It was noon by the time Jacques Katutu first saw the newborn mountain gorillas. Cradled in the arms of their mother, Mafuko, the tiny twins clung to her body for warmth in the forest clearing in Virunga national park, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Katutu, head of gorilla monitoring in Virunga, has seen dozens of newborns in his 15 years as a ranger. But, he tells the Guardian, even he was touched by the sight of the fragile infant males, who face serious obstacles if they are to become silverbacks one day.

“Watching Mafuko holding two babies was both moving and filled me with responsibility, given the twins’ extreme vulnerability,” he says.

“Twin births in mountain gorillas are extremely rare and always present significant survival challenges. We are cautious and vigilant, while also maintaining hope. The first four weeks are the most critical.”

The mother and her babies are being monitored daily since they were spotted on 3 January, with specialist vets on hand if the gorillas show signs of distress. The young males are healthy for now, rangers say, but the subspecies has high rates of infant mortality – with about a quarter falling victim to disease, trauma or infanticide.

Mafuko gave birth to twins in 2016, but neither survived more than a few days. The males have been born into the Bageni family, Virunga’s largest group of mountain gorillas, which now has 59 members. Despite the rangers’ caution, their arrival is another milestone in one of the greatest conservation success stories of the past century.

Barely 250 mountain gorillas were left in the 1970s, split between two isolated territories in south-west Uganda and the Virunga massif mountain range, and many thought the animals faced extinction.

Decades of intense conservation work saw population numbers surpass 1,000 in 2018 and the gorilla subspecies has since been downgraded from critically endangered to endangered by conservation authorities.

But the DRC section of Virunga mountain range remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for wildlife rangers. Over the past 20 years, more than 220 rangers have been killed in the park, where rebel groups such as M23 and other militias, as well as bandits, operate with impunity.

Mafuko is an example of the species’ resilience, say conservationists. Her mother was killed by an attacker when she was four but she has gone on to have several young, including the latest newborns.

“Mafuko is an experienced mother. She is carrying both babies and is attentive to their needs. This is encouraging, although the situation remains delicate,” says Katutu.

“We are closely monitoring the twins and mother – observing her breastfeeding and the overall health of the newborns. Allowing her to care for her babies naturally and minimising intervention is the priority.”

Specialist veterinary care has played a leading role in the revival of the species. In Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC, organisations such as the Gorilla Doctors have prevented dozens of deaths by helping animals affected by human behaviour, such as releasing gorillas accidentally caught in poachers’ traps. One study attributes half of the mountain gorillas’ population increase to the vets.

Katutu says that neither infant will be named until their survival looks more certain. But for now, at least, the signs are promising.

“Initial observations show that they are calm and maintain good contact with their mother. Their behaviour is consistent with newborns in a good condition, while remaining very vulnerable,” he says.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage

The veteran Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, held a commanding lead in early presidential election results announced on Friday as conflicting accounts emerged of violence reported after the vote.

Museveni, who is 81 and has ruled Uganda since seizing power in 1986, wants a decisive victory following a campaign marred by violence at opposition rallies.

Results announced by the electoral commission from Thursday’s election showed Museveni with 76.25% of the vote based on tallies from nearly half of polling stations. His main challenger, the popular singer Bobi Wine, trailed with 19.85% and the remaining votes were split among six other candidates.

Museveni had told reporters after casting his ballot on Thursday that he expected to win with 80% of the vote “if there’s no cheating”.

Wine alleged mass fraud during the election, which was held under an internet blackout that authorities said was needed to prevent “misinformation’, and called on supporters to protest.

The UN human rights office said last week the election was being held in an environment of “widespread repression and intimidation”, and recent political violence in neighbouring Tanzania and Kenya amplified fears about unrest in Uganda.

There were no reports of protests during voting hours, but violence broke out overnight in the town of Butambala, about 35 miles (55km) south-west of the capital, Kampala.

Agather Atuhaire, a prominent human rights activist, said soldiers and police had killed at least 10 opposition supporters who had gathered at the house of the parliamentarian Muwanga Kivumbi to follow the early results.

Citing an account from Kivumbi’s wife, the rights activist Zahara Nampewo, Atuhaire said soldiers and police fired teargas and then live bullets at people sheltering inside Kivumbi’s compound.

Reuters was not able to reach Nampewo, who Atuhaire said was too shaken to speak to the media.

Lydia Tumushabe, a local police spokesperson, disputed that account. She said opposition “goons” organised by Kivumbi and carrying machetes, axes and boxes of matches had attacked a police station. She said the police had fired in self-defence and that there were fatalities and injuries, without saying how many.

Kivumbi could not be reached for comment, and Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the circumstances of the violence.

Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party wrote on its X account late on Thursday that the military and police had surrounded Wine’s house in Kampala, “effectively placing him under house arrest”.

Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke told Reuters he was not aware of Wine being placed under house arrest.

Security forces confined Wine to his home for days after the last election in 2021, in which he was credited with 35% of the vote. The US said that election was neither free nor fair, a charge rejected by the authorities.

During the campaign, Wine’s rallies were interrupted interrupted by security forces firing teargas and bullets. At least one person was killed in the violence and hundreds of opposition supporters were arrested.

The government defended those actions as a response to lawless behaviour by opposition supporters.

The veteran Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, held a commanding lead in early presidential election results announced on Friday as conflicting accounts emerged of violence reported after the vote.

Museveni, who is 81 and has ruled Uganda since seizing power in 1986, wants a decisive victory following a campaign marred by violence at opposition rallies.

Results announced by the electoral commission from Thursday’s election showed Museveni with 76.25% of the vote based on tallies from nearly half of polling stations. His main challenger, the popular singer Bobi Wine, trailed with 19.85% and the remaining votes were split among six other candidates.

Museveni had told reporters after casting his ballot on Thursday that he expected to win with 80% of the vote “if there’s no cheating”.

Wine alleged mass fraud during the election, which was held under an internet blackout that authorities said was needed to prevent “misinformation’, and called on supporters to protest.

The UN human rights office said last week the election was being held in an environment of “widespread repression and intimidation”, and recent political violence in neighbouring Tanzania and Kenya amplified fears about unrest in Uganda.

There were no reports of protests during voting hours, but violence broke out overnight in the town of Butambala, about 35 miles (55km) south-west of the capital, Kampala.

Agather Atuhaire, a prominent human rights activist, said soldiers and police had killed at least 10 opposition supporters who had gathered at the house of the parliamentarian Muwanga Kivumbi to follow the early results.

Citing an account from Kivumbi’s wife, the rights activist Zahara Nampewo, Atuhaire said soldiers and police fired teargas and then live bullets at people sheltering inside Kivumbi’s compound.

Reuters was not able to reach Nampewo, who Atuhaire said was too shaken to speak to the media.

Lydia Tumushabe, a local police spokesperson, disputed that account. She said opposition “goons” organised by Kivumbi and carrying machetes, axes and boxes of matches had attacked a police station. She said the police had fired in self-defence and that there were fatalities and injuries, without saying how many.

Kivumbi could not be reached for comment, and Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the circumstances of the violence.

Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party wrote on its X account late on Thursday that the military and police had surrounded Wine’s house in Kampala, “effectively placing him under house arrest”.

Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke told Reuters he was not aware of Wine being placed under house arrest.

Security forces confined Wine to his home for days after the last election in 2021, in which he was credited with 35% of the vote. The US said that election was neither free nor fair, a charge rejected by the authorities.

During the campaign, Wine’s rallies were interrupted interrupted by security forces firing teargas and bullets. At least one person was killed in the violence and hundreds of opposition supporters were arrested.

The government defended those actions as a response to lawless behaviour by opposition supporters.

The veteran Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, held a commanding lead in early presidential election results announced on Friday as conflicting accounts emerged of violence reported after the vote.

Museveni, who is 81 and has ruled Uganda since seizing power in 1986, wants a decisive victory following a campaign marred by violence at opposition rallies.

Results announced by the electoral commission from Thursday’s election showed Museveni with 76.25% of the vote based on tallies from nearly half of polling stations. His main challenger, the popular singer Bobi Wine, trailed with 19.85% and the remaining votes were split among six other candidates.

Museveni had told reporters after casting his ballot on Thursday that he expected to win with 80% of the vote “if there’s no cheating”.

Wine alleged mass fraud during the election, which was held under an internet blackout that authorities said was needed to prevent “misinformation’, and called on supporters to protest.

The UN human rights office said last week the election was being held in an environment of “widespread repression and intimidation”, and recent political violence in neighbouring Tanzania and Kenya amplified fears about unrest in Uganda.

There were no reports of protests during voting hours, but violence broke out overnight in the town of Butambala, about 35 miles (55km) south-west of the capital, Kampala.

Agather Atuhaire, a prominent human rights activist, said soldiers and police had killed at least 10 opposition supporters who had gathered at the house of the parliamentarian Muwanga Kivumbi to follow the early results.

Citing an account from Kivumbi’s wife, the rights activist Zahara Nampewo, Atuhaire said soldiers and police fired teargas and then live bullets at people sheltering inside Kivumbi’s compound.

Reuters was not able to reach Nampewo, who Atuhaire said was too shaken to speak to the media.

Lydia Tumushabe, a local police spokesperson, disputed that account. She said opposition “goons” organised by Kivumbi and carrying machetes, axes and boxes of matches had attacked a police station. She said the police had fired in self-defence and that there were fatalities and injuries, without saying how many.

Kivumbi could not be reached for comment, and Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the circumstances of the violence.

Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party wrote on its X account late on Thursday that the military and police had surrounded Wine’s house in Kampala, “effectively placing him under house arrest”.

Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke told Reuters he was not aware of Wine being placed under house arrest.

Security forces confined Wine to his home for days after the last election in 2021, in which he was credited with 35% of the vote. The US said that election was neither free nor fair, a charge rejected by the authorities.

During the campaign, Wine’s rallies were interrupted interrupted by security forces firing teargas and bullets. At least one person was killed in the violence and hundreds of opposition supporters were arrested.

The government defended those actions as a response to lawless behaviour by opposition supporters.

The veteran Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, held a commanding lead in early presidential election results announced on Friday as conflicting accounts emerged of violence reported after the vote.

Museveni, who is 81 and has ruled Uganda since seizing power in 1986, wants a decisive victory following a campaign marred by violence at opposition rallies.

