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Togo Expels Alleged Leader Of Burkina Faso’s Foiled Coup — Sources

Emmanuel Monye — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:33:09 +0000

Burkina Faso’s former transitional president and the alleged mastermind behind various coup plots in the country was arrested in neighbouring Togo and expelled, sources close to the case said Monday.

Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was arrested last week in Lome and tried for “attempted destabilisation” in Burkina Faso before being taken to the airport, one of his associates said.

A regional security source and a Togolese source close to the case confirmed this information.

His destination was unknown but some sources mentioned a likely expulsion to Burkina Faso.

Authorities in Ouagadougou had yet to comment on the matter as of late Monday.

The former lieutenant-colonel ousted president Roch Marc Christian Kabore in a January 2022 coup.

But he was himself deposed eight months later in the coup that brought military leader Captain Ibrahim Traore to power.

Burkina Faso’s military junta has accused Damiba of planning several coup plots and assassination attempts against Traore since then.

Earlier this month, it said Damiba and his co-conspirators had planned a series of “targeted assassinations” of civilian and military authorities on January 3, “starting with the neutralisation of comrade Ibrahim Traore”.

AFP

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13 Schoolchildren Killed In South Africa Minibus Collision

Emmanuel Monye — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 13:29:51 +0000

A minibus carrying students to school collided with a truck south of Johannesburg on Monday, killing 13 pupils, South African police said.

It was the latest in a string of deadly crashes in a country whose modern road network is undermined by rampant speeding, reckless driving and poorly maintained vehicles.

The crash happened near the industrial city of Vanderbijlpark, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Johannesburg.

Police said the driver of the minibus appeared to have lost control while attempting to overtake other vehicles.

The toll rose to 13 after an injured child died of their injuries, the provincial education department said in a statement. Several children were also badly hurt.

Rescue workers and South African Police Service (SAPS) forensic team members stand next to a covered body at the scene of an accident, where a minibus carrying school students collided with a truck killing 12 pupils, in Vanderbijlpark on January 19, 2026. (Photo by John MKHIZE / AFP)

Authorities did not immediately release the ages of the children but provincial education minister Matome Chiloane said they were from primary schools, where pupils are aged from six years, and also high schools.

Images on social media showed the crushed minibus on the roadside with distraught parents gathered behind the police tape. Some broke down wailing when they were allowed to see the bodies.

“It is a terrible scene,” Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi said.

In a statement of condolence, President Cyril Ramaphosa said everything must be done to enforce the rules of the road and ensure the quality of school transport services in order to protect learners, “the nation’s most precious assets”.

Many South African parents have to rely on private minibuses to get their children to school because of limited public transportation.

At least five students were killed and eight others injured in September when a school minibus ploughed into a creche in a KwaZulu-Natal township.

Rescue workers and South African Police Service (SAPS) officers stand next to a covered body at the scene of an accident, where a minibus carrying school students collided with a truck killing 12 pupils, in Vanderbijlpark on January 19, 2026. (Photo by John MKHIZE / AFP)

In July 2024, 11 children — some as young as seven and eight — were killed when a minibus taking them to school near Johannesburg overturned and caught fire after being hit by another vehicle.

More than 11,400 lives were lost on South African roads in 2025, according to the latest data from the transport ministry.

AFP

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Security Forces Kill 10 In Uganda Opposition MP’s Home

Emmanuel Monye — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:58:36 +0000

A senior member of the Ugandan opposition told AFP on Friday that security forces stormed his home the previous day as the country held elections, shooting dead 10 members of his campaign team.

“Ten were killed inside my house,” Muwanga Kivumbi, member of parliament for the National Unity Platform (NUP) in the Butambala area of central Uganda, told AFP by phone.

Uganda held elections under an internet blackout on Thursday, with President Yoweri Museveni accused by rights groups of “brutal repression” against the opposition as he seeks to extend his 40 years in power.

Kivumbi said he was “emotionally broken” by the attack, which occurred after hundreds of his supporters had gathered at his home after voting ended.

Many fled as security forces stormed the compound, but officers fired through the door of a garage where 10 campaign agents were hiding, said Kivumbi’s wife Zahara Nampewo, a law professor.

Local police spokesperson Lydia Tumushabe gave a different account, saying “a group of NUP goons” had planned to overrun and burn down a local tally centre and police station.

