Thousands of Protestors In South Africa Demand Removal Of Undocumented Migrants

Thousands of Protesters in South Africa Demand Removal of Undocumented Migrants SOUTH AFRICA South Africa Thousands of demonstrators marched across South Africa on Tuesday to demand that undocumented migrants leave the country, prompting authorities to deploy a heavy police presence as officials warned against violence. The protests, organized by the group March and March, took place in major cities, including Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban. Police said thousands of officers were deployed to prevent clashes following attacks on foreign nationals in recent months. President Cyril Ramaphosa urged demonstrators to protest peacefully, adding that immigration enforcement must remain the responsibility of the government. The demonstrations follow months of escalating anti-migrant sentiment in the context of South Africa’s economic struggles. The country’s 30 percent unemployment rate and persistent inequalities have sparked claims about undocumented migrants taking jobs and increasing crime rates. An Afrobarometer survey found that most South Africans view immigration negatively, with seven in 10 saying immigrants hurt the economy and 85 percent supporting tighter restrictions on refugees. Around 25,000 migrants from countries including Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique have returned home in fear of the violence. Nigeria has separately flown out around 600 of its citizens. Government officials have said the protests have mostly been peaceful, aside from a few incidents including protesters throwing bricks in Yeoville, a suburb of Johannesburg. South Africa has experienced large-scale xenophobic violence in the past, with a 2008 attack on foreign nationals killing more than 60 people and displacing thousands. Similar outbreaks occurred in 2015 and 2019. National statistics from 2023 show migrants made up a little more than 4 percent of South Africa’s population, a lower share than in other Anglophone countries such as Canada, where migrants account for 22 percent, according to United Nations data. Anti-migrant advocates claim the figures do not include undocumented migrants, but officials insist they use census data that is designed to capture them too.

Niger Becomes A Battlefield For Islamic State and Al Qaeda

Niger Becomes a Battlefield for Islamic State and al-Qaeda as They Expand in the Sahel NIGER Niger Earlier this month, gunmen stormed Niger’s main airport in the capital, Niamey. It was the second attack this year on the facility. The first, in January, was claimed by Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP). The second, which killed 11 soldiers and two civilians, was claimed by ISSP’s rival, the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). The airport is a strategic target because it hosts military facilities, drone infrastructure and the headquarters of the Alliance of Sahel States, the bloc formed by Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso after their juntas seized power promising to defeat Islamist insurgencies. For militants, striking is a way to expose the gap between the juntas’ promises and their results and send a warning about the government’s shrinking control as the country becomes caught in a war between two competing terror groups. “(The earlier attack, in January,) shattered the city’s long-held reputation as a safer haven than its regional counterparts,” World Politics Review wrote. “The attack confirms both the growing strength and the strategic evolution of jihadist groups in the region, enabled by their expanding capabilities.” The attack shows Niger edging toward the dangerous pattern already seen in Mali and Burkina Faso in the central Sahel, analysts say. Islamist militants are pushing beyond rural strongholds to test state nerve centers, exploit broken regional ties and challenge government control. Niger is not lost yet, but unless it rebuilds intelligence, cooperation and civilian trust fast, it may soon be fighting to hold much more than its borders, analysts add. The airport attack “highlights a dangerous escalation in both the capability and ambition of these groups, marking a departure from localized rural insurgencies to coordinated strikes on vital national infrastructure,” said Héni Nsaibia, senior West Africa analyst at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). “The attack also fits a broader regional pattern of jihadist groups expanding their operational reach toward major population centers and critical infrastructure.” Niger now sits between overlapping jihadist theaters. JNIM is stronger across Mali and Burkina Faso, while Islamic State’s Sahel branch, known as Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), has built strength in western Niger and near routes toward Nigeria. The groups are rivals, but their competition can make the violence worse, not better, as each tries to prove reach, power and relevance. Niger recorded more than 1,900 violent deaths in 2025, with ISSP, JNIM and the Nigerien military all linked to civilian harm. “Niger is a territory of competition between them,” Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, told the Associated Press. “If JNIM loses the upper hand in Niger against the Islamic State, it will jeopardize its upper hand in Mali and Burkina Faso. … You have an open space like the Wild West, where each is looking to mark its territory.” The junta’s answer has been to promise more force and blame outsiders. After taking power in 2023, Niger’s junta expelled French and US forces and turned toward Russia. Niger then joined Mali and Burkina Faso in leaving the powerful regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), weakening the regional cooperation needed against groups that cross borders with ease while aiming to expand to the coastal areas, analysts say. Some analysts argue that Niger remains better positioned than Mali and Burkina Faso to combat the insurgency. “Niger’s military is seen as more professional and disciplined than its Malian and Burkinabe counterparts,” the Sahel Research Group wrote. Niger has also largely avoided relying on civilian or ethnic militias, it added. Its capital is not under the kind of pressure Mali’s capital, Bamako, faced during JNIM’s recent fuel blockade, its government has not lost the same breadth of territory as Burkina Faso and its security forces repelled both airport assaults. Those advantages may buy Niger time, but not a way out. Analysts say it needs to rebuild the strategy weakened after Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani seized power in the 2023 coup. That means restoring security partnerships that provide intelligence and training, reviving cross-border cooperation against militants and showing restraint at home to avoid worsening grievances that insurgents exploit. “Niger before the coup was pursuing a strategy that was, by realist standards, coherent: building a balance of power through alliances and managing threats with available capacity,” Modern Diplomacy wrote. “The junta dismantled that strategy, triggered a new security dilemma, and worsened the very conditions it claimed to be remedying.”

