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☆ Heavy Rains and Floods Sweep Cities Across East Africa
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

At least 200 people were killed and dozens more were injured across East Africa in recent days, officials and aid groups said, as torrential rains, floods and landslides pummeled towns and cities in a region already grappling with the devastating effects of the climate change crisis. The extreme rains unleashed a wave of destruction across Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi, flooding homes, demolishing businesses and leaving many people stranded on rooftops. The downpours exposed yet again the bad roads and poor drainage systems in some of the region’s biggest cities, which residents have persistently complained about. They also revealed how poor people, who live in sprawling shantytowns without access to proper roads, water or power, bear the biggest brunt of destructive floods.

Organizations: East Locations: East Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi

☆ Ugandan Court Upholds Draconian Anti-Gay Law
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Uganda’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday largely upheld a sweeping anti-gay law that President Yoweri Museveni signed last year, undermining the efforts of activists and rights groups to abolish legislation that drew worldwide condemnation and strained the East African nation’s relationship with the West. The legislation, which was signed into law by Mr. Museveni in May, calls for life imprisonment for anyone who engages in gay sex. But the law was popular in Uganda, a landlocked nation of over 48 million people, where religious and political leaders frequently inveigh against homosexuality. The fallout for Uganda will be watched closely in other African countries where anti-gay sentiment is on the rise and anti-gay legislation is under consideration, including Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania and South Sudan. In February, Ghana’s Parliament passed an anti-gay law, but the country’s president said that he would not sign it until the Supreme Court ruled on its constitutionality.

Persons: Yoweri Museveni, Museveni Organizations: East, West, World Bank Locations: Uganda’s, Uganda, United States, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, South Sudan, Ghana’s

☆ Shabab Gunmen Penetrate Heavy Security to Besiege Hotel in Somalia
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Five assailants with the terrorist group Al Shabab stormed a hotel in a highly fortified area close to Somalia’s presidential palace on Thursday night, engaging security forces for about 12 hours in sustained fighting that left three people dead and injured 27 — including members of parliament — before the militants were finally killed, according to Somali officials. The attack underscored Al Shabab’s enduring capacity to stage attacks on a high-profile target in the capital, despite an aggressive counteroffensive by the Somali government, backed by the U.S. military. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud promised to eliminate the group by fighting it militarily, ideologically and financially, when he came to power in mid-2022. The militants with Al Shabab, a Qaeda-linked group, stormed the SYL Hotel in central Mogadishu after 9:30 p.m. local time, a police spokesman, Kasim Ahmed Roble, said Friday. Video footage broadcast on local television showed mangled cars and widespread destruction near the hotel’s entrance, while debris and blood covered the hotel’s floors inside.

Persons: Al Shabab, —, Al, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Kasim Ahmed Roble Organizations: U.S . Locations: Somali, Mogadishu

☆ Somalia Faces ‘Pivotal Year’ as Crises Open on Several Fronts
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Brian Otieno | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A 10-year defense and economic deal with Turkey to protect its seacoast and bolster its naval force. An agreement with the United States to construct five military bases for over $100 million. An enhanced defense cooperation accord with Uganda to boost the fight against the terrorist group Al Shabab. The three security pacts signed by Somalia in recent days underscore the increasing perils the Horn of Africa nation faces both internally and externally. Equally worrisome, tensions are growing between Somalia and its western neighbor, Ethiopia, over Somalia’s coastline — the longest in mainland Africa — threatening to set off a new conflict in a vital global shipping route in an increasingly volatile region.

Persons: Al Shabab Organizations: African Union Locations: Turkey, United States, Uganda, Somalia, of Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia’s, Africa

☆ Shaken by Grisly Killings of Women, Activists in Africa Demand Change
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A photograph of Grace Wangari Thuiya, a 24-year-old beautician who was killed in Nairobi, Kenya, in January. Her boyfriend assaulted and repeatedly stabbed her, police told her mother. Credit... Natalia Jidovanu for The New York Times

Persons: Grace Wangari Thuiya, Natalia Jidovanu Organizations: The New York Locations: Nairobi, Kenya

☆ ‘We’re Going to Stand Up’: Queer Literature is Booming in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As a queer teenager growing up in northern Nigeria, Arinze Ifeakandu often found himself searching for books that reflected what he felt. He scoured the book stands in Kano, the city where he lived, hoping to find stories that focused on L.G.B.T.Q. Ifeakandu wanted more. “I knew I wanted to write characters who are queer. That’s the only way I am going to show up on the page.”