Results announced by the electoral commission from Thursday’s election showed Museveni with 76.25% of the vote based on tallies from nearly half of polling stations. His main challenger, the popular singer Bobi Wine, trailed with 19.85% and the remaining votes were split among six other candidates.

Museveni had told reporters after casting his ballot on Thursday that he expected to win with 80% of the vote “if there’s no cheating”.

Wine alleged mass fraud during the election, which was held under an internet blackout that authorities said was needed to prevent “misinformation’, and called on supporters to protest.

The UN human rights office said last week the election was being held in an environment of “widespread repression and intimidation”, and recent political violence in neighbouring Tanzania and Kenya amplified fears about unrest in Uganda.

There were no reports of protests during voting hours, but violence broke out overnight in the town of Butambala, about 35 miles (55km) south-west of the capital, Kampala.

Agather Atuhaire, a prominent human rights activist, said soldiers and police had killed at least 10 opposition supporters who had gathered at the house of the parliamentarian Muwanga Kivumbi to follow the early results.

Citing an account from Kivumbi’s wife, the rights activist Zahara Nampewo, Atuhaire said soldiers and police fired teargas and then live bullets at people sheltering inside Kivumbi’s compound.

Reuters was not able to reach Nampewo, who Atuhaire said was too shaken to speak to the media.

Lydia Tumushabe, a local police spokesperson, disputed that account. She said opposition “goons” organised by Kivumbi and carrying machetes, axes and boxes of matches had attacked a police station. She said the police had fired in self-defence and that there were fatalities and injuries, without saying how many.

Kivumbi could not be reached for comment, and Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the circumstances of the violence.

Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party wrote on its X account late on Thursday that the military and police had surrounded Wine’s house in Kampala, “effectively placing him under house arrest”.

Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke told Reuters he was not aware of Wine being placed under house arrest.

Security forces confined Wine to his home for days after the last election in 2021, in which he was credited with 35% of the vote. The US said that election was neither free nor fair, a charge rejected by the authorities.

During the campaign, Wine’s rallies were interrupted interrupted by security forces firing teargas and bullets. At least one person was killed in the violence and hundreds of opposition supporters were arrested.

The government defended those actions as a response to lawless behaviour by opposition supporters.

Large areas of north-eastern South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique have been inundated for several days with exceptionally heavy rainfall. Some locations in South Africa recorded hundreds of millimetres of rain over the weekend, such as Graskop in Mpumalanga, where 113mm fell in 24 hours, and Phalaborwa, which recorded about 85mm of rainfall. Rain has continued to fall across the region since the weekend.

The deluge has been driven by a slow-moving cut-off low pressure system that has remained anchored over the region, repeatedly drawing in moisture and triggering intense downpours. Further heavy rainfall is expected on Friday and over the weekend. Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, could expect daily rainfall totals to exceed 200mm by the end of Friday, while western parts of South Africa and north-western Eswatini may record more than 100mm.

The rain has fallen on already saturated ground after an unusually wet December, overwhelming river systems and causing widespread flooding. The South African weather service has raised its flood warning to the highest level as roads have been washed away, infrastructure damaged and large areas rendered inaccessible. Kruger national park has been closed, with flood waters forcing evacuations of staff and visitors.

Since October 2025, parts of Limpopo and Mpumalanga have received about twice their average annual rainfall. The prolonged wet weather is disrupting the harvesting and export of mangoes and lemons, threatening supply chains. Authorities have also warned of displaced wildlife, including crocodiles and hippos, which have been sighted near homes. Emergency services have also rescued residents trapped by rapidly rising rivers.

Meanwhile, in North America, January continued the theme of much of December with further record warmth. The core of the atypical warmth is focused to the north, with temperatures over the last few days 10-15C warmer than usual for this time of year across much of the US as well as in parts of eastern and western Canada.

Temperatures were so anomalous that you would be forgiven for thinking it was late spring in parts of Alberta, Canada, where temperatures exceeded 15C.

More widely across North America, many places experienced exceptionally warm days and nights, breaking January records. Unusually high temperatures are expected to continue across much of the western half of North America over the coming days, while in the eastern half an arctic plunge will bring temperatures well below normal for the time of year.

From Africa to Latin America to Asia, babies have been carried in cloth wraps on their mothers’ backs for centuries. Now, the practice of generations of women could become a lifesaving tool in the fight against malaria.

Researchers in Uganda have found that treating wraps with the insect repellent permethrin cut rates of malaria in the infants carried in them by two-thirds.

Malaria kills more than 600,000 people a year, most of whom are children in Africa under five years old.

The trial involved 400 mothers and babies aged about six months old, in Kasese, a rural, mountainous part of western Uganda. Half were given wraps, known locally as lesus, treated with permethrin and half used standard, untreated wraps that had been dipped in water as a “sham” repellent.

Researchers followed them for six months to see which babies developed malaria, re-treating the wraps once a month.

Babies carried in the treated wraps were two-thirds less likely to develop malaria. In that group there were 0.73 cases per 100 babies each week, and in the other there were 2.14.

One mother who attended a community session on the trial results stood up to tell the gathering: “I’ve had five children. This is the first one that I’ve carried in a treated wrap, and it’s the first time I’ve had a child who has not had malaria.”

The results had everybody “tremendously excited”, said co-lead investigator Edgar Mugema Mulogo, a professor of public health at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda.

“We suspected that there would be potential benefit – what was quite outstanding was the magnitude.”

His co-lead investigator Dr Ross Boyce, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was so astounded he said they should rerun the results to double-check them. “I wasn’t sure it was going to work, to be honest with you,” said Boyce. “But that’s why we do studies.”

The mosquitoes that carry malaria parasites generally feed at night, which is why bed nets have historically been so key in fighting the disease.

However, they are increasingly biting outside that time frame, in the evening or early morning, in what could be an adaptation to mosquito nets.

Mulogo said: “Before you go to bed, when you’re outdoors – particularly in the rural community, where the kitchens are outside, probably they have the evening meal outside – we also need to find a solution ensuring that we can prevent those bites likely to transmit malaria.”

Wraps are everywhere in those communities, he said, used not only for carrying infants but also as shawls, bed sheets and aprons. He would like to see treated wraps become part of the suite of tools used to tackle malaria in Uganda. Already there is demand in the communities that took part in the study, he said.

Health officials in Uganda and international malaria leaders at the World Health Organization have expressed interest in the research. It could help babies, as protection passed on through the mother’s antibodies wanes, often before they can be vaccinated.

It builds too on earlier research treating shawls in Afghan refugee camps that found a similar levels of success. WHO guidelines already recognise the role permethrin-treated clothing can play as individual protection against malaria.

Mulogo is hopeful there could one day be local production of impregnated wraps. “It presents a very good business opportunity for local industry.”

There are a series of steps that will need to be taken before any rollout, the researchers said, including evidence that the intervention works in other settings.

Boyce said the insecticide has a good safety profile, and has been applied to textiles for years – including by the US military, where he first came across the idea when serving in Iraq.

Babies carried in permethrin-treated wraps were slightly more likely to develop rashes, at 8.5% v 6%, although none were sufficiently troublesome that they withdrew from the study. Boyce and Mulogo say further research will be needed to confirm the safety of the intervention, although any risks are likely to be outweighed by the benefits.

Boyce would like to see whether treating school uniforms can also cut malaria rates. But he said there was no money for the next research stages “in the bank accounts quite yet”.

He is hopeful that the simplicity of the intervention will appeal to funders. “My mother can understand what we did. It’s not some specific inhibitor of a fusion protein or something like that. We took some cloth and we soaked it. And it’s dirt cheap,” he said.

Nigerians have called for urgent reforms to the healthcare sector after the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 21-month-old son prompted an outpouring of grief and accounts of negligence and inadequate care.

In a leaked WhatsApp message, the bestselling author said she had been told by a doctor that the resident anaesthesiologist at the Lagos hospital treating her son Nkanu Nnamdi had administered an overdose of the sedative propofol.

Adichie and her husband, Dr Ivara Esege, have begun legal action against the hospital, accusing it of medical negligence.

For decades, the state of Nigeria’s public health sector has made national headlines with accounts of underpaid doctors carrying out surgeries by candlelight in the absence of power supply, patients paying for gloves and other missing basics, dilapidated facilities and nonexistent research departments. Those who can afford to seek care abroad typically do so.

There is also a dearth of emergency response services. When the former world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua survived a car accident in Nigeria in December, he was helped at the scene by bystanders, with no ambulance in sight.

Adichie’s sister-in-law Dr Anthea Esege Nwandu, a physician with decades of experience, has called for change.

She told Agence France-Presse: “This is a wake-up call, for we, the public, to demand accountability and transparency and consequences of negligence in our healthcare system.”

An exodus of medical personnel has exacerbated the situation, resulting in a doctor-to-patient ratio at the last count of 1:9,801. According to the health ministry, an estimated 16,000 doctors have left Nigeria in the last seven years.

‘The will of God’

As Nigerians at home and abroad mourned Adichie’s son this week and the Lagos state government ordered an inquiry, stories flooded social media about a crisis of errors by medical personnel.

In Kano state, authorities said they were investigating the case of a woman who died four months after doctors left a pair of scissors in her stomach during surgery. The woman repeatedly visited the hospital complaining of abdominal pain, but was only prescribed painkillers. Scans revealed the scissors just two days before she died.

For Ijoma Ugboma, who lost his wife in 2021, the tragedy felt painfully familiar. Peju Ugboma, a 41-year-old chef, had gone into hospital for fibroid surgery and died due to complications exacerbated by staff putting “the wrong setting of the ventilator [on] for 12 hours”, her husband said.

“Surgery on Friday, ICU on Saturday, dead on Sunday. I asked for the death certificate … but at that point I knew that I wasn’t going to let this thing go like that,” he told the Guardian.

Almost two years after Peju’s death, after a battle Ugboma said had tested him “mentally, emotionally and financially”, three of the four doctors in the operating theatre were indicted for professional misconduct.

The law firm of Olisa Agbakoba, a medical negligence lawyer with two decades’ experience, was one of two that represented the Ugboma family in court. He said in Nigeria there was no rigorous regulatory structure in place in the health sector.

“There is no requirement for routine submission of reports, no systematic inspections, and no effective enforcement of professional standards,” he said.

