced to life in prison in the Central African country on espionage charges, an aide said Monday.

Congolese forces detained Mariusz Majewski, 52, in February and he later faced a military court in the restive nation, accused of spying.

The allegations against him said that he had “approached the front line with Mobondo militiamen,” moved along the front line without authorization and “took photos of sensitive and strategic places and secretly observed military activities.”

The Mobondo have been involved in intercommunal violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s southwest since 2022.

Majewski was convicted last week and sentenced to life in prison. No details have been released as to where he is being held. 

Duda’s aide, Wojciech Kolarski, did not say what the outcome of the conversation between the two presidents was but stressed that the state had the obligation to take care of its citizens who find themselves in such dramatic situations overseas.

Majewski’s family says he is in poor health and insists that he is just a traveler.

Last week, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski said without elaborating that Majewski “is not a spy, he is a member of a travelers club” and was just following his “passion in life.”

Wronski said a chain of coincidental circumstances and events led to Majewski’s presence in Congo and his “behavior was the result of a lack of knowledge of local customs.”

Polish authorities are aware of the “very difficult political situation in Congo” and a recent coup attempt there but expressed hope that Majewski would not be implicated in a situation he has no connection to.

Poland does not have a diplomatic mission in Congo.

Earlier this month, the Congolese army said it had foiled a coup attempt and arrested the perpetrators, including some foreigners. Several U.S. citizens were among those arrested.
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Nairobi, Kenya — Kenya has agreed to help the European Union in dealing with maritime crime suspects in the region, amid a rising threat from pirate activity and attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The EU, which has a force operating in the Indian Ocean, is concerned that the insecurity which is also affecting ship traffic in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, is disrupting international trade.  

With threats to shipping on the rise in the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea, the European Union is asking Kenya for assistance in prosecuting suspected criminals caught in the region’s waters.

Henriette Geiger, the EU ambassador to Kenya, said the bloc is working with Kenya in dealing with suspected criminals caught in the region’s waters.

“Kenya would conclude a legal finished agreement with the European Union which would allow then EU Atalanta to drop, first seized arms, weapons but also traffickers, arms and drug traffickers, here for prosecution,” she said. “Seychelles has already agreed, they already have a legal finished agreement, but it’s a small island; they cannot stand alone.”

The EU’s Operation Atalanta is a military operation in the Horn of Africa that counters piracy at sea.

Geiger explained that the EU navy force lacks the authority to prosecute suspects and cannot detain them for long without charges. Therefore, countries like Kenya are needed to assist in prosecuting suspects.

Isaiah Nakoru, the head of Kenya’s Department for Shipping and Maritime Affairs, says his country is ready to work on issues that promote security and the free flow of goods and people.  

“We have to work together to ensure that we achieve the aspiration for ensuring there is sustainability and security, and all activities that threaten the livelihoods of people and movements of people have to be addressed in partnership with all those who have a stake,” he said.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Kenya is holding at least 120 suspected pirates and has convicted 18 of them.  

Kenya faced criticism about whether its legal system allows the prosecution of suspected pirates accused of having committed crimes far away from its territory. However, in 2012, a Kenyan court ruled the East African nation has jurisdiction to try Somali pirates carrying out attacks in international waters.

Andrew Mwangura is a consultant on maritime safety and security in Kenya. More than ten years ago, he helped negotiate the release of some pirate captives. He says Kenya will always face legal challenges in prosecuting suspects who have not committed a crime in its territory.  

“The problem is still the same because there are challenges to prosecution in Kenya of the Somali pirates,” he said. “This pirate activity happens away from Kenya. They do not happen in Kenyan waters, and there will be legal challenges. To prosecute, to arrest them, that’s not a solution. The solution is to fight illegal fishing in East African territorial waters.”  

Recently, there have been reports of piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia, sparking worries about the return of Somali piracy. In the early 2010s, Somali pirates hijacked dozens of ships, holding them for millions of dollars in ransom.  

Two weeks ago, six suspected pirates accused of attacking a merchant vessel were moved from Somalia to the Seychelles for trial by the EU naval force. Last Friday, the EU force freed a merchant ship and its 17 crew members.
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