As Ebola Spreads, The DRC Struggles To Contain It

As Ebola Spreads, the DRC Struggles to Contain It DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO At the epicenter of the latest Ebola outbreak, doctors despair. At Mongbwalu General Hospital’s Ebola ward, patients young and old languish, and some are already dead. In a nearby ward, medical personnel lie sick and dying, after treating patients without protective gear, which is hard to come by in the town of Mongbwalu in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Relatives come at all hours, bringing food for the sick because there is none at the hospital, or wailing in grief because their loved one has died. No one here has ever dealt with Ebola or even knows how to. Prior outbreaks had passed them by. As a result, local medical personnel couldn’t identify what was killing the people of their town for weeks. Now, the hospital, which finds itself in the middle of a growing crisis, is understaffed, under-resourced and overwhelmed. Alex Bogole, a Congolese doctor in the intensive care department of the hospital, told the New York Times he is angry. The virus had been spreading for months, virtually unimpeded, “and this is the best we can do?” he wondered. He’s referring to the slow response by the government and the world. “They hold meetings and meetings,” he said. “What is the purpose of these meetings? People are dying, people are getting infected, people are in danger. It’s very slow.” The latest outbreak of Ebola was declared in the middle of May. But medical officials believe it’s been spreading for months undetected. Now they worry that it’s going to surpass the death toll of the last major outbreak: From 2014 to 2016, Ebola killed more than 11,000 people out of nearly 29,000 infected in West Africa. It was the largest and deadliest outbreak in history. To date, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported 635 confirmed cases and 127 deaths from the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. Uganda has reported 19 confirmed cases and two deaths. There is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for this strain. Now, scientists are scrambling to develop vaccines and treatments to stop Bundibugyo from spreading further. The location of this outbreak is making it difficult, however. Mongbwalu is in Ituri province, a volatile region being fought over by armed groups, all competing for access to its gold and other minerals. It is part of the wider conflict zone in eastern Congo, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized large amounts of territory and are currently fighting government troops. As a result, Mongbwalu attracts people from other areas displaced by the fighting, as well as those seeking work mining gold or selling to those who do. But as people come and go, they could easily spread Ebola, officials say. Meanwhile, traditional burial practices in the Congo and elsewhere often involve family members touching the body of the deceased. But that can transmit the virus, doctors say. Officials have restricted traditional burials but those orders are being defied. As a result, violence has broken out at the hospital and others in the region. In late May, dozens of locals attempted to storm the hospital to reclaim their loved ones’ remains. It was the third attack in a week. It also sent Ebola patients fleeing, potentially spreading the disease. At the same time, some locals believe Ebola is a hoax. One conspiracy theory is that nonprofit workers brought the disease to make money. Another is that the outbreak has been fabricated to frighten the population and gain access to minerals, including gold. “We are looking at a lot of superstition and misinformation around this disease,” Saki Roger, a Congolese neurosurgeon who contracted Ebola during a prior outbreak in 2018 while treating a patient, told the Washington Post. Roger recounted how people with the illness are often rejected by their families. Some infected people also shun the few health facilities that exist in the region. “Instead of coming to healthcare services, (the sick) take alternative solutions with traditional healers or other alternatives, and contribute further to spread the outbreak,” said Abdou Sebushishe, a medical doctor with the International Medical Corps in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in an interview with CBS News. Meanwhile, the US has moved to set up a facility in central Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus, setting off outrage across the country. Davji Atellah, a physician from the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, said the group would not “sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony.” “If it is too dangerous for America, it is too dangerous for Kenya,” he said. While the government agreed to the proposal, a Kenyan court said no – at least for now. Protests broke out over the issue this month, with demonstrators saying they don’t want Kenya to become a dumping ground for wealthy sick foreigners. Two people have died in the protests. In Nanyuki, where the facility is to be located, locals worry about becoming infected with Ebola, which has not been reported in Kenya. They are also concerned about what Ebola infections could do to their lives, their livelihoods and their children, citing curfews and a disruption of business and education. “What’s shocking is that the Americans don’t want their infected fellow citizens to step into their own country but to come to Kenya, David Mulinge, a souvenir seller, told the Guardian. “That’s like treating us as lesser beings.”