Persons: Arinze Ifeakandu, Ifeakandu, “, ” Ifeakandu, ” Locations: Nigeria, Kano

☆ Kenyan Cult Leader Is Charged in the Deaths of 191 Children
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A doomsday cult leader whom the Kenyan authorities say ordered his congregants to starve themselves to death was charged on Tuesday, along with 29 others, with the murder of 191 children — in a case that has drawn global attention and brought widespread scrutiny over religious freedoms in the East African nation. The decision, by a court in the coastal town of Malindi, was handed down almost a month after a judge ordered that the cult leader, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, and his co-accused undergo mental health evaluations before facing any charges. Mr. Mackenzie, a pastor, and the other accused pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to appear before a court in early March. Since last April, hundreds of bodies have been exhumed from the 800-acre Shakahola Forest, where Mr. Mackenzie and his followers lived, with many buried in shallow graves. Dozens of other followers have been rescued, and hundreds more are missing, according to local officials.

Persons: Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, Mackenzie Locations: East, Malindi

☆ Kenya Plans to Bypass Court Order in Haiti Deployment
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Kenya’s government will not await a court of appeal ruling before deploying its forces to Haiti, a senior government official said, further underscoring the government’s determination to move ahead with the proposed multinational force aimed at bringing stability to the gang-ravaged Caribbean nation. Abraham Korir Sing’Oei, the principal secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The New York Times in an interview that Kenya and Haiti were working to finalize a bilateral agreement in the next two weeks and that, once in place, Kenyan forces would immediately deploy. The declaration from Mr. Sing’Oei comes just a week after the country’s High Court blocked the deployment of 1,000 police officers, saying it could go ahead only if there was a “reciprocal arrangement” detailing the framework under which Kenyan forces can operate in Haiti. Mr. Sing’Oei said the High Court provided a legal pathway for the deployment, namely the bilateral reciprocal arrangement with Haiti. But he said the government was appealing the decision to a higher court anyway to seek clarifications on some findings the government “finds problematic.”

Persons: Abraham Korir Sing’Oei, Sing’Oei, Kenya’s Organizations: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Kenyan Locations: Haiti, Caribbean, Kenya

The Kaunda suit has become a choice attire for African celebrities, elders and politicians in recent years, including one particularly high-profile convert — Kenya’s president, William Ruto. A single-breasted safari jacket with short or long sleeves and patch pockets — often worn with matching pants — it was initially made popular in the 1960s by Kenneth Kaunda, the first post-colonial president of Zambia. But the Kaunda suit was banned from the Kenyan Parliament this week, along with other forms of traditional African dress and tightly-fitted clothing for women. The Kenyan speaker of Parliament decreed that such attire violates the parliamentary dress code — which largely conforms to a modern Western working wardrobe. A fashion trend like the Kaunda suit “does not accord with the seriousness of the proceedings of the house and its committees,” Moses Wetangula, the speaker of the Parliament, said in a speech on Tuesday.

Persons: Kaunda, —, William Ruto, Kenneth Kaunda, “, ” Moses Wetangula Organizations: Kenyan Locations: Zambia

☆ Kenya’s Leader Lifts His Global Profile. At Home, the Public Fumes.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He has taken dozens of trips abroad boosting his credentials on climate change, while raising taxes at home. He pledged to send his country’s police to quash gang violence in Haiti, though they stand accused of brutality at home. And he recently hosted an eight-course state dinner for King Charles III, amid skyrocketing food and fuel prices. Kenya’s president, William Ruto, is facing searing criticism and mounting public anger just over one year since he took power after a tightly contested election. Mr. Mwaniki, who had worked closely with Mr. Ruto and his allies, said he’s been apologizing to constituents he had convinced to vote for Mr. Ruto.

