Author: Jideofor Elumogo

South Africa’s government says it will not help an estimated 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country’s North West province who have been denied access to basic supplies as part of an official strategy against illegal mining.

The miners in the mineshaft in Stilfontein are believed to be suffering from a lack of food, water and other basic necessities after police closed off the entrances used to transport their supplies underground.

It is part of the police’s Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole, operation, which includes cutting off miners’ supplies to force them to return to the surface and be arrested.

North West police spokesperson Sabata Mokgwabone said information received from those who recently helped bring three miners to the surface indicated that as many as 4,000 miners may be underground. Police have not provided an official estimate.

In the past few weeks, over 1,000 miners have surfaced at various mines in North West province, with many reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going for weeks without basic supplies.

Police continue on Thursday to guard areas around the mine to catch all those appearing from underground.

Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Wednesday that the government would not send any help to the illegal miners because they are involved in a criminal act.

“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped. We didn’t send them there,” Ntshavheni said.

Illegal mining remains common in South Africa’s old gold-mining areas, with miners going into closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.

The illegal miners are often from neighboring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.

Their presence in closed mines have also created problems with nearby communities, which complain that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape.

Illegal mining groups are known to be heavily armed and disputes between rival groups sometimes result in fatal confrontations.

A doctor accused of criticizing Russia’s fighting in Ukraine in front of a patient was convicted Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison, part of an unrelenting Kremlin crackdown on dissent.

Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of her patients, reported the pediatrician to authorities.

Akinshina alleged that Buyanova told her and her son that his father, a Russian soldier who was killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for Kyiv’s troops and had blamed Moscow for the conflict.

A video of the outraged Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely publicized, and chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin personally demanded a criminal case be brought against the doctor.

Buyanova, who was born in western Ukraine, denied the accusation, insisting she never said what she was accused of saying.

In a tearful closing statement last week, she had urged the court to acquit her.

Her defense argued that the prosecution failed to present evidence that the purported conversation took place, including any recordings of it, and alleged that her accuser fabricated the story out of animosity toward Ukrainians, according to the independent news site Mediazona, which reported all of the hearings in the trial.

In her closing statement to the court, Buyanova said it was “painful” to read the accusations in the indictment, and broke down.

“A doctor, especially a paediatrician, is not capable of wishing harm to a child, his mother, or traumatizing the child’s psyche. Only a monster is capable of this — and of the words that I allegedly said to them,” Mediazona quoted her as saying.

“Spreading false information” about the army has been a criminal offense since March 2022, when Russia adopted a series of laws prohibiting any public expression about the fighting that deviated from the official narrative.

Authorities started actively using them against critics and protesters.

According to OVD-Info, one of Russia’s leading rights groups that tracks political arrests, more than 1,000 people have been implicated in criminal cases on charges related to speaking or acting out against the fighting in Ukraine

Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, a non-government agency focused on cutting federal waste and streamlining operations.

Musk and Ramaswamy will collaborate with the Office of Management and Budget to drive reforms and bring an entrepreneurial approach to government.

Musk, who has promoted the agency nicknamed “Doge” after Dogecoin, plans to document all actions publicly for transparency, including a leaderboard to highlight inefficient spending of tax dollars. Ramaswamy expressed his commitment to the initiative on social media.

Since they are not government employees, Musk and Ramaswamy are exempt from federal disclosure requirements and aim to complete their work by July 4, 2026. Trump envisions a smaller, more efficient government as a gift for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Musk, who has advocated for a $2 trillion cut in government spending, has received mixed reactions. Supporters believe his involvement will drive meaningful change, while critics argue that his businesses have a history of clashing with regulations he may now seek to reform.

Two Ugandan men have been detained for allegedly insulting President Yoweri Museveni, First Lady Janet Museveni, and the president’s son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, on TikTok.

David Ssengozi, also known as Lucky Choice (21), and Isaiah Ssekagiri (28) appeared before Magistrate Stella Maris Amabilis, who ordered their detention at Kigo Prison until November 13 for an initial court hearing.