Agbakoba said his brother had undergone surgery by a physician who was not suitably qualified, resulting in sepsis that required a month-long treatment. “That was absolute incompetence,” he said.

Despite the abundance of medical malpractice claims, formal complaints and lawsuits remain remarkably low, partly because negligence is hard to prove. But many say there is also a cultural and spiritual dimension involved.

“People say it’s the will of God,” said Agbakoba. “They just go home and don’t talk about it … It’s underreported because many people don’t really do anything about it.”

Finding justice

Even when issues are escalated legally, medical personnel are reluctant to give professional opinions in court. Two of the three expert witnesses that testified for the Ugbomas live outside Nigeria.

“People told us they’d read through the case notes, they’d seen all the fault lines … but nobody wanted to talk and that is part of the rot in the system because there’s an unwritten oath of secrecy,” Ugboma said.

Some people are cautiously optimistic that the high-profile death of Adichie’s’s son will trigger an overhaul of the health regulatory framework.

For Ugboma, his long fight for accountability was worth it. “Right now, I can talk to my children and tell them I fought for their mother even in death,’ he said. “There’s justice out there if only one can persevere. It’s a marathon. But we can only have a better system if more people begin to challenge them.”

Ugandans are preparing to vote in an election that is expected to result in Yoweri Museveni extending his nearly four-decade grip on power in the east African country, after a campaign beset by violence.

Security forces have frequently clamped down on supporters of Museveni’s main opponent, Bobi Wine, by teargassing and shooting bullets at events and detaining people. Authorities have also arrested civil society members and suspended rights groups. On Tuesday, they shut down internet access and limited mobile phone services countrywide.

The actions have prompted fears of unrest around the polls, similar to the violence that followed the general election in Tanzania in October when hundreds of people were killed.

Observers say the government’s reaction shows the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), is facing its biggest test yet, and the election risks further dividing Uganda.

Museveni is seeking his seventh term, and most Ugandans have not lived under another president. Younger people, in particular, have connected with Wine, a 43-year-old singer turned politician, and say they are concerned about their futures.

Museveni became Uganda’s ninth president in 1986 after leading rebels in a five-year civil war. He led the country to economic growth and democratic change after years of political decay by autocratic governments.

But hopes of enduring change dwindled amid accusations of corruption, authoritarianism, repression and curtailment of judicial independence. Critics have also condemned his extended stay in office, achieved by using tactics to lengthen his term indefinitely including by twice changing the constitution.

“[Wine’s] challenge has brought to the surface the character of the regime in terms of tolerating political alternatives or dissent,” said the political historian Mwambutsya Ndebesa. “The political class is getting more and more politically polarised. And that threatens the stability of the country because Uganda is prone to political instability.”

In the run-up to the election, which will also feature parliamentary votes, police and the military have frequently broken up Wine’s campaign events using teargas and gunshots and by bludgeoning his supporters. At least one person has been killed and hundreds have been arrested.

In December, police detained Sarah Bireete, a rights activist and government critic who had raised concerns about discrepancies in the registry of voters. On Tuesday, the government ordered several rights groups that have denounced violations during the campaign period to stop their work.

A report by the UN human rights office last week accused Ugandan authorities of using laws enacted or amended since 2021 to entrench repression and restrict rights ahead of the election, which it said would take place in an environment marked by widespread repression and intimidation.

The government has said the actions of the security forces are in response to what it termed lawless conduct by opposition supporters. In a televised address on New Year’s Eve, Museveni advised security forces to use more teargas to break up the crowds of “the criminal opposition”.

“Everything is done to frustrate and annoy,” said the human rights lawyer Eron Kiiza at a briefing on the election last week, referring to disruptions of opposition events by security agencies. Kiiza was allegedly tortured and detained without trial last year while representing the jailed opposition politician Kizza Besigye, who has been in prison for 14 months over what critics say are politically motivated charges, and Besigye’s aide Hajj Obeid Lutale.

Museveni, 81, often credits NRM with bringing peace and development to Uganda. Under the slogan “protecting the gains”, he is promising wealth and job creation and to grow the economy partly through value addition for agricultural exports and oil production, which is expected to start this year.

Festus Kezire, an NRM supporter in Serere district in eastern Uganda, said Museveni’s introduction of free primary and secondary education was one of the reasons he would vote for him. He said: “He has restored peace and stability in Uganda and this has helped end many years of civil strife.”

Museveni is campaigning against seven opposition candidates, the main challenger being Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, of the National Unity Platform (NUP). The two faced off in the last election in 2021, with Museveni winning with 58.38% of the vote and Wine garnering 35.08%.

Wine’s manifesto promises “a complete reset of Uganda”, including by upholding human rights and ending corruption.

Florence Naluyiba, an NUP supporter in Wakiso district in central Uganda, said she would vote for Wine because “Uganda needs change”. “Our dream is to have president who will prioritise social service delivery. Bobi Wine has taken the risk to stand up for Ugandans at the expense of his freedom.”

Ndebesa, the historian, said the incumbent’s stranglehold on state power, resources and infrastructure gave him organisational advantages over Wine. “The winning [of Museveni] in Uganda is almost a given,” he said.

However, observers are keen to see what the election will say about Museveni’s eventual succession. He has long been thought to be grooming his son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as his successor, although he has denied this.

Across Uganda, 21.6 million people have registered to vote.

Additional reporting by Samuel Okiror

The controversial US-funded study on hepatitis B vaccines among newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been halted, according to Yap Boum, a senior official at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The study has been cancelled,” Boum told journalists at a press conference on Thursday morning.

The $1.6m study, funded under the purview of Robert F Kennedy Jr, longtime vaccine skeptic and secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) , drew outrage and criticism over ethical questions about withholding vaccines proven to prevent hepatitis B in a country with a very high burden of the disease.

“It’s of importance for Africa CDC to have evidence that can be translated in policy, but this has to be done within the norm. So we are glad that at this point the study is being cancelled,” Boum said. The study was halted because it raised critical questions on the ethics of the trial, he said, adding: “The way the study was designed was a big challenge.”

Officials in Guinea-Bissau say the trial will still happen, according to one journalist on the press call. But Africa CDC officials said the trial would only move forward once it has been redesigned to address ethical issues. There were “still some conversations happening” between Guinea-Bissau officials and the US on how to conduct a trial like this ethically, and Africa CDC had assembled a team to make sure Guinea-Bissau officials “receive the adequate support to ensure that this study, if it has to happen, will also fit the ethical regulations”, Boum said.

Guinea-Bissau, which underwent a coup in November, appears to have replaced all top officials, including at the ministry of health. Previous officials did not respond to media inquiries, and the number and email address for the health ministry appear to be disconnected.

“The good guys won,” said Paul Offit, an infectious diseases physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a former member of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The cancellation news was “extremely heartening”, he said, adding that except for the birth of his children, he had “never been happier”.

“This administration did not see people in Africa as valuable,” Offit said. “You can’t treat children like this, you can’t treat people like this. We were able to stand up for them. We were able to convince people about the fact that this was unethical.”

The HHS did not respond to the Guardian’s inquiries about why the trial was cancelled.

The news could represent a turning point for Guinea-Bissau and other countries where researchers are conducting work that critics say is unethical. It shows that “the institutions are getting stronger” by pushing back on unethical and exploitative studies in Africa, said Boghuma Titanji, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University who is currently studying vaccine misinformation in Africa.

The halt was “a win for advocacy and upholding the ethics of research”, said Titanji, who called the trial as it seems to be designed a “damaging” study. “It can lead to damage that lasts for several decades after the study has been completed,” said Titanji.

The researchers argued that the trial would make the vaccine available to 7,000 newborns when they would “not otherwise receive it”. But that means the other 7,000 children in the trial wouldn’t have access to the vaccine “due to the flip of a coin”, which would “knowingly deprive 7,000 children of a vaccine that could save their lives”, Offit said. Instead, he said, “take the $1.6m and vaccinate as many children as you can at birth”.

About 18% of adults and about 11% of children under the age of one in Guinea-Bissau have hepatitis B. Children are much more likely to develop long-term effects, such as liver cirrhosis that can lead to cancer and death, if they catch the virus when they are very young.

Guinea-Bissau currently recommends the hepatitis B vaccine to all babies at six weeks of age because of issues accessing the vaccine, but that recommendation will change to all newborns at birth in 2027 when more doses roll out.

Offit likened the trial to the Tuskegee experiment, in which US researchers knowingly withheld an effective antibiotic from African American men suffering from syphilis.

The Danish researchers conducting the trial have also been criticized for not publishing the results of a study on the DTP vaccine, potentially because it contradicted their belief that the vaccine is dangerous, according to the Danish journalist Gunver Lystbæk Vestergård.

The protocols for the study have not been made public by the researchers or health officials, but a leaked version was published by Inside Medicine. Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer, one of the Danish researchers, also shared some details on social media. Titanji didn’t find his argument compelling. “It actually just raises even more concerns in my mind,” she said.

The researchers argue that live vaccines may bring nonspecific effects – improving overall health, not just against the disease the vaccine is targeting. But, they say, adding an attenuated vaccine like hepatitis B could interfere with these possible effects. Yet the evidence to support possible overall health effects is based upon the researchers’ prior research, which has been called into question.

Other Danish researchers analyzed these studies and found no statistically significant effects, according to their new preprint study, which has not been peer-reviewed or published yet. One of the researchers on that study, Anders Hviid, said on LinkedIn that these findings were especially important given recent decisions in the US to limit several vaccines for children.

The Danish researchers also argued that trials should be done in Africa in order to study their effects on African children.

Titanji agreed that there needed to be more randomized controlled trials done in Africa on Africans, but said that they should be led by African scientists and powered by questions from Africans. Projects like the Danish study “basically exploit the scarcity of a proven beneficial vaccine in a context where that vaccine is needed”, Titanji said. The study, as it is currently designed, would be “exploiting a window where the government is not able to provide that intervention to its citizens”, Titanji said. “You are not solving the problem. You’re actually being part of the problem.”

The trial was slated to begin on 5 January. When reached last week about whether the trial had begun, the lead researchers, Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn, disputed the Guardian’s previous story that cited ethical concerns.

