Uganda’s Leading Media Outlets Shut down by Army Chief
Uganda’s leading independent media group says it is under “military siege” after the army chief – who is the son of President Yoweri Museveni – ordered the closure of TV stations, newspapers and radio outlets. The Daily Monitor newspaper said that armed soldiers were stationed outside its headquarters in the capital Kampala and both NTV and Spark TV had been taken off air. The outlets are part of the Nation Media Group, one of the most influential media companies in East Africa. It is unclear what exactly led to the crackdown, but in posts on X, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba said: “I DO NOT believe in a free press! The press should be guided by cadres of the revolution.” Opposition and human rights groups accuse Gen Kainerugaba of being a central figure in a highly repressive regime led by his father. … The Daily Monitor said on X that the newspaper and its fellow outlets were ordered to close “in a crackdown during the wee hours of Sunday”. It did not give reasons for the crackdown, but covered the story on its website. … “Over the years, Museveni has also repeatedly criticised the Daily Monitor, at one point referring to it as an ‘enemy and evil newspaper’ over its critical journalism,” the article said. BBC
Tanzania Bans Political Rallies Ahead of Planned Anti-government Protests
Tanzania’s government Friday banned political rallies ahead of planned protests against last year’s disputed election and the detention of an opposition leader. Internal Affairs Minister Patrobas Katambi directed Police Inspector General Camillus Wambura to officially stop issuing permits for political activities across the East African country. Tanzania witnessed its first-ever postelection protests in 2025. The general election was overwhelmingly won by the ruling party after the country’s main opposition party boycotted the polls and the presidential candidate for the second-largest opposition party was barred from running. The country’s young people have said they plan to demonstrate on July 7 to protest President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s reelection and push for a new constitution. Police have arrested people linked to the organizers of the planned protests, which have been mobilized through social media. The country’s youth are also calling for the release of opposition party leader Tundu Lissu, who is facing treason charges after calling for reforms before last year’s elections. They have also called for accountability over the widespread postelection violence. AP
Warring Parties in Mali Committing Serious Rights Abuses, HRW Report FindsWarring parties in Mali are committing serious rights abuses, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW). Islamist fighters, Malian forces and government-backed foreign mercenaries have all committed serious abuses against civilians since fighting escalated in April, the NGO claims. On April 25, jihadists looking to overthrow the military junta joined forces with Tuareg fighters of the Azawad Liberation Front, killing Defense Minister Sadio Camara and seizing the northern town of Kidal. The Malian army and Russian Africa Corps fighters have responded with apparent reprisals against Fulani communities and two apparent airstrikes killing civilians, HRW says. The JNIM militants have imposed a blockade on the country’s capital, Bamako. In May, they burned more than 40 civilian vehicles trying to enter the city and publicly executed a man in Tonka, near Timbuktu. “Longstanding impunity continues to fuel the cycle of abuses against civilians in Mali,” HRW’s senior Sahel researcher says, and called on the United Nations and African Union to support independent investigations into the abuses. Africanews
Burkina Faso Cuts Diplomatic Ties with Former Colonial Ruler France
Burkina Faso’s ruling junta on Friday, June 26, severed diplomatic ties with former colonial ruler France, accusing Paris of persistently acting against its interests. The military regime led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, in power since a coup in September 2022, is pursuing a policy repressive toward critical voices and hostile to Westerners, particularly France. … France called it a “hostile and baseless decision” that “illustrated the troubling drift of the Burkinabe authorities,” adding that “the necessary reciprocal measures are under review.” Burkina Faso, like several of its neighbors, has for a decade been hit by deadly violence by jihadists. According to the statement, this decision “concerns exclusively the institutional framework of relations between the two states at the diplomatic level.” It “in no way calls into question the historical, human, cultural and social ties that unite the Burkinabe and French peoples,” the government said. Anti-French sentiment runs high in some former African colonies as the continent becomes a renewed diplomatic battleground, with Russian and Chinese influence growing. Le Monde avec AFP
Togo Reforms Unconstitutional, Rules ECOWAS Court
