Zambia President Hichilema Has Been Reelected for a Second Term
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has been reelected for a second five-year term, the Electoral Commission of Zambia announced early Tuesday. He was declared the outright winner of last Thursday’s presidential election without the need for a run-off, having secured 61.4% of the 5 million votes cast. According to the commission, Hichilema won with 2,965,326 votes and his closest competitor was opposition leader Brian Mundubile, who won 1,856,217 votes. … Hichilema’s victory follows a closely watched election which saw the vote counting suspended last Friday and then restarted hours later under heightened security after the commission said there had been attacks against some polling station officials and some ballot papers had been stolen. Thursday’s election was seen as a test of Hichilema’s economic recovery plan after the copper-rich nation was plunged into a debt crisis in 2020. Hichilema was elected in 2021 and oversaw the restructuring of Zambia’s sovereign debt while reining in inflation and stabilizing the currency. International observers, including the European Union, said the election was largely peaceful, but said the “broader electoral process took place in an environment that limited fundamental freedoms.” AP
Ghana Seeks to Stop Russia from Recruiting Its Citizens as Mercenaries as Ukraine War Death Toll Hits 62
Ghana says Russia has agreed to end the “illegal recruitment” of its citizens to fight in the war in Ukraine, as the number of Ghanaians killed while serving with Russian forces has risen to 62, with another 15 still missing. Ghanaian Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa disclosed the development after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow. Ablakwa said Lavrov assured him that Russia would take steps to stop the recruitment of Ghanaians into its military, according to Bloomberg. The latest death toll is up from 55 Ghanaians reported killed in February, when Ablakwa first raised concerns over the recruitment of Ghanaian nationals to fight for Russia. Russia’s recruitment of African nationals has become an increasing concern for governments across the continent, particularly amid reports that some citizens were lured into military contracts through misleading job offers. Kenya and South Africa have both worked to repatriate citizens who were reportedly deceived into signing contracts with the Russian military. A recent investigation by INPACT alleges that at least 1,417 African nationals from countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa were recruited to fight for Russia between 2023 and 2025. The investigation estimates that at least 316 of those recruits have been killed in combat. … The investigation also identified Ghana as one of the largest sources of recruits, alleging that 272 Ghanaians joined Russian forces, with at least 55 reported dead at the time of its findings. Business Insider
Sudanese Army General Holds Military Talks in Ankara
Sudanese Sovereign Council member and senior military commander Yasser al-Atta held talks in Ankara on Monday with his Turkish counterpart and Turkey’s defence minister, state media reported. The Sudanese army has relied heavily on Turkish-made military equipment, particularly Bayraktar and Akinci drones, in its ongoing war against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Anadolu state news agency reported that al-Atta discussed bilateral military cooperation with the chief of the Turkish General Staff, General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, following an official welcoming ceremony in Ankara. Turkey’s defence ministry said Defence Minister Yasar Guler also met with al-Atta and Bayraktaroglu during the visit, which came at the invitation of the Turkish military chief. … Ties between Khartoum and Ankara have expanded in recent years, with the two nations signing several cooperation agreements spanning trade, investment, transport, agriculture and reconstruction. Sudan Tribune
Sudan Clashes Displace Nearly 10,000 in North Kordofan and Blue Nile, UN Warns
Ongoing violence across Sudan continues to kill civilians and force thousands to flee their homes in North Kordofan and Blue Nile states, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned. In North Kordofan State, local authorities reported that more than a dozen civilians were killed and others wounded during clashes on Friday in Um Arada, a town southwest of the state capital, El Obeid. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that the fighting displaced more than 4,200 people from Um Arada and surrounding areas over Friday and Saturday. The escalating insecurity in North Kordofan has severely hampered relief efforts, prompting humanitarian partners to suspend activities in Al Mazroub locality, an area currently grappling with a cholera outbreak. In Blue Nile State, renewed clashes broke out last week in and around the towns of Geisan and Kurmuk. According to IOM, the hostilities displaced approximately 5,400 people in recent days. Sudan Tribune
Somalia: Pirates Seize Commercial Cargo Ship