“An unspecified number were put out of action,” she told AFP, adding that 25 others had been arrested and charged with malicious damage of property.

Kivumbi and his wife said security forces had taken the bodies from their home. But the couple told AFP they had confirmed the death toll of 10 from a local hospital.

It was not possible to receive images from the scene because the government has imposed an internet blackout during the election.

“Right now I’m anxious because they have redeployed around home again,” Nampewo said. “I was very shaken personally. Seeing fresh bodies. I mean, that is something that cannot easily go away.”

The couple said there had been a heavy security deployment around them in the days leading up to the election, and their team had been attacked.

AFP

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Polls Close In Uganda After Delays, Internet Blackout

Aramide Folorunsho — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:22:30 +0000

Polls closed in Uganda on Thursday after a chaotic day of voting that took place under an internet blackout and with long delays caused by technical breakdowns as President Yoweri Museveni seeks to extend his 40 years in power.

Museveni, an 81-year-old who came to power at the head of a rebel army in 1986, is widely expected to win a seventh term in office thanks to his total control of the state and security apparatus.

Voters queue to cast their ballots at a polling station amid delays in the start of voting in Kampala on January 15, 2026, during Ugandas 2026 general elections. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)

But inside a Kampala stadium in an opposition stronghold, there were loud cheers as a crowd watched the counting of votes and returning officers read out ballots for the main challenger, singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine.

The 43-year-old styles himself the “ghetto president” after the slum areas of the city where he grew up but has faced “brutal repression” of his campaign, according to rights groups.

Official results were due within 48 hours.

Wine accused the government of “massive ballot-stuffing” and arresting some of his party officials under cover of the internet blackout imposed by the government this week.

In many polling stations around the country, voting was delayed by several hours as ballot boxes were slow to arrive and biometric machines—used to verify voters’ identity—were malfunctioning, which some blamed on the internet blockage.

“We are holding elections in the dark,” Wine said after casting his vote.

“This is done in order to facilitate the intended rigging of the regime,” he said. “We would encourage the people of Uganda to resist.”

But voting passed off peacefully. A spokesperson for the Ugandan Red Cross, which deployed across the country ahead of polls, told AFP they had heard “no substantive” reports of violence.

There was a heavy police and army presence throughout the day, with authorities determined to prevent the anti-government protests seen in neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania in recent months.

Museveni acknowledged even he had trouble with the voting machines and promised to investigate.

“I put my right… thumbprint. The machine did not accept it. I put my left, and it did not accept it,” he told journalists, adding that the machine finally accepted a scan of his face, allowing him to vote.

‘Peace And Security’

As with Wine’s 2021 campaign, hundreds of his supporters were arrested in the run-up to the vote. He wore a flak jacket at rallies, describing the election as a “war” and Museveni as a “military dictator”.

Human Rights Watch has denounced this week’s suspension of 10 NGOs, including election monitors.

The government said the internet shutdown was needed to prevent the spread of “misinformation” and “incitement to violence”, but the United Nations called it “deeply worrying”.

The other major opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, who ran four times against Museveni, was abducted in Kenya in 2024 and brought back to a military court in Uganda for a treason trial that is ongoing.

Many Ugandans still praise Museveni as the man who ended the country’s post-independence chaos and oversaw rapid economic growth, even if much was lost to a relentless string of massive corruption scandals.

Residents and voters gather to follow the vote-counting process at a public ground used as a polling station in Kampala on January 15, 2026, during Uganda’s 2026 general elections. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)

“Peace and security in the country are very good. The party is well-organised,” said Angee Abraham Lincoln, 42, a Museveni supporter waiting to cast his vote in Kampala.

Western countries have often given Museveni leeway after he swallowed their demands for neoliberal reforms in the 1980s and made himself a useful partner in the US-led “war on terror” in the 2000s, especially through troop contributions to Somalia.

The president said his vote, when it was finally cast, was for anyone “who believes in Uganda… who believes in Africa.”

AFP

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Ugandan Opposition Leader Bobi Wine Warns Of Protests If Polls Rigged

Emmanuel Monye — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 18:32:14 +0000

Uganda’s opposition leader told AFP on Monday that he would call for protests if President Yoweri Museveni rigs this week’s election and said he would welcome an intervention by the United States.

