Helicopter Crash in Ghana Kills Ministers of Defense and Environment and 6 Others
A military helicopter crashed in Ghana on Wednesday, killing all eight people on board, including the West African country’s defense and environment ministers and two other top officials, the government said. The crash was one of Ghana’s worst air disasters in more than a decade. The Ghanaian military said the helicopter took off in the morning from the capital, Accra, and was heading northwest into the interior toward the gold-mining area of Obuasi in the Ashanti region when it went off the radar. The wreckage was later found in the Adansi area of Ashanti. The cause of the crash was not immediately known, and the military said an investigation was underway. Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were killed, as well as Samuel Sarpong, vice-chair of the National Democratic Congress ruling party, Muniru Mohammed, a top national security adviser, and the four crew members…State media reported that the aircraft was a Z-9 helicopter that is often used for transport and medical evacuation. AP
M23 Rebels Killed 319 Civilians in East Congo in July, UN Rights Chief Says
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels killed at least 319 civilians, including 48 women and 19 children, last month in eastern Congo, Volker Turk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said on Wednesday, citing “first-hand accounts”. The violence in the Rutshuru territory of North Kivu province produced “one of the largest documented death tolls in such attacks since the M23’s resurgence in 2022,” Turk said in a statement. Reuters first reported on the killings in late July, citing findings by the U.N. Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) that put the death toll at 169 people. M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa told Reuters at the time it would investigate, but also said the report could be a “smear campaign”…Two U.N. sources told Reuters that 100 of the dead had been identified by name and that an investigation was ongoing…The UNJHRO findings said M23 targeted suspected members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Congo-based group that includes remnants of Rwanda’s former army and militias that carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Turk said on Wednesday the killings had taken place in four villages in Rutshuru from July 9 to July 21 and that most victims were “local farmers camping in their fields during the planting season”. Reuters
Russia Asks Central African Republic to Replace Wagner with State-run Africa Corps and Pay for It
Officials in the Central African Republic have said that Russia has called on the country to replace the private Wagner mercenary group with Moscow’s state-run Africa Corps and requested payment for further security services. The Central African Republic’s government has been reluctant to agree to Moscow’s demands, because it sees Wagner as more effective and they prefer to pay for services with minerals, not in cash. For years, Wagner has been in Central African Republic, where they are protecting President Faustin Archange Touadera and his government, and helped him win a 2023 constitutional referendum that could extend his power indefinitely. In exchange, they’ve enjoyed access to the country’s rich minerals, including gold. But Russia has been trying to transition from Wagner to Africa Corps since Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed in a plane crash in 2023…A Central African Republic military official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Russian deputy defense minister made the demands about a shift to Africa Corps and payment for its services earlier this year during several visits to the country. The official said government authorities are reluctant to agree, because they believe the private-run Wagner would be more effective than Africa Corps, which is under direct command of the Russian defense ministry. Wagner has “connections with the officers, are feared operationally and have the resources,” said the official, who wasn’t allowed to publicly discuss the matter so spoke on condition of anonymity. The military official said that according to the Russian demands, the Central African Republic “must not only cover the costs of Africa Corps personnel, but also pay significant sums of money to Russia, amounting to billions of CFA francs (millions of dollars). AP
Sudan’s RSF Accused of War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing in Nuba Mountains – Report
A report by a Sudanese rights group has accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias of committing war crimes and systematic ethnic cleansing in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan region, using sexual violence and starvation as weapons of war. The report, compiled by the Adala Project, documents atrocities between April 2023 and January 2025, a period that saw the country’s wider conflict exacerbate a long-running humanitarian crisis in the region. The findings are based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and open-source investigations…The report states that women and girls from Nuba communities have been specifically targeted as part of a campaign of ethnic violence designed to intimidate and subjugate them. All documented rape cases involved women and girls from Nuba groups. The RSF is accused of deliberately attacking farming communities to starve the population, which the report calls “using hunger as a weapon to subjugate non-Arab agricultural communities”. While the report focuses heavily on the RSF, it also documents violence by other parties. Clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in Kadugli on Feb. 3, 2025, killed 41 civilians, including 29 women and girls, the report said. Sudan Tribune
