First Independent Mena Newspaper
China’s top diplomat has embarked on his traditional New Year tour of Africa that will take him to Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad, and Nigeria, aiming to further advance Beijing’s already sizable influence across the resource-rich continent amid dwindling Western influence. The week-long tour by China’s foreign minister Wang Yi marks 35 consecutive years […]
France faces a significant challenge to its influence in West and Central Africa as Chad, Senegal and most recently also Ivory Coast have announced the end to traditional military cooperation with their former colonial master, experts say, adding that this would unravel France’s remaining logistics and military footprint in the region. In recent months, six […]
Spain has announced it set a new record for migrant arrivals in 2024, having received 63,970 people who entered Spanish territory irregularly by land or sea, an increase of 12.5% from a year earlier. Spain received 63,970 migrants and refugees in 2024, according to Interior Ministry data released on Thursday (2 January), of which the […]
Any return to the pre-conflict status with the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is off the table, Sudan’s Sovereign Council leader said during the country’s 69th independence anniversary, ruling out the paramilitary group’s reintegration into Sudanese society. Calling the RSF “murderers and criminals”, Al-Burhan blamed the militia for the widespread violence, starvation, and displacement faced […]
As the world prepares to welcome 2025, a sense of sorrow and unease hangs over the resources-rich eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has seen at least 21 people killed by Islamic State group-linked ADF rebels during the Christmas week. In a series of brutal attacks over the past week, […]
Polls closed Sunday (29 December) in Chad’s legislative, provincial and local elections after three years of military rule, but were boycotted by the opposition that accuses authorities of fraud and of failing to oversee a credible electoral process. After Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno won a disputed presidential election in May, his government is now presenting […]
An aid convoy carrying vital food and medical supplies has arrived in a besieged area of Sudanese capital Khartoum for the first time since the country’s civil war broke out in April 2023, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), which provided 22 trucks loaded with 750 tonnes of food. A total of 28 trucks […]
Guinea’s opposition and civil society groups, united under the Forces Vives platform, have announced that they will no longer recognize the authority of the country’s military junta after 31 December, when a promised return to constitutional rule was meant to take place. While this deadline as the transition period was initially agreed with the West […]
One of al-Shabaab’s top commanders, Mohamed Mire, was killed in a drone strike in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle Region, the military group has said, blaming the United States for the killing. It comes as the US military confirmed on Thursday (26 December) it carried out an airstrike on 24 December in the south of the Horn […]
Experts and analysts have piled criticism on the leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for “adding fuel to Mozambican fire” and for “failing the people of Mozambique” that has been for weeks engulfed in post-election violence. Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also chair of SADC, has said the regional bloc is ready […]