More than 20 million people are registered to vote in the east African country on Thursday, with 81-year-old Museveni widely expected to continue his four-decade rule thanks to his near-total control of the state and security apparatus.

His main opponent is singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 43 — real name Robert Kyagulanyi — who is taking a second run at the presidency after his 2021 campaign was met with violent repression and alleged rigging.

“If General Museveni rigs the election, we shall call for protests,” Wine told AFP at his home in the capital Kampala.

“We’ve told the people not to wait for our instruction,” he added.

The United Nations and Amnesty International are among the watchdogs accusing Uganda’s government of repression ahead of the polls, including hundreds of arrests of Wine’s supporters.

There has been increasing political unrest across east Africa as the region’s youthful population protests the erosion of democracy and lack of jobs in Kenya, Tanzania and beyond.

Wine acknowledged that protests were likely to provoke more crackdown.

“I know that General Museveni’s government responds to everything with violence… But I also know that even violent regimes get thrown out by protests,” he told AFP.

“We did not promise comfort. We did not promise that they will not unleash violence upon us. But we have insisted that our people must be non-violent because we know non-violence defeats violence.”

Asked if he would welcome a direct intervention by the US, such as seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Wine said: “Yeah. I would.”

“I believe that any assistance that comes our way is helpful. However, that assistance should not be to take over our country,” he said.

“I firmly believe that the responsibility to liberate our country, to govern our country, and to move it forward, lies entirely with the people of Uganda.”

‘Bobi Is Our Jesus’

Rapturous crowds greeted Wine’s convoy as it passed through Kampala to one of his final rallies, people lining the streets, hoisting children onto shoulders, and screaming their support.

“Bobi is our Jesus Christ,” two men on a motorbike shouted as they drove alongside his car.

Thousands gathered off Gadafi road in central Kampala. The crowd, mostly young men packed incredibly tightly, boisterously waited for his speech despite a sudden torrential rainfall.

“We need a new Uganda which functions with no corruption, freedom and employment for everyone,” supporter Ssalongo Adam Mwanje told AFP.

“I want to vote for Bobi Wine so he can bring a new Uganda,” said Marsha Madinah.

To huge cheers, Wine told the crowd: “If the parliament refuses to come to the ghetto, the ghetto will come to the parliament.”

A large police and security presence deterred crowds from staying as the sun went down, but there was no violence as people dispersed.

“Museveni is not one of you, I am you and you are me,” Wine said as he wrapped up.

AFP

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Ugandan President Museveni Seeks Re-Election After 40 Years Of Rule

Emmanuel Monye — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 06:11:18 +0000

Yoweri Museveni has been president longer than most Ugandans have been alive, and shows no sign of giving up his place among the world’s longest-serving leaders.

Shortly after Museveni took power in 1986, ending years of bloodshed and chaos under murderous tyrants, the young president mused that leaders overstaying their welcome lay at the heart of Africa’s problems.

But, nearly four decades later, the introspection is gone and Museveni — once hailed in the West as a model African leader committed to good governance — has joined the ranks of those he once criticised.

(FILES) Ugandan President Yoweri Kakugutu Museveni speaks to the the first global Microcredit Summit in Washington, DC on February 2, 1997. Yoweri Museveni has been president longer than most Ugandans have been alive, and shows no sign of giving up his place among the world’s longest-serving leaders. (Photo by Tim SLOAN / AFP)

His genial demeanour and penchant for folksy parables belie a past as a wily guerrilla fighter and ruthless political survivor.

During his 40-year reign Museveni has fused state and party so effectively, and crushed political opposition so totally, that any outside challenge to him or his National Resistance Movement (NRM) became close to impossible.

At 81 — though some opponents say he is older — Museveni says he is fighting fit and ready for a seventh term if he wins Thursday’s election.

Challenger Within

In long, meandering speeches laced with peasant folklore, Museveni often appeals for more time, likening himself to a farmer leaving a plantation just as it starts bearing fruit. His 2026 campaign slogan is “Protecting the gains”.

Rarely, too, does “the old man who saved the country” miss a chance to recall his heroics in the bush wars, sometimes exchanging his trademark safari hat for camouflage fatigues.

Museveni studied in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the 1960s when the university acted as a kind of revolutionary finishing school for anti-colonialists.

British journalist William Pike, who interviewed Museveni in 1984, described a well-admired man with a “faraway look in his eyes as he spoke, the look of a dreamer, a revolutionary”.