An unnamed cargo ship has been seized by armed pirates off the coast of Somalia, international monitors said on Monday. UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) and EU Maritime Security Center Indian Ocean (MSCIO) both issued alerts that the vessel had been boarded by eight armed individuals near the Horn of Africa. … MSCIO said, “The crew is reported safe at this time.” Piracy on the Horn had fallen after raging through the 2000s and peaking around 2011; but 2026 has seen an uptick in activity, with several ships seized by pirates. Three tankers carrying fertilizer and oil were taken in April and May, and a chemical tanker was commandeered off the coast of Yemen in July. All four are being held off the Somali coast. The return of pirates to the Horn of Africa adds to the grief that international shippers face in the Middle East these days as they seek to avoid the contested Strait of Hormuz and as well as Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. DW
Nigerian Drone Maker Raises $52 Million as Ghana Factory Prepares to Become Africa’s Largest
Terra Industries has raised an additional $18 million, taking the Nigerian defence-technology startup’s seed funding to $52 million as it moves ahead with a new manufacturing facility in Ghana and opens its first international office in London. The company said the latest funding will support manufacturing, engineering, operations and business-development teams, as well as deployments across Africa and other markets in the Global South. Terra’s Pax-2 factory in Ghana is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter. The 34,000-square-foot facility is expected to become Africa’s largest drone factory once operational, according to the company. It is a significant next step after Terra’s funding reached $34 million in February, when the startup said it was scaling production of drones, surveillance towers and unmanned ground vehicles. The Ghana facility is a more defined version of the company’s earlier plan to expand its manufacturing base beyond Nigeria. It will follow Terra’s 15,000-square-foot flagship factory in Abuja. Terra says its systems are already used to help protect power plants, mines and other critical infrastructure assets valued at about $11 billion across multiple African countries. The latest raise also comes as African governments and infrastructure operators look for locally built alternatives in a sector where the continent still receives a small share of global defence-technology funding. Business Insider
Nigeria: More Voters, Wider Win Margin for Adeleke, Other Insights from Osun Election Results – Report
The 2026 Osun governorship election produced a striking electoral paradox: more voters came to the polls, both leading candidates increased their parties’ vote totals, yet the gap between the leading candidates, Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party and Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) widened dramatically. … The increase in votes for both candidates means Mr Adeleke’s victory cannot simply be explained by an increase in his own support. Rather, both major political camps mobilised more voters, while the incumbent ultimately expanded the distance between himself and his closest challenger. … The report highlighted that the election drew more voters largely because the electorate itself had grown, rather than because there was a dramatic improvement in the proportion of registered voters participating. AEO said this larger and more competitively mobilised electorate could have implications for attempts to influence voters through inducements. … AEO argued that a larger electorate with stronger competition can make large-scale manipulation more difficult to execute without detection. … The election also offered another test of INEC’s electronic election infrastructure, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV). AEO said BVAS accreditation, IReV uploads of polling-unit results and structured digital result capture are increasingly creating an auditable trail from the polling unit to the final result. But the organisation cautioned that important weaknesses remain. It identified upload delays, transparency around transmission timelines, system resilience and reconciliation across different electoral records as areas requiring further improvement. Premium Times
Mali Jails Government Critic for ‘Discrediting State’
A Malian court sentenced on Monday a prominent broadcaster and an influencer, who had both criticised the ruling junta, to seven years in jail, an AFP journalist saw. The sentences are the latest issued to Malians critical of the unstable west African country’s military government, which came to power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021. Television and radio commentator Mohamed Youssouf Bathily — alias Ras Bath — was convicted by the court in Bamako of criminal conspiracy and discrediting the state, alongside Rokia Doumbia, a noted campaigner known online as “Rose, the cost of living”. Both had been in custody for several years following the airing of a 2023 programme by the journalist dedicated to the economic difficulties facing ordinary Malians. They were given three years’ suspended sentences on top of their seven-year jail terms. Having been held since March 2023, Ras Bath’s emaciated and gaunt features shocked many Malians when he took the stand in his trial, which opened on August 10 at the Bamako Court of Appeal’s criminal chamber. … The broadcaster’s father, former government minister Mohamed Aly Bathily, who was also serving as his son’s defence counsel, told AFP that they had not yet decided whether to appeal. Africanews
