Mozambique is on edge ahead of a ruling expected on Monday to determine the final results of October’s disputed elections, after allegations of rigging triggered weeks of protests in which security forces have killed dozens of people.

The opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane has threatened “chaos” if the constitutional council confirms the initial election results, which gave the ruling party candidate, Daniel Chapo, 70.7% of the vote and Mondlane 20.3%.

The Podemos party, which is allied with Mondlane, said it should have 138 out of 250 seats in parliament, instead of the 31 that the election commission said it had won.

Mozambique’s Catholic bishops alleged that ballot-stuffing had taken place, while EU election observers noted “irregularities during counting and unjustified alteration of election results”.

Mondlane has repeatedly said he won and has urged his supporters to take to the streets. This has brought the economy to a near standstill, including shutting the border and disrupting trade with South Africa.

Security forces have cracked down in response, killing at least 130 people and injuring hundreds more, according to Human Rights Watch. Local media reported that security forces shot dead two mourners on 14 December at a funeral for a blogger known as Mano Shottas, who had been killed while livestreaming a protest two days earlier.

Recently, some protesters have become violent, with offices of the ruling party, Frelimo, set on fire and a statue of the former defence minister Alberto Chipande, who is credited with firing the first shot in Mozambique’s war of independence, pulled down.

“On Monday the whole country must stop,” Mondlane said on Friday in one of his regular broadcasts, which he has been streaming on Facebook from an undisclosed location abroad, where he claims he fled to avoid being assassinated.

Mondlane called for prayers in the south-east African country on Sunday. “We are giving the opportunity to pray for the judges of the constitutional council, to pray for [its chair] Dr Lúcia Ribeiro, so that on Monday, from her, justice comes out, the electoral truth does not come out as a lie,” he said.

Mozambique’s outgoing president, Filipe Nyusi, rebutted Mondlane’s claim that he was planning to cling to power, saying in a Thursday evening broadcast that he would leave office in January as planned.

He also implicitly criticised Mondlane, saying: “It worries us that the process of choosing our leaders was transformed into a pretext to induce and exacerbate social tensions and violent acts.”

Zenaida Machado, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the ruling administration had “decided to brand the entire protest movement as violent to justify their own use of excessive force”.

“The fact that some people within a protest have become violent does not label the entire protests violent,” she said.

While most analysts believe there was some level of rigging, some said it was unclear whether Mondlane had won.

“A 70% majority for Frelimo was a massive surprise to everybody,” said Alex Vines, who was part of a group of election observers from the Commonwealth. “But neither … can [you] say that Venâncio Mondlane won. We just don’t know.

“The [opposition party] Renamo vote collapsed in Renamo heartlands,” said Vines, the head of the Africa programme at the thinktank Chatham House. “Frelimo benefited from that. It was in the urban areas that Podemos and particularly Venâncio prospered, which is not enough, necessarily, to get a majority.”

Four of the constitutional council’s seven judges were appointed by Frelimo parliamentarians, while the chair was appointed by Nyusi.

Adriano Nuvunga, the director of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, a Mozambican non-profit organisation, said: “Everything will depend on what they say at the announcement – whether they will confirm the current results with minor changes or whether there will be a change, which is unrealistic. We are bracing for impact.”

A ferry overloaded with people returning home for Christmas capsized on the Busira River in north-eastern Congo, leaving 38 people confirmed dead and more than 100 others missing, officials and eyewitnesses said on Saturday.

Twenty people have been rescued so far.

The sinking of the ferry late on Friday came less than four days after another boat capsized in the country’s north-east, killing 25 people.

The ferry was travelling as part of a convoy of other vessels and the passengers were primarily merchants returning home for Christmas, said Joseph Joseph Kangolingoli, the mayor of Ingende, the last town on the river before the site of the accident.

According to Ingende resident Ndolo Kaddy, the ferry contained “more than 400 people because it made two ports, Ingende and Loolo, on the way to Boende, so there is reason to believe there were more deaths”.

Congolese officials have often warned against overloading boats and vowed to punish those violating safety measures on rivers. However, in remote areas many people cannot afford public transportation on the few available roads.

At least 78 people drowned in October when an overloaded boat sank in the country’s east while 80 lost their lives in a similar accident near Kinshasa in June.

The latest accident prompted anger at the government for not equipping the convoy with flotation devices.

Nesty Bonina, a member of the local government and a prominent figure in Mbandaka, the capital of the Equateur province where the ferry sank, condemned authorities for not properly handling the recent events.

“How can a ship navigate at night under the watchful eye of river service agents? And now we’re recording over a hundred deaths,” said Bonina.

The capsizing of overloaded boats is becoming increasingly frequent in this central African nation as more people are giving up the few available roads in favour of wooden vessels crumbling under the weight of passengers and their goods for security reasons.

The roads are often caught up in the deadly clashes between Congolese security forces and rebels that sometimes block major access routes.

Emmanuel Macron swore during a furious exchange with residents of the cyclone-hit islands of Mayotte on Thursday night, telling a jeering crowd in the French territory “if this wasn’t France, you’d be in a bath of shit 10,000 times worse”.

Cyclone Chido swept through Mayotte, which lies between Madagascar and Mozambique, on 14 December, destroying vital infrastructure and flattening many of the tin-roofed shacks that make up its large slums. Almost a week after its worst storm in 90 years, France’s poorest territory still has shortages of water.

Throughout Thursday, the French president was confronted by angry Mahorais demanding to know why aid had not yet reached them. At one point he told a crowd: “You are happy to be in France. If this wasn’t France, you’d be in a bath of shit 10,000 times worse. There is no other place in the Indian Ocean where people are helped as much, that’s a fact.”

On Thursday night, Macron said he was extending his visit to a second day “as a mark of respect, of consideration”.

“I decided to sleep here because I considered that, given what the population is going through, [leaving the same day could have] installed the idea that we come, we look, we leave,” he said.

The heckling continued on Friday. “Seven days and you’re not able to give water to the population,” one man shouted at Macron as he toured the small community of Tsingoni, on the west coast of Mayotte’s main island, Grande-Terre.

“I understand your impatience. You can count on me,” Macron responded, saying that water would be distributed at city halls.

The official death toll, at 31, has remained lower than expected, after officials said they feared thousands could have been killed. Immediate burials, in keeping with Islamic tradition, and the large numbers of undocumented migrants from the nearby Comoros who avoid authorities for fear of being deported, may mean the true number of fatalities is never known.

The cyclone also killed 73 people in northern Mozambique and 13 in Malawi, according to authorities in the south-east African countries.

Mayotte officially has a population of 320,000, but authorities have said there could be 100,000-200,000 more, most from the Comoros and living in the islands’ slums. Mayotte became a part of France in 1841 and voted to stay French in 1974, when the Comoros islands chose independence.

Earlier in the week, the interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, a rightwinger who is vocally anti-immigrant, said Mayotte could not be rebuilt without addressing migration.

In Kaweni, a slum on the edge of the island’s capital, Mamoudzou, Ali Djimoi said eight people who had lived close to him were killed by the cyclone, two of them buried quickly near a mosque.

Mayotte had been “completely abandoned” by the French state, he said. “The water running out the pipes – even if it’s working you can’t drink it, it comes out dirty.”

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Southern Thailand is grappling with severe flooding as torrential rainfall, driven by the north-east monsoon, continues to affect the region. During the north-east monsoon, which runs from November to March, winds from the north-east pick up moisture from the Gulf of Thailand and deposit it as heavy rain across the islands in the gulf and into exposed eastern parts of Thailand’s southern peninsula.

While high rainfall totals in southern Thailand are not unusual at this time of year, this year’s has been significantly above average. Ko Samui, Thailand’s second largest island, has recorded 571mm (22.48in) of rain this month – approximately 375% of the December average – with nearly a third of the month yet to go. In the nearby province of Nakhon Si Thammarat on the mainland, another weather station has surpassed 1009mm, more than four times the December norm.

On top of November’s above-average rainfall totals, December’s deluge has resulted in severe flooding in five provinces, displacing thousands of people as buildings have collapsed.

Spain’s Canary Islands have been experiencing a series of extreme weather events in recent days, with December temperatures soaring to the highest levels recorded in 100 years, with many places experiencing temperatures above 30C (86F) These high temperatures have been intensified by a weather phenomenon called a calima (or “blood-rain” when mixed with rainfall).

Calima occurs when Saharan dust is swept into the region by strong winds, giving the skies a striking reddish hue. These dust particles, suspended in the air, have trapped heat, exacerbating the already high temperatures, and reduced visibility to as low as 1,000 metres (3,280ft). Local authorities have advised local people and visitors to stay indoors as the dust cloud lingers, as it can trigger respiratory issues and irritation to the eyes.

Elsewhere, Cyclone Chido has continued its destructive path, making landfall in Malawi on 15 December as a moderate tropical storm with wind speeds of 124mph (200km/h) and heavy rainfall. As of 18 December, the storm has killed an additional seven people and injured a further 16. The cyclone has damaged more than 250 houses in the region, swept roofs off buildings, and blocked roads.

A Ugandan athlete who arrives in London this weekend after running 7,730 miles (12,440km) from South Africa to raise awareness about racism has revealed he suffered repeated abuse on reaching Europe.

Deo Kato set off from Cape Town in July 2023, running steadily north on a 516-day odyssey that has seen him jailed for weeks, laid low with serious illness and having to pass through war zones.

The epic run was conceived by the London-based Kato to highlight the history of human migration and the discrimination faced by many black Africans, a message underlined by the fact he endured daily racism from police and passersby in parts of Europe.

After climbing the equivalent height of 11 Mount Everests during the journey, Kato is due to reach central London on Sunday where he will be joined by hundreds of runners outside Downing Street before completing his route in Hammersmith, west London.

Speaking to the Guardian this week after passing through an overcast Lille, in France, the Ugandan-born runner said that despite some acute lows the overall experience had renewed his faith in humanity. Highlights included a stretch along the Kalahari Highway in Botswana where he was joined by a 15-year-old boy who, Kato said, reminded him of when he was a teenager.

“He was multilingual, speaking three languages, including English. He had spent time in England but moved back to Botswana due to family challenges. We ran together briefly, but it was a moment that warmed my heart.”

Another affirming moment, this time 1,800 miles farther north in Kenya during January, involved a group of children who spontaneously joined Kato for 5 miles as they headed to school. “They wanted to continue running with me,” he said.

On other occasions, however, he almost packed it in. In Uganda, his one-man support crew resigned, leaving him without a support vehicle or help at a time when his funding for the run was almost exhausted. To compound matters, all routes ahead involved either conflict or extreme risk.

“As I looked forward, I noticed conflicts all around me in places such as the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and northern Ethiopia,” said Kato. “Logistically, it felt that there was no possible way of continuing the journey through Africa.”

Another low point arrived more than 5,000 miles later when Kato experienced the racism other Africans have faced in Europe.

