Politics
Somalia sets elections for April and May 2027; opposition rejects the timetable
Parliamentary elections are set for 15 April and the presidential vote for 15 May. Voter registration reopens on 1 November.
Section
Politics
Power, policy and the people holding both to account — from Addis Ababa to every capital on the continent.
Politics
Nigeria: National Campaign Launched to Mobilise Citizens Ahead of 2027 General Elections
Nigeria’s National Orientation Agency (NOA) launched a nationwide campaign in Abuja on October 15, 2026, to mobilise citizens ahead of the 2027 general elections. The initiative urges Nigerians to reject voter apathy, vote-buying and electoral violence while promoting peaceful and credible elections.
Politics
Campaigners urge Malawi to pass a law letting refugees work and trade
The Refugee Bill would let refugees take paid jobs and run small businesses, cutting their reliance on aid, says INUA Advocacy.
Politics
Namibia and Angola hold their first heads-of-state commission next week
Presidents Nandi-Ndaitwah and Lourenço will meet in Luanda on trade, energy, water, transport and border security. Ninety-five Namibian businesses want to join the business forum.
Politics
Japan gives $1.8m to feed 94,000 people displaced in Cabo Delgado
The money goes through the World Food Programme. Japan has given about $21.4 million to the agency's work in Mozambique since 2019.
Politics
South Africa opens Disability Rights Awareness Month with a walk to the Union Buildings
People with disabilities, officials and campaigners will walk from Church Square on Friday to call for equal rights and an end to the barriers that keep people out.
Politics
Sixty-five people in Gqeberha receive the birth certificates they never had
Home Affairs' Services on Wheels brought late birth registration to Motherwell, giving people the legal identity they need to reach government services.
Politics
School meals bring children back to class in the Central African Republic
More than 250,000 children eat at school in 335 schools. In one village enrolment has nearly doubled, and the food is bought from local farmers.
Politics
Mauritius extends curfew after protests over water and living costs turn violent
Ninety-four people have been arrested, seven police officers wounded and schools closed. The prime minister blames drug traffickers for fuelling the unrest.
Politics
Navi Pillay dedicates her Nobel to survivors and asks the world to defend its courts
The South African jurist, 85, learned of her prize in the Nuremberg courtroom where the post-war trials were held. She wants collective action, not statements, for international justice.
Politics
Nine in ten South African homes now have electricity, up from 77% in 2002
Ahead of the 4 November local elections, Africa Check's factsheet shows how far connections have come, where the gaps are, and how sharply reported power cuts have fallen.
Politics
Mali is sheltering more than 322,000 refugees and asylum seekers
Even with 414,000 of its own people displaced, Mali has taken in refugees, among them 86,000 from Burkina Faso in one region alone, and passed a new law on statelessness.
Politics
Tired of waiting for a government house, a 67-year-old built her own
Nomonde Mboyi has spent three years and her pension building a mud-brick home in the Eastern Cape. The state house promised to her after a 2019 storm is still a foundation.
Politics
A record 2.65 million South Africans apply to vote early
Special vote applications for the 4 November local elections are up 131% on 2021. Most home-visit applicants are women over 60.
Politics
Young Africans must move from promise to power, Agenda 2063 symposium hears
At JCI Sandton's fifth Agenda 2063 symposium, speakers from the Presidency, AUDA-NEPAD and Afrobarometer agreed the plans exist. The test now is delivery, with young people given real authority.
Politics
Five new judges take their seats at West Africa's court
Sworn in before Senegal's president, the judges from Benin, The Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo will each serve a single four-year term.
Politics
Morocco's first woman prime minister forms a four-party government
Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri's coalition holds 207 seats in the lower house, nine more than it needs for a majority.
Politics
West Africa's border chiefs: a boundary is not only a line
Heads of national boundary commissions met in The Gambia to speed up the marking of frontiers, as the regional bloc pushes freer movement across them.
Politics
Gambia, Malawi and Mauritius back UN inquiry on Sudan
A record number of countries voted to renew the fact-finding mission. Human Rights Watch says they stopped short of giving it the means to preserve evidence.
