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Disclosure, calculated on basis of 300 deportations, called ‘staggering’ by chair of home affairs committeeRishi Sunak’s flagship plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost taxpayers £1.8m for each of the first 300 people the government deports to Kigali, Whitehall’s official spending watchdog has disclosed.The overall cost of the scheme stands at more than half a billion pounds, according to the figures released...

David Shoebridge’s comments follow Guardian/Four Corners investigation that revealed Rwanda issued indictments for two men living in Australia it accused of participating in genocideAustralia’s current approach to investigating and prosecuting allegations of serious international crimes “is not working”, the Greens defence and justice spokesperson, David Shoebridge, has said.Legal experts and former prosecutors have said Australia needs a specialist investigations unit to look into allegations...

Socialist leader dies after several people shot dead near party headquarters in capital of N’DjamenaThe Chadian opposition politician Yaya Dillo has been killed during an exchange of fire with security forces, the state prosecutor, Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye, said.Heavy gunfire was heard on Wednesday in the capital, N’Djamena, near the headquarters of Dillo’s opposition party, a witness said. Several people had been killed in earlier...

People in West Darfur’s capital still step over residue from the bodies of some of the 10,000 dead, and thousands have fledGeneina, the capital of West Darfur state in Sudan, can feel like two cities in one. There are mass graves, abandoned armoured vehicles and homeless children, but also newly opened restaurants, bustling markets and factory-fresh Toyotas, nicknamed Kenjcanjia – meaning stolen in the...

‘Crucial’ UN resolution attempts to avoid repeat of injustices produced by Africa’s fossil fuel sectorIn an attempt to avoid the “injustices and extractivism” of fossil fuel operations, African leaders are calling for better controls on the dash for the minerals and metals needed for a clean energy transition.A resolution for structural change that will promote equitable benefit-sharing from extraction, supported by a group of...

The 67-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was travelling alone when he left a luxury lodge to travel to Victoria Falls national parkAn Australian tourist reported missing late last week in Zimbabwe near Victoria Falls already had been missing for nearly a week before that, according to new information released Monday by national park officials.The 67-year-old tourist, whose name has not been...

Antoine Galindo is accused of conspiring with rebels, but press freedom groups say no evidence has been found and call for his immediate releaseEthiopian authorities have detained a visiting French journalist for being part of a “conspiracy to create chaos” in the east African country.Antoine Galindo, a reporter for the Paris-based Africa Intelligence (AI) news website, was arrested by plainclothes security officers at the...

Prayer room of Great Mosque of Algiers, beset by political wrangling and cost overruns, accommodates 120,000 peopleAlgeria has inaugurated a gigantic mosque on its Mediterranean coastline after years of political upheaval transformed the project from a symbol of state-sponsored strength and religiosity to one of delays and cost overruns.Built by a Chinese construction firm throughout the 2010s, the Great Mosque of Algiers features the...

In today’s newsletter: With tens of thousands dead, millions displaced and no sign of the war abating, a ‘deafening silence of global indifference’ threatens the country’s future• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. “There is a certain kind of obscenity about the humanitarian world, which is the competition of suffering,” the UN’s aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said this month. “We...

Atrocity took place during Sunday mass in Essakane village and has been blamed on a jihadi group active in the regionAt least 15 people have been killed and two others injured in a “terrorist” attack on a Catholic church during Sunday mass in Burkina Faso, a senior church official has said.Calling for peace and security in Burkina Faso, the vicar general of the Dori...

Zimbabwe’s national parks authority says a team, including police, sniffer dogs and drones, have been sent to search for the 67-year-old touristAn Australian tourist has gone missing in Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls national park, home to one of the world’s natural wonders, according to the country’s parks authority.Tinashe Farawo, a spokesperson for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, said that the tourist went...