South Sudan: AU Team Heads to Juba in Push to Salvage Peace Deal
A high-level delegation from the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) is set to arrive in Juba over the weekend amid escalating political and security tensions that threaten to unravel South Sudan’s fragile 2018 peace agreement. The three-day mission, scheduled from 10 to 12 August, comes as diplomatic efforts intensify to salvage the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), which has been undermined by ceasefire violations, political detentions, and a deepening crisis of trust among former warring factions…The delegation is expected to assess the crisis firsthand, pressing South Sudan’s Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) to halt hostilities, release political prisoners, and fully implement the peace deal. The council will also meet with civil society groups and regional partners in a bid to revive stalled negotiations. Radio Tamazuj
South Sudan: Western Diplomats Push for Machar’s Release to save Peace Deal
Western embassies called Wednesday for the release of detained South Sudanese First Vice President Riek Machar as they condemned surging violence that threatens the country’s fragile peace deal. The embassies of Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States issued a joint statement warning that ongoing clashes, attacks on aid workers, and political tensions risk plunging the nation back into full-scale conflict. Machar, a leader of the opposition SPLM-IO, has been under house arrest since March 26 amid a deepening rift with President Salva Kiir. The two men, whose rivalry has fueled years of civil war, signed a shaky peace agreement in 2018, but implementation has stalled, and cease-fire violations have increased…The diplomatic push follows Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s suspension of operations in Yei River and Morobo counties in Central Equatoria State after repeated abductions of its staff. Violence targeting humanitarian groups has surged in several areas, including Western Equatoria and Upper Nile, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis. Radio Tamazuj
Nigeria: Militia Attacks in Benue Force Women off Farmlands
[The lives and livelihoods of thousands of women farmers in Benue have been shattered by a wave of violent attacks sweeping through farming communities across Nigeria’s north-central region.] In Benue, Nigeria’s food basket, at least 17 of its 23 local government areas have reported incidents of armed militias raiding villages, burning farms, and driving residents into displacement camps. According to the International Organisation for Migration, as of January 2025, the documented number of internally displaced persons stood at 210,876 persons from 54,476 households across 14 local government areas, with 56 per cent of them women…Women are the backbone of subsistence farming in Benue, says Damilola Olajubutu, a rural development and public policy expert. “They handle everything from production to post-harvest processing, and they contribute between 70 to 80 per cent of agricultural labour.” …Basil Abia, a policy analyst and co-founder of Veriv Africa, a research advisory and business intelligence company that tracks food price and production data across Nigeria, underscores the disproportionate economic impact of these displacements. “In the North-central, especially in Benue, women are central to both food production and processing. When conflict displaces these women, it hits production directly. You’re essentially removing a significant portion of the active farming population.” He adds that their absence from informal markets destabilises local economies. “Women are also critical in food marketing. They’re the traders and market sellers. So when they’re displaced, you don’t just lose producers—you also lose market actors. This affects supply chains and drives up food prices.” Premium Times
Nigeria Issues Flood Alert for Over Half of Its 36 States
Nigerian weather forecasters on Wednesday warned that parts of 21 of the country’s 36 states are likely to experience flooding in coming days due to heavy rains, as Lagos officials warned residents in some areas to evacuate. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) said “conditions are highly conducive for intense and prolonged rainfall, which, when combined with already saturated soil profiles and elevated river levels, significantly increases the risk of flooding”. The weather agency flagged several “high risk” states, including Niger State, where floods flattened a neighbourhood and killed at least 200 in May…Heavy rains sweep Nigeria between June and November, often triggering dangerous floods where poor infrastructure and inadequate drainage often worsen the impact across Africa’s most populous country. In 2022, more than 500 people died and 1.4 million were displaced in the country’s worst floods in a decade, while last year more than 300 people were killed and over a million displaced in at least 34 out of Nigeria’s 36 states. AFP