“That article was totally wrong,” Aaby said. “The report had virtually no evidence-based content about vaccines to transmit to the readers, only a lot of ethical condemnations from those who might potentially be questioned by the future results of the study.”

Aaby and other researchers on the project did not respond to further inquiries about the project’s cancellation.

Aaby and Stabell Benn, who are Danish researchers, have close ties with Trump administration health officials. Stabell Benn hosted a podcast with Tracy Beth Høeg, now an FDA official who has worked to find deaths after Covid vaccination and advocated for the US to slash vaccine recommendations to align with Denmark’s schedule.

On Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2023 Kennedy praised Aaby as a “very famous” researcher whose work showed the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine was deadly, he said – research Kennedy also cited when he ended funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. But he didn’t mention that the year before, in 2022, the researchers found completely different results when they conducted the same trial.

Ugandans are preparing to vote in an election that is expected to result in Yoweri Museveni extending his nearly four-decade grip on power in the east African country, after a campaign beset by violence.

Security forces have frequently clamped down on supporters of Museveni’s main opponent, Bobi Wine, by teargassing and shooting bullets at events and detaining people. Authorities have also arrested civil society members and suspended rights groups. On Tuesday, they shut down internet access and limited mobile phone services countrywide.

The actions have prompted fears of unrest around the polls, similar to the violence that followed the general election in Tanzania in October when hundreds of people were killed.

Observers say the government’s reaction shows the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), is facing its biggest test yet, and the election risks further dividing Uganda.

Museveni is seeking his seventh term, and most Ugandans have not lived under another president. Younger people, in particular, have connected with Wine, a 43-year-old singer turned politician, and say they are concerned about their futures.

Museveni became Uganda’s ninth president in 1986 after leading rebels in a five-year civil war. He led the country to economic growth and democratic change after years of political decay by autocratic governments.

But hopes of enduring change dwindled amid accusations of corruption, authoritarianism, repression and curtailment of judicial independence. Critics have also condemned his extended stay in office, achieved by using tactics to lengthen his term indefinitely including by twice changing the constitution.

“[Wine’s] challenge has brought to the surface the character of the regime in terms of tolerating political alternatives or dissent,” said the political historian Mwambutsya Ndebesa. “The political class is getting more and more politically polarised. And that threatens the stability of the country because Uganda is prone to political instability.”

In the run-up to the election, which will also feature parliamentary votes, police and the military have frequently broken up Wine’s campaign events using teargas and gunshots and by bludgeoning his supporters. At least one person has been killed and hundreds have been arrested.

In December, police detained Sarah Bireete, a rights activist and government critic who had raised concerns about discrepancies in the registry of voters. On Tuesday, the government ordered several rights groups that have denounced violations during the campaign period to stop their work.

A report by the UN human rights office last week accused Ugandan authorities of using laws enacted or amended since 2021 to entrench repression and restrict rights ahead of the election, which it said would take place in an environment marked by widespread repression and intimidation.

The government has said the actions of the security forces are in response to what it termed lawless conduct by opposition supporters. In a televised address on New Year’s Eve, Museveni advised security forces to use more teargas to break up the crowds of “the criminal opposition”.

“Everything is done to frustrate and annoy,” said the human rights lawyer Eron Kiiza at a briefing on the election last week, referring to disruptions of opposition events by security agencies. Kiiza was allegedly tortured and detained without trial last year while representing the jailed opposition politician Kizza Besigye, who has been in prison for 14 months over what critics say are politically motivated charges, and Besigye’s aide Hajj Obeid Lutale.

Museveni, 81, often credits NRM with bringing peace and development to Uganda. Under the slogan “protecting the gains”, he is promising wealth and job creation and to grow the economy partly through value addition for agricultural exports and oil production, which is expected to start this year.

Festus Kezire, an NRM supporter in Serere district in eastern Uganda, said Museveni’s introduction of free primary and secondary education was one of the reasons he would vote for him. He said: “He has restored peace and stability in Uganda and this has helped end many years of civil strife.”

Museveni is campaigning against seven opposition candidates, the main challenger being Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, of the National Unity Platform (NUP). The two faced off in the last election in 2021, with Museveni winning with 58.38% of the vote and Wine garnering 35.08%.

Wine’s manifesto promises “a complete reset of Uganda”, including by upholding human rights and ending corruption.

Florence Naluyiba, an NUP supporter in Wakiso district in central Uganda, said she would vote for Wine because “Uganda needs change”. “Our dream is to have president who will prioritise social service delivery. Bobi Wine has taken the risk to stand up for Ugandans at the expense of his freedom.”

Ndebesa, the historian, said the incumbent’s stranglehold on state power, resources and infrastructure gave him organisational advantages over Wine. “The winning [of Museveni] in Uganda is almost a given,” he said.

However, observers are keen to see what the election will say about Museveni’s eventual succession. He has long been thought to be grooming his son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as his successor, although he has denied this.

Across Uganda, 21.6 million people have registered to vote.

Additional reporting by Samuel Okiror

Ugandans are preparing to vote in an election that is expected to result in Yoweri Museveni extending his nearly four-decade grip on power in the east African country, after a campaign beset by violence.

Security forces have frequently clamped down on supporters of Museveni’s main opponent, Bobi Wine, by teargassing and shooting bullets at events and detaining people. Authorities have also arrested civil society members and suspended rights groups. On Tuesday, they shut down internet access and limited mobile phone services countrywide.

The actions have prompted fears of unrest around the polls, similar to the violence that followed the general election in Tanzania in October when hundreds of people were killed.

Observers say the government’s reaction shows the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), is facing its biggest test yet, and the election risks further dividing Uganda.

Museveni is seeking his seventh term, and most Ugandans have not lived under another president. Younger people, in particular, have connected with Wine, a 43-year-old singer turned politician, and say they are concerned about their futures.

Museveni became Uganda’s ninth president in 1986 after leading rebels in a five-year civil war. He led the country to economic growth and democratic change after years of political decay by autocratic governments.

But hopes of enduring change dwindled amid accusations of corruption, authoritarianism, repression and curtailment of judicial independence. Critics have also condemned his extended stay in office, achieved by using tactics to lengthen his term indefinitely including by twice changing the constitution.

“[Wine’s] challenge has brought to the surface the character of the regime in terms of tolerating political alternatives or dissent,” said the political historian Mwambutsya Ndebesa. “The political class is getting more and more politically polarised. And that threatens the stability of the country because Uganda is prone to political instability.”

In the run-up to the election, which will also feature parliamentary votes, police and the military have frequently broken up Wine’s campaign events using teargas and gunshots and by bludgeoning his supporters. At least one person has been killed and hundreds have been arrested.

In December, police detained Sarah Bireete, a rights activist and government critic who had raised concerns about discrepancies in the registry of voters. On Tuesday, the government ordered several rights groups that have denounced violations during the campaign period to stop their work.

A report by the UN human rights office last week accused Ugandan authorities of using laws enacted or amended since 2021 to entrench repression and restrict rights ahead of the election, which it said would take place in an environment marked by widespread repression and intimidation.

The government has said the actions of the security forces are in response to what it termed lawless conduct by opposition supporters. In a televised address on New Year’s Eve, Museveni advised security forces to use more teargas to break up the crowds of “the criminal opposition”.

“Everything is done to frustrate and annoy,” said the human rights lawyer Eron Kiiza at a briefing on the election last week, referring to disruptions of opposition events by security agencies. Kiiza was allegedly tortured and detained without trial last year while representing the jailed opposition politician Kizza Besigye, who has been in prison for 14 months over what critics say are politically motivated charges, and Besigye’s aide Hajj Obeid Lutale.

Museveni, 81, often credits NRM with bringing peace and development to Uganda. Under the slogan “protecting the gains”, he is promising wealth and job creation and to grow the economy partly through value addition for agricultural exports and oil production, which is expected to start this year.

Festus Kezire, an NRM supporter in Serere district in eastern Uganda, said Museveni’s introduction of free primary and secondary education was one of the reasons he would vote for him. He said: “He has restored peace and stability in Uganda and this has helped end many years of civil strife.”

Museveni is campaigning against seven opposition candidates, the main challenger being Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, of the National Unity Platform (NUP). The two faced off in the last election in 2021, with Museveni winning with 58.38% of the vote and Wine garnering 35.08%.

Wine’s manifesto promises “a complete reset of Uganda”, including by upholding human rights and ending corruption.

Florence Naluyiba, an NUP supporter in Wakiso district in central Uganda, said she would vote for Wine because “Uganda needs change”. “Our dream is to have president who will prioritise social service delivery. Bobi Wine has taken the risk to stand up for Ugandans at the expense of his freedom.”

Ndebesa, the historian, said the incumbent’s stranglehold on state power, resources and infrastructure gave him organisational advantages over Wine. “The winning [of Museveni] in Uganda is almost a given,” he said.

However, observers are keen to see what the election will say about Museveni’s eventual succession. He has long been thought to be grooming his son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as his successor, although he has denied this.

Across Uganda, 21.6 million people have registered to vote.

Additional reporting by Samuel Okiror

The Trump administration is terminating temporary protected status (TPS) for Somalis living in the United States, giving hundreds of people two months to leave the country or face deportation.

The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said in a statement that conditions in the east African country had improved sufficiently and that Somalis no longer qualified for the designation under federal law.

“Temporary means temporary,” Noem wrote, adding that allowing Somali nationals to remain was “contrary to our national interests”.

“We are putting Americans first,” she added.

Donald Trump had first announced his intentions to end protection for Somali nationals in November, writing on Truth Social about Minnesota, which is home to a large Somali community: “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!”

The Trump administration has used Minnesota’s issues with fraud as a pretext to send a surge of immigration officers into the state. Trump has called Somalis “garbage” and referenced unverified reports, amplified by Republican lawmakers, suggesting the militant group al-Shabaab in Somalia benefited from fraud committed in Minnesota, though these claims still have not been substantiated.

Yesterday, Minneapolis and St Paul filed a lawsuit against the administration, alleging the state was being targeted for its diversity and political differences with the federal government. “[Department of Homeland Security] agents have sown chaos and terror across the metropolitan area,” said Keith Ellison, the state’s attorney general. Last week, the American citizen Renee Good was fatally shot in the head by a federal immigration agent in south Minneapolis during an enforcement operation, sparking tens of thousands to march in protest across the US.