The sentence, passed in absentia, is part of the country’s crackdown on opponents of president Kais SaiedA court in Tunisia sentenced former president Moncef Marzouki to eight years in prison in absentia as part of the country’s crackdown on opponents of president Kais Saied.The judgment came as prominent opposition figure Jaouhar Ben Mbarek was sentenced to six months in prison. Continue reading...

Defendants are being tried in absentia over kidnapping and murder of Italian student in 2016Italy will again attempt to secure justice for an Italian student kidnapped and murdered in Cairo with the opening on Tuesday of a second trial of four Egyptian security officers accused over the killing.Giulio Regeni, 28, had been conducting research when he was abducted in January 2016. His body was...

Animal welfare groups say smell from the build-up of faeces and ammonia on the ship are indicative of the conditions animals endureAuthorities in Cape Town have launched an investigation after a foul stench swept over the South African city.Officials inspected sewage facilities for leaks and an environmental health team was activated before the source of the smell was discovered: a ship docked in the...

Carved wooden tabot has been at Abbey since British forces looted it at Battle of Maqdala in 1868Westminster Abbey has agreed “in principle” to returning a sacred tablet to the Ethiopian Orthodox church, igniting a debate around restitution claims made by the East African nation.The tabot – a blackened flat piece of wood featuring a carved inscription that symbolically represents the Ark of the...

Successor unlikely to be appointed for six months – covering period when PM hopes flights will take offThe UK’s chief inspector of borders and immigration has called it “scandalous” that his watchdog role could be left vacant while the Rwanda scheme is introduced.In a break with the treatment of his predecessors, David Neal has been told he will not serve a second term as...

Mati Diop, the director of Dahomey, which charts the restitution of 26 objects to Benin, says the tiny number involved is ‘humiliating’The first major return of looted treasures from Europe to Africa in the 21st century has left a lingering feeling of humiliation because of the lack of follow-up action, a French-Senegalese film-maker who accompanied a hoard of artefacts on their journey from Paris...

Amid biting austerity and rising inflation, the al-Sisi government is off-loading assets – some to a convicted murderer with Emirati cashAs dusk fell over the verdant grounds of the Marriott Mena House hotel, the reflection of the Great Pyramid of Giza grew darker in a pool built to reflect the last of the seven wonders of the world.A band played a smooth jazz rendition...

SAF join engineering corps in south of city where they have been besieged by RSF forces since AprilThe Sudan armed forces (SAF) have advanced in Omdurman for the first time since the beginning of the war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year.It is reported that the SAF in the Karari military area, north of Omdurman, have joined their peers...

The suspension of a Congolese player for a gun gesture referring to conflict in DRC raises questions over government’s refugee policyWhen a Congolese footballer made a brief gesture after scoring in an east African league match last weekend, it felt like little more than a talking point among the spectators.Yet the gesture by midfielder Héritier Luvumbu at the game in Kigali has prompted a...

Amina Noor travelled from north London with the child to Kenya where the procedure was carried out in 2006A woman who was found guilty of handing over a three-year-old British girl for female genital mutilation (FGM) during a trip to Kenya has been jailed for seven years.Amina Noor, 40, was convicted last year of assisting a Kenyan woman to carry out the procedure overseas...

Antiquities authority drops proposal for Menkaure pyramid after review prompted by international outcryEgypt has scuttled a controversial plan to reinstall ancient granite cladding on the pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the three great pyramids of Giza, a committee formed by the country’s tourism minister said in a statement.Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of the supreme council of antiquities, announced the plan last month,...

Shipments of food and medical supplies from Asia are having to take longer, more expensive routes to avoid seaborne assaultsAttacks by Houthi forces against ships in the Red Sea are holding up shipments of vital aid to Sudan and driving up costs for cash-strapped humanitarian agencies in the east African country, where conflict has put millions at risk of famine.The attacks mean ships carrying...

The animal translocation scheme by wildlife NGOs including African Parks, once headed by the royal, has been dogged by controversyFour more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in Malawi. The recent deaths bring the total fatalities connected to the relocated elephants to seven.In July 2022, more...