Uganda Jails TikToker Over Anti-Museveni Clip
A Ugandan student has been imprisoned for two months over a social media post criticising the country’s president, police said Wednesday, provoking alarm over freedom of speech ahead of next year’s election. President Yoweri Museveni is hoping to extend his 40-year rule over the east African country at the elections in January, as rights groups warn of growing repression. Elson Tumwine, an agriculture student, went missing on June 8 in the western district of Hoima where he was on an internship. Following a public outcry over allegations he had been abducted, Tumwine resurfaced at a police station last week before being formally charged over a TikTok post. The post involved a doctored clip that made it seem like Uganda’s parliament speaker Anita Among was accusing Museveni of various past atrocities. Tumwine pleaded guilty to offensive communication in a court in the central town of Entebbe and apologised for the post, police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke told AFP…Human rights lawyer Kato Tumusiime said Tumwine was “one of the several victims of a shrinking media and free-speech space in Uganda. “We are seeing a worrying trend of social media users being charged with similar offences as Tumwine on the pretext of ridiculing and demeaning the president as we head to the general elections,” he told AFP. AFP
Ethiopia Appoints New Envoy to Somalia as Ties Improve
Suleiman Dedefo presented his credentials to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Tuesday, in a sign that relations between the two Horn of Africa neighbors continue to improve. Addis Ababa and Mogadishu had been embroiled in a bitter row prompted by Ethiopia’s quest for sea access from Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. The deal was rejected by Somalia which considers Somaliland its sovereign territory. It accused Ethiopia of violating its territorial integrity. Tensions only eased after Turkey’s mediation. In December 2024, the leaders of Ethiopia and Somalia signed the Ankara Declaration, a Turkish-brokered agreement that helped de-escalate tensions and laid the groundwork for renewed dialogue. The declaration also included a commitment to hold talks over Ethiopia’s search for sea access. In April 2024, Somalia expelled Ethiopia’s ambassador, declaring him persona non grata and gave him 72 hours to leave the country. Africanews
Ghana’s Crypto Craze: Youth, Scams and the Digital Gold Rush
The Ghanaian economy, battered by debt, inflation (13.7% in June 2025) and years of currency instability, has pushed many young people into the murky world of digital finance. While the cedi has stabilised recently – appreciating 48% over the past year – economic recovery remains sluggish, and youth unemployment remains staggeringly high. Apps like Binance, MetaTrader and Pi Network are household names in Ghana now, with young people engaging in spot trading, crypto mining or even ‘copy trading’ – mimicking the actions of perceived successful traders. But the absence of regulation has made the space a minefield…The Bank of Ghana (BoG), long cautious about crypto, is now playing catch-up…Last week, [Governor Johnson Asiama] told The Africa Report that the central bank plans to introduce licensing for crypto platforms by September 2025 for formal supervision…Until now, crypto has operated in a regulatory vacuum…A recent surge in online scams has drawn national attention…“Social media influencers, knowingly or not, amplify these schemes,” warns cybersecurity analyst Kwame Osei Antwi. “The government must act now. We need a centralised verification system, tighter platform controls and urgent public education.” …He added that digital criminals often operate across borders, making cooperation with international enforcement agencies essential. “We need not just regulation, but intelligence and surveillance infrastructure.” The Africa Report
Guinea Ousts UAE Bauxite Giant – What’s Next for the Industry?
A chapter has closed for Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC). On 4 August, General Mamadi Doumbouya signed a decree revoking the mining licence of the Emirati-owned company, controlled by Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA)…The government accuses the company of failing to construct an alumina refinery in Guinea, as agreed, to process the bauxite locally. The decree further states that the mining domain and its resources revert to the state “free of charge and free from any current or future claims relating to rights, interests or benefits”. GAC initially acquired the 690km² concession in the Boké Region in 2001, though bauxite extraction only began in 2019. The Emirati group disputes Guinea’s decision and plans to seek arbitration at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Authorities in Conakry have already assumed complete control over the mine and its operations. Following the decree, General Doumbouya set up Nimba Mining Company, granting it the GAC concession for 25 years. The Africa Report