The decision to withdraw TPS for Somalis in the US, first reported by Fox News Digital, affects 705 Somali nationals currently holding TPS, according to official US Citizenship and Immigration Services data as of August 2025. They have until 17 March before their status expires. Anonymous immigration sources cited higher figures to Fox News of about 2,471 current beneficiaries and another 1,383 applications.

TPS is granted by the Department of Homeland Security to foreign nationals who cannot safely return to their home countries due to armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary circumstances. The protection allows individuals to live and work legally in the US until conditions improve in their homeland.

Somalis were first granted TPS by the administration of George HW Bush in 1991 during Somalia’s civil war. The status has been repeatedly renewed by successive administrations, most recently by Joe Biden in September 2024, who extended it through March 2026.

Somalia remains plagued by persistent violence from al-Shabaab militants, severe drought conditions and widespread humanitarian crises that have displaced millions of people internally, according to UN reports. Human rights organizations have warned that returning Somali nationals to the country could place them at severe risk.

A quarter of countries in the developing world are poorer than they were in 2019 before the Covid pandemic, the World Bank has found.

The Washington-based organisation said a large group of low-income countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, had suffered a negative shock in the six years to the end of last year.

The bank said global growth had “downshifted” since the pandemic, and the pace was now “insufficient to reduce extreme poverty and create jobs where they’re needed most”.

Economic growth in emerging market and developing economies was estimated to slow from 4.2% last year to 4% next year, the bank said.

Global economic growth was “proving more resilient than anticipated”, the Bank said, especially after a better-then-expected performance by the US economy last year, but progress was likely to be modest in 2026 as economies in the developed and the developing world struggled to make progress.

The US economy was estimated to have grown by 2.1% in 2025 and 2.2% in 2026 after upgrades of 0.7 and 0.6 percentage points respectively from the bank’s last forecast in June. The bank’s study showed the euro areas as a laggard, growing by just 0.9% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026.

Global growth is projected to remain broadly steady over the next two years, easing from 2.7% in 2025 to 2.6% in 2026 before returning to 2.7% in 2027, a modest upward revision from the June forecast.

Many of the one in four developing countries where average incomes are lower than in 2019 have endured wars and famines, the report said, which has delayed their recovery from the pandemic. More recent increases in growth have been insufficient to override a previous slump, it said.

Indermit Gill, the Bank’s chief economist, said: “These trends cannot be explained by misfortune alone. In far too many developing countries, they reflect avoidable policy mistakes.”

Gill said developing world countries needed to stick to strict budget rules to provide a foundation for sustainable growth. He said the formula was similar for all countries that wanted to grow at a faster pace.

“To avert stagnation and joblessness, governments in emerging and advanced economies must aggressively liberalise private investment and trade, rein in public consumption, and invest in new technologies and education,” he said.

Gill said the global economy had proved to be resilient, but unable to jump-start growth to a level that would create jobs for young people, especially the 1.2 billion under-16s expected to enter the jobs market in the next decade.

“With each passing year, the global economy has become less capable of generating growth and seemingly more resilient to policy uncertainty,” he said. “But economic dynamism and resilience cannot diverge for long without fracturing public finance and credit markets.

“Over the coming years, the world economy is set to grow slower than it did in the troubled 1990s, while carrying record levels of public and private debt.”

The Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has accused a Lagos hospital of negligence after the death of one of her 21-month-old twin boys.

Nkanu Nnamdi died on 6 January after a brief illness. He was one of twin boys born to Adichie and Ivara Esege, a doctor, in 2024 by surrogacy, eight years after the birth of their first child, a girl.

In a WhatsApp chat to family and friends that was leaked on social media, Adichie wrote: “It is like living your worst nightmare.” Adichie’s team confirmed the authenticity of the messages.

The TV channel Arise News reported that solicitors acting for the couple served Euracare hospital, a private medical facility, with a legal notice dated 10 January which asked for CCTV footage, electronic monitoring data and the toddler’s medical records within seven days. The notice alleged there were lapses during the child’s admission and lack of basic resuscitation equipment at the facility amounting to medical negligence.

Nkanu died a day before he was due for medical evacuation to the Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, not far from the couple’s US home. He had been referred from another Lagos hospital to Euracare for a series of diagnostic procedures that included an echocardiogram and a brain MRI.

In the WhatsApp chat, Adichie accused Euracare of negligence, saying a doctor had directly told her that the resident anaesthesiologist had administered an overdose of propofol, a sedative. Despite resuscitation and being put on a ventilator, Nkanu suffered a cardiac arrest that led to his death.

Adichie said in the message that the anaesthesiologist had been “fatally casual and careless”.

In response to the WhatsApp leak, Euracare said it was inaccurate to suggest medical negligence was the cause of death and that its staff had “provided care in line with established clinical protocols and internationally accepted medical standards” to the “critically ill” toddler upon admission. The hospital has not yet replied to the legal notice.

There has been an outpouring of condolence messages to Adichie and Esege, including from Bola Tinubu, the president of Nigeria. On Sunday, the Lagos state government lamented the “profound tragedy” and ordered investigations into the matter.

Adichie’s first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was longlisted for the Booker prize in 2004, a year after its publication. She has since published seven other books, including 2025’s Dream Count.

Nigeria has an abysmally low doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:9,083. Less than 5% of the total annual budget is usually allocated to the health sector. Botched procedures are common and emergency response services are sparse nationwide; in December, there was outrage after the boxer Anthony Joshua, who survived a car crash that killed two of his close friends just outside Lagos, was lifted by pedestrians into a police truck, rather than an ambulance.

Medical tourism has become popular among wealthier Nigerians, including Tinubu and his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari, whose 104-day absence abroad on medical grounds in 2017 spurred conspiracy theories that he had died and been replaced by a body double.

The former World Bank vice-president and Nigerian presidential aspirant Oby Ezekwesili said the country needed “deep reforms” for the sake of Nkanu and other Nigerians “who have needlessly died from the effects of governance failures that plague the health system”.

A group of religious leaders and an MP in the Gambia have launched efforts to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation at the country’s supreme court.

The court case, due to resume this month, comes after two babies bled to death after undergoing FGM in the Gambia last year. Almameh Gibba, an MP and one of the plaintiffs, tabled a bill to decriminalise FGM that was rejected by the country’s parliament in 2024.

Activists and lawyers see this as the latest move in a backlash against women’s rights that is eroding gender protections across the world.

Fatou Baldeh, founder of the Gambian rights organisation Women in Liberation & Leadership, said: “FGM is a strong manifestation of violence against women that harms their physical and psychological health.

“If this issue is still being [debated at a national level], it shows us that women’s rights are really regressing. This is not an isolated issue – it’s part of a global regression on women’s rights.”

The Gambia has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world. Almost three-quarters of women between 15 and 49 have undergone the practice and nearly two-thirds of them were cut before the age of five.

FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, which can have serious long-term health consequences, including infertility. It is generally carried out without anaesthesia by untrained “cutters” using non-sterile instruments such as knives, razor blades or pieces of glass, and girls are usually forcibly restrained.

The practice is considered to be a grave violation of human rights and in 2012 the UN passed a resolution to ban it. Although is still practised in about 30 countries in Africa and Asia, FGM has no medical basis and is performed solely for cultural or religious reasons.

Under the current law in the Gambia, a cutter faces up to three years in prison, a fine of 50,000 dalasi (£500), or both. Where FGM leads to death, the perpetrator could face life imprisonment.

Although criminalised in 2015, the law went unenforced until the first convictions took place in 2023. Three women were ordered to pay a fine or spend a year in prison for carrying out FGM on eight children. The convictions sparked a backlash against the ban, which led the country to the brink of repealing it.

After the bill to overturn the law criminalising FGM was rejected, a coalition led by Gibba launched a case with the supreme court claiming that the law violated Gambians’ constitutional rights to cultural and religious freedoms.

The court has heard from two witnesses so far, Abdoulie Fatty, a prominent Muslim leader, claimed in December that female circumcision, though not mutilation, was part of Islam and was not harmful.

When asked what he said to the families of two people who died from the practice, he replied: “We are Muslims and if someone dies, it’s God’s will.”

He said that the benefit of the practice was to reduce women’s sexual desire, which could be a problem for men.

Also due to give evidence is Fuambai Sia Nyoko Ahmadu, a dual US-Sierra Leonean citizen and founder of a pro-FGM organisation, Gambian Women are Free to Choose.

In December, she co-wrote an article, Harms of the current global anti-FGM campaign, for the BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics. The piece argued that “a ubiquitous ‘standard tale’ obscures the diversity of practices, meanings and experiences among those affected” by cutting.

Representing the plaintiffs is Lamin J Darboe, a UK-trained lawyer with dual British-Gambian citizenship; he has announced a bid to run for the presidency in the country’s elections in December.

It comes after a ruling against Sierra Leone in July by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) court of justice, which described FGM as “one of the worst forms of violence against women” which “meets the threshold for torture”.

The president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, is the current chair of Ecowas. Weeks after the ruling, he signed into law the Child Rights Act 2025, which did not ban FGM.

“It speaks volumes that he refused to act on the ruling,” said Baldeh. “Within the region we have all these beautiful protocols and treaties protecting women and girls, which are all against FGM, yet nothing is being done.”

Also in Sierra Leone, there has been significant opposition to a bill on safe motherhood, which led to proposed amendments that restrict access to safe abortion.

It is widely seen as part of a new wave of attacks on women’s rights worldwide. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is eroding any rights women had before the militant Islamists seized power; in the US, restrictions on access to abortion and contraception services are increasing, and in Iran, women are key targets of the regime.

According to a report by Equality Now, new legislative proposals in Bolivia and Uruguay threaten to weaken protections against sexual violence.

“Civil society organisations face increasing pressure under repressive laws, such as in India and Kyrgyzstan, while government bodies responsible for advancing women’s rights are being dismantled in South Korea and Argentina,” said the report.

Two weeks after the US carried out Christmas Day airstrikes in north-west Nigeria on what it described as Islamic State fighters, questions remain over the specific group that was targeted and the operation’s impact.

In the aftermath of the strikes, Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that “ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians” were hit with “numerous perfect strikes”.

The operation, coordinated with Nigeria, targeted an Islamist group known as Lakurawa, which extorts the mainly Muslim local population and enforces a strict version of sharia law that includes lashes for listening to music.