“He was intensely serious but showed flashes of humour. He encouraged debate although his officers were deferential,” Pike wrote in a 2019 book. “Museveni’s confidence infected everyone.”

Drift To Dictatorship

This evaluation extended to the international community, which saw promise in Museveni’s early strides on economic growth, poverty alleviation and combating HIV/AIDS.

A cunning strategist, Museveni has positioned himself as an elder statesman and peacemaker in a volatile region — even as his forces have marauded in eastern Congo and breached arms embargoes in South Sudan.

His deployment of troops to fight jihadists in Somalia, and an open-door policy to refugees, won favour from foreign donors, even as they triggered corruption scandals at home.

His approval of an anti-gay law seen as one of the world’s harshest drew a chorus of international criticism upon its passage in 2023, but Museveni vowed to stand his ground and weather the storm.

Raised by cattle herders, Museveni once promised to retire and tend to his cherished long-horned Ankole cows, but he instead has outlasted every ruler on the continent bar Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea and Paul Biya of Cameroon.

AFP

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UK To Analyse Black Box From Crash That Killed General, Says Libya

Emmanuel Monye — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 17:41:58 +0000

Libya said on Thursday that Britain had agreed to analyse the black box from a plane crash in Turkey on December 23 that killed a Libyan military delegation, including the head of its army.

General Mohammed al-Haddad and four aides died after a visit to Ankara, with Turkish officials saying an electrical failure caused their Falcon 50 jet to crash shortly after takeoff.

Three crew members, two of them French, were also killed.

The aircraft’s black box flight recorder was found on farmland near the crash site.

“We coordinated directly with Britain for the analysis” of the black box, Mohamed al-Chahoubi, transport minister in the Government of National Unity (GNU), said at a press conference in Tripoli.

General Haddad was very popular in Libya despite deep divisions between west and east.

The North African country has been split since a NATO-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Haddad was chief of staff for the internationally recognised GNU, which controls the west. The east is run by military ruler Khalifa Haftar.

Chahoubi told AFP a request for the analysis was “made to Germany, which demanded France’s assistance” to examine the aircraft’s flight recorders.

“However, the Chicago Convention stipulates that the country analysing the black box must be neutral,” he said.

“Since France is a manufacturer of the aircraft and the crew was French, it is not qualified to participate. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, was accepted by Libya and Turkey.”

After meeting the British ambassador to Tripoli on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Taher al-Baour said a joint request had been submitted by Libya and Turkey to Britain “to obtain technical and legal support for the analysis of the black box”.

Chahoubi told Thursday’s press briefing that Britain “announced its agreement, in coordination with the Libyan Ministry of Transport and the Turkish authorities”.

He said it was not yet possible to say how long it would take to retrieve the flight data, as this depended on the state of the black box.

“The findings will be made public once they are known,” Chahoubi said, warning against “false information” and urging the public not to pay attention to rumours.

AFP

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Libyans United In Grief For Army Chief Killed In Plane Crash

Emmanuel Monye — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 16:09:14 +0000

People on either side of the divide cutting through Libya grieved Wednesday for the head of the country’s armed forces, who was killed when his plane crashed in Turkey.

General Mohammed al-Haddad and his four aides died on Tuesday after a visit to Ankara, with Turkish officials saying an electrical failure caused their plane to crash less than 15 minutes after takeoff.

“It will be hard to find a man of his calibre,” Nasreddine al-Maghribi told AFP at a cafe in Libyan capital Tripoli.

Haddad “enjoyed great popularity in the east and west of the country, and we had hoped that he would play a key role in the leadership of a united Libyan army”, said Maghribi, who is in his sixties.

Libya has been divided since a NATO-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Haddad had been the army’s chief of general staff since August 2020.

In Tripoli, seat of the internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU), celebrations to mark Libya’s independence day were cancelled.

Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah heads the GNU in the west, while commander Khalifa Haftar’s administration runs the east.

Both Dbeibah and Haftar have declared a three-day mourning period in the areas they control.

Civil society activist Nouri Ben Othman described Haddad as “an emblematic figure for our nation”.

“He was not just a military leader, but also a symbol who shouldered the responsibility of unifying the institution of the military, and who worked towards a national reconciliation,” he told AFP.

“The loss of such a figure is a loss for the nation.”