Persons: King Charles III, William Ruto, Ruto, ”, Antony Ikonya Mwaniki, Mwaniki, he’s Locations: Haiti, Kiambu County, Nairobi

Bodies littered the road out of El Geneina, a town in western Sudan, as Dr. Rodwan Mustafa and his family sped down a bumpy road that led to the border with Chad and, they hoped, safety. A day earlier, rampaging Arab militiamen had grabbed Dr. Mustafa by the neck, accusing him of giving medical care to enemy fighters. Racing toward the border with his family in a car, he saw chickens clucking over the bloodied corpses of those who hadn’t fled in time. A camp for displaced people stood empty, burned to the ground. “The smell of death was everywhere,” said Dr. Mustafa, who made it to a refugee camp in Chad and spoke by phone from there.

Persons: Rodwan Mustafa, Mustafa, hadn’t, ” Locations: El, Sudan, Chad

Omar Victor Diop History, inheritance and possibility are re-imagined through the lens of the Senegalese photographer, one of the most successful young artists on the continent. Through his bold images, Diop examines the interplay between African and diasporic experiences by knitting together the past and present. Douglass sat for over 160 portraits, including a daguerreotype circa 1855 (bottom), to challenge negative representations of African Americans. Cultural Archive/Alamy In a 2015 self-portrait (top), from Diop’s series “Project Diaspora,” the artist emulates Frederick Douglass, who was the most photographed man of his era. Douglass sat for over 160 portraits, including a daguerreotype circa 1855 (bottom), to challenge negative representations of African Americans.

Persons: Omar Victor Diop, Frederick Douglass, Diop, Selma, ”, ” Omar Victor Diop, Douglass, “, ” Diop, Mama Casset, Malick Sidibé, Samuel Fosso, Martin Luther King Jr Organizations: paisley, West Locations: Senegalese, American, United States, Soweto, South Africa, Africa, “, African American, Dakar, Paris, Nigeria, Senegal, France, Nairobi, Lagos, Mali, America, African

☆ King Charles, Visiting Kenya, Faces Calls to Answer for Colonial Abuses
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At 86, his gnarled hands grasping a walking stick as he ambled around his small patch of land facing Mount Kenya, Joseph Macharia Mwangi recalled with bitterness the years that he had spent fighting the British colonial government in Kenya. Seven decades ago, he had camped with Mau Mau rebels on that mountain and in the forests, braving frigid rain, lions and elephants. And when the colonial forces eventually captured him, he said he was tortured and sentenced to two years of hard labor. “The British forces were really hard on us. It is his first state visit to any member of the Commonwealth group of nations since he became king last year, and the first to an African country.

Persons: Joseph Macharia Mwangi, “, ”, Mwangi, Dedan, King Charles III Organizations: British, Commonwealth Locations: Mount Kenya, Kenya, Mau, British, East, African

☆ Students on the Run, Schools Taken by Troops and a Generation’s Catastrophe
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The young girls and boys, wearing colorful scarves, tattered shirts and flip-flops, ran across the dusty ground to form jagged lines and face the teachers at the start of the school day. The children, hundreds of them gathered in makeshift classrooms, had arrived in this aid camp in recent months after fleeing the war in their homeland of Sudan. But even as they began to gain a sense of normalcy in their schooling, many were still burdened with memories of the vicious conflict they endured, which had left loved ones dead and their homes destroyed. “We know that pain is lasting inside their hearts,” said Mujahid Yaqub, a 23-year-old who fled Sudan and now teaches English at the school in the Wedwil refugee center, in Aweil in South Sudan. Many of the children, he said, were unable to focus in class and often cried over the memories of their terrifying escape from shellings and massacres.

Persons: ”, Mujahid Yaqub Locations: Sudan, Aweil, South Sudan, shellings

☆ Darfur’s New Generation, Once Full of Promise, Now Suffers ‘Fire of War’
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For weeks, Bahaadin Adam had heard nothing from family members stuck in the fighting that convulsed Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state and the second largest city in Sudan. Mr. Adam, who had fled weeks before to neighboring South Sudan, remained jittery, constantly checking his phone for updates. “I was broken into pieces,” Mr. Adam said in a recent interview in Renk town in South Sudan. Five months after a devastating war began in Sudan between rival military forces, the western region of Darfur has quickly become one of the hardest hit in the nation. People in Darfur have already suffered genocidal violence over the past two decades that has left as many as 300,000 people dead.