Togo’s constitutional reform establishing a parliamentary system was unconstitutional, according to the ECOWAS Court of Justice. In the ruling announced on Thursday, the court found that the reforms adopted in March 2024 contravene the democratic principles of the West African country. Under the new constitution, the country’s president is no longer elected by universal suffrage but by lawmakers for a single 6-year term. The change was supported by a parliamentary majority but the opposition calls it a power grab designed to let Faure Gnassingbé remain office indefinitely. According to the Court, the changes were passed by a parliament whose mandate had expired. It ruled that this amounts to an unconstitutional change of government under African democratic standards. Political parties and rights organisations that brought the case before the Court welcomed the decision. The decision is not legally binding but provides new legal arguments for opponents. Africanews
US Military Commends OPHK, Reaffirms Security Partnership with Nigeria
The Commander of the United States Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA), Major General Claude Tudor, has commended the Nigerian military’s Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK) for its operational achievements and described the collaboration between the United States and Nigeria as a model of effective military partnership in the fight against insurgency. Major General Tudor made the remarks during a visit to the Headquarters of the Theatre Command, Joint Task Force North East, Operation HADIN KAI, at the Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri on Thursday. The visit, according to military authorities, was aimed at strengthening the existing security cooperation and strategic partnership between Nigeria and the United States in ongoing efforts to combat terrorism and insurgency in the North-East. … Responding, the Theatre Commander, Operation HADIN KAI, Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar, appreciated the United States Government and SOCAFRICA for their continued support to the operation, particularly the integration of United States Special Operations personnel into the Theatre’s operational framework. PR Nigeria
U.S. Sanctions Networks Supplying Sudan’s Warring Parties
The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on a network of individuals and entities accused of operating procurement and recruitment pipelines that fuel the devastating civil war in Sudan. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the targeted networks have enabled both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to expand and intensify the conflict, worsening one of the world’s severest humanitarian crises. In a concurrent announcement, State Department Spokesperson Thomas “Tommy” Pigott said the networks supply weapons, explosives, and foreign fighters to both warring factions, prolonging a conflict that has provided space for terrorist groups to operate. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration remains committed to driving efforts toward a lasting peace in Sudan and ending the conflict. … Alongside the targeting of specific networks, the State Department announced Washington is imposing a second round of sanctions on Sudan pursuant to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act (CBW Act). These measures include opposing loans or financial and technical assistance to Sudan from international financial institutions, further export restrictions by the Commerce Department, and a ban on Sudanese state-owned air carriers from operating in the United States. Sudan Tribune
Congo Files an ICJ Case against Rwanda over Decades of Violence in Eastern Congo
Congo said Friday it has filed a case against Rwanda at the International Court of Justice, accusing its neighbor of bearing legal responsibility for more than three decades of violence that has devastated eastern Congo. Congo accused Rwanda of breaching international conventions on genocide, racial discrimination, discrimination against women and torture. It said civilians in the east have suffered massacres, extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement and ethnic and gender-based discrimination since the 1990s. Mineral-rich eastern Congo has been battered by decades of conflict as government forces and allied militias fight more than 100 armed groups, the most potent of them the Rwandan-backed M23. Its fighters made major advances early last year, seizing Goma and other key cities as they quickly expanded their presence. … Congo named a string of Rwandan-backed rebel groups it blames for the violence over the years, including M23. It asked the ICJ to declare Rwanda internationally responsible for the conflict, order it to halt its activities in Congo, demand guarantees they won’t be repeated, and award reparations to Congo and civilian victims. The court said in a statement that Congo had filed an application instituting proceedings. It did not say whether it had determined if it has jurisdiction to hear the case. AP
South Africa: Crime Intelligence’s Feroz Khan Shot in Attempted Assassination, Police Deploy ‘Maximum Resources’