Very little information has been shared by either the US or Nigeria about the strikes’ impact and it is unclear how many Lakurawa fighters, if any, died. The US Africa Command branch of the US military said on 25 December that its “initial assessment is that multiple Isis terrorists were killed in the Isis camps”.

Malik Samuel, a researcher with Good Governance Africa, said he had spoken to a Lakurawa member who said about 100 fighters were killed in a forest camp in the Tangaza area of Sokoto state. He said he was told that about 200 were missing, with many of the remaining fighters now trying to cross into Niger. This could not be independently confirmed.

Residents of Nukuru, a village about 6 miles from the reported camp, told the BBC that fighters on about 15 motorcycles had fled through the community, riding three to a bike.

Missile debris fell on empty farmland about 60 miles south in the town of Jabo, which local people said had never been attacked by Lakurawa. Debris also reportedly damaged a hotel 500 miles south of Tangaza, injuring three workers.

It remains unclear why the US specifically targeted Lakurawa, which operates in a rural, underdeveloped and almost entirely Muslim area in the north-west near the Niger border. Most violence in the area is perpetrated by armed gangs known as bandits.

Trump had previously accused the Nigerian government of failing to stop the killing of Christians, an important theme for his evangelical base. Two US officials told the New York Times that the airstrikes were a one-off aimed at allowing Trump to claim he was going after a group that had killed Christians.

Murtala Abdullahi, a Nigerian security consultant, also said Lakurawa was probably a symbolic target. “How do you establish a link that [a] bandit group has been hitting the Christian community?” he asked. “That’s difficult. But if you hit a jihadist group then you don’t need to establish a link.”

Abdullahi said he did not know why the US had chosen to hit Lakurawa rather than Boko Haram, which is far more notorious internationally and attacks both Christians and Muslims.

Since the airstrikes, global attention around Trump’s unpredictable, militarised foreign policy has turned to Venezuela, where US forces abducted Nicolás Maduro on 3 January, and Greenland, where Trump and other senior US officials have expressed renewed interest in a US takeover.

Very little is known conclusively about Lakurawa, from the year it started to the number of fighters. Even the meaning of its name, which some analysts say is a Hausa pronunciation of “les recrues” (“the recruits” in French), is not an agreed fact.

Nigeria designated the group as a terrorist organisation in January 2025. Some analysts say the group is linked to Islamic State’s Sahel branch. However, Samuel said he had interviewed Lakurawa members who professed loyalty to al-Qaida.

Researchers agree that the group’s senior members are from Mali or Nigeria. Local people in Sokoto state report that fighters speak Hausa with a foreign accent and a different language among themselves.

In about 2017, Lakurawa was invited by some local communities to protect them against bandits. However, the group has since turned to violent methods similar to those of the bandits, as well as enforcing their extreme version of Islam.

“That coercive authority that they started asserting turned communities against them,” said Kato Van Broeckhoven, a United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research researcher.

Even before the US intervention, military action alone had failed to quell Nigeria’s numerous, proliferating security crises. Just last week, gunmen killed more than 30 people in Niger state, in the centre-west of Nigeria, and abducted an unknown number of people. Local people told reporters they included students from a Catholic school where 300 pupils and teachers were kidnapped in November and only freed in December.

“Why is Nigeria a fertile ground for all these groups to come in and operate?” Samuel said. “It is simple: because of governance issues … You see clearly the level of poverty in these places, you see clearly the absence of the state, the vacuum that has been created.”

Nigerian police have charged Anthony Joshua’s driver with dangerous driving after a fatal crash that killed two people.

Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, was also charged with driving without a valid driving licence and “driving without due care and attention, causing bodily harm and damage to property”. He is due to appear in court on 20 January.

The Federal Road Safety Corps in Nigeria said they believed the vehicle was travelling “beyond the legally prescribed speed limit”.

Kayode was driving the former world heavyweight boxing champion, Joshua, 36, his personal trainer, Latif Ayodele, and strength coach, Sina Ghami, on 29 December on a busy highway linking Lagos and Ibadan in south-west Nigeria.

The Lexus SUV was travelling at high speed when the tyre on the passenger side burst while trying to overtake a vehicle. The Lexus crashed into a stationary lorry carrying soya beans that was illegally parked on the hard shoulder of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, 30 miles from Lagos. Ayodele and Ghami, both 36, died at the scene.

The 46-year-old driver is a longstanding member of the boxer’s team, and was granted bail of 5m naira (£2,580), but will remain in custody until he meets bail conditions.

The driver and Joshua survived with minor injuries, but Kayode was taken to the Lagoon hospital in Ikoyi and kept under observation for two days. After the crash, Joshua and his mother paid their respects to the boxer’s friends at the funeral home.

The accident occurred 10 days after the former world champion celebrated his victory against the YouTuber Jake Paul in the US. Prior to the crash, Joshua was believed to be preparing to return to the boxing ring early this year.

After the crash, the Ogun state government said in a statement: “Anthony Joshua and another passenger were immediately evacuated to a specialised medical facility in Lagos.

“Following comprehensive clinical assessments, doctors have confirmed that both patients are stable and do not require any emergency medical intervention at this time. A full medical team has been assembled and will continue to monitor them closely.”

A cremation pyre built about 9,500 years ago has been discovered in Africa, offering a fresh glimpse into the complexity of ancient hunter-gatherer communities.

Researchers say the pyre, discovered in a rock shelter at the foot of Mount Hora in northern Malawi, is thought to be the oldest in the world to contain adult remains, the oldest confirmed intentional cremation in Africa, and the first pyre to be associated with African hunter-gatherers.

In total 170 individual human bone fragments – apparently from an adult woman just under 1.5 metres (5ft) tall – were discovered in two clusters during excavations in 2017 and 2018, with layers of ash, charcoal and sediment.

However, the woman’s skull was missing, while cut marks suggest some bones were separated at the joints, and flesh was removed, before the body was burned.

“There is no evidence to suggest that they were doing any kind of violent act or cannibalism to the remains,” said Dr Jessica Cerezo-Román of the University of Oklahoma, who led the study. Instead, she said, body parts might have been removed as part of a funerary ritual, perhaps to be carried as tokens.

Dr Jessica Thompson, a senior author of the study from Yale University, said that, while such practices may not seem relatable, people still keep locks of hair or relatives’ ashes for scattering in a meaningful place.

The researchers said the rock shelter appears to have been used as a natural monument, with burials occurring from about 16,000 to 8,000 years ago. As well as complete skeletons, very small collections of bones from different individuals have been found.

“[This] supports our hypothesis that some of the missing bones from the cremated woman may have been deliberately removed and taken as tokens for curation or reburial elsewhere,” said Dr Ebeth Sawchuk, a co-author of the study from the University of Alberta.

The team also found flakes and points from stone-knapping within the pyre, which might have been added as part of a funeral ritual.

“Were people actively throwing these things into the fire or … were they in the body itself?” said Thompson. Cerezo-Román said one possibility is that people were knapping stones to cut the woman’s flesh.

The team also found the pyre was about the size of a queen-sized mattress, and would have taken considerable knowledge, skill and coordination to build and maintain, while the two clusters of bones indicate the body was moved during cremation.

While it is unclear why the woman was given such special treatment, the team found at least one fire was subsequently made directly above the location of the pyre – possibly as an act of remembrance.

However, the site also has evidence of multiple campfires, with Thompson noting it is likely the shelter would also have been used for daily life.

Writing in the journal Science Advances, the team note the oldest known pyre containing human remains was previously found in Alaska, and dates to about 11,500 years ago – however, that was for a young child.

Indeed, most burned human remains dating back 8,000 years or more have not been found in a pyre, and prior to the latest find the earliest confirmed intentional cremations in Africa only appeared about 3,500 years ago, among pastoral Neolithic people.

Thompson said the discovery that different people merited different treatment in death “suggests that in life, they also would have had a lot more complexity to their social roles than I ever imagined, or that certainly is stereotypically described for tropical hunter-gatherers, especially this old”.

Joel Irish, a professor of anthropology and archaeology at Liverpool John Moores University, who was not involved in the work, welcomed the discovery.

“That it is such an early date, and that they would have been transient as hunter-gatherers makes it more amazing,” he said.

“They clearly had advanced belief systems and a high level of social complexity at this early date.”

The $2bn (£1.5bn) of aid the US pledged this week may have been hailed as “bold and ambitious” by the UN but could be the “nail in the coffin” in changing to a shrunken, less flexible aid system dominated by Washington’s political priorities, aid experts fear.

After a year of deep cuts in aid budgets by the US and European countries, the announcement of new money for the humanitarian system is a source of some relief, but experts are deeply concerned about demands that the US has imposed on how the money should be managed and where it can go.

When the US state department announced the pledge on Tuesday, it said the UN must “adapt, shrink or die” by implementing changes and eliminating waste, and demanded that the money be funnelled through a pooled fund under the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) rather than to individual agencies.

It also stipulated that the money be used for 17 priority countries chosen by the US, excluding some undergoing profound humanitarian crises such as Afghanistan and Yemen.

Themrise Khan, an independent researcher on aid systems, said: “It’s a despicable way of looking at humanitarianism and humanitarian aid.”

She criticised the way the UN had praised Donald Trump and the pledge as “generous” despite the many conditions placed upon it.

“It also points to the fact that the UN system itself is now so subservient to the American system – that it is literally bowing down to just one power without actually being more objective in how it views humanitarianism and humanitarian aid,” Khan said. “For me, that is the nail in the coffin.”

The 17 priority countries include some of the world’s most desperate, where the US has political interests, including Sudan, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as some Latin American countries.

Ronny Patz, an independent analyst specialising in UN finances, said: “The fact that they are announcing a selected list of countries in advance shows they have very clear political priorities for this money.”

He said he was concerned that Washington’s demands on where the money could be spent “solidifies a massively shrunk UN humanitarian system”.

“If there is a new humanitarian crisis breaking out in some region of the world next year that they haven’t prioritised funding for, it’s not clear that they are willing to let the UN respond with US money,” Patz said.

There are also concerns that the amount of money will not be enough. Thomas Byrnes, chief executive of MarketImpact, a consultancy for the humanitarian sector, has been tracking aid cuts throughout the past year and said the $2bn was significantly less than the $3.38bn in funds given by the US to the UN in 2025, all of which was provided under the previous Biden administration.