Persons: Bahaadin Adam, Adam, — Meethaaq, —, Mr Locations: South Darfur, Sudan, South Sudan, Renk, Darfur

The General Assembly has undergone tremendous changes as its influence has waned. What does the General Assembly do? Unlike the U.N. Security Council, which can impose sanctions or authorize the use of force, the General Assembly is purely deliberative. The General Assembly also appoints the U.N. secretary general, currently António Guterres, for five-year terms and the Security Council’s 10 nonpermanent members. Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a searing rebuke of the Russian invasion of his country in a recorded address to the General Assembly.

Persons: ”, Peter J, Hoffman, that’s, Dr, “, it’s, Israel, António, Volodymyr Zelensky, Guterres, ’, ” Dr, Indira Gandhi of Organizations: United Nations, Assembly, Security Council, Social Council, BRICS, New School, . Security, United Nations ’, Pacific, General, Sustainable, General Assembly, Security, New Zealand —, Indira Gandhi of India Locations: Manhattan, New York City, United, New York, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Caribbean, Western Europe, Ukraine, “, South Sudan, Europe, Americas, Australia, North America, Israel, Japan, South Korea, New, ”, Oceania, America

☆ Gabon Military Says Deposed President Is ‘Free’ to Travel Overseas
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ali Bongo Ondimba, who was deposed as president of Gabon last week in a coup that ended his family’s decades-long grip on power in the central African nation, is no longer subject to house arrest and is free to leave the country, the ruling military junta has said. Mr. Bongo’s health has long been a concern after he suffered a stroke five years ago and was often seen walking with a cane. The military said in a statement read on national television on Wednesday night that he would be allowed to travel overseas for medical care. The announcement from the military came two days after the leader of the coup, Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema, a cousin of the ousted leader and the head of the elite Republican Guard that was tasked with guarding him, was sworn in as Gabon’s new leader. After taking oath on Monday, General Nguema promised to hold free and fair elections but did not indicate when or how they would take place.

Persons: Ali Bongo Ondimba, Brice Oligui Nguema, General Nguema Organizations: Republican Guard Locations: Gabon

Every day, Vélina Élysée Charlier drives past barricaded neighborhoods and frequently sees dead bodies lying on the street, she said, a result of score-settling between gangs and vigilantes in Haiti’s capital. After dusk, she never leaves home for fear of being killed or kidnapped. When her 8-year-old daughter got appendicitis one evening, Ms. Charlier said, the family waited until morning to get her medical care since driving to a hospital was out of the question. “Port-au-Prince looks like something out of hell these days,” said Ms. Charlier, 42, a prominent anticorruption activist in the city and mother of four who lives in a hillside area of the capital. After that desperate appeal, a force led by Kenya finally seems close to materializing in what would be the first time an African country leads such a mission in one of the Americas’ most unstable places.

Persons: Charlier, ” Locations: “, Kenya

☆ Sudanese City Becomes Center of ‘New Phase’ of War
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | More About Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

As the war in Sudan heads into its fourth month, Omdurman — the city across the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum — has become the site of some of the most fierce fighting between the two forces battling for power: the army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Patients were admitted in droves in recent days to one of the few functioning health facilities left in Omdurman, their bodies riddled with bullets or sliced by shrapnel from airstrikes. Some victims were dead by the time they were brought in, their passage hindered by street battles in Omdurman, once a bustling business hub and home to many universities, hospitals and political and cultural institutions. “It’s been like hell,” said Dr. Rashid Mukhtar Hassan, the human resource manager at the health facility, Al-Nau Teaching Hospital, in a phone call.