Politics
Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Burundi win seats on UN rights council
Four African countries are among 15 elected by the General Assembly to serve on the Human Rights Council from 2027 to 2029.
Politics
Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia close ranks on the Horn
Four leaders meeting at El Alamein agreed five principles, from the Nile to the Red Sea. The country they did not name, but had in mind, was Ethiopia.
Politics
Nigeria and Kenya vote in 2027. Will their young people?
Both countries spent 2026 signing up young voters by the million. The numbers look similar. The politics behind them do not.
Politics
Two names, two parties: oddities in Edo's candidate list
The electoral commission's final list for the state assembly shows two men standing for both the PDP and the APM. Fewer than one candidate in ten is a woman.
Politics
A missed click could keep 181 ANC candidates off the ballot
South Africa's top court is weighing whether failing to press a final 'submit' button is reason enough to exclude a party's candidates, three weeks before local elections.
Politics
Ethiopian forces enter Adwa as Tigray rebels pull back
Residents say federal troops and allied militia have taken the town near the Eritrean border, nine days after government-allied forces retook Mekelle.
Politics
South Africa's deputy police chief quits before hearing
Shadrack Sibiya resigned as his disciplinary case was about to begin. The police say it will be recorded as a dishonourable discharge. He is in custody on separate charges, which he denies.
Politics
Senegal's anti-gay law has led to hundreds of arrests
Human Rights Watch documents forced HIV tests, leaked medical records and lawyers too afraid to take cases, weeks before Dakar hosts the Youth Olympics.
Politics
In Baidoa, fighting returns to a city already starving
Two million Somali children are malnourished. The World Food Programme, which once fed four million people a month, now reaches 670,000.
Politics
Niger admits holding journalist missing since August
Moussa Kaka vanished in Niamey on 31 August. The justice minister has now said he is detained, without saying on what charge.
Politics
Mozambique sets December deadline to hand in illegal guns
President Chapo says nobody who surrenders a weapon under the amnesty will be questioned or detained. After the deadline, the police will come for them.
Politics
Burundi heads back to UN rights council unopposed
Four African countries are standing for four African seats in Monday's vote. Human Rights Watch says a contest with no losers is not an election.
Politics
'Leave them to me': Ruto renews attack on Kenyatta
Kenya's president told a church service that he will deal with those he says are paying for his opponents, as the 2027 election draws nearer.
Politics
Bandits ambush traders under army escort in Zamfara
At least 22 people are feared dead after gunmen attacked a convoy heading to a weekly market in Bukkuyum. The army and police have yet to comment.
Politics
Air strikes kill dozens of gold miners on Sudan-Egypt border
A Sudanese rights group says at least 72 people died at a remote mining site and blames Egypt's air force. Cairo has not commented.
Politics
Nearly four million people uprooted in the central Sahel
The number forced from their homes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has more than doubled in six years. The UN refugee agency has a quarter of the money it needs.
Politics
Eritrea asks UN to act over Ethiopia's 'declaration of war'
Asmara denies sending troops into Tigray. Addis Ababa says they advanced 60km. In the border city of Adigrat, residents say food and medicine are running out.
Politics
Mauritania's PM quits over blackouts, then is reappointed
A report blamed substandard imported parts and poor supervision for two substation fires that cut power to the capital for days.
Politics
Kabila says DR Congo 'is no longer a republic'
In a video address, the former president accused his successor of personal rule and called for a national dialogue to end the war in the east.
Politics
South Africa to ask a court to oversee its asylum fix
A new registration system is promised by 10 November. Thirty people have been arrested over the unrest, and deportations of those with no claim will continue.
Politics
Nigeria's electoral body drops two PDP governorship candidates
Isa Pantami in Gombe and Ladi Adebutu in Ogun are missing from the final list for February's elections. INEC has given no reasons.
Politics
UN extends Sudan sanctions for just two more months
The Security Council agreed only a short "technical rollover". In Darfur, 700,000 displaced people in one town are short of food, water and medicine.