“The other time I felt like packing it in was in Croatia because I genuinely felt treated as an illegal immigrant. I didn’t feel welcomed or that I belonged in their society.

“The police stopped me at least four times a day. Sometimes, I caught locals taking photos of me and reporting me to the police,” he said.

“This experience, coupled with everything I was processing from my journey in Africa and other personal challenges, made it intensely difficult to keep moving forward.”

Kato wanted his journey to draw attention to the earliest migration of humans from Africa and challenge the racist notion that people should “go back to where they come from”. Viewed as a whole, he said the run had underlined the positive aspects of migration and its potential to “create a more culturally connected and enriched global society”.

His experiences also led him to believe that humanity will prevail over prejudice. “I think that in the future, we will create a world free from racial discrimination,” he said.

“Although it won’t happen in my lifetime, I believe that my efforts and those of others who are dedicated to this cause are laying the foundations for the next generation to build upon.”

However, he admitted it had also reinforced concerns over the “fortress Europe” approach that the EU is pursuing to prevent migrants from Africa moving north.

“The global north has long-established systems deliberately designed to restrict and criminalise individuals from the global south, particularly Africans.”

Kato’s partner, Alice Light, said the last 18 months had highlighted the best and worst of humanity. “It’s been an unimaginable rollercoaster of highs and lows, of beauty, joy and heartbreak,” she said.

She said the couple had no plans for Christmas. “It has been too unpredictable to make plans but I now know that rest is coming and am grateful for that. I feel immensely proud and blessed to have been on this journey with Deo.”

Kato set off from the Long March to Freedom monument in Cape Town, which commemorates the anti-apartheid struggle, choosing the eastern route through Africa because he wanted to pass through the Ugandan town of Nakulabye, where he grew up, to meet family members he had not seen for years.

At least 35 children have died and six others have been seriously injured in a crowd crush at a school fair in Nigeria’s third-largest city of Ibadan.

“Eight persons have since been arrested for their various involvements” in the incident, Adewale Osifeso, a spokesperson for the police command in Oyo state, said in a statement on Thursday.

Among those detained was the main sponsor of the event on Wednesday at the Basorun Islamic highschool, which was organised by the Wings Foundation and Agidigbo FM radio.

A homicide investigation had been opened, Osifeso said.

The Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, shared his condolences on X.

“Our hearts remain with the families and loved ones impacted by this tragedy. May the souls of the departed rest in peace,” he wrote on Wednesday.

“We sympathise with the parents whose joy has suddenly been turned to mourning due to these deaths.”

Video footage that appeared to be from the scene showed a large crowd of mostly children looking on as others were being carried away from an open field.

According to local radio, as many as 5,000 young people had been expected at the event, whose programme said children “will win exciting prizes like scholarships and other bountiful gifts”.

There have been several deadly crowd crushes in the country this year. Two students died and 23 were hurt in March as thousands of people gathered for free bags of rice handed out by local authorities at Nasarawa State University in central Nigeria.

Four women were killed later the same month outside the office of a wealthy businessman in the northern city of Bauchi, where they were waiting to collect a cash gift of 5,000 naira (£2.70) to help pay for food during the Ramadan.

Witnesses said members of the crowd pushed to get hold of the money, causing a crush during Nigeria’s worst economic
crisis in a generation.

Relatives and rights groups have accused fighters from an Islamist paramilitary force aligned with the Sudanese army of executing dozens of young men on suspicion of cooperating with the Rapid Support Forces in the Khartoum area.

The alleged killings occurred in September after fighters crossed a bridge over the Nile River into the city of Khartoum North from neighbouring Omdurman after weeks of trying.

According to local people, fighters from the Al-Bara’ ibn Malik brigade arrested the men in the Halfaya neighbourhood. They said some of the men were killed immediately, while others were taken into custody at the Surkab military base in Omdurman.

The greater Khartoum area consists of the cities of Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman. Most of Omdurman is under army control, but parts of the west of the city are held by the RSF, a paramilitary force. In recent months the army has launched a campaign to try to take back territory held by the RSF in Khartoum and Khartoum North.

On the day of the alleged killings, local people said Islamic jurists were seen travelling with the Al-Bara’ ibn Malik and issuing fatwas to shoot and kill men accused of cooperating with the RSF. The fatwas were based on the testimonies of two men living in the area who allegedly said the men were cooperating with the RSF.

Asmaa Mubarak* said one of her cousins had been killed. She said the 18-year-old and his immediate family, who were from Khartoum North, had fled south to the city of Wad Madani when the war between the army and the RSF broke out in April 2023. They later returned to the Khartoum tri-city area to live with relatives in Omdurman.

According to Mubarak, her cousin decided to cross into Khartoum North to guard the family house from looters on hearing the fighting there had subsided.

She said: “His father asked him to remain with them, but he insisted on going back, telling them that all his peers were there guarding their houses.” Mubarak also claimed that her cousin’s father was told by local people that if he tried to enter Halfaya to retrieve his son’s body for burial he too would be killed.

Mubarak said the family had decided to say that her cousin had died from a stray bullet because they were worried about the social stigma of rumours that he had been working with the RSF.

A South Sudanese refugee called John was killed on the same day, according to Mubarak. “John grew up in the area and his family could not flee the country, they could not afford to do so,” she said. “The Al-Bara battalion came in and accused him of working with the RSF too. He was called a slave.”

Mubarak said she was worried about people living in Shambat, another neighbourhood in Khartoum North that could fall to the army, unless “people intervene to protect those who could not flee but had to stay under the mercy of the RSF”.

Another woman said one of her brothers was killed during the army’s advance into Halfaya and another was taken to the Surkab base – both on the basis of alleged cooperation with the RSF. The woman said both were civilians and that they had not cooperated with the RSF.

The Sudan Democratic Lawyers Front, a rights group, said of the alleged killings: “We think this is a clear war crime and we demand that a comprehensive investigation is opened to find out who the perpetrators are.”

A spokesperson for the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights said last month that it was investigating reports that dozens of civilians had been killed in the greater Khartoum area. They added that the commissioner’s Sudan expert, Radhouane Nouicer, had repeatedly raised concerns about the protection of civilians with the Sudanese authorities.

The Al-Bara’ ibn Malik brigade has been involved in the Sudanese civil war since it began. It is led by young Islamist men who were part of the Islamic movement that ruled the country for 30 years under the former president Omar al-Bashir. It has been contacted for comment about the Khartoum North allegations.

Brig Gen Nabil Abdallah, a spokesperson for the Sudanese army, said army soldiers had not been involved in any alleged extrajudicial killings in Khartoum North. He also accused Tagadum – a pro-civilian-power coalition which is involved in peace negotiations – of orchestrating a smear campaign against the army and echoing RSF propaganda.

The war between the RSF and the regular army, which erupted in April 2023, has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, displaced millions, and left the north-east African country on the brink of famine. The army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians in the course of the fighting.

On Monday a high-level UN official warned that the international community had failed to grasp the seriousness of the crisis. Diplomatic efforts “are not commensurate with the needs”, said Mamadou Dian Balde, who is coordinating the UN refugee agency’s response to the Sudan crisis. He told Agence France-Presse that he didn’t think the world realises “the gravity of the Sudanese crisis”, nor its impact.

* Names have been changed

The death toll from Cyclone Chido has continued to rise, with authorities confirming that 45 people were killed in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi.

French officials said the number of deaths on the Mayotte archipelago remained unclear, having previously expressed fears that hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed in slums flattened by the storm. So far, 22 deaths and 1,500 injuries, 200 of them critical, have been confirmed.

The acting interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, told the French station BFMTV on Wednesday: “I cannot give a death toll because I don’t know. I fear the toll will be too heavy.”

The cyclone, which meteorologists said was intensified by climate breakdown, struck Mayotte with winds of up to 140mph (225km/h) on Saturday. It then barrelled across northern Mozambique, where there is an Islamist insurgency, and Malawi.

Nearly 500 people were injured in Mozambique, according to the National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management, and 24,000 homes were destroyed.

Southern Africa was already reeling from a drought this year that had left millions of people battling hunger.

In Mayotte, a French overseas region between Madagascar and Mozambique, the water system was “working at 50%” but there was a risk of “poor quality”, France’s minister for overseas matters, François-Noël Buffet, told radio station Europe 1.

French authorities said on Wednesday that they had started to distribute 23 tons of water. A field hospital should be working by next week, Buffet said, after the territory’s hospital was put out of action by the cyclone.

Mayotte, the poorest part of France, has an official population of 320,000. But there are as many as 200,000 more undocumented migrants, most from the nearby island of Comoros, living in tightly packed tin-roofed shacks.

The anti-immigrant Retailleau also used his BFMTV appearance to criticise Comoros, saying Mayotte could not be rebuilt without addressing migration.

The French president is due to travel to Mayotte on Thursday, with plans to visit a hospital and a destroyed neighbourhood, his office said. “Our compatriots are living through the worst just a few thousand kilometres away,” Emmanuel Macron said.

Some Mahorais expressed anger that Retailleau had not gone to damaged areas when he visited on Monday, including Zaïna Assani, 58, in a call to her daughter from Pamanzi, on Mayotte’s second island, Petite-Terre. “I want to scream,” she said.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

More than 140 Facebook content moderators have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder caused by exposure to graphic social media content including murders, suicides, child sexual abuse and terrorism.

The moderators worked eight- to 10-hour days at a facility in Kenya for a company contracted by the social media firm and were found to have PTSD, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), by Dr Ian Kanyanya, the head of mental health services at Kenyatta National hospital in Nairobi.

The mass diagnoses have been made as part of lawsuit being brought against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and Samasource Kenya, an outsourcing company that carried out content moderation for Meta using workers from across Africa.

The images and videos including necrophilia, bestiality and self-harm caused some moderators to faint, vomit, scream and run away from their desks, the filings allege.

The case is shedding light on the human cost of the boom in social media use in recent years that has required more and more moderation, often in some of the poorest parts of the world, to protect users from the worst material that some people post.

At least 40 of the moderators in the case were misusing alcohol, drugs including cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines, and medication such as sleeping pills. Some reported marriage breakdown and the collapse of desire for sexual intimacy, and losing connection with their families. Some whose job was to remove videos uploaded by terrorist and rebel groups were afraid they were being watched and targeted, and that if they returned home they would be hunted and killed.

Facebook and other large social media and artificial intelligence companies rely on armies of content moderators to remove posts that breach their community standards and to train AI systems to do the same.

The moderators from Kenya and other African countries were tasked from 2019 to 2023 with checking posts emanating from Africa and in their own languages but were paid eight times less than their counterparts in the US, according to the claim documents.

Medical reports filed with the employment and labour relations court in Nairobi and seen by the Guardian paint a horrific picture of working life inside the Meta-contracted facility, where workers were fed a constant stream of images to check in a cold warehouse-like space, under bright lights and with their working activity monitored to the minute.