The UN mission to Libya, UNSMIL, also paid tribute to Haddad, describing him in a post on X as “a steadfast advocate for the unification of Libya’s military and civilian institutions, peace and stability for a strong Libya”.

“He was a professional officer who put national interests first and a patriot who loved his country,” the mission added.

Until a successor is selected, Haddad’s deputy, General Salaheddine al-Namroush, will stand in for him, according to the presidential council.

AFP

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Uganda Imposes Restriction On Starlink Imports Ahead Of Polls

Emmanuel Monye — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 15:03:20 +0000

Uganda has imposed restrictions on the importation of Starlink equipment and similar devices barely a month before national elections on January 15, raising fears of an internet shutdown.

President Yoweri Museveni is seeking to extend his 40-year rule but is opposed by Bobi Wine, a singer turned politician whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi.

Museveni has been accused of growing authoritarianism despite rising to power after overthrowing a dictatorship in the 1980s. The opposition has been facing repression, including repeated attacks on Wine’s campaign during the current election period.

In a letter dated Tuesday, the country’s communications commission warned against the illegal importation of satellite connectivity devices that are not licensed for use in Uganda.

“The commission is particularly concerned about the importation of devices used to facilitate Low Earth Orbit Satellite connections such as Starlink,” the letter stated.

Regional concern is growing over governments shutting down the internet during elections, a trend recently highlighted in Tanzania, where the main opposition party, Chadema, says more than 2,000 people were killed during a blackout that lasted five days.

During Uganda’s 2021 election, the government imposed an internet shutdown a day before the vote for alleged national security reasons.

In a memo dated December 19, Uganda’s customs commissioner instructed staff that Starlink equipment entering the country must be cleared by the military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son.

Uganda Communications Commission director Nyembo Thembo told AFP the move was “in consideration of national security interests.”

“Satellite clearances are not only for Uganda but it’s a global mechanism,” Thembo said.

Wine condemned the directive on X saying the “regime is gripped by fear”.

“Why are they so scared of people accessing … (the internet) during the electoral process?” he questioned.

Mwanase Ahmed of the pan-African human rights defender told AFP the announcement is “very worrying” and a clear sign of an imminent internet shutdown during the election.

AFP

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South Africa To Expel Kenyans Working On US Afrikaner ‘Refugee’ Applications

Emmanuel Monye — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 14:38:07 +0000

South African authorities have arrested and will expel seven Kenyans accused of working without the correct documentation on a US government programme to accept white Afrikaners as “refugees”, the home affairs department said Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump’s administration in May offered refugee status to the minority white Afrikaner community, claiming they were victims of discrimination and even “genocide”, which the Pretoria government strongly denies.

The US government reportedly engaged Kenyans from a Christian NGO based in Kenya to come to South Africa to fast-track the processing of applications for resettlement under the programme.

During a raid on an application processing centre in Johannesburg on Tuesday, “seven Kenyan nationals were discovered engaging in work despite only being in possession of tourist visas, in clear violation of their conditions of entry into the country,” the South African home affairs department said.

“They were arrested and issued with deportation orders, and will be prohibited from entering South Africa again for a five-year period,” it said in a statement.

The raid came after “intelligence reports indicated that a number of Kenyan nationals had recently entered South Africa on tourist visas and had illegally taken up work at a centre processing the applications of so-called ‘refugees’ to the United States,” it said.

Trump essentially halted refugee arrivals after taking office in January but made an exception for the Afrikaners despite Pretoria’s insistence that they do not face persecution.

A first group of around 50 Afrikaners — descendants of the first European settlers of South Africa — were flown to the United States on a chartered plane in May. Others have reportedly followed in smaller numbers and on commercial flights.

The South African home affairs department said no US officials were arrested in the raid, which was not conducted at a diplomatic site.

No prospective “refugees” were harassed, it said, adding that the government had contacted US and Kenyan officials over the issue.

‘Unacceptable’

Ties between Washington and Pretoria have plummeted since Trump took office in January, with his administration lashing out at South Africa over a range of policies, expelling its ambassador in March and imposing 30-percent trade tariffs.

After reports emerged of a raid, US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement to US media that “interfering” in US refugee operations was “unacceptable”.

Washington officials were “seeking immediate clarification from the South African government and expect full cooperation and accountability,” he said.

AFP

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