Category: Africa

Source: APO

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“I was working in my garden when I heard loud gun shots. I rushed to pick up my three-month old baby who was sleeping under the tree and we ran for our lives.”

Twenty-four-year-old Betty explains how she fled her home in panic along with thousands of others during an incident involving the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces along the border with Kajo-Keji in South Sudan.

“I had no choice but to leave my other son and husband behind. I still don’t know where they are.”

Mother of five, Kiden Agnes, has a similar story after her village in Nyainga-Muda was subjected to shelling.

“I was in the hospital receiving antenatal care when I heard guns firing in the distance. People were running everywhere,” she recounts.

She joined those fleeing to Kajo-Keji town, leaving behind everything she owns. She now relies on the support of her 16-year-old son who collects water from a stream and sells it to customers in local restaurants. This meagre income allows them to buy enough food to survive.

Kiden has also not heard from her husband since the day she ran away, despite trying desperately to reach him by phone and through friends and family.

“I’ve even reported him missing to the local authorities and International Red Cross, but there is still no information about his whereabouts. We miss him terribly.”

These testimonies reflect the immense harm caused by outbreaks of violence in this region of South Sudan. These families, not only suffer from the trauma of the incident, but are physically torn apart from each other for long periods of time and forced to rebuild their already fragile lives each time violence strikes.

Dawa Dudu had only returned to her home in Bori village from the Bidi Bidi refugee camp in neighbouring Uganda three months prior to the outbreak of violence. After fleeing the village, she says there is no way she can go back.

“I’m totally confused. I have nowhere to go, and I feel I have no reason to be alive.”

Despite significant challenges, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan is doing its utmost to support the devastated communities, conducting regular peacekeeping patrols to deter violence and facilitate the safe delivery of the little aid that is available.  

“We are endeavoring to protect civilians and provide reassurance to the affected communities, particularly the 15,000 people who have been displaced,” says UNMISS Civil Affairs Officer, Lawson Mbetah.

“It’s critical that the violence stops and peace is restored so that people can return home to live safely, reconnect with family, and rebuild their lives.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Source: APO

The official celebrations were nowhere near kicking off. The sun, mid-yawning, had barely finished its imaginary morning coffee ahead of a day’s worth of full-strength, shining work. That’s when the first revellers showed up.

Arriving from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area and neighbouring Jonglei State, a multiethnic crowd quickly turned what is usually a volleyball court into a bustling scene of dancing, banter and laughter.

They were all here, in flood-prone Pibor, in an area often rocked by intercommunal violence, to exclaim not only that peace is possible but also that it begins with every one of them, with you and with me, as the slogan of a nationwide campaign of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) affirms.

“Despite everything, we have come some way in this country. We want to use this opportunity to celebrate the progress we have made,” said women’s representative Akol Tut, indicating that the hundreds of people gathered, united in diversity, are the “we”.

While a collective endeavour, the responsibility for achieving it is inevitably as individual as the meaning of the word peace. When asked by one of the event organizers, attendees defined it as everything from “the foundation of gender equality” to “the possibility for development”.

As noted by many a high-ranking official speaking on the day, the youth of Greater Pibor and Jonglei, the numerically dominating here and now rather than the future of their country, have a key role to play to make any description of peace a reality.

“Them being here, together, is a reminder that they are the ones deciding the way forward for their country. Peace is built, or not, by our choices, their choices,” commented Khalif Farah, a Civil Affairs Officer serving with the peacekeeping mission.

Meanwhile, Gola Boyoi Gola, Administrator of the Greater Pibor Area, addressed a segment of the audience decidedly belonging to the “future” category.

“Twenty years ago, I was one of you, at an event like this one, learning about the meaning of peace. I am looking forward to seeing one of you in my position, and enjoying peace,” he told a few dozens of young girls and boys.

Like so many happy days before it, this one ended with the feeling of togetherness commonly generated by kicking a football.

Chances are that the friendly game between line-ups made up of local youth and vendors resulted in a practical demonstration of the more-often-than-not winning formula of working together as a team.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Source: APO

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The United States’ recent expulsions of third-country nationals to Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda, and South Sudan have exposed several hundred people to a risk of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and refoulement, Human Rights Watch said today.

The opaque deals that facilitate these transfers, at least some of which include US financial assistance, are part of a US policy approach that violates international human rights law and is designed to instrumentalize human suffering as a deterrent to migration. 

“These agreements make African governments partners in the Trump administration’s horrifying violations of immigrants’ human rights,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The African governments implementing these deals risk violating international law, including the prohibitions against refoulement and arbitrary detention.”

In August 2025, a Rwandan government spokesperson, Yolande Makolo, reportedly said that the country had agreed to accept up to 250 deportees, a much larger number than has been reported for Eswatini or South Sudan, under an agreement, which Human Rights Watch has seen, that includes roughly $7.5 million in US financial support. 