Almost 190 moderators are bringing the multi-pronged claim that includes allegations of intentional infliction of mental harm, unfair employment practices, human trafficking and modern slavery and unlawful redundancy. All 144 examined by Kanyanya were found to have PTSD, GAD and MDD with severe or extremely severe PTSD symptoms in 81% of cases, mostly at least a year after they had left.

Meta and Samasource declined to comment on the claims because of the litigation.

Martha Dark, the founder and co-executive director of Foxglove, a UK-based non-profit organisation that has backed the court case, said: “The evidence is indisputable: moderating Facebook is dangerous work that inflicts lifelong PTSD on almost everyone who moderates it.

“In Kenya, it traumatised 100% of hundreds of former moderators tested for PTSD … In any other industry, if we discovered 100% of safety workers were being diagnosed with an illness caused by their work, the people responsible would be forced to resign and face the legal consequences for mass violations of people’s rights. That is why Foxglove is supporting these brave workers to seek justice from the courts.”

According to the filings in the Nairobi case, Kanyanya concluded that the primary cause of the mental health conditions among the 144 people was their work as Facebook content moderators as they “encountered extremely graphic content on a daily basis, which included videos of gruesome murders, self-harm, suicides, attempted suicides, sexual violence, explicit sexual content, child physical and sexual abuse, horrific violent actions just to name a few”.

Four of the moderators suffered trypophobia, an aversion to or fear of repetitive patterns of small holes or bumps that can cause intense anxiety. For some, the condition developed from seeing holes on decomposing bodies while working on Facebook content.

Moderation and the related task of tagging content are often hidden parts of the tech boom. Similar, but less traumatising, arrangements are made for outsourced workers to tag masses of images of mundane things such as street furniture, living rooms and road scenes so AI systems designed in California know what they are looking at.

Meta said it took the support of content reviewers seriously. Contracts with third-party moderators of content on Facebook and Instagram detailed expectations about counselling, training and round-the-clock onsite support and access to private healthcare. Meta said pay was above industry standards in the markets where they operated and it used techniques such as blurring, muting sounds and rendering in monochrome to limit exposure to graphic material for people who reviewed content on the two platforms.

More than 140 Facebook content moderators have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder caused by exposure to graphic social media content including murders, suicides, child sexual abuse and terrorism.

The moderators worked eight- to 10-hour days at a facility in Kenya for a company contracted by the social media firm and were found to have PTSD, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), by Dr Ian Kanyanya, the head of mental health services at Kenyatta National hospital in Nairobi.

The mass diagnoses have been made as part of lawsuit being brought against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and Samasource Kenya, an outsourcing company that carried out content moderation for Meta using workers from across Africa.

The images and videos including necrophilia, bestiality and self-harm caused some moderators to faint, vomit, scream and run away from their desks, the filings allege.

The case is shedding light on the human cost of the boom in social media use in recent years that has required more and more moderation, often in some of the poorest parts of the world, to protect users from the worst material that some people post.

At least 40 of the moderators in the case were misusing alcohol, drugs including cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines, and medication such as sleeping pills. Some reported marriage breakdown and the collapse of desire for sexual intimacy, and losing connection with their families. Some whose job was to remove videos uploaded by terrorist and rebel groups were afraid they were being watched and targeted, and that if they returned home they would be hunted and killed.

Facebook and other large social media and artificial intelligence companies rely on armies of content moderators to remove posts that breach their community standards and to train AI systems to do the same.

The moderators from Kenya and other African countries were tasked from 2019 to 2023 with checking posts emanating from Africa and in their own languages but were paid eight times less than their counterparts in the US, according to the claim documents.

Medical reports filed with the employment and labour relations court in Nairobi and seen by the Guardian paint a horrific picture of working life inside the Meta-contracted facility, where workers were fed a constant stream of images to check in a cold warehouse-like space, under bright lights and with their working activity monitored to the minute.

Almost 190 moderators are bringing the multi-pronged claim that includes allegations of intentional infliction of mental harm, unfair employment practices, human trafficking and modern slavery and unlawful redundancy. All 144 examined by Kanyanya were found to have PTSD, GAD and MDD with severe or extremely severe PTSD symptoms in 81% of cases, mostly at least a year after they had left.

Meta and Samasource declined to comment on the claims because of the litigation.

Martha Dark, the founder and co-executive director of Foxglove, a UK-based non-profit organisation that has backed the court case, said: “The evidence is indisputable: moderating Facebook is dangerous work that inflicts lifelong PTSD on almost everyone who moderates it.

“In Kenya, it traumatised 100% of hundreds of former moderators tested for PTSD … In any other industry, if we discovered 100% of safety workers were being diagnosed with an illness caused by their work, the people responsible would be forced to resign and face the legal consequences for mass violations of people’s rights. That is why Foxglove is supporting these brave workers to seek justice from the courts.”

According to the filings in the Nairobi case, Kanyanya concluded that the primary cause of the mental health conditions among the 144 people was their work as Facebook content moderators as they “encountered extremely graphic content on a daily basis, which included videos of gruesome murders, self-harm, suicides, attempted suicides, sexual violence, explicit sexual content, child physical and sexual abuse, horrific violent actions just to name a few”.

Four of the moderators suffered trypophobia, an aversion to or fear of repetitive patterns of small holes or bumps that can cause intense anxiety. For some, the condition developed from seeing holes on decomposing bodies while working on Facebook content.

Moderation and the related task of tagging content are often hidden parts of the tech boom. Similar, but less traumatising, arrangements are made for outsourced workers to tag masses of images of mundane things such as street furniture, living rooms and road scenes so AI systems designed in California know what they are looking at.

Meta said it took the support of content reviewers seriously. Contracts with third-party moderators of content on Facebook and Instagram detailed expectations about counselling, training and round-the-clock onsite support and access to private healthcare. Meta said pay was above industry standards in the markets where they operated and it used techniques such as blurring, muting sounds and rendering in monochrome to limit exposure to graphic material for people who reviewed content on the two platforms.

When James Irungu took on a new job for the tech outsourcing company Samasource, his manager provided scant details before his training began. But the role was highly sought after and would nearly double his pay to £250 a month. Plus it offered a path out of Kibera, the vast shantytown on the outskirts of Nairobi where he lived with his young family.

“I thought I was one of the lucky ones,” the 26-year-old, said. But then he found himself ploughing through heaps of violent and sexually explicit material, including grisly accidents, suicides, beheadings and child abuse.

“I remember one day when I logged in to see a child with their stomach torn wide open, suffering but not dead,” the Kenyan national told the Guardian. It was seeing child exploitation material “when it really kicked in that this was something different”.

He had been hired by Samasource to moderate Facebook content, weeding out the most toxic posts. Some of the most tormenting images remained etched in his mind, occasionally jolting him awake in night sweats. Fearing that opening up about his work would evoke discomfort, concern or judgment from others, he kept it to himself.

Exasperated by his “secretiveness”, his wife grew distant. Irungu resigned himself to them drifting apart, convinced he was protecting her and stayed in the job for three years. He says he regrets pressing on.

“I don’t think that work is suitable for human beings,” he said. “It really isolated me from the real world because I started to see it as such a dark place.” He became afraid to let his daughter out of his sight.

“When I ask myself if the money was really worth sacrificing my mental health for, the answer is no.”

Another former moderator said she was alarmed at some of the content and some fellow workers dropped out. But she found purpose in assurances from her managers that their work protected users, including young children like hers.

“I felt like I was helping people,” she said. But when she stopped, she realised that things she had normalised were troubling.

She remembered once screaming in the middle of the office floor after watching one horrific scene. Except for a few glances from co-workers, and a team leader pulling her aside to “go to wellness” counselling, it was like nothing had happened, she said. The wellness counsellors told her to take some time to rest and get the image out of her head.

“How do you forget when you’re back on the floor after a 15-minute break, to move to the next thing?” she said. She wondered if the counsellors were qualified psychotherapists, saying that they would never escalate a case for mental healthcare no matter what the moderators had seen or how distressed they were.

She went from being the kind of person who would host friends at every occasion to barely leaving her house, crying at the deaths of people she did not know to feeling numb and mentally troubled, sometimes battling suicidal thoughts.

“The work damaged me, I could never go back to it,” said the woman , who hopes that the case will have impacts on the content moderation industry in Africa, as global demand for such services grows.

“Things have to change,” she said. “I would never want anyone to go through what we did.”

Downing Street has denied that a deal with Mauritius to hand over control of the Chagos Islands is in peril after the island’s new prime minister said the arrangement as it stands is not beneficial to his country.

The agreement, under which the UK would hand over its final African colony while keeping control of the UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia for at least 99 years, was reached in October with the previous Mauritian administration.

But Navinchandra Ramgoolam, who returned as prime minister for a third term after a general election in November, subsequently ordered a review of the deal signed by his predecessor, Pravind Jugnauth.

Speaking to his country’s parliament on Tuesday, Ramgoolam said a meeting with UK officials last week had involved Mauritius seeking better terms.

“Mauritius made clear that, while it is still willing to conclude an agreement with the United Kingdom, the draft agreement which was shown to us after the general elections is one which, in our view, would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect from such an agreement,” he said.

“Therefore, Mauritius accordingly submitted counter-proposals to the UK so that an agreement which is in the best interest of Mauritius can be concluded. The response of the United Kingdom to our counter-proposals was received yesterday afternoon and is now being currently considered.”

Asked if the deal was unravelling, Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said: “I wouldn’t characterise it like that at all. As you know, there has been a change of leadership in Mauritius. It makes sense that we would engage with the new administration on the details of the deal, and that’s what we are doing.”

He continued: “Our position on the deal, which hasn’t changed, is that the government inherited a situation where the long-term secure operation of the military base at Diego Garcia was under threat through contested sovereignty and legal challenges, including through various international courts and tribunals.

“The agreement we’ve struck with Mauritius protects the long-term secure operation of the UK-US base, which plays such a crucial role in regional and international security.”

The spokesperson said work was being done with the new Mauritian government about “details of the deal”, but declined to say what these may concern.

The Conservative opposition in the UK has criticised the deal as an unnecessary surrender of sovereignty, which could allow China greater influence in the region. The government has noted that discussions about the deal began under the Tories.

There are also concerns that Donald Trump would block the deal. His pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, warned that the agreement posed “a serious threat” to US national security by ceding the islands to a country allied with China.

Ministers in the UK have said that uncertainty over the islands’ legal status threatened the base’s operation and that the deal had support from across the US security system. Joe Biden’s administration has offered its public backing to it.

The search for missing people has continued on the French territory of Mayotte, after Cyclone Chido devastated the islands on Saturday before sweeping through south-eastern Africa, where the death toll is climbing in Mozambique and Malawi.

Large parts of Mayotte’s main island, Grande-Terre, are still cut off from roads, internet and phone networks, as well as electricity and water.

While 21 people were officially confirmed to have been killed by the storm in Mayotte, officials there said there could be thousands of deaths. The Red Cross said on Tuesday it feared that 200 of its volunteers were missing.