“This is a carefully staged political announcement that obscures more than it reveals,” said Byrnes.

He said the contribution was better than nothing but that it would have a limited impact in the context of other US decisions, including cutting $5bn in foreign assistance already approved by Congress as “woke, weaponised and wasteful spending” and a proposal to end support for peacekeeping missions – for which it already owes the United Nations $1.5bn.

Byrnes suggested that channelling the money through Ocha may be less about partnership and more an attempt to centralise control and have one UN body on which to make demands about how aid should be distributed.

Patz shared that concern and said he was worried about whether the money would even materialise if the UN failed to meet the expectations set out by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to “cut bloat, remove duplication”.

“I would be cautious,” he said. “This is $2bn promised, but not $2bn given.”

The head of Guinea’s junta, Mamady Doumbouya, who had pledged not to run for office after seizing power four years ago, has been elected president after the country’s electoral commission said he had secured a sweeping majority of the vote.

Doumbouya, 41, faced eight rivals for the presidency but the main opposition leaders were barred from running and had urged a boycott of the vote held over the weekend.

The general’s decision to stand saw him reneging on his initial vow not to run for office and to hand the mineral-rich but poor west African country back to civilian rule by the end of 2024.

He secured 86.72% of the first-round vote, the country’s election commission said late on Tuesday, well over the threshold that would trigger a runoff vote.

Voter turnout stood at 80.95%, according to Djenabou Toure, the head of the general directorate of elections.

Doumbouya had placed well ahead in districts of the capital, Conakry, often winning more than 80%, according to official partial results read out by Toure earlier on RTG public television.

He had a similar lead in several other areas, including Coyah, a town near Conakry, and in other parts of the country, such as Boffa and Fria in the west, Gaoual in the north-west, northern Koundara and Labe, and Nzerekore in the south-east.

However, a citizens’ movement calling for the return of civilian rule questioned the figure. “A huge majority of Guineans chose to boycott the electoral charade,” the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution said in a statement on Monday.

In September 2021, Doumbouya led a coup to topple Guinea’s first freely elected president, Alpha Condé. He has cracked down on civil liberties and banned protests, while opponents have been arrested, put on trial or driven into exile.

Candidate Abdoulaye Yero Balde denounced “serious irregularities” in the poll. Another candidate, Faya Millimono, complained of “electoral banditry” linked, he said, to influence exerted on voters.

In late September, Guineans approved a new constitution in a referendum that permitted junta members to run for office, paving the way for Doumbouya’s candidacy. It also lengthened presidential terms from five to seven years, renewable once.

The opposition leader and former prime minister, Cellou Dalein Diallo, was one of three opposition leaders barred from standing by the new constitution. Diallo was excluded because he lives in exile and his primary residence is outside of Guinea.

Tensions between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia over the future of Yemen and the imminent possibility of the declaration of an independent southern state have reached boiling point with Saudi Arabia in effect accusing the UAE of threatening its future security.

The dispute has the potential to create a civil war within the south of Yemen and also spill over into other disputes including in Sudan and the Horn of Africa where the two countries often find themselves backing opposite sides. Yemen could yet become only one theatre in which the two vastly wealthy Gulf states vie for political influence, control of shipping lanes and commercial access.

The UAE has been dabbling in Yemen for years due to its support for the separatist Southern Transitional Council.

Many observers, including diplomats in Riyadh, had assumed that the UAE – often thought of as the junior if more ideological partner – would back down and tell the STC to delay or jettison its plan to declare independence and instead settle for negotiations on greater autonomy or more seats in Yemen’s coalition government body, the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC).

Saudi Arabia had always seen Yemen as its preserve, first trying to defeat the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the north with a much-criticised bombing campaign in 2015 and then under international pressure reverting to diplomacy to try to reconcile the Houthis with the UN-recognised government in Aden.

But in the past month, the UAE has kicked over many assumed red lines in Yemen, leading to the Saudi bombing of vehicles docking at the Yemen port of Mukalla. Riyadh pointedly said the vehicles had been sent for STC use and had come from an Emirati port.

Saudi Arabia said: “The Kingdom stresses that any threat to its national security is a red line, and the Kingdom will not hesitate to take all necessary steps and measures to confront and neutralise any such threat.”

But the UAE has been quietly considering commercial opportunities in Yemen for years. Tapping into the genuine, popular desire to restore the independence the south enjoyed prior to unification with the north in 1990, the UAE chose the STC as its vehicle.

It was a shrewd bet. The STC was finally recognised as a genuine player in 2019 when it was given seats on the PLC.

After years being sidelined in UN peace efforts, the STC leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, slowly gained western recognition and was allowed to attend events such as the UN general assembly.

But the STC, feeding off longstanding cultural and economic grievances with the north, was never content with federalist solutions, and felt anyway it had been sidelined in the PLC.

This month, the STC grabbed its opportunity, sending in its forces into Hadramaut, the largest governorate in the south.

With its sudden eastward expansion, the STC controlled nearly all of the territory of the former South Yemen state, including its most productive oilfields.

After seizing Hadramaut, it was relatively easyto take al Mahra, the most easterly governorate.

It was a severe shock to Saudi Arabia, which has since been applying diplomatic pressure on Abu Dhabi to demand the STC’s withdrawal.

In a ferocious diplomatic battle, Riyadh tried to isolate the UAE and the STC, making it clear that even if the STC stood its ground, southern Yemen would never progress beyond a micro-state lacking international recognition.

So far, the UAE is not buckling. The withdrawal of the few remaining UAE counter terror forces in Yemen announced on Tuesday is of no significance since UAE support for the STC remains.

Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati political scientist, is portraying the UAE defence of the STC almost as a litmus test of the UAE’s character. He wrote on X: “The UAE does not let down nor abandon its allies. It supports them with generosity and political and military abundance. It does not leave them midway on the road to face their fate without support. It is clear in its policies and steps. It does not flee nor evade confrontation. It has a clear vision of its national and humanitarian responsibility and fulfils it with utmost care.”

Equally patriotic statements are emerging from Riyadh. Farea al-Muslimi the Yemen and wider Gulf research fellow at Chatham House, is in little doubt about the enormity of what may be at stake.

“After years of indirect competition through local proxies, the dispute now appears to be moving toward a more direct confrontation, with Saudi Arabia publicly accusing the UAE of actions that threaten its national security along its southern border,” he said.

“The conflict reflects fundamental disagreements between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over the future political structure of Yemen and the balance of influence within it. Notably, the UAE – despite its greater geographic distance – has pursued a more interventionist and experimental approach on the ground.

“Tensions between the two countries have been building for years. These actions suggest that the situation is entering a particularly dangerous phase. This development also evokes troubling parallels with the 2017 Gulf crisis involving Qatar, when Saudi Arabia and the UAE coordinated a major diplomatic rupture that destabilised regional relations for years.”

Al-Muslimi added that the Houthis were “likely to view the growing rift between two of their principal adversaries with considerable advantage, observing as former coalition partners – who jointly fought and failed to defeat them – now turn against one another”.

Western governments, taking their lead from Washington, have shown in Sudan little desire to criticise the UAE in public, and in Yemen their sympathies will be with Saudi Arabia and the retention of a unitary state.

The British former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has been involved in a car accident in Nigeria’s Ogun State that killed two people, local police said on Monday.

Joshua, 36, sustained minor injuries when his vehicle collided with another car, Ogun State Police Command said.

They are investigating the cause of the accident. Joshua could not immediately be reached for comment.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told told the Daily Mail: “I am away on a family holiday and awoke to the news of this incident.

“We are trying to contact Anthony and in the meantime we don’t want to speculate on how he is but thankfully he appears OK from what I have seen in the images. We are awaiting more information on what has happened and will update in due course.”

The former two-time world champion is holidaying in Africa following his sixth-round knockout victory over YouTube-turned-boxing superstar Jake Paul in Miami less than a fortnight ago.

This story will be updated …

The British former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has been involved in a car accident in Nigeria’s Ogun State that killed two people, local police said on Monday.

Joshua, 36, sustained minor injuries when his vehicle collided with another car, Ogun State Police Command said.

They are investigating the cause of the accident. Joshua could not immediately be reached for comment.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told told the Daily Mail: “I am away on a family holiday and awoke to the news of this incident.

“We are trying to contact Anthony and in the meantime we don’t want to speculate on how he is but thankfully he appears OK from what I have seen in the images. We are awaiting more information on what has happened and will update in due course.”

The former two-time world champion is holidaying in Africa following his sixth-round knockout victory over YouTube-turned-boxing superstar Jake Paul in Miami less than a fortnight ago.

This story will be updated …

More than 3,000 people died trying to reach Spain by sea over the past year, a sharp fall from the previous 12 months.

However, activists cautioned that the drop reflected tighter border controls that have forced migrants to take increasingly dangerous routes.

According to a new report by the NGO Caminando Fronteras, 3,090 people drowned between January and 15 December 2025, including 192 women and 437 children.

The figure is significantly lower than the 10,457 who died in the attempt last year.

Helena Maleno, the NGO’s research coordinator, said that while the number of fatalities has fallen, there had been an increase in the number of shipwrecks to 303, with as many as 70 boats having disappeared without trace.

She said: “This is because we’ve seen an increase in the number of embarkations on the dangerous route from Algeria to the Balearic Islands.

“These boats tend to carry around 30 people, whereas the ones on the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands may have up to 300 people on board.”

According to Spain’s interior minister, 35,935 irregular migrants arrived by sea and land up to 15 December, compared with 60,311 who reached Spanish territory during the same period in 2024.

Much of this decrease is attributed to tighter border policing, especially in Mauritania, a principal point of departure for migrants trying to reach Spain. In 2024, the north African state signed a new migration partnership with the European Union in exchange for €210m (£181m) in funding.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch accused Mauritanian authorities of systematic abuses of the mainly African migrants, including rape and torture – accusations that the Mauritanian government rejects.

The Caminando Fronteras report concludes that the Atlantic route from north Africa to the Canary Islands, which can take up to 12 days, remains the deadliest, with 1,906 fatalities this year. The increasingly popular route from Algeria to the Balearic Islands cost the lives of 1,037 migrants. The report also notes the emergence of a new route from Guinea to the Canaries, a distance of 2,200km.

