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Nearly 2,000 African soldiers recruited by Russia are fighting in Ukraine

José Naranjo — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

At least 1,780 young Africans from 36 countries are currently fighting in the Russian army in the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha reported on February 25. Many of them traveled to Russia to continue their studies or with the promise of a well-paid job, unaware that they would be forced into the war as “cannon fodder,” according to a report by the investigative organization Inpact, which revealed the existence of online recruitment networks coordinated by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). “This is not an isolated phenomenon, but a deliberate and organized strategy,” the report states. Ukrainian authorities confirmed last November that some 18,000 citizens from 128 countries are fighting in the Russian ranks.

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Straitjackets and military aircraft: How the Trump administration is making dozens of migrants disappear in Africa

Elias Camhaji Mascorro,Lola Hierro — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The life of K.S., a Gambian citizen who uses a pseudonym for security reasons, changed abruptly on September 4, 2025. In the middle of the night, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents unexpectedly removed him from his cell at the Louisiana detention center where he was being held. He was not given any explanation: he was not allowed to call his lawyer, nor did agents provide him with any documentation.

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Journey to the frontiers of climate change

Silvia Blanco Valero,Rebecca L. Root,Èlia Borràs,Ana Carbajosa Vicente — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 04:30:00 GMT

Aminata is pregnant and working in the fields of a heat-stifled village in Gambia. Recent international research using her village as a model warns that high temperatures pose a serious risk to her health and that of her baby. Andy Ouedraogo Regma is an octogenarian from Burkina Faso who is surviving, as if from an illness, the worst heat in the last 200 years in the Sahel, on a continent where experts suspect, albeit in the absence of reliable data, that deaths from heat stress are soaring. Meanwhile, in Thailand, suicides are increasing in the hottest months and emotions are running high due to the restrictions on movement imposed by high temperatures.

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Coordination:

Ana Carbajosa and Raquel Seco

Reporting:

Silvia Blanco, Rebecca L. Root, Èlia Borràs and Ana Carbajosa.

Design:

Ruth Benito

Development:

Carlos Muñoz

Editing:

Silvia Blanco, Beatriz Lecumberri and Raquel Seco

A battlefield called the clitoris: A trip to the country threatening to decriminalize female genital mutilation

Silvia Blanco Valero — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 04:05:00 GMT

Nine years ago, Serreh lost her mother and inherited a mission. It was the same mission her grandmother had, and it was what she became known for in her small Gambian village, surrounded by mango and cashew trees. Families from her village and beyond came to her home with a specific request. A day was agreed upon and she prepared what was necessary: a concoction that has a “calming” effect for a few minutes, the red clothes that she wore for the occasion and single-use blades. One for each girl, she says. “Many” passed through her hands in the two years she practiced. Most of the girls were under seven years old, sometimes they were babies still being breastfed, and everything happened very quickly, says Serreh, 36. While other women held the girls’ hands and legs, she cut off their clitoris or part of it.

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Distrust in elections spreads in democracies around the world

Sara Velert — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 14:07:12 GMT

Distrust in the cleanliness of electoral processes, dissatisfaction with government management and a negative view of judicial systems: these are just some of the perceptions that citizens have about how democracy functions. The findings come from the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), which conducted a survey of voters in 19 countries on five continents between July of 2023 and January of this year.

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‘If you don’t have money to go to Europe by boat, you try to get there by starting a relationship with a tourist’: Sex tourism plagues Gambia

Joost Bastmeijer — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 22:07:26 GMT

“We’re going to take a walk on the beach,” shouts a Dutch woman, smiling widely before she disappears among the dunes, kissing a Gambian who appears to be 30 years her minor. Her party, composed of three other Dutch tourists and three young locals with dreadlocks, seem neither surprised nor bothered.

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Gambia could become the first country to reverse a ban on female genital cutting

AP Associated Press — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 19:19:13 GMT

Lawmakers in Gambia on Monday rejected, for now, an attempt to repeal a ban on female genital cutting, which would make the West African nation the first country anywhere to make that reversal.

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Survivors of Mediterranean rescue say about 60 people died on the trip from Libya

AP Associated Press — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 23:48:21 GMT

Survivors rescued from a deflating rubber dinghy in the central Mediterranean Sea have reported that some 60 people who departed Libya with them more than a week ago perished during the journey, the humanitarian rescue group SOS Mediterranee said Thursday.

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Players and coaches demand respect for Africa Cup. They feel tournament is undervalued in Europe

AP Associated Press — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 23:02:43 GMT

Some of the best soccer in the world is being played at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast. But away from the African continent, few seem to be paying attention.

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Keys to South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the United Nations International Court of Justice

Ferrer Ferrer — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:14:25 GMT

South Africa has asked the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) to open proceedings against Israel for allegedly violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and has asked the judges to issue interim measures for an immediate halt to military operations in Gaza. Both countries are among the 152 state parties to the Genocide Convention, and South Africa hopes to prove that Israel has taken actions to destroy the Palestinian population that go beyond legitimate self-defense.

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