In northern Mozambique, 34 people died and 23,600 homes were destroyed, authorities said. The cyclone killed seven people in Malawi, affecting almost 35,000 people, the country’s disaster management department said.

Authorities in Mayotte have ordered a 10pm to 4am curfew, starting on Tuesday, citing fears of looting amid reported shortages of food and fuel.

“The situation remains chaotic. A large part of Mayotte still does not have electricity or water. The same goes for the telephone network; many still have no news of their loved ones,” said Alexis Duclos, the editor in chief of local news service Flash Infos.

“Shops are only partially open to avoid crowds, people are waiting in front of banks because the cash machines are out of order, gas stations are refusing to serve people because fuel is reserved for emergency services and law enforcement,” said Duclos, who had to climb out of an apartment window via a ladder with his pregnant partner, minutes before the building’s roof blew off in the cyclone.

Mayotte lies in the Indian Ocean channel between Madagascar and Mozambique and is the poorest part of France. It is officially home to about 320,000 people, but authorities say there could be as many as 200,000 more due to illegal migration, most from the nearby island nation of Comoros.

An estimated one-third of the population live in densely populated, tin-roofed informal settlements, many of which were flattened by winds of up to 140mph (225km/h). Many undocumented migrants did not leave the slums for storm shelters because of fears of being deported, which is what is stopping many coming forward for help now, officials said.

“The real toll of those swept away by the mud, winds and tin from shantytowns will never be known,” Estelle Youssouffa, a deputy for Mayotte in France’s parliament, told the France Inter radio station. “This population, by definition undocumented migrants, are the main victims of this tragedy because they feared going to shelters.”

She said she spoke to an imam on Monday who described burying more than 30 people in the informal settlement of La Vigie.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, promised to visit Mayotte in the coming days, after chairing a crisis meeting on Monday night. He also declared an unspecified period of national mourning.

The interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said there had not been any looting when he visited Mayotte’s main island on Monday. He announced that 400 more gendarmes would arrive “in the coming days”, to reinforce 1,600 gendarmes and police officers already on the islands.

A broad swathe of southern Africa was already reeling from a devastating drought earlier this year when Cyclone Chido hit, with an estimated 27 million people struggling to feed themselves until the next harvest due around April.

The “exceptional” cyclone was made worse by climate breakdown, fuelled by especially warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of the Meteo France weather service told Agence France-Presse.

Darkouai Hakim, who works for an employment agency but was in France when the cyclone hit, said: “What worries me is that we are only at the beginning of the cyclone season … I am afraid there will be another one and there will be chaos.”

While his parents and parents-in law were safe in the south of Grande-Terre, which was less affected than the north, he said he was worried about the lack of fuel, electricity and water: “There was already not enough water before the cyclone.”

Said Valdo, an IT entrepreneur, had to travel about 20 miles across the island, from the village of Mliha to Kaweni, in the capital Mamoudzou, to access phone and internet networks.

He said the storm needed to trigger improvements for people living in Mayotte’s slums: “We are overpopulated so, if there is no long-term solution, unfortunately what is happening now will be multiplied in the coming years.”

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse.

The housemate of an LGBTQ+ activist in Kenya has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder of Edwin Chiloba, whose mutilated body was discovered in a metal box almost two years ago.

The high court in Eldoret found Jacktone Odhiambo guilty over the January 2023 killing that drew global attention to attitudes toward gay rights in the largely conservative Kenya, where the president, William Ruto, has called gay rights a non-issue, and sex between men is illegal.

Chiloba was widely known in Kenya’s LGBTQ+ community for his activism against discrimination.

Odhiambo denied killing his housemate, despite samples of his DNA being found on the victim’s body. He can appeal against the sentencing. DNA evidence indicated the two men had an intimate physical relationship, but the court gave no finding on the motive for the killing.

During the trial, witnesses testified to hearing the housemates in an argument and later seeing Odhiambo move the metal box.

Justice Reuben Nyakundi said during the ruling that Odhiambo had planned the murder, waiting until the two returned home from a nightclub. Chiloba had marks on his hands, showing that he had tried to fight back, Nyakundi said.

LGBTQ+ people have decried discrimination and attacks in Kenya, but police ruled out the possibility that the killing was a hate crime.

The cyclone that hit Mayotte has left health services on the French Indian Ocean territory in tatters, with the hospital extremely damaged and health centres knocked out of operation, a minister said on Monday.

“The hospital has suffered major water damage and destruction, notably in the surgical, intensive care, maternity and emergency units,” the French health minister, Geneviève Darrieussecq, told France 2, adding that “medical centres were also non-operational”.

Rescuers are racing against time to reach survivors after Cyclone Chido laid waste to waste the territory’s many shantytowns, with hundreds feared dead. The powerful cyclone caused extensive damage to Mayotte’s airport and cut off electricity, water and communication links when it barrelled down on France’s poorest territory on Saturday.

The Mayotte prefect, François-Xavier Bieuville, told the broadcaster Mayotte la Première that he expected the final death toll to reach “close to a thousand or even several thousand”.

Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, the mayor of Mayotte’s capital, Mamoudzou, told AFP the storm “spared nothing”. “The hospital is hit, the schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated,” he said.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will host a crisis meeting on the disaster in Paris at 6pm, his office said.

The country’s interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, with 160 soldiers and firefighters to reinforce the 110 already deployed.

Chido carried winds of at least 140mph when it reached Mayotte, which lies betweenMozambique and Madagascar. At least a third of the territory’s 320,000 residents live in shantytowns, where homes with sheet-metal roofs were flattened by the storm.

One resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of “apocalyptic scenes” as he made his way through the main island, having to clear blocked roads himself.

As authorities assessed the scale of the disaster, a first aid plane reached Mayotte on Sunday. It carried three tonnes of medical supplies, blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff, according to authorities in La Réunion, another French Indian Ocean territory, about 870 miles from Mayotte, which is serving as a logistics base for the rescue operation.

Patrice Latron, the prefect of La Réunion, said residents of Mayotte faced “an extremely chaotic situation, immense destruction”. Two military aircraft were expected to follow the initial aid flight, while a navy patrol ship was also due to depart La Réunion.

There have been international promises to help Mayotte, including from the regional Red Cross organisation, PIROI. The EU chief, Ursula von der Leyen, said the bloc was “ready to provide support in the days to come”.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the WHO “stands ready to support communities in need of essential health care”.

About 100,000 people are estimated to live clandestinely on Mayotte, according to France’s interior ministry, making it hard to establish how many people have been affected by the cyclone.

Ousseni Balahachi, a former nurse, said some people did not dare venture out to seek assistance, “fearing it would be a trap” designed to remove them from Mayotte.

Many had stayed put “until the last minute” when it proved too late to escape the cyclone, she added.

Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide fuelled by climate change, according to experts. The “exceptional” cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, the meteorologist Francois Gourand, of the Météo-France weather service, told AFP.

The cyclone blasted across the Indian Ocean and made landfall in Mozambique on Sunday, where officials said it had resulted in three deaths.

“Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed,” the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said.

The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said 1.7 million people were in danger from the cyclone, and that the remnants of it could still cause “significant rainfall” on Malawi on Monday. Zimbabwe and Zambia could also expect heavy rains, it added.

At least several hundred people are feared to have been killed after the worst cyclone in almost a century ripped through the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Saturday, uprooting trees, tearing houses apart and pounding the impoverished archipelago’s already weak infrastructure.

Rescuers have been dispatched to the islands, which lie between the coast of Mozambique and Madagascar, but their efforts are likely to be hindered by damage to airports and electricity distribution in an area where clean drinking water is subject to chronic shortages.

Speaking to Mayotte’s la 1ere TV station on Sunday, the archipelago’s prefect, François-Xavier Bieuville, said the confirmed toll of 11 dead was likely to soar over the coming days.

“I think there will certainly be several hundreds, maybe we will reach a thousand, even several thousands,” he said.

Bieuville said it would be very difficult to reach a final count given that most residents were Muslim and so traditionally would bury their dead within 24 hours.

The mayor of Mayotte’s capital of Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, had earlier told Agence France-Presse that nine people had been seriously injured when Cyclone Chido hit and were fighting for their lives in hospital, while 246 more were badly hurt.

“The hospital is hit, the schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated,” he said, adding that the cyclone had “spared nothing”.

One local resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of “apocalyptic scenes” as he made his way through the main island, having to clear blocked roads for himself.

Mayotte’s 320,000 residents had been ordered into lockdown on Saturday as Chido bore down on the islands, bringing winds of at least 226 kilometres an hour (140mph).

Aerial footage shared by French gendarmerie forces showed the wreckage of hundreds of makeshift houses strewn across the hills of one of Mayotte’s islands, which have been a focal point for illegal immigration from nearby Comoros.

France’s interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, would travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, alongside 160 soldiers and firefighters who will join the 110 personnel already deployed to the islands.

Authorities in Réunion, another French Indian Ocean territory about 1,400 kilometres away on the other side of Madagascar, said medical personnel and equipment were on the way by air and sea.

A first aid plane landed in Mayotte at about 3:30pm local time on Sunday with three tonnes of medical supplies and blood for transfusions and 17 medical staff. Two military aircraft were expected to follow.

A navy patrol ship was also to depart Réunion with personnel and equipment, including for the electricity supplier EDF.

The prefect of Réunion, Patrice Latron, said authorities aimed to establish an air and sea bridge to Mayotte. About 800 more rescuers were to be sent in the coming days and more than 80 tonnes of supplies had been flown in or were on their way by ship. Priorities included restoring electricity and access to drinking water, he said.

Mayotte is France’s poorest island and the EU’s poorest territory. In some parts, entire neighbourhoods of metal shacks and huts were flattened, while residents reported many trees had been uprooted, boats flipped or sunk and the electricity supply knocked out.

Chido also battered the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. Authorities in Comoros said 11 fishers who had gone out to sea earlier this week were missing.
The intense tropical cyclone, which made landfall in Mozambique on Sunday, could affect 2.5 million people in the north of the country as aid agencies warn of more loss of life and severe damage.

A Unicef spokesperson confirmed that Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province, which is home to about 2 million people, had been hit, and that many homes, schools and health facilities there had been partly or completely destroyed.

Cyclone season in the region runs from December to March, and parts of the south-eastern Indian Ocean and southern Africa have been hit by a series of strong ones in recent years. Cyclone Idai killed more than 1,300 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in 2019. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries last year.

The cyclones bring the risk of flooding and landslides, but also stagnant pools of water that may later cause deadly outbreaks of cholera, dengue fever and malaria.

Studies say the cyclones are getting worse because of the climate emergency. They can cause large humanitarian crises in poor countries in southern Africa, which contribute a tiny amount to global heating, underlining their call for more help from rich nations to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Since September, Effia Afful and her friends have been calling Accra establishments to reserve tables for the Christmas season, trying to beat other fun-seekers to it.