Ethiopia: Conflicts Pull The Country Apart

Ethiopia’s Leader Touts Unity as Conflicts Pull It Apart ETHIOPIA Ethiopia The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention recently sounded the alarm about violence against the ethnic Amhara community in Ethiopia. In an alert, the US-based organization said the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other groups, including the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), have been systematically raping, displacing and killing the Amhara, who are largely Christian and trace their heritage to the imperial dynasty that ruled the Horn of Africa country from 1270 through the early 1970s. “The killings, the targeting of the youth, the systematic sexual and gender-based violence, the enforced disappearances, and the deliberate destruction of private property showcase a coordinated campaign against the Amhara, intended to destroy their communities and threaten their survival as a people,” it said. And while Abiy and the TPLF have both been accused of targeting the Amhara, they continue to fight each other for control of Tigray, a restive region where TPLF fighters had been in full-scale revolt against the central government before a fragile peace took hold in 2022, one that analysts say is disintegrating. The TPLF ran the country until Abiy took power in 2018. Abiy then won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for ending Ethiopia’s war against Eritrea. In his early years, he won Western plaudits for ushering in political reforms, privatizing state-owned enterprises, spending big on infrastructure, and welcoming foreign investment to stoke an economic boom. IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva recently hailed Ethiopia’s economic progress, noting one of the highest economic growth rates in Africa. And Abiy has more ambitious plans for the country: While Ethiopia has long been associated with famine, the country is now working on becoming self-sufficient in food production. Abiy’s tenure has stoked controversies, however. Critics say he has consolidated power in ways that have favored his Prosperity Party and fellow Oromo, members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, while cracking down on human rights activists, dissidents, journalists and others who criticize his policies. Critics also accuse the prime minister of stoking division at home to expand his power even as his government boasts that Ethiopia is more united than ever. In fact, analysts say Abiy has been at war with other groups within Ethiopia’s borders for years, which is threatening the fragile unity of Ethiopia. For example, the government has been fighting insurgents in Oromia, Amhara – the country’s second-largest region – and the Somali Region. Meanwhile, Tigray is heating up again. The TPLF recently pushed out government-backed regional leader Tadesse Werede and reinstated the prewar regional council. The move was led by TPLF chair Debretsion Gebremichael, who was the region’s leader during the 2020-2022 war between Tigray and the federal government. Now the Ethiopian government accuses Eritrea, which helped the government during that war and committed atrocities in Tigray, of working with the TPLF. Analysts say another war in Tigray is likely: The peace agreement is disintegrating with the TPLF ouster of Tadesse Werede. Eritrea, which felt betrayed by the 2022 peace agreement, has been supporting the Fano rebels in Amhara and other rebel groups in Oromia. As a result, analysts believe another war with Eritrea is brewing, too, especially because of Ethiopia’s renewed demand for access to the Eritrean port of Assab on the Red Sea, 40 miles from the Ethiopian border. Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of wanting to reverse its secession from that country three decades ago. At the same time, Ethiopia has a strained relationship with Egypt over its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and is in growing danger of becoming a new front in Sudan’s civil war. Analysts say Sudan’s rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) may have a new base of operations in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia, near the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, on Sudan’s eastern border. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have accused Ethiopia of hosting, arming and otherwise supporting the RSF. Analysts say Ethiopia’s growing involvement in Sudan’s civil war may push the SAF closer to Eritrea and Eritrean-backed rebels in Ethiopia. Sudan’s government supported the TPLF during the Tigray war. Commentators say that Ethiopia is in a volatile situation of its own making. “Growing friction between Ethiopia and its neighbors has added to the volatile mix as diplomatic disputes threaten to escalate into proxy fights or even open confrontation,” wrote Foreign Affairs. This backdrop is one reason why Africa Center researchers are wondering if parliamentary elections in Ethiopia on June 1 will yield stability or empower the centrifugal forces that threaten to rip the country apart. The prime minister’s Prosperity Party is expected to win easily in elections analysts say are just a formality. While opposition candidates complain of harassment, the Prosperity Party is running uncontested in 64 of the country’s 547 constituencies. No voting will occur in Tigray and parts of Amhara. Abiy will keep his job, say observers. Whether or not he can keep the country together is another matter.