Persons: “ It’s, ”, Rashid Mukhtar Hassan Organizations: Rapid Support Forces, Nau Teaching Hospital Locations: Sudan, Omdurman, Khartoum —, Al

☆ ‘No One Can Silence Me’: Paul Rusesabagina on His Captivity in Rwanda
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With his hands and legs trussed up and his mouth gagged, Rwanda’s most prominent dissident was relieved when after two days in detention, his blindfold was finally taken off. Standing in front of him, blocking the blinding light, were two senior Rwandan government officials, he said, who promised to free him quickly if he began cooperating. “You can get anything else you want,” Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier whose heroism in the face of the genocide in 1994 inspired the Oscar-nominated movie “Hotel Rwanda,” recalled that the officials told him. “It is you to make a choice.”But Mr. Rusesabagina knew he didn’t have a choice. Mr. Rusesabagina was tortured and denied medication, he said, then charged with terrorism and sentenced to 25 years in prison in a trial that drew global condemnation.

Persons: ” Paul Rusesabagina, Oscar, ”, Rusesabagina Organizations: Rwandan Locations: Rwanda, Rwandan, Kigali, Central Africa

☆ ‘A Terrible Tragedy’: Uganda Reels From Deadly Terrorist Attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The militants reached the private boarding school compound just before midnight, as students were going to bed, on a partly cloudy night in a small town in the lush western fields of Uganda. First, they shot the school’s guard in the head before they went to the students’ dormitories. Petrified, the girls unlocked their dormitory’s doors and tried to flee, only for the assailants to catch up with them and hack them to death with machetes. The assailants, members of an Islamist militant group, also burned the school’s library, plundered a food store and kidnapped six students, whom they used to carry the looted goods, military officials said. As they fled the town into the dense forests of Congo, they killed three other people, including a woman in her 60s — bringing the death total to 41.

Persons: Janet Museveni Organizations: Democratic Locations: Uganda, Mpondwe, Uganda’s, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo

☆ Uganda School Attack Leaves at Least 37 Dead
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least 37 people were killed and eight others wounded when militants with an extremist group attacked a secondary school in western Uganda, the authorities said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks to hit the East African nation in years. The armed outfit, known as the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked a school in Mpondwe, a town close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Friday night, a police spokesman, Fred Enanga, said on Twitter. During the attack, a dormitory was burned and food in a store was looted, he said. At least eight people were in critical condition and had been hospitalized, Mr. Enanga added. Three people were rescued from the scene of the attack, but six others were abducted, a military spokesman, Brig.

Persons: Fred Enanga, Enanga, Felix Kulayigye Organizations: Allied Democratic Forces, Democratic, Twitter Locations: Uganda, Mpondwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo

☆ A ‘Dystopian Nightmare’ Unfolds in Sudan’s Battered Darfur Region
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The gunmen arrived at dawn on motorcycles, horses and in cars. For hours afterward, they fired into houses, rampaged through shops and razed clinics, witnesses said, in a frenzied attack that upended life in El Geneina, a city in the Darfur region of Sudan. Truce agreements have so far failed to end the brutal fighting that broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has decimated many areas of the capital, Khartoum. But the war between the military factions has also swept across the country to the long-suffering western region of Darfur — an area already blighted by two decades of genocidal violence.

Persons: Peace Organizations: Rapid Support Forces Locations: El Geneina, Darfur, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Khartoum

☆ Uganda’s President Signs Punitive Anti-Gay Bill Into Law
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The president of Uganda signed a punitive anti-gay bill on Monday that includes the death penalty, enshrining into law an intensifying crackdown against L.G.B.T.Q. people in the conservative East African nation and dismissing widespread calls not to impose one of the world’s most restrictive anti-gay measures. The law, which was introduced in Parliament in March, calls for life imprisonment for anyone who engages in gay sex. Anyone who tries to have same-sex relations could be liable for up to a decade in prison. The offense of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” carries a sentence of up to 14 years.

☆ ‘I Could Not Carry Any of My Art’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That was on April 15 — and in the three days that followed, Mr. Algrai remained trapped in his studio, starving and dehydrated as battles raged outside his door on the streets of Khartoum. For hours every day, he cowered in terror as bullets pierced the windows of the building and the walls shook from errant shelling. When a small period of quiet to escape materialized, Mr. Algrai was eager to seize it — albeit with a heavy heart. “I could not carry any of my art or personal belongings,” said Mr. Algrai, 29, who got out, but left behind his favorite guitar and more than 300 paintings of different sizes. “This conflict has robbed us of our art and our peace, and we are now left trying to stay sane in the midst of displacement and death.”

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