“You have to reserve your tables now because by the time you are ready, there will be no table left,” said the 30-year-old advertising executive.

In recent years, Ghana has become a December hotspot. It began in 2018 with President Nana Akufo-Addo’s call-to-action in Washington DC, urging Black people in the diaspora to visit Africa. The “Year of Return” was launched in 2019 to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first recorded enslaved Africans in the state of Virginia in the US.

Members of his cabinet assured visitors of a warm welcome, with one calling them “Josephs and Josephines who were sold into slavery and have come back home”.

Since then, thousands of people including celebrities such as Chance the Rapper, Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu and Gabrielle Union have thronged to a country that has long seen itself as home to all Africans. Benin followed in Ghana’s footsteps to launch a similar project.

“Ghana has always been big on tourism,” said David Clay, founder of the Accra-based entertainment and event consultancy Gold River.

“But the number of people coming in December skyrocketed,” he added, “because the communication wasn’t just to come and tour but to come and get in touch with your ancestors.”

This November, 524 settlers were granted citizenship.

“We love Ghana, we love the ­culture,” said San Diego-born Chaz Kyser, a 45-year-old entrepreneur and speaker, whose relatives were among the cohort. “We like being around Black people all day long and Black people in positions of power.”

The impact has been most evident in entertainment and hospitality: ­several concerts were announced and videos of people partying until sunrise emerged on social media.

There has also been a rise in vegan restaurants, bars and beach clubs. The popular Nigerian ‘gentleman’s club’ Silver Fox opened an Accra branch staffed with Colombian strippers.

“Even with cocktails, the dynamics have changed to the extent that now, you go to an outlet, the guys are doing infusion with local elements,” said Kojo Aidoo, manager at Front Back, an Accra restaurant and ­gallery. Some returnees have launched their own ventures. Kyser, who has lived mostly in Ghana since 2016, ran Serenity House Ghana, an event centre with a bed and breakfast wing and a workspace for more than a year.

It employed 13 people, all locals, and according to its owner hosted more than 100 events. But it ran out of funds and shut down in March despite becoming relatively well known in a short time.

“People would call me from Barbados and be like: ‘Oh, I heard about Serenity House,’ said Kyser. “It was gorgeous because I put so much intention and money into it, and so closing it was heartbreaking. But it didn’t make sense to keep putting money into something where I wasn’t going to get a return for a long time.”

However, while outsiders see Akufo-Addo’s call to action as a master­stroke, many within Ghana say it has been a bittersweet ­experience.

Service providers in particular have inflated their prices and in some cases set them in dollars instead of the Ghanaian cedi, even as the ­economy dipped. Consequently, the price of everything from braids to apartments has doubled.

“On one hand, you get access to all types of celebrities. You could be sitting in a local bar and Idris Elba is two feet away from you,” said Nigerian-born Clay, who attended university in Kumasi, 125 miles north-west of Accra. “But many activities and their pricing have been centred around the visitors, ­creating something of a segregation.”

Locals primarily blame the government for inflation, but also African Americans, even though many only come in December to party, then leave. Those who stay behind account for just a small percentage of the influx, which also includes returnee Ghanaians and white tourists.

Many settlers say they love Ghana, despite the challenges of ­navigating life in a new country, including ­predatory pricing even in ­government dealings. Some are buying real estate, some, controversially, to integrate themselves into society.

Kyser, who has relaunched her business to focus on curating events, says a lot of stereotypes trail the foreigners. “People think Black Americans, because we have dollars, can come and make housing prices rise, food rise,” she said. “I think ­people don’t recognise that there’s a lot of Ghanaians with money.”

She added there were “Black Americans who live here like me who think in terms of cedis [Ghanaian currency], and Black Americans coming for a vacation”.

“The majority of Black Americans who are coming here are middle class and they’re most likely struggling,” she said of those coming here to live.

“They’re coming here because their money will go further and because they want to live in the country of their ancestors.”

These days, some residents now go outside the city to find alternative sources of pleasure.

Afful and her crew have settled for bonding with nature at the Aburi mountains on weekends, “rather than walking into the club and end up spending 3,000-4,000 cedis (£160-£210)”.

And they blame their president: “I don’t think Akufo-Addo was ready when he made that open statement saying people should return home.”

Beneath mango trees in the lush garden of the Palais de Lomé, an oceanside estate in the Togolese capital, dozens of students from the African School of Architecture and Urban Planning (EAMAU) were taking sessions on archiving.

Established in 1905, the palace housed German, French and British colonial governors in succession and then the Togolese presidency before falling into disuse in the 1990s. After a five-year restoration project, its doors were opened to the public in 2019.

These days, it houses an exhibition paying homage to records from across west and central Africa, as well as the Nana Benzes, the wax print merchants who ran the fabrics scene from the 1960s to the 1980s. There is also a discotheque and a 26-acre botanical park with sculptures.

The palace “was supposed to be a centre of power … and so the city was designed around here”, said Sandra Lawson, the founding director of the Palais de Lomé renovation and cultural project. “So that’s why we want to be a place of conversations around architecture.”

In November, she and Studio Neida, an interdisciplinary architecture, design and curatorial firm based between Togo and Germany, hosted the first Lomé Architectural Encounters forum.

In attendance were speakers including the British-Ghanaian architect Nana Biamah-Ofosu, who discussed her research on the African compound house. Beside the trees where sessions were held, an open-air red brick encampment housed an exhibition on tropical modernism, a style native to west Africa.

Uncompleted and abandoned buildings are a regular feature of cityscapes in west Africa. Some have even become landmarks used in giving directions. The reasons for their condition are legion, but they include government mismanagement and inefficiency, and even incidents of relatives scamming members of the diaspora who want to build homes.

Many buildings remain uncompleted or abandoned for years.

“In my family, we had a building project that … was initiated in 1993 and it supposedly got completed in 2018,” said Dominique Petit-Frère, a conference speaker and co-founder of the design and research practice Limbo Accra.

The Palais de Lomé, an exception to the norm, is the case study that tiny Togo is presenting to kickstart a conversation on resuscitating and archiving architecture in Africa.

But as imposing as it is, the restored estate tells only half the tale. Less than three miles away stands a monument to Togo’s indecision about whether writing a new era of history involves reclaiming some parts but dispensing with others.

The majestic 216-room Hotel de la Paix was launched by the government in the 1970s and in its heyday quickly became a rendezvous spot for high-flying west Africans.

“Hotel de la Paix is an emblematic building which also bears witness to the history of Togo,” said the Lomé-based architect Sabrina Bako, who participated in the Palais de Lomè renovation. “In post-independence, when Togo wanted to give itself an international status, it was one of the first luxury hotels that was built … it was a glorious period.”

Two decades later, the hotel, which also faces the ocean, became a skeleton of its glorious self after mismanagement and state neglect robbed it of its shine. A new hotel now occupies part of the grounds, while the government has reportedly earmarked the main complex for demolition.

“There are solutions to preserve this architectural heritage,” said Bako. “That’s my opinion but it’s the politicians that decide.”

For some, it is the Hotel de la Paix, rather than the Palais de Lomé, that represents the true state of archiving architecture across the continent. Olufemi Hinson Yovo, a Beninese architect who runs an Instagram account called @Cotonou.Architecture to catalogue disappearing relics, said many administrators across the region had a disdain towards heritage.

“All I see from all stand points of different west African cities and governments on heritage is ‘either it’s in a good place where there’s attraction to tourism and then we can renovate it, but if it’s not we just destroy it and and build something on top of it’,” she said.

“In Dakar, in Cotonou we wake up every day to a heritage building being destroyed …it’s like an epidemic.”

Even though there are architecture departments across west Africa’s many universities, EAMAU, which was established in 1975, remains the region’s major specialty college. Many of its graduates, like Bako, are well-known. But experts say the curriculum needs updating to better adapt to local needs.

The political will for long-term change is slow to come, but more private citizens are stepping into the arena.

Dakar, for example, is the scene of a growing renaissance of artists placing architectural relics at the centre of their work. At the conference, the Senegalese-Cameroonian architect Nzinga Mboup discussed one such initiative: Dakarmorphose, a tech-driven initiative by her and partner Carole Diop to map the city’s heritage.

There is also Limbo Accra, which works to transform unfinished buildings and has created a digital repository for them in order to “find new ways of mitigating what we’re dealing with in our cities”, according to Petit-Frère.

Yovo hopes these initiatives will spur others on.

“Renovating such a place as Palais de Lomé is a huge feat,” she said. “That I could take a taxi from Cotonou and come here three hours away from home and be with world-class architects, emerging world-class architects … it’s fantastic that it’s happening but we need way more than this.”

A group of upcoming playwrights is gathering in the Zimbabwean capital Harare this week for an 11-day event organised by celebrated American-Zimbabwean actor Danai Gurira as part of her commitment to nurturing a new generation of dramatic artists in southern Africa.

The Almasi African Playwrights conference is hosted by Almasi Collaborative Arts, the organisation Gurira co-founded in 2011, and offers writers a chance to develop their work with directors and actors. Running from 11 December at Harare’s Reps theatre, it is part of Almasi’s aim to promote and celebrate African storytelling. Gurira is expected to join the group.

Best known for her award-winning roles in the Walking Dead series and Black Panther movies, Gurira is also a dramatist. Her plays include Eclipsed, the first play to premiere on Broadway with an all female and black cast and creative team.

Gurira set up Almasi with film and theatre producer Patience Tawengwa to give Zimbabwean creatives access to the sort of training and skills that she has benefited from since being in the US; she remains actively involved as executive artistic director.

“What I kept experiencing was coming home from the US [to Zimbabwe] and finding people were not getting trained in this field,” Gurira said. “They were telling me they wrote a play in three days! Playmaking is hard, there is no sustainable piece of writing that can be completed in three days. I wanted to expose the Zimbabwean artist to process, so they could develop their talent to its utmost potential. That is the only way we create work that is globally recognised. It is the only way we create work that tells our stories in a way that is undeniable and universal.”

More than 500 African artists have participated in workshops devised by Gurira and Tawenga over the past 11 years and attended by guest actors and other industry figures from the US, including playwright Alice Tuan; Walking Dead producer and writer Matt Negrette; costume designer Clint Ramos and director Lucie Tiberghien, who co-directed Almasi’s most recent play, Family Riots with Almasi alumnus Makomborero Theresa Muchemwa.

The African Playwrights conference is Almasi’s flagship event and has led to the development of 20 plays since it started in 2015. More than 60 playwrights, actors, producers and directors are expected to attend this year.

“There is nothing else like it on this scale – as far as I know. It’s heaven for playwrights”, said Gideon Jeph Wabvuta, a playwright and programme coordinator at Almasi.

He said the event was part of a “growing excitement around theatre in Zimbabwe”, boosted this year by the launch of an Outstanding Playwright category in the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe awards. “This kind of recognition is such a big deal,” he added.