Politics
South Africa's police vow arrests over asylum riots
Twenty-four cars were burned outside Home Affairs offices in Soweto and Durban. The department says it pulled its asylum directive because staff and the public were at risk.
Politics
ICC tells member states its fate is in their hands
Sanctioned by Washington as an institution, the court says it will not be deterred. The US says allies must rein it in or watch it be dismantled "brick by brick".
Politics
US report says Kenyan officials linked to human trafficking are going unpunished
Convictions fell from 21 to six in a year. The report also cites claims that some embassy staff in Saudi Arabia demanded sex or cash from women seeking help.
Politics
Senegal urges Guinea-Bissau's military rulers to lift restrictions as December vote slips
President Faye is mediating for ECOWAS. Guinea-Bissau's own electoral commission says conditions for the election are not in place.
Politics
Kaniola–Nindja: Walungu remembers its dead and demands peace, justice and reparations
As survivors gather to honour the victims of the Kaniola and Nindja massacres, Patricia Maisha, candidate for national deputy for Walungu, calls for an end to fear and impunity in a territory where civilians are still being killed.
Politics
Morocco's king puts youth at the top of the agenda
Opening parliament months after youth-led protests, Mohammed VI called for equal opportunities in education, skills and work. The opposition says it will judge by results.
Politics
Racist slur in a private chat is still hate speech, court says
South Africa's appeal court has ruled that using the k-word is unlawful whoever hears it. A businessman must apologise and pay R500,000.
Politics
Appeal court keeps El-Rufai in custody as trial nears
The former Kaduna governor has been held since February. Judges said he showed no new facts to justify bail. His trial is due to begin on Monday.
Politics
Court orders ANC to put Lungisa back on its list
A judge found the party's secretary-general had no power to strike the mayoral hopeful from the Nelson Mandela Bay list. The election is on 4 November.
Politics
Freed after a week, but who paid? Imo police deny ransom
Twenty young Nigerians on their way to national service were abducted on 1 October and released a week later. Parents say they paid. The police say they know of no payment.
Politics
Kogi councillor abducted on 30 September dies in captivity
Rosemary Adukwu was seized near the Enugu-Anambra border. Her family says the kidnappers did not contact them for almost a week.
Politics
Liberia jails ex-security deputy pending cocaine trial
Gerald Folley Smith and four others have been sent to Monrovia Central Prison over a $317 million seizure. The indictment names 18 people.
Politics
South Africa's Navi Pillay wins the Nobel Peace Prize
The 85-year-old jurist, a former UN human rights chief, was honoured for defending international law at a time when its courts are under attack. She dedicated the prize to survivors.
Politics
US sanctions the International Criminal Court hours after its former judge wins the Nobel
Washington has banned transactions with the court, a step that could cut it off from banks, insurers and software suppliers. "Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC," the US secretary of state said.
Politics
Ethiopia and Eritrea accuse each other of starting a war as flights to Mekelle resume
Addis Ababa says Eritrea is backing Tigrayan forces. Asmara says it is the victim of an unprovoked war. Ethiopian Airlines returns to Tigray's capital on Sunday.
Politics
Nigeria's rights commission and five embassies call for an end to the death penalty
More than 3,000 people are on death row in Nigeria, which will reach ten years without an execution in December.
Politics
Zuma is in hospital, and his party's election campaign is built around him
The MK Party says the former president had a routine check-up. President Ramaphosa says he has been unwell. Local elections are approaching.
Politics
Rwandan genocide suspect Callixte Mbarushimana dies in France without facing trial
The former UN employee and senior figure in the FDLR militia was 63. A French investigation into him had been reopened last year after an appeal by survivors' groups.
Politics
Prosecutors in Niger seek five years for a lawyer over a Facebook post
Human Rights Watch says the case, and the unexplained detention of a veteran journalist, show the military government tightening its hold on what can be said.
Politics
Mnangagwa splits Zimbabwe's economic team and makes tycoon Tagwirei a minister
Mthuli Ncube keeps finance. Kudakwashe Tagwirei, a prominent businessman sworn in as a senator only last month, takes a new portfolio for economic development and investment.