Maleno described a policy of “necropolitics” fuelled by far-right parties, saying “the persecution and witch-hunts of migrants is having a huge impact on human rights in Europe”.

“The institutional response to tragedies at sea remains patently inadequate,” the report concludes. “Although there has been collaboration between countries in some cases, there are still worrying delays in mobilising rescue missions, a lack of adequate resources and limited political will to protect lives.”

The 3,090 victims come from 30 countries, mostly in west and north Africa, but also Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq and Egypt.

The British former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has been involved in a car accident in Nigeria’s Ogun State that killed two people, local police said on Monday.

Joshua, 36, sustained minor injuries when his vehicle collided with another car, Ogun State Police Command said.

They are investigating the cause of the accident. Joshua could not immediately be reached for comment.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told told the Daily Mail: “I am away on a family holiday and awoke to the news of this incident.

“We are trying to contact Anthony and in the meantime we don’t want to speculate on how he is but thankfully he appears OK from what I have seen in the images. We are awaiting more information on what has happened and will update in due course.”

The former two-time world champion is holidaying in Africa following his sixth-round knockout victory over YouTube-turned-boxing superstar Jake Paul in Miami less than a fortnight ago.

This story will be updated …

Central African Republic goes to the polls on Sunday with the president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, seeking a third term.

As many as 2.3 million registered voters will cast ballots for what observers are calling a quadruple election: votes for the presidency and parliament as well as local and municipal offices.

Seven candidates are on the ballot for president, including the former prime ministers Anicet Georges Dologuélé and Henri-Marie Dondra, who were given clearance to stand by the constitutional court after initially being banned. Dologuélé was the runner-up in the last two elections – 2015 and 2020 – while Dondra briefly served under the president.

The opposition hopes to tap into the frustrations of people living in a country where conflict is a daily reality. More than half a million people remain internally displaced within CAR, with a similar number living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

However, Touadéra, a former mathematics professor who has been in power since 2016, is widely expected to extend his run in office.

He went from an academic to a statesman after the then-president, François Bozizé, appointed him prime minister in 2008. Touadéra stayed in that role until 2013, when the administration was toppled by a rebel coalition, as sectarian violence triggered a civil war.

After a chaotic three-year transition, Touadéra ran for office, and the perception that he was neutral, independent of the ex-Séléka and anti-Balaka militias, powered his second-round victory.

A peace accord was signed in April with the two main rebel groups, and there is hope the country might be slowly stabilising. There had been “tangible progress to establish peace”, said Lewis Mudge, the central Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

Abdou Abarry, the head of the UN regional 0ffice for central Africa (Unoca) agreed, although added there were still challenges. “This is an opportunity to commend the remarkable recovery of the country, which is laying the foundations for peace consolidation among domestic actors and has undertaken measures to secure its borders, notably with Chad and Cameroon,” he told the UN security council this month.

Still, there are concerns that supply-chain issues and violence could disrupt the vote, especially in some rural areas. The UN peacekeeping mission Minusca, whose mandate was recently renewed until next year, is providing the security and logistical support the state’s crumbling infrastructure cannot manage.

There are claims the voter list was only published online, and not physically, even though most people have no internet access or electricity. The electoral issues have led to a band of opposition politicians announcing a boycott.

According to Mudge, the irregularities could “disenfranchise large segments of the population” and undercut the integrity of the process.

Many people worry that another Touadéra term – a 2023 constitutional referendum not only scrapped term limits but extended presidential mandates from five to seven years – would mean more free roaming for outside interests.

After taking office, Touadéra put faith in the Russian mercenary firm Wagner, which provides part of his private security, while Minusca and Rwandan troops helped secure the countryside. Since its arrival in 2018, Wagner’s influence within CAR has grown such that despite the founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death, Touadéra has resisted Moscow’s calls to integrate the military contractors within Africa Corps, its successor entity.

Rwanda, where the government often mentions the need for “African solutions to African problems”, has taken a different approach from Russia, focusing on smaller business interests in CAR.

In August, a pro-opposition media outlet claimed the government had evicted its own soldiers from a World Bank-funded youth training centre in Nzila, a village on the outskirts of the capital, Bangui, to clear the way for Rwandan troops to engage in a large livestock farming operation.

“Touadéra is determined to sell off the country piece by piece and sacrifice the youth of the Central African Republic,” the editorial read.

In September 2021, a tall, young colonel in the Guinean army announced that he and his comrades had forcibly seized power and toppled the longtime leader Alpha Condé.

“The will of the strongest has always supplanted the law,” Mamady Doumbouya said in a speech, stressing that the soldiers were acting to restore the will of the people.

Not long after, Doumbouya announced a 36-month timeline for transition to civilian rule in the resource-rich west African nation on the Atlantic coast, shrugging off pressure from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which wanted a swifter return to democracy. His actions triggered widespread protests and criticism from opposition groups and civil society, most of whom doubted his vow not to personally run for office.

On Sunday, 6.7 million eligible voters in Guinea will head to the ballot box for the first presidential election since the 2021 coup. Among the nine candidates are the former minister Abdoulaye Yéro Baldé of the Democratic Front of Guinea and the former junta supporter turned critic Faya Millimono of the Liberal Bloc party.

But thanks to a controversial referendum in September that led to the adoption of a new constitution allowing him to run and extending presidential terms from five to seven years, the clear frontrunner is Doumbouya.

The opposition coalition Forces vives de Guinée has called his candidacy a betrayal. “The man who presented himself as the restorer of democracy chose to become its gravedigger,” it said in a statement last month after Doumbouya officially deposited his intent to run with the supreme court.

Political upheavals have been a recurring feature in west Africa, a region that has earned the moniker of “coup belt” after seven successful coups and several unsuccessful attempts since 2020. While Guinea has remained under the Ecowas umbrella, fellow juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, angered by its post-coup sanctions, have split from the regional bloc to form the pro-Russian Alliance of Sahel States (AES). If it holds, the Guinean election will be the first in any of the junta-run states since 2020.

Within Guinea, many believe the general’s victory is a foregone conclusion, given his consolidation of power since ascending to the presidency and promoting himself to a general. Even now, the presidential race is notable not for those who are on the ballot, but for those who are not.

The biggest opposition parties remain suspended, and their most prominent leaders have been detained, barred from running or – like the former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, are in exile. Many say a climate of fear pervades the country due to the junta’s crackdown against its critics, with several dissidents in jail.

Conversely, Doumbouya pardoned the former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara who was given a 20-year sentence for his role in one of Guinea’s most serious human rights atrocities: the 2009 massacre and mass rape of protesters at a stadium in Conakry. The pardon, granted before the final hearing, prompted several human rights groups to write a joint open letter to the junta leader alongside families of victims, urging him to reconsider. That process is now in limbo.

Ahead of the vote, Doumbouya has been accumulating goodwill.This month, the shiny new Simandou mine, which has the world’s largest untapped reserve of iron ore, was launched after nearly three decades of delays caused by political instability and corruption. Doumbouya’s government is touting the project as a bridge to prosperity for Guinea and a sign of incoming development, despite mass job losses and environmental complaints.

The election stakes are high: in the coming years, the multi-layered Simandou mine project – which also includes the construction of ports and a railway – is expected to transform the economy of Guinea, where half of the population lives on below $2 a day. Given existential concerns around transparency, many are waiting to see what the winning government does after the election.

“Our salvation lies in a return to the [proper] constitutional order,” said Abdoulaye Koroma, a presidential candidate for the Rally for Renaissance and Development party.

The British-Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd el-Fattah has arrived in London after the Egyptian government lifted a travel ban that it had imposed on him despite releasing him from jail in September.

Abd el-Fattah had been held in jail nearly continuously for 10 years, mainly due to expressing his opposition to the treatment of dissidents by the Egyptian government. He had been detained in jail two years beyond his five-year sentence as the Cairo authorities refused to recognise the period he held in pre-trial detention as part of his time served.

A previous attempt by Abd el-Fattah to leave Cairo for London in November after his release from jail, was blocked by the security forces a month ago. He has since been trying to negotiate an agreement whereby he is allowed to travel freely between Cairo and London and not be permanently excluded from Egypt if he came to the UK.

His arrival in London was announced by his mother, Laila Soueif, on Facebook.

His sister Mona Seif said: “I can’t believe it’s finally happened and Alaa has made it to London. We thought it was impossible, but here he is. Hundreds of people around the world did so much to help bring this moment about. Alaa is free and we can finally begin to heal as a family.”

The family believe the agreement will allow him to travel back and forth between the UK and Egypt.

James Lynch of FairSquare, a human rights organisation that has worked alongside Abd el-Fattah’s family for several years, said: “I’m delighted that Alaa has safely returned to the UK to be reunited with his son after such a lengthy ordeal lasting well over a decade. After everything Alaa and his family have been through, I’m hopeful this marks the beginning of a new chapter for them.”

His mother twice came close to death when she was admitted to hospital during an extended eight-month hunger strike designed to put pressure on the UK Foreign Office to do more to secure his release.

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, made three calls to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and the UK national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, also personally urged the Egyptians to end his detention. But the Egyptians never allowed British consular visits to jail, saying they did not recognise his dual citizenship status.

Changes in the Egyptian embassy in London may have helped produce a less inflexible stance.

Abd el-Fattah, a member of a family of human rights activists, became a leading voice during the Arab spring. He has a direct perceptive non-sectarian writing style that has won him awards.

He has a teenage son, Khaled, who lives in Brighton and attends a special educational needs school. The boy visited him in Cairo soon after his release, in what was regarded as a successful reunion.

Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Sana, explained at the time he had been blocked from flying out of Cairo: “We’re really glad to have [Alaa] back in our lives partially free, but he needs to have freedom of movement to live with his son, reunited with him properly.”

“Khaled needs his father. My nephew … is very, very comfortable in his school and his setup in Brighton. We can’t change. We can’t keep creating instability.”

He had already served a five-year jail sentence passed in September 2019 on charges of “spreading false news” after a much-criticised trial, yet last year his family were told he would not be released until January 2027.

Keir Starmer made no criticism of the justice of Abd El-Fattah’s sentencing. “I’m delighted that Alaa is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief,” the prime minister wrote on social media.

“I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.

“Alaa’s case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.”