Nigeria's government has appointed a 10-member independent panel to investigate the deaths of 37 people in a paramilitary civil defence force holding cell, the interior minister said Saturday.

Survivors of a Nigerian disaster that saw 37 suspected illegal gold miners die while in the custody of a paramilitary civil defence group recounted their panic on Friday as they struggled to breathe inside the cell.

President William Ruto currently on a tour of Nyanza region. PHOTO/UGC. By PATRICK MAYOYO By any serious measure, Senator Edwin Sifuna has become a problem President William Ruto can no longer laugh away. For months, the establishment treated the Nairobi senator as political noise: an ambitious young lawyer, an ODM firebrand, a man supposedly enjoying a moment of celebrity politics that would disappear as quickly as it arrived. But political noise does not normally provoke this much attention from State House. A politician who is irrelevant is ignored. A politician who is dangerous is attacked. And the increasingly personal rhetoric directed at Sifuna suggests that President Ruto’s political strategists have begun to understand what Sifuna’s growing popularity could mean for the 2027 presidential contest. Recent TIFA findings are particularly revealing. In its July 2026 survey, Sifuna emerged as the most preferred opposition presidential contender, with 15 per cent, ahead of Fred M...

Nairobi Senator and Linda Mwananchi leader Edwin Sifuna speaking at Jacaranda grounds. PHOTO/UGC. By PATRICK MAYOYO There are moments in the life of a nation when politics ceases to be merely a contest for power and becomes a referendum on its future. Kenya is approaching such a moment. As the country inches towards the 2027 General Election, a growing sense of frustration, despair and impatience is sweeping across towns, villages, estates and marketplaces. From Nairobi’s crowded estates to the dusty streets of Turkana, from the tea farms of Kericho to the fishing villages of Lake Victoria, millions of Kenyans are asking the same question: when will things get better? The answer to that question may well depend on whether the opposition can remain united. For many citizens, the next election is no longer simply about political parties, personalities or ethnic arithmetic. It is about survival. It is about whether ordinary Kenyans can continue enduring the burden of punitive taxation, ...

In the first quarter of 2026, China became the leading destination for Rwandan exports, accounting for 26% of the total, compared with less than 5% just one year earlier. A spectacular shift, driven by the removal of Chinese tariffs on almost all Rwandan products. But on the ground, access to this market of 1.4 billion consumers depends less on tariffs than on meeting sanitary standards. Report by Aurore Bayoud.

In Tunisia, the summer is ending, but the boating season is still in swing. The boating industry has been quietly growing, despite an overall sluggish economy. Since the sector was reorganized through a trade association in 2024, there have been numerous foreign factories set up and Tunisia has become a hub for boat construction – from pleasure crafts to sophisticated yachts. Report by Lilia Blaise and Fadil Aliriza.

Following its $1.2 million pre-seed announcement, Verascient’s founders explain why their enterprise AI model combines company knowledge infrastructure with engineers working alongside customers.

Eswatini startup HonwinOne is developing GYAP around a Digital Passport intended to connect opportunity discovery with eligibility, preparation and longer-term development. The bigger test is whether an early-stage product can become trusted digital infrastructure for young people and institutions.

Australia’s Treasury will publish an intergenerational report Monday projecting that life expectancy at birth will climb to nearly 90 years for women and 86 for men by 2065-66, even as the country’s population growth slows and households shrink. An extract released Sunday put current life expectancy at about 86 for women and 82 for men, […]

A young child died and two other children and a woman were left in critical condition Sunday after a stabbing attack in a vehicle in the Blue Mountains region west of Sydney, New South Wales Police said. Emergency services responded shortly before 1 p.m. to reports of three children and a woman found with stab […]