Politics
Tunisian blogger jailed for 26 months over a Facebook Live video
Hajer Awadi was convicted of glorifying terrorism, inciting hatred and making threats after speaking about a security operation. A press freedom group calls it punishment for criticism.
Politics
South Africa withdraws asylum directive after days of violent protests
Home Affairs says the instruction, issued to carry out a Constitutional Court ruling, overwhelmed refugee offices and put officials at risk. Vehicles were torched in Durban and Soweto.
Politics
Liberian court issues warrants for 20 people in $317 million cocaine case
Former vice president Jewel Howard-Taylor is among those named in what a Monrovia newspaper calls the largest narcotics case in the country's judicial history. The allegations have not been proven.
Politics
Food aid for Congolese refugees in Burundi could stop without $30 million, WFP says
The UN food agency needs about $5 million a month to keep feeding people who fled eastern DR Congo. Refugees at Busuma camp already receive the equivalent of $12 each a month.
Politics
Ethiopian drones hit Eritrean troops near Adigrat as the two governments stay silent
Witnesses and a conflict monitor report repeated strikes on Eritrean positions inside Tigray. Neither Addis Ababa nor Asmara has commented, days after the two countries cut diplomatic ties.
Politics
Guinea-Bissau's election body says the country is not ready for December polls
The electoral commission has told the military-led transition that conditions for the vote meant to restore civilian rule have not been met. The decision on a delay rests with the transitional president.
Politics
Egypt charges six fact-checking journalists with terrorism offences
Prosecutors say the staff of the platform Matsadaash worked for the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The outlet denies it, and lawyers say the journalists were tortured, which the Interior Ministry rejects.
Politics
Search teams struggle to reach wreckage of Nigerian military plane that killed 25
The aircraft came down in mangrove swamp near Igbokoda in Ondo State. The flight recorders have not been found and President Tinubu has declared three days of mourning.
Politics
Eritrean troops reported inside Tigray as fighting in northern Ethiopia widens
Witnesses and a pro-government commander say uniformed Eritrean soldiers with heavy weapons have been in the town of Adigrat for days. Addis Ababa and Asmara cut diplomatic ties last week.
Politics
Sudan's war may have killed 80,000 people last year, researchers estimate
A new statistical model puts the likely 2025 toll far above the confirmed counts. It comes as a record number of countries vote to keep the UN's Sudan investigation running.
Politics
African Union mediators meet M23 in Goma as Kenyatta consults Kigali
Three former presidents visited the rebel-held city on Monday. A day later Uhuru Kenyatta was in Rwanda to discuss how to move two parallel peace tracks forward.
Politics
Ramaphosa presses Kiir on South Sudan's December election
South Africa's president, who chairs the African Union committee on South Sudan, told Salva Kiir that political, security and logistical problems must be settled before the 22 December vote.
Politics
Somalia says it has killed the former head of al-Shabab's intelligence wing
The national intelligence agency says Bashir Ahmed Haji Nunow, who ran the group's feared Amniyat unit for eight years, died in an operation in Jilib on 1 October.
Politics
Sirleaf tells Liberia its anti-corruption laws need teeth
The former president said accountability must start with those at the very top, and admitted the institutions her own government built have not ended graft.
Politics
South African court rejects Kemi Seba's immunity claim, clearing a path to extradition
The activist, wanted in Benin after backing a failed coup, said he was a diplomat for Niger. The court found no evidence he was ever accredited in South Africa.
Politics
Mali's army re-enters Kidal as Tuareg separatists pull out
The northern town fell to rebels in April. Analysts call its recapture, with Russian support, a symbolic win for the military government rather than a decisive one.
Politics
Libya's eastern parliament removes its speaker after nearly 12 years
Aguila Saleh, a long-time ally of Khalifa Haftar, has been replaced by a Tobruk lawmaker a day after MPs voted to limit the speaker's term.
Politics
Ghana's cabinet backs a formal bid to join BRICS
Accra has asked India to support its application as it looks to widen its economic and diplomatic partnerships, the foreign minister says.
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