Embattled Crime Intelligence officer Feroz Khan has been the target of a shooting in Johannesburg, which police are investigating as an attempted assassination. The South African Police Service (SAPS) said early on Monday, 29 June 2026 that Khan had been shot in Houghton – where he has a home – during the previous evening. … Khan’s name has been referenced several times during the Madlanaga Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating accusations that a drug cartel has infiltrated the state, and he was summoned to testify before it on Wednesday, 1 July. The commission planned to ask about various issues, including his ties to EFF leader Julius Malema and tobacco executive Mohamed “Mo” Sayed. It also wanted to know more about Khan and North West businessman and ANC fixer Brown Mogotsi, who faces charges for allegedly staging his own attempted assassination several months ago in November. Last month, Khan was arrested in an illicit precious metals case, and his electronic devices were seized. In a failed court bid to have these devices returned, Khan said that the information on them could put people’s lives at risk. Daily Maverick
<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/26/morocco-jails-29-including-politicians-and-sports-figures-in-drug-trial” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Morocco Jails 29, Including Politicians and Sports Figures, in Drug Trial
A Moroccan court has handed prison sentences of up to 12 years to 29 individuals – including prominent politicians and sports figures – concluding a major international drug trafficking and corruption trial. The verdicts, delivered late on Thursday in Casablanca following a two-year trial, mark one of the largest anti-corruption operations in Morocco’s history. Among those convicted were Abdennebi Bioui, a construction tycoon and former regional council president, Said Naciri, former president of Casablanca’s Wydad AC football and sports club and former MP Belkacem Mir – all senior members of the governing PAM party. Naciri received 10 years, Bioui 12 and Mir 10. Besides the three main defendants, sentences for the remaining ranged from two to nine years, depending on their individual role in the network. The wide-ranging case was triggered by courtroom testimony from El Hadj Ahmed Ben Brahim, a notorious Malian drug trafficker nicknamed the “Pablo Escobar of the Sahara”. Currently serving a 10-year sentence in Morocco, Ben Brahim told judicial investigators that his former Moroccan political and business associates had betrayed him, seizing millions of dollars worth of his luxury real estate and vehicles following his arrest in 2019. The trial involved more than 20 defendants, 18 witnesses and two civil parties which centred on a sophisticated network that transported tonnes of Moroccan cannabis resin across North Africa to Europe, alongside Latin American cocaine shipments. Defendants were convicted on charges including drug and gold trafficking, corruption, forgery and money laundering. AFP/AP
Medieval-Style Fortifications Are Back in the Sahel
Not much remains today of the walls, ramparts and moats that once surrounded Benin City in southern Nigeria. Yet for centuries these giant earthworks—second in length only to China’s Great Wall among man-made structures—bespoke a mighty civilisation whose authority extended across much of west Africa. … But as the empire withered and eventually succumbed to British invaders in the late 19th century, most of the earthworks vanished. So did those of many other fortified towns across west Africa. Now they are returning. Since the mid-2010s, as jihadist insurgencies have spread across northern Nigeria and the Sahel, defensive earthworks have risen up around towns and cities. Many are so extensive they are clearly visible in satellite images. According to new research by Olivier Walther and Steven Radil, geographers at the University of Florida, all urban centres in north-east Nigeria with populations of more than 10,000 are now secured by trenches. Most big towns there and in the Lake Chad basin are surrounded by sand berms up to three metres high. … Attracted to what they see as a quick fix for security threats, governments in the region are fortifying all sorts of assets under their control, from power stations and government offices to hospitals and schools. The Economist
How Africa Made World Cup History with Nine Teams in Knockout Stage
For decades, African teams have arrived at the FIFA World Cup with enormous expectations, only to leave wondering what might have been. There have been unforgettable moments, giant-killing performances and inspiring individual displays, but rarely has the continent produced the collective consistency needed to challenge football’s traditional powerhouses. At the 2026 FIFA World Cup, that narrative changed dramatically. The expanded 48-team tournament presented Africa with its biggest-ever opportunity on the global stage, and the continent embraced it emphatically. Nine of Africa’s 10 representatives progressed beyond the group stage, marking the greatest collective performance by African nations in World Cup history. From Morocco’s composed brilliance to Cape Verde’s dream debut, South Africa’s historic breakthrough, Egypt’s long-awaited World Cup victory and DR Congo’s emotional return to relevance, Africa emerged from the group stage not as underdogs, but as unexpected contenders. Premium Times
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