The conference follows Almasi’s staging of Family Riots last month at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare, the organisation’s first full production in more than 10 years. Written by Wabvuta, the play tells the story of an upwardly mobile family in Mbare, Zimbabwe’s oldest township, during the 1998 food riots.

“It is about family and it is about class,” said Wabvuta. “When I started writing the play [in 2013], the people were based on my parents. But I kept writing for so long that the people in the play became me and my wife!”

Wabvuta said the gallery was chosen as a venue in part because he wanted to offer a different experience to attract people who might not usually go to the theatre. “One couple came because their son, a standup comedian, recommended it. They had never been to the theatre before.”

Gurira said the choice of venue also reflected Almasi’s mission. “I love the idea of collaborating with another form of African art. We are called Almasi Collaborative Arts and the idea of a collaboration like this felt exciting and different for us. Let’s merge the visual arts with installation art, and musical art with theatre art,” she added.

Wabvuta, who joined Almasi’s programme in its first year and attended the University of Southern California MFA dramatic writing programme, said that while he was optimistic about the new crop of writers, funding was a significant barrier to making a living from theatre. His role at Almasi gives him the financial stability to continue his work as a playwright. Others have not been as lucky.

Many of the 500 or so artists Almasi has trained have left the profession because of poor pay. “Our industry struggles to keep its people,” said Wabvuta. “It’s a money issue”, adding that the lead actor in Family Riots, Michael Kudakwashe, gave up acting to pursue a full-time job but agreed to take on the role for this production.

Associate director at Almasi Zaza Muchemwa believes that offering professional training will help create a more dynamic and robust dramatic arts scene in Zimbabwe.

“I was always keenly aware of what this [dramatic arts] space is and what it could be. When Almasi began, there weren’t a lot of organisations or tertiary institutions that were training creatives.”

Gurira added that seeing young playwrights grow in confidence was one of the most rewarding parts of her role at Almasi. “Seeing them get to explore their craft and impress even themselves. That means everything. Those artists will never be the same. Their work has transformed, and so have they. That has been very gratifying.”

She added that Almasi planned to work more with local partners such as businesses and embassies with the aim of “spearheading a new age in the Zimbabwe entertainment industry”.

“As our name connotes, we seek to collaborate. Our goal lies in what we seek to build, like the name ‘Zimbabwe’ itself, we seek to build a house of stone that lasts.”

Cash-strapped consumers are still prioritising spending on holidays but are choosing more affordable destinations including Egypt, Bulgaria and Tunisia for their annual break, according to Europe’s biggest package trip operator.

Tui said new customers with smaller budgets who are not able to find a package holiday in more traditional locations such as Spain are looking elsewhere.

Inflationary pressures have eased, the travel company said, and the average selling price of its holidays have levelled out, although the cost of a trip remains at a “significantly higher level” compared with 2019.

Prices are now “at a level where we think it will remain”, said Sebastian Ebel, the group’s chief executive.

“We also see quite often new customers who have less income but still want to travel, and they have a budget of €1,000/£800 per vacation, and if they don’t see it in Spain, then they look for alternatives, and they find alternatives,” Ebel said.

“Mallorca will be full in summer, the Canary Islands are full now in winter. But there’s enough choice for customers to find the right vacation.”

The widespread return of travellers to Tunisia and Egypt marks a turnaround for the countries as holiday destinations after a series of Islamic State terror attacks around the time of 2015 led to a plunge in visitor numbers.

Meanwhile, Tui reported an annual pre-tax profit of €1.3bn (£1bn) in the 12 months to the end of September, a 35% increase compared with a year earlier.

The company said the strong performance of package holidays and in its cruise division contributed to the rise in operating profit, helping the business to strengthen its finance and bring down its debt levels.

The travel company said it continued to reduce its net debt, cutting it by €500m to €1.6bn, amid its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, when most international travel was halted.

The Germany-headquartered company received multiple bailouts from the country’s government in 2020, the first year of Covid lockdowns, when Tui reported a €3bn full-year loss.

More than 20 million customers travelled with Tui in the 12 months to 30 September, an increase of 7% on a year earlier, as consumers continued to spend on travel.

After a wave of anti-tourism protests over the summer in Spain’s most popular tourist destinations – from Málaga to Mallorca and Gran Canaria to Granada – Tui’s boss said he had “taken these protests very seriously”.

Ebel said he travelled to Mallorca and spoke to local people about the issues, after tens of thousands of protesters called for a rethink of a business model that they say has pushed up housing prices and driven local people out of cities.

“We bring customers who stay in a hotel so they don’t take an apartment away; we bring customers into hotels where our employees have good contracts, good working conditions,” Ebel said.

“On the other hand, we recognise that there is, in some areas, big constraint on housing. We have been and we are ready to build more housing for our own people.”

Ghana’s electoral commission had been due to announce the official results of Saturday’s presidential election by Tuesday. But by Sunday morning Mahamudu Bawumia, the country’s vice-president and the flag-bearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and his campaign team had seen enough to give up.

“The data from our own internal collation of the results indicates that … John Mahama has won the presidential election decisively,” he said at a press conference after calling his rival to concede. By Monday, the commission had confirmed the outcome: the former president Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had indeed won with 56% of the vote to Bawumia’s 41%.

The NPP’s defeat, by one of the largest margins in recent history, was seen as punishment for the outgoing government’s performance. Commentators surmised that Ghanaians had been sufficiently displeased by the state of affairs to instead re-elect Mahama, whom they had kicked out unceremoniously in 2016 – the first time an incumbent had been unseated.

The former president’s comeback on his third attempt makes him the first person in the west African state to win two non-consecutive terms.

The election followed a pattern voters have studiously kept in place since the return to multiparty democracy in 1992: every government that has served two four-year terms has been replaced by the opposition.

Economic hardship was a major factor: at one point, inflation was as high as 50% and the cedi plummeted to historic lows while the number of taxes increased. A banking sector purge that was hailed by economists but led to thousands of job losses also angered voters, as did a bloated government in which several relatives of the president and ruling party members served.

Since Ghana’s independence in 1957, it has received bailouts from the International Monetary Fund 17 times, according to Theophilus Acheampong, an economist and associate lecturer at the University of Aberdeen.

So a sure sign that the government was on its way out was its handling of talks with the IMF for a three-year, $3bn rescue package as the country defaulted on foreign debt obligations, said Bernard Tutu Boahen, a political analyst.

“It was preceded by the government not telling the truth to Ghanaians in the sense that when the president said the government was not going to embark on any IMF journey, the finance minister came to make an announcement that they have taken the decision to go,” he said.

That cost the government a lot of goodwill. Pensioners demonstrated in a series of protests in the capital in 2023 about delayed benefits resulting from a controversial debt swap programme introduced as part of conditions for accessing the IMF facility.

All of this largely contributed to apathy in the elections, experts say.

The NPP, seen to be overwhelmingly populated and supported by Akans, Ghana’s largest ethnic group, put forward Bawumia, a candidate from the north. His running mate was a prince from the Ashanti region, the main base of the Akans, to curry their support.

“In the past two elections, Ghana’s election turnout rates have exceeded 70%,” Boahen said. “The recent one which was conducted in 2020 had a turnout rate of about 79%, but this one fell to 60.9%. Now, in the stronghold of the ruling NPP which is Ashanti region, apathy was so high that the turnout rate was around 35%.”

Beyond that, witnesses and experts say the NDC had learned from its previous defeats and enacted a number of strategies to win the election. One of them was the mobilisation of its supporters to be vigilant and monitor the process to avoid any tampering with ballots.

“We have put in place superior counter-rigging strategies and are monitoring every official of the electoral commission and their collaborators,” an NDC spokesperson, Abass Nurudeen, said on the eve of the polls.

At the weekend, NDC supporters celebrated across the country, displaying their party’s green, white and red colours. But many warn that for Mahama – who can legally serve only a four-year term – the honeymoon will be short as he tries to fix the economy and eclipse the blotched legacy of his first term.

To succeed, said Lloyd Adu Amoah, a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, he will have to “rein in political apparatchiks who may want to exploit the return to power for their selfish material ends”. Amoah said: “If this second shot at the presidency is also squandered, Mahama will surely have no one to blame but himself.”

A group of upcoming playwrights is gathering in the Zimbabwean capital Harare this week for an 11-day event organised by celebrated American-Zimbabwean actor Danai Gurira as part of her commitment to nurturing a new generation of dramatic artists in southern Africa.

The Almasi African Playwrights conference is hosted by Almasi Collaborative Arts, the organisation Gurira co-founded in 2011, and offers writers a chance to develop their work with directors and actors. Running from 11 December at Harare’s Reps theatre, it is part of Almasi’s aim to promote and celebrate African storytelling. Gurira is expected to join the group.

Best known for her award-winning roles in the Walking Dead series and Black Panther movies, Gurira is also a dramatist. Her plays include Eclipsed, the first play to premiere on Broadway with an all female and black cast and creative team.

Gurira set up Almasi with film and theatre producer Patience Tawengwa to give Zimbabwean creatives access to the sort of training and skills that she has benefited from since being in the US; she remains actively involved as executive artistic director.

“What I kept experiencing was coming home from the US [to Zimbabwe] and finding people were not getting trained in this field,” Gurira said. “They were telling me they wrote a play in three days! Playmaking is hard, there is no sustainable piece of writing that can be completed in three days. I wanted to expose the Zimbabwean artist to process, so they could develop their talent to its utmost potential. That is the only way we create work that is globally recognised. It is the only way we create work that tells our stories in a way that is undeniable and universal.”

More than 500 African artists have participated in workshops devised by Gurira and Tawenga over the past 11 years and attended by guest actors and other industry figures from the US, including playwright Alice Tuan; Walking Dead producer and writer Matt Negrette; costume designer Clint Ramos and director Lucie Tiberghien, who co-directed Almasi’s most recent play, Family Riots with Almasi alumnus Makomborero Theresa Muchemwa.

The African Playwrights conference is Almasi’s flagship event and has led to the development of 20 plays since it started in 2015. More than 60 playwrights, actors, producers and directors are expected to attend this year.

“There is nothing else like it on this scale – as far as I know. It’s heaven for playwrights”, said Gideon Jeph Wabvuta, a playwright and programme coordinator at Almasi.

He said the event was part of a “growing excitement around theatre in Zimbabwe”, boosted this year by the launch of an Outstanding Playwright category in the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe awards. “This kind of recognition is such a big deal,” he added.

The conference follows Almasi’s staging of Family Riots last month at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare, the organisation’s first full production in more than 10 years. Written by Wabvuta, the play tells the story of an upwardly mobile family in Mbare, Zimbabwe’s oldest township, during the 1998 food riots.

“It is about family and it is about class,” said Wabvuta. “When I started writing the play [in 2013], the people were based on my parents. But I kept writing for so long that the people in the play became me and my wife!”