Congo: Violence Disrupts Ebola Response

Violence Disrupts Ebola Response as Cases Surge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo on Sunday as suspected cases of the disease surged past 900 and infections spread into neighboring Uganda, complicating efforts to contain the outbreak. Gunfire erupted around Mongbwalu General Hospital in Ituri province after attackers demanded that the bodies of two relatives be handed over, according to medical staff. Sunday’s attack was the third in a week targeting healthcare facilities responding to the outbreak. On Saturday, residents in Mongbwalu burned down a treatment tent run by Doctors Without Borders, allowing 18 suspected Ebola patients to flee. Another treatment center in Rwampara was torched Thursday after relatives were prevented from retrieving the body of a man suspected of dying from Ebola. Observers noted that the violence reflects growing fear and distrust among residents as authorities impose strict burial measures because Ebola victims’ bodies can remain highly contagious. On Friday, DRC banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people in northeastern parts of the country. The recent outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, which spread undetected for weeks before authorities declared the outbreak in mid-May. Last week, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, warning that rising infections in DRC and Uganda point to a potentially larger regional outbreak. On Sunday, Congolese authorities said there were 904 suspected Ebola cases, mostly in Ituri province, where confirmed cases have surpassed 100. Officials also reported 119 suspected deaths, although figures released separately for each region added up to 220 deaths. Officials could not immediately explain the discrepancy. Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday that at least 220 people were now suspected to have died and warned health workers were “playing catch-up” after delays in detecting the outbreak. Elsewhere, Uganda has confirmed seven linked infections after two new cases were reported Monday. The WHO noted that while the outbreak poses a “very high” risk for DRC, the risk of global spread remains low. The organization’s officials added that scientists at Britain’s University of Oxford are working on a vaccine that could begin clinical trials soon.

Congo: New Ebola Strain Kills 130, WHO Declares Emergency

New Ebola Strain Kills More Than 130 in Congo as WHO Declares Emergency DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO A fast-moving Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed more than 130 people and prompted the World Health Organization to declare an international health emergency, amid fears the virus could spread across central and eastern Africa. Health officials said the outbreak was caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which was first identified in 2007. It has no approved vaccine. The strain has a fatality rate of up to 50 percent. The virus was first detected late last month in a nurse in Bunia, in eastern Congo. Additional cases have since been reported in that region and in neighboring Uganda. The DRC health ministry has recorded more than 513 suspected cases and at least 131 deaths. On Monday, officials also reported that at least six US citizens had been exposed to the virus. Authorities and civil society groups warned that the outbreak is spreading in densely populated eastern regions affected by years of conflict and weak infrastructure. Among the areas of concern is the eastern city of Goma, which is currently occupied by rebel forces. Officials said insecurity and poor healthcare access could hamper efforts to contain the virus and sparked fears that cases could be underreported. The WHO said the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the organization’s second-highest alert level. The organization warned that the high positivity rate, confirmed cases in two countries and rising reports of suspected infections “all point towards a potentially much larger outbreak.” The WHO advised DRC and Uganda to introduce cross-border screening measures to limit further spread. Neighboring Rwanda announced it would tighten screening along its border with DRC as a “precautionary measure,” while Nigeria said it was “closely monitoring the situation.” This is the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in DRC. The country’s deadliest outbreak, between 2018 and 2020, killed nearly 2,300 people. Ebola spreads through bodily fluids and can cause fever, vomiting and hemorrhaging. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.