Chad’s President Replaces Anti-graft Officials amid Rift with State Oil Firm
Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby has replaced the top management of his country’s anti-corruption authority amid a dispute involving the state-owned Chadian Hydrocarbons Company (SHT). Deby’s action, announced in a decree, came after the anti-corruption authority said its inspectors had been detained and assaulted by state security agents during a visit to audit SHT’s operations earlier this month. The decree did not give any reasons for Deby’s actions, or mention the reported assault or detention. The anti-corruption authority said in a statement last Wednesday its officers were assaulted after they requested documents to check revenues, including sales invoices sent to commodities trader Glencore. Glencore, which was not accused of any wrongdoing by the authority or any other body, declined to comment. The national hydrocarbons company, in a statement published on Thursday, denied that it had deliberately obstructed the audit. The president appointed a new inspector general and deputy inspector general at the anti-corruption authority, replacing the two former post-holders, according to the decree signed on Friday. Chad ranks 157 out of 182 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Reuters
WHO Says Congo Ebola Outbreak Can Still Be Brought under Control within Three Months
Hope remains that it will be possible to bring under control an Ebola outbreak that is currently outpacing containment efforts and is now the second most lethal on record, a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday. The global health agency said earlier this month that reversing Ebola’s spread would be possible within a three-month period, but since then there have been signs that it has worsened, expanding to a sixth province. … Resources are currently lagging requirements, and the WHO has raised about 60% of the $115 million it is seeking for the Ebola response. Other challenges include delayed detection, overwhelmed surveillance teams, armed conflict and a lack of vaccines and treatments for the rare Bundibugyo species of the virus. … Still, containment efforts are ramping up and an extra 400 beds have been added in the past two weeks and more epidemiologists will be deployed to trace contacts of the sick, [Thierno Balde, WHO incident manager,] said. Reuters
East Africa Braces for Prolonged Food Crisis as Another El Niño Season Looms
A dangerous mix of extreme weather, declining soil fertility and soaring market costs, is pushing East Africa towards a prolonged food crisis, with experts warning that the effects could be felt well into 2027 and beyond. Grain prices are already climbing sharply in several countries, crop failures are mounting in key farming zones of Kenya and Uganda, and forecasters say a strong El Niño expected later this year could deepen shortages through floods, droughts and further disruptions to food production. It is a headache Kenya and Uganda, especially will endure, but so will Ethiopia, South Sudan and Rwanda, according to multiple reports warning of the impending shortages. Tanzania, which seems sufficient at the moment will still face pressures of demands from neighbours in distress as oncoming El Niño rains start to pound. For most parts, it is the mounting price of grain that could hurt more as households also struggle with higher cost of living occasioned by the US-Iran war and accompanying inflation. … The prices are an economics factor just as they are based on weather patterns. For Kenya, Uganda, and some parts of Tanzania, the next few months could get worse as El Niño pattern develops for late 2026 into 2027. It could compound pre-existing vulnerabilities from conflict, macroeconomic stress, and localised rainfall deficits. The East African
Senegal Raises Fuel Prices to Keep Subsidy Costs in Check
Senegal raised fuel prices by 7% in order to contain the cost of subsidies, underscoring Africa’s vulnerability to foreign energy shocks like the one sparked by the Iran war. The government has spent nearly all of its full-year allocation for fuel subsidies already, after oil prices surpassed the $85 benchmark that the estimate was based on. Several countries have made moves to reduce their reliance on Middle Eastern supplies — Africa’s richest man is planning a giant, new refinery in East Africa — but the continent still imports around 70% of its fuel needs, forcing capitals into tough fiscal decisions. Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania are among the African countries that have seen fuel prices rise. Soaring prices stemming from the conflict have forced African countries to keep interest rates elevated, holding back growth and adding to already high borrowing costs. Making matters worse, S&P has warned that food inflation could be a “delayed fuse” too. Semafor