Wabvuta said the gallery was chosen as a venue in part because he wanted to offer a different experience to attract people who might not usually go to the theatre. “One couple came because their son, a standup comedian, recommended it. They had never been to the theatre before.”

Gurira said the choice of venue also reflected Almasi’s mission. “I love the idea of collaborating with another form of African art. We are called Almasi Collaborative Arts and the idea of a collaboration like this felt exciting and different for us. Let’s merge the visual arts with installation art, and musical art with theatre art,” she added.

Wabvuta, who joined Almasi’s programme in its first year and attended the University of Southern California MFA dramatic writing programme, said that while he was optimistic about the new crop of writers, funding was a significant barrier to making a living from theatre. His role at Almasi gives him the financial stability to continue his work as a playwright. Others have not been as lucky.

Many of the 500 or so artists Almasi has trained have left the profession because of poor pay. “Our industry struggles to keep its people,” said Wabvuta. “It’s a money issue”, adding that the lead actor in Family Riots, Michael Kudakwashe, gave up acting to pursue a full-time job but agreed to take on the role for this production.

Associate director at Almasi Zaza Muchemwa believes that offering professional training will help create a more dynamic and robust dramatic arts scene in Zimbabwe.

“I was always keenly aware of what this [dramatic arts] space is and what it could be. When Almasi began, there weren’t a lot of organisations or tertiary institutions that were training creatives.”

Gurira added that seeing young playwrights grow in confidence was one of the most rewarding parts of her role at Almasi. “Seeing them get to explore their craft and impress even themselves. That means everything. Those artists will never be the same. Their work has transformed, and so have they. That has been very gratifying.”

She added that Almasi planned to work more with local partners such as businesses and embassies with the aim of “spearheading a new age in the Zimbabwe entertainment industry”.

“As our name connotes, we seek to collaborate. Our goal lies in what we seek to build, like the name ‘Zimbabwe’ itself, we seek to build a house of stone that lasts.”

Ten patients suffering from a mystery disease that has broken out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have tested positive for malaria, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

However, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the patients could have more than one disease simultaneously.

“Of the 12 initial samples collected, 10 tested positive for malaria, although it’s possible that more than one disease is involved. Further samples will be collected and tested to determine the exact cause or causes,” a WHO spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Cases of unidentified illness in a remote part of the DRC have caused alarm, with specialist teams from the WHO and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention sent to investigate. Those investigations are continuing.

The DRC’s health minister said last week that the disease had killed 79 people in the Panzi health zone since 24 October, with 376 cases identified. Most were children under five.

The main symptoms are similar to flu, with patients experiencing headaches, coughing, difficulty breathing and anaemia.

At a briefing on 5 December, Dieudonne Mwamba, the head of the DRC’s National Institute for Public Health, said the symptoms pointed to a respiratory illness, but without a clear diagnosis it was hard to know the cause, and whether it was a virus or bacteria.

He said the affected area was “fragile”, with 40% of people there experiencing malnutrition. The DRC is also dealing with an mpox outbreak and seasonal flu.

There is little testing capacity, and samples from patients have been transported to a regional laboratory in Kikwit, 300 miles away, as well as the national reference laboratory in Kinshasa, more than 400 miles away, a journey of two days by road.

Amid speculation that the outbreak could represent “Disease X” – a term used to describe a previously unknown pathogen with the potential to cause a pandemic – the WHO emphasised it was “an undiagnosed disease rather than an unknown” one.

Officials said a respiratory pathogen such as flu or Covid-19 was being investigated as a possible cause, as well as malaria, measles and others.

In an update on Sunday, the WHO said the affected area “experienced deterioration in food insecurity in recent months, has low vaccination coverage and very limited access to diagnostics and quality case management”.

It said there was also a shortage of health staff, supplies and transportation, with “very limited” malaria control measures.

France has begun recalling its military assets from its former ally Chad, the latest blow to its dwindling influence across its former colonies in Africa.

Two Mirage fighter jets returned to a base in eastern France on Tuesday, said the army spokesperson Col Guillaume Vernet. “It marks the beginning of the return of French equipment stationed in [Chadian capital] N’Djamena,” Vernet said.

The withdrawal of the planes came two weeks after the central African state announced it was ending a decades-long military cooperation with Paris.

Chad’s foreign minister, Abderaman Koulamallah, said in a statement at the time that the country “remains determined to maintain constructive relations with France in other areas of common interest, for the benefit of both peoples”. Until then, there were about 1,000 French troops stationed in the country.

On the same day, the Senegalese president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, also requested the departure of French troops, saying it was “not compatible” with his country’s sovereignty.

Chad was long seen as the west’s last dependable ally in the Sahel as military juntas with increased disdain for France’s continued presence in the area installed themselves in power via a series of coups since 2020.

The military takeovers coincided with rising anti-French sentiment over the continuing real and perceived interference of Paris. In recent years, Burkina Faso and Mali, where foreign mercenaries have been reportedly on the rise in the face of jihadism, have either expelled French diplomats or in some cases, banned French media. French troops have left both countries and also Niger, where a coup on 30 July last year deposed the democratically elected Mohamed Bazoum, who was seen as being too friendly with Paris.

Chad has sought new partnerships elsewhere. Its leader, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, has embraced the United Arab Emirates and Russia openly since taking office after his father’s death in 2021.

The departure from Chad will end decades of French military presence in the Sahel region and ends direct French military operations against Islamist militants there.

Vernet said a calendar to draw down its operations would take several weeks for the two countries to finalise.

A Sudanese military airstrike on a market in North Darfur has killed more than 100 people, a pro-democracy lawyers’ group said, amid a war marked by claims of atrocities on all sides.

The Emergency Lawyers group said the strike on Monday injured hundreds in Kabkabiya, a town about 110 miles (180km) west of El Fasher, the state capital that has been under siege from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since May.

Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in a 20-month war between the RSF and Sudan’s army that has driven the north-east African country to the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.

“The airstrike took place on the town’s weekly market day, where residents from various nearby villages had gathered to shop, resulting in the death of more than 100 people and injury of hundreds, including women and children,” the lawyers’ group, which has been documenting human rights abuses during the conflict, said on Tuesday.

It described it as a “horrendous massacre committed by army airstrikes”, though the military denied responsibility. The army said in a statement the accusations were “lies” spread by political parties backing the RSF, adding it would continue “exercising its legitimate right to defend the country”.

In footage sent to Agence France-Presse purporting to show the aftermath of Monday’s strike, people were seen sifting through rubble as the charred remains of children lay on scorched ground.

The footage was supplied by a civil society group, the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, and AFP has not been able to verify its accuracy.

Mohamed Abdiladif, the interim country director for Save the Children in Sudan, said the attack was “unacceptable”, especially because it took place on a market day when families would be buying food supplies.

“No place is safe now for children sheltering from ongoing conflict in North Darfur,” he said, noting ongoing attacks in Zamzam camp, a major refugee camp in the state which houses about 500,000 displaced people, and surrounding areas.

He called on the warring parties to protect markets, schools, hospitals and other vital public infrastructure “not just as a moral obligation, but a vital step towards ensuring a stable, peaceful, and prosperous future for Sudan”.

The lawyers’ group said that in a separate incident on Monday three neighbourhoods were hit with barrel bombs in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, without reporting casualties.

Darfur, a region the size of France, is home to about a quarter of Sudan’s population, but more than half of its 10 million people are displaced.

A UN-backed report in July said famine had taken hold in Zamzam camp after a months-long RSF siege disabled nearly all trade and aid access. Nearly 26 million people – about half the population – face the threat of starvation nationwide, with both sides accused of using hunger as a weapon.

The lawyers’ group said it condemned “in the strongest terms the horrendous massacres committed by army airstrikes” in Kabkabiya.

The group flagged another incident in North Kordofan state in which a drone that had crashed on 26 November exploded on Monday evening, killing six people.

It said recent strikes across Sudan were part of an “escalation campaign … deliberately concentrated on densely populated residential areas”, contradicting claims by warring parties that they only target military objectives.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of carrying out numerous abuses against civilians in South Kordofan state from December 2023 to March 2024.

The organisation accused the groups of “war crimes” including “killings, rapes, and abductions of ethnic Nuba residents, as well as the looting and destruction of homes”.

The group urged the UN and the African Union to deploy a mission to protect civilians.

A group of Nobel laureates have written to the British prime minister Keir Starmer urging him to intervene to help free the imprisoned writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah.

Twelve laureates including JM Coetzee, Annie Ernaux, Kazuo Ishiguro and Olga Tokarczuk have signed the letter.

“We write to you as long concerned supporters of the imprisoned writer, Alaa Abd el-Fattah,” the letter begins. “We write to you because time is running out.”

“For over 10 years now Alaa has been punished by the Egyptian military regime for his writings, for his exposure of military killing of civilians, for his theoretical work on constitutions and the law, for his acerbic wit on social media,” it continues.

Abd el-Fattah, a British and Egyptian dual citizen, has been in prison for all but a few months since 2013. A writer, blogger and software developer, he emerged as a leading activist during Egypt’s popular uprising in 2011. In 2021, he was convicted of “spreading false news” for sharing a social media post – a charge Amnesty International has called “bogus”.

He completed a five-year sentence on 29 September, but was not released, as Egyptian authorities did not count his first two years in pre-trial detention. In parliament last week, John McDonnell said that this violated international legal norms and Egypt’s domestic law.

Abd el-Fattah’s mother, the mathematics professor Laila Soueif, began a hunger strike on 30 September, surviving on sugarless green tea, water and rehydration salts.

“I am willing to go as far as it takes. I don’t think the Egyptian authorities react to anything unless there is a real crisis and, increasingly, based on experience, the British authorities seem to be the same,” she said at the end of November. “I hope it does not get this far, but maybe nothing will happen until I am being carried into the hospital completely collapsed.”

The letter was also signed by the Nobel laureates Mohamed El-Baradei, Jon Fosse, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Svetlana Alexievich, Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller, Peter Handke and Orhan Pamuk.

“We urge you, prime minister, to intervene before it is too late,” the letter concludes. “Not only because Alaa is a British citizen, but to reanimate the commitment to intellectual sanctuary that made Britain a home for bold thinkers and visionaries for centuries.”

In parliament, where Abd el-Fattah’s family were present in the public gallery, McDonnell said that he hopes the government will “grasp the urgency and seriousness of the situation” and “take the action necessary” to see Alaa released.

“I am extremely concerned that the British authorities remain unable to gain consular access to Alaa, let alone put pressure on the Egyptian government to release him, as he should have been on 29 September this year,” said Jacques Testard, publisher at Fitzcarraldo Editions, which published a collection of Abd el-Fattah’s work, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, in 2021.

“His mother Laila’s life is now at risk and time is running out. Alaa is not only an exceptional writer and intellectual, but also a devoted father, brother and son, and it’s time for him to be reunited with his family after spending most of his adult life in Egyptian prisons for writing that the regime finds threatening.”