Rwanda’s past role in similar arrangements with Israel, its now-abandoned negotiations for a comparable deal with the United Kingdom, and its own well-documented record of repression raise serious doubts about whether it will provide effective protection for the affected people. 

Human Rights Watch has viewed the written agreement between the United States and Eswatini, under which the US will provide $5.1 million to “build [Eswatini’s] border and migration management capacity” and Eswatini will accept up to 160 deportees from the US. So far, Eswatini has received at least five people from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam, and Yemen and is reportedly holding them in the Matsapha Correctional Complex under harsh conditions. An Eswatini official told Human Rights Watch that the country is preparing to receive another 150 people. Lawyers and civil society groups have challenged the legality of detaining these people.

South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation confirmed on September 4 that it was holding seven foreign nationals deported from the United States in July, while an eighth person, a South Sudanese national, was released to his family. A government spokesperson said that their status is still under consideration. On September 6, the authorities formally announced the repatriation of one Mexican national to Mexico but did not clarify where the remaining six men are being held and under what conditions, nor did it explain the legal basis for holding them.  

The South Sudanese authorities’ statements underscore the lack of transparency and due process protections surrounding these transfers, Human Rights Watch said. 

In Uganda, the Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed in a statement that a temporary bilateral cooperation agreement has been reached with the United States. Under its terms, Uganda will receive third-country deportees from the United States, but “individual[s] with criminal records and unaccompanied minors will not be accepted” and preference will be given to individuals of African origin. 

Ghanaian president John Mahama confirmed that his government has agreed to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the United States. This agreement is limited to West African nationals. So far, five citizens of Nigeria and The Gambia have been expelled to Ghana under the agreement. Prior to their expulsion, US immigration judges had granted all of them fear-based immigration relief, either withholding their removal under the US Immigration and Naturality Act or deferring their removal under the Convention against Torture. 

One of the five, a bisexual man from The Gambia, said in a sworn declaration filed in US federal court that Ghanaian authorities had returned him to his country of origin after their expulsion by the United States. This case underscores the danger that expulsion agreements will lead to the return of people to countries where US courts had determined they face a serious risk of persecution or torture.  

Given the abusive US immigration policies that underpin them, Human Rights Watch urges African governments to refuse to enter into agreements to accept third-country deportees from the United States and to terminate those that are already in effect. In the interim, countries that are party to such agreements should disclose their terms, allow access to independent monitors, refrain from detaining any deportees absent a clear legal basis, and ensure that no deportee is returned to their home country if there is credible evidence that they would face the risk of persecution, enforced disappearance, torture, or other serious harm. 

“As the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights special rapporteur on refugees has said, these agreements cannot override governments’ human rights obligations,” Ngari said. “The African Union should reiterate that deportations that do not afford people an opportunity to seek protection from persecution or torture are unlawful, abusive and unacceptable.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Source: APO

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) (www.AfDB.org) has concluded a four-day workshop in Kinshasa to strengthen project management and improve the performance of Bank-financed operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Organised from 8 to 11 September 2025 by the African Development Institute and the Bank’s fiduciary departments, in collaboration with the Country Office, the workshop brought together representatives of ministries, the Court of Auditors, and project implementation teams.

In his opening remarks, Mohamed Coulibaly, the Bank’s acting Country Manager in the DRC, said the training course will help strengthen accountability, transparency and project effectiveness by transferring knowledge about the Bank’s rules, procedures and best practices.

Alain K. Malata, Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Finance, stressed the importance of commitment: “The quality of your commitment during this workshop will be decisive in improving the performance of the national portfolio.”

Ann Sow Dao, Division Manager for Programme Management at the African Development Institute, noted that investing in capacity building to improve portfolio performance represents a high-impact intervention with enduring benefits for operational quality.

Participants took part in practical sessions on financial management, procurement, monitoring and evaluation, and results-based management. They also exchanged experiences and best practices to enhance project delivery.

For Jean Luemba Lukumbu, Coordinator of the National Road 1 Renovation Project (https://apo-opa.co/425Var1), the training was invaluable: “We gained new knowledge about the standards and methodologies required to ensure effective project implementation.”

Ruth Mpata Ndaya, an administrative and financial assistant for the Ngandajika Agro-Industrial Development Support Programme (PRODAN) (https://apo-opa.co/4mwLqNE), noted: “This workshop strengthened my skills in results-based project management, strategic planning and quality management, which I will share with my colleagues to achieve better results.”

Recommendations from the workshop will be integrated into the Bank’s portfolio management activities in the DRC.

As of 1 September 2025, the African Development Bank Group’s portfolio in the DRC comprised 25 active operations worth approximately $1.5 billion, with investments focused on transport (30.8 percent), agriculture (30.3 percent), energy (16.9 percent), social sectors (12.7 percent) and other sectors (3.96 percent).

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).