Botswana Bets That Diamonds Are Forever

Botswana Bets That ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ BOTSWANA Botswana In a village outside Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, Keorapetse Koko sat on an aging couch, facing the collapse of a career built on diamonds. “I have debts and I don’t know how I am going to pay them,” the mother of two told the Associated Press. “Every month (creditors) call me asking for money. But where do I get it?” Koko lost her job in 2024, becoming one of many diamond workers pushed out of the industry as inexpensive laboratory-grown stones made in China and India cut into Africa’s natural diamond trade. “The appeal of diamonds was always partly based on scarcity – and now they are no longer scarce,” mining historian Duncan Money told the Continent, an African weekly. For Botswana, the question is no longer whether diamonds are forever, but whether the country can afford to bet even more heavily on them. The government is currently trying to buy more control over De Beers, the diamond giant at the center of its economy. Botswana already owns 15 percent of the company, while Anglo American, the firm’s parent, owns the remaining 85 percent and wants to sell. A mid-April deadline for potential buyers to bid for Anglo American’s stake passed without a buyer being publicly named. Anglo said in its April 28 quarterly statement that the sale is still ongoing. “Buying De Beers is a risky undertaking – we do not have the money to buy De Beers,” Keith Jefferis, a former deputy governor of the Bank of Botswana, told business news publication the Executive. “We would have to borrow and repay that debt, and that is highly risky given diamond market performance and our current fiscal position.” Jefferis, managing director of Econsult Botswana, also warned that if De Beers struggled, Botswana might have to use tax revenue to prop it up, further straining public finances. The risks are already visible. Mining and Quarrying – official categories in the country – dropped 14 percent last year, while Diamond Traders, which refers to the buying, sorting, valuing, marketing and selling of diamonds, fell 17.6 percent. Botswana ended 2025 with 12 million carats of unsold rough diamonds in stock, nearly double the target of 6.5 million carats. It is easy to see why Anglo American wants to shed De Beers. But Botswana wants more of it because diamonds remain too important to leave to someone else. Botswana’s President Duma Boko says the larger stake is a strategic necessity. Mines Minister Bogolo Kenewendo told the Financial Times that Boko wanted “to ensure Botswana’s full control over this strategic national asset and the entire value chain including marketing.” The urgency is also political. Boko is under growing pressure less than two years after winning office in November 2024 on promises to raise the minimum wage and increase student allowances. But the diamond slump has hit state revenues and public services, while the economy shrank in 2024 and 2025. The stones account for about 80 percent of exports and roughly a quarter of GDP. When the market weakens, the whole country feels it. Diamonds turned Botswana from one of the world’s poorest countries into one of Africa’s most admired development stories, helping fund health care, education and infrastructure. Botswana is currently the world’s second-largest producer behind Russia, but that ranking offers less comfort than it once did. Boko has acknowledged that Botswana cannot keep relying so heavily on diamonds. “We’re looking to diversify…,” he told Reuters, explaining the government would focus on the green economy, climate-smart agriculture, renewable energy and a broader mining sector. Analysts said that the shift remained essential and that gaining more control of De Beers could not be a substitute for it. “The diamond strategy must therefore interact with, and not compete with, other national priorities,” wrote investment firm AInvest. “This includes infrastructure investment and the development of other sectors to build a more resilient economy.” For Joseph Tsimako, president of the Botswana Mine Workers Union, the stakes are counted in livelihoods, not strategy papers. “Diamonds built our country,” Tsimako told diamond trading platform IDEX Online. “Now, as the world changes, we must find a way to make sure they don’t destroy the lives of the people who helped build it.”