In October, Abd el-Fattah was selected as this year’s PEN Writer of courage by Arundhati Roy, who won last year’s PEN Pinter prize.

When Samia Suluhu Hassan took office as Tanzania’s president in 2021, many in the east African country hailed what they hoped was a new dawn after the authoritarian and repressive rule of her predecessor John Magufuli.

The signs were positive in her first few years in office: Hassan ended bans on newspapers and political rallies, and legislation that kept pregnant girls and young mothers out of school, all policies that Magufuli had endorsed.

But opposition leaders say recent killings of officials, a spate of disappearances, and arrests of government critics and bans on opposition gatherings suggest the end of the reformist approach.

In late November the Chadema opposition party said three of its members were killed in incidents linked to local elections, which the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi party won in a landslide. Chadema’s chair, Freeman Mbowe, said on X that one candidate was shot dead by police in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, as he attempted to stop “fake and invalid ballots” being delivered to a polling station.

Chadema said another candidate was shot dead at his home in Mkese in central Tanzania and that a party official was killed in a machete attack at his home in Tunduma near the border with Zambia.

On Monday 2 December, the ACT Wazalendo opposition party said the head of its youth wing had been found alive on a beach with serious injuries after an apparent abduction. The party claimed that Abdul Nondo was “kidnapped” on Sunday morning by individuals they believed were state security agents. Police said investigations were continuing to identify those responsible.

The deaths follow the killing in September of a member of the Chadema secretariat who was found beaten and with his face doused with acid. There is no evidence that Hassan has had any involvement in the deaths, which have been condemned by the government.

In an interview with the Guardian, Tundu Lissu, another Chadema leader, said that, with the benefit of hindsight, his party’s expectations about political freedoms under Hassan “were wildly, wildly unrealistic”.

Lissu, the party’s vice-chair, came second against Magufuli in the 2020 presidential election and is expected to take another stab at the presidency in polls slated for next year. Like Mbowe, he has been arrested twice in the past few months.

Lissu said the opposition was “naive” for thinking Hassan would bring change and they should have pressed harder to compel her to carry out comprehensive constitutional, legal and institutional reforms.

He said: “She inherited the state machinery which was created by Magufuli and which was responsible for the repression that we went through for six years. How could we have thought that, given all this baggage, this would be a reformist?”

An ardent campaigner for democracy, human rights and anti-corruption, Lissu was shot 16 times in an assassination attempt in 2017 that forced him to live largely in exile in Belgium for five years. No one has been charged with the attempt on Lissu’s life. In September, a former employee of the telecoms company Tigo told a London court that the firm secretly gave the Tanzanian government Lissu’s mobile phone data weeks before the shooting.

Hassan, who was vice-president under Magufuli and succeeded him after his death, made some reconciliatory moves with the stifled opposition in the months after she took office, dropping terrorism charges against Mbowe and releasing him after months in detention, and meeting Lissu in Brussels, where he was in exile. These steps gained her local and international support.

However, the events of the past few months have reignited fears of a return to intolerance. “She has done with a smile what Magufuli did with a snarl,” said Lissu. “He did it with relish. He had no pretence. Samia does the same things, but she does them with this motherly smile.”

Among the missing is Deusdedith Soka, a 30-year-old Chadema youth leader who disappeared in August after calling for a demonstration against abductions.

His uncle Didas Soka said the day Deusdedith disappeared, someone who identified herself as a police officer called him to ask him to go to a police station.

Didas Soka said: “Deus was fighting for constitutional reform for a better country and for better governance systems. How can we have faith if he’s been disappeared when fighting for that?”

Some who disappeared have emerged alive, such as Edgar Mwakabela, a 27-year-old activist who was abducted in June and found abandoned four days later at a national park with gunshot wounds and signs of torture.

Mwakabela, popularly known as Sativa, said his abductors tortured him at a police station and questioned him about his role in organising a traders’ strike against what they deemed excessive taxes and fees.

Mwakabela said such incidents were meant to scare people before the presidential polls. “It’s part of letting people know she’s in charge and scaring those who’ll try to run against her in the election,” he said.

The Guardian has approached spokespeople for the police and the government for comment.

In response to a joint statement by western diplomatic missions in September condemning reports of violence and disappearances and deaths of political and human rights activists, Hassan warned against “meddling” in Tanzanian affairs. She said: “It is our own responsibility to find out why they are happening at this moment in time.”

Hassan’s party, CCM, has governed Tanzania since independence from Britain in 1961. The opposition and civil society have repeatedly called for reform of the constitution, which was created in favour of the authoritarian systems of a single-party state. But Hassan has said changes will take place after the presidential election.

Tito Magoti, a human rights lawyer, said Hassan missed a chance to build democratic institutions that would guard human rights and allow citizens to participate in government. “It was a missed opportunity that has ultimately made the regime look like a replica of what John Pombe [Magufuli] did,” he said.

Hassan first got into public office in 2000 when CCM nominated her for a special seat in Zanzibar’s house of representatives. As Magufuli’s former deputy and someone who had been brought up politically through the CCM system, her primary interest was “to ensure that CCM survives”, said Aikande Kwayu, a political analyst. “As elections are nearing, we’re seeing the real her, and we keep realising that whatever changes she was talking about were only cosmetic,” she said.

Despite recent developments, Lissu remains optimistic about change. “I remain hopeful that we will get the kind of Tanzania that we deserve,” he said. “However, I should add that it is not going to be easy. The Tanzanian regime has been in power without any interruption since independence 63 years ago. They are as entrenched as ‘entrenched’ can mean.”

Ghana’s former president John Dramani Mahama has won a historic comeback election victory after voters appeared to punish the ruling New Patriotic party over its management of an economic crisis.

The NPP’s candidate, the vice-president, Mahamudu Bawumia, on Sunday conceded defeat in the weekend presidential election after failing to shake off widespread frustration over the high cost of living.

Defeat in Saturday’s election ended eight years in power for the NPP under President Nana Akufo-Addo, marked by the west African state’s worst economic turmoil in years, high inflation and a debt default.

For Mahama, the country’s president from 2012 to 2017, it was his third attempt to reclaim the presidency after falling short in 2016 and 2020 elections.

“The people of Ghana have spoken, the people have voted for change at this time and we respect it with all humility,” Bawumia said in a press conference flanked by party officials.

In what was a speedy concession with official vote tallies still coming in, Bawumia said he had called Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), candidate to congratulate him.

Blaring horns, waving flags and cheering, Mahama supporters were already celebrating outside the party campaign headquarters in the capital, Accra.

Mahama has yet to speak publicly since Bawumia’s concession. But on his X account, Mahama confirmed he received Bawumia’s congratulatory call over his “emphatic victory”.

Ghana’s economic woes dominated the election, after the continent’s top gold producer and world’s second-biggest cacao exporter went through a crisis of default and currency devaluation, ending with a $3bn (£2.3bn) IMF bailout.

Earlier, the NDC spokesperson Sammy Gyamfi said the party’s internal review of results showed Mahama had won 56.3% of the vote, against 41.3% for Bawumia.

Political parties had agents at polling stations to observe and tally the initial vote counts before the ballots were sent for official collation by the election commission.

The commission had said official results were expected by Tuesday.

With a history of democratic stability, Ghana’s two main parties, the NPP and NDC, have alternated in power equally since the return to multiparty politics in 1992.

Under the slogan “Break the 8” – a reference to two terms in power – Bawumia had sought to lead the NPP to an unprecedented third term. But he struggled to break away from criticism of Akufo-Addo’s economic record.

Though inflation slowed from more than 50% to about 23%, and other macro-economic indicators are stabilising, economic struggles were still a clear election issue for many.

That frustration opened the way for a comeback challenge from Mahama. But during campaigning, the former president also faced criticism from those who remember his government’s financial problems especially the massive power cuts that marked his time in office.

Millions of Ghanians head to the polls in a presidential election on Saturday after a campaign dominated by what many see as the west African country’s worst economic crisis in a generation.

Twelve candidates are vying to to take over the baton from Nana Akufo-Addo. The vice-president, Mahamudu Bawumia, of the ruling New Patriotic party (NPP), and the former president John Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), are the main challengers. Two fringe candidates are also running as independents: the former trade and industry minister Alan Kyerematen and the businessman Nana Bediako.

Bawumia, a 61-year-old former deputy governor of the bank of Ghana, served two terms alongside the incumbent after the duo were first elected in 2016 and then 2020. Both times, the opposing ticket was led by Mahama, 66.

To win the election, a candidate has to accrue more than half of the votes cast. If that does not happen, the two candidates with the highest number of votes go on to the second round. Some have predicted that there could be a runoff because of the two minor candidates, but not everyone is convinced.

“My argument is always that if the elections go to a runoff, it’s in spite of these people, it’s not because of them,” said Joshua Zaato, a senior lecturer at the department of political science at the University of Ghana.

The stakes are high: experts say Akufo-Addo did brilliantly in managing the Covid pandemic and introducing a free high-school policy, but let his people down in many other ways. Once one of the region’s economic powerhouses, and a darling of the international community, Ghana has struggled in recent years with high public debt, a weakened local currency and high inflation. A cost-of-living crisis has had a severe impact on vast swathes of the population, one in five of whom live in poverty. Presidential pet projects – such as a controversial $400m cathedral project that remains a crater – have also caused anger.

This has led to considerable voter apathy or pessimism, especially among some younger people in Accra and in the western and central regions. Even among those voting, there is a sense of pessimism about the future.

“The way the country is, I’m unable to put a finger to the direction we want to move in,” said Mary Ofori, a mother of two and food vendor in Accra’s Kantamanto Market, who is voting for Mahama. “Both parties don’t seem be leading us in the right direction.”

Eva, a 45-year-old insecticides and aerosols seller, refused to blame the government despite admitting that the economy was in a bad state.

“The bible prophecies of these hard times,” said Eva, who added that she had received divine confirmation of a Bawumia victory and was thus voting for him. “The economic downturn is a global issue, not only peculiar to Ghanaians.”

Both candidates are from the north ,but if he wins, Bawumia will the first Muslim president since 1992, in a country where three-quarters of the population are Christians.

Mahama, who held the post from 2012 to 2017, is hoping to become the first president to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Some polls have put Mahama ahead of Bawumia but nevertheless the ruling party claims it will win the elections comfortably.

“The confidence comes from going into a contest against somebody who has been given the opportunity before,” said Haruna Mohammed, its deputy general secretary said. “He failed us..[but] we have done a lot for the people of Ghana.”

On Thursday, the last day of campaigning, both parties held massive rallies in the capital. “This election is a clear choice between the future and the past,” said Bawumia, whose rally was held at a sports park in the University of Ghana. “My opponent represents the past and I, Dr Bawumia, represent the future of this country.”

A 20-minute walk away at a park in the Madina neighbourhood, the NDC held its own event where Mahama urged voters to “unlock a better future” on Saturday by voting for him. “This is our moment, and the time is now to bring about the change we need in order to reset Ghana,” he said.