The two men, along with a third defendant, Julius Tayebwa (19), face charges of hate speech and spreading “malicious information” against the president’s family and musicians associated with the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).

Prosecutors claim the content they shared on TikTok was intended to “ridicule, degrade, demean, and promote hostility” toward the first family and others linked to the NRM.

While both Ssengozi and Ssekagiri denied the charges, their detention follows a recent government crackdown on criticism of state officials.

In September, a police spokesperson cautioned the public against “abusing” the president, calling it an offense. This follows a similar case in July, when a 24-year-old was sentenced to six years in prison for a TikTok video critical of the president and his family.

This incident highlights ongoing criticism of Uganda’s approach to internet freedom and freedom of expression. Rights groups frequently report on the government’s restrictive stance, with the U.S. government recently noting limitations on internet freedom.

In 2022, Ugandan author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija fled the country after being detained over Twitter comments about the president and his son, alleging he was tortured in detention.

Authorities in Mali have arrested the chief executive and two other employees of Australian gold mining company Resolute Mining while they were visiting the country to discuss an unspecified dispute, the company said Monday.

The three people, including managing director Terence Holohan , were arrested last Friday in Bamako, the capital of Mali .

In a statement on Resolute Mining ‘s website , Andrew Wray, the company’s non-executive chairman, said the three officials had been “unexpectedly detained” after a discussion about “claims made against” the company, without giving further details.

No information was given as to why the three people were still being held three days later.

The Australian company has been working for years on the Syama gold mine in Mali, a large-scale operation located in the southwest of the country. It owns 80% of the mine, while the remaining 20% ​​is held by the Malian government.

The arrest is the latest controversy in Mali’s crucial, foreign-dominated mining sector, which has come under increasing scrutiny from military authorities. In September, four employees of Canadian company Barrick Gold were also detained for several days.

Resolute Mining said the allegations against it were “unfounded” and that it had followed due process in conducting its business in Mali. It is receiving assistance from foreign embassies, including the UK .

The company is among the foreign firms that have for years dominated the mining sector in Mali, one of Africa’s leading gold producers, which has for many years faced jihadist violence and high levels of poverty and famine.

Companies are facing increasing pressure from the military, which seized power in 2020 and is seeking to shore up revenues from the mining sector.

Boko Haram insurgents killed 17 Chadian soldiers in a weekend attack on a military post that also left 96 attackers dead in the west of the country, the Chadian army said.

The attack in the Lake Chad region took place on Saturday, army spokesman Gen. Issakh Acheikh said on state television Sunday night. He did not provide details.

The Lake Chad region has been hit by frequent attacks by insurgents this year, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa, rekindling fears of violence after a period of peace following a successful military operation launched in 2020 by the Chadian army to destroy the extremist groups’ bases.

Last month, 40 soldiers were killed in an attack on a military base, prompting President Mahamat Deby Itno to launch an operation to dislodge Boko Haram militants from Lake Chad. In March, an attack the government blamed on Boko Haram killed seven soldiers.

Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency more than a decade ago against Western education, is seeking to establish Islamic law in northeastern Nigeria. The insurgency has spread to neighboring West African countries, including Cameroon , Niger and Chad .

Chad, a country of nearly 18 million people, has been rocked by political unrest before and after the disputed 2021 presidential election that saw the victory of Deby Itno. He had led the country as interim president during the period of military rule that followed his father’s death in 2021.

The latest polls published in Ghana on Monday show former president and the country’s main opposition leader, John Dramani Mahama, leading the race to win December’s presidential elections.

The National Democratic Congress candidate’s main rival is current Vice-President Muhamudu Bawumia from the ruling New Patriotic Party.

A total of 13 candidates are vying to replace outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo, who is stepping down in January after serving the maximum two terms in office.

As the country faces its worst economic crisis in a generation, both Mahama and Bawumia are focusing their campaigns on promises of economic recovery and improving people’s livelihoods.

The world’s second largest cocoa producer, Ghana in 2022 defaulted on most of its 30 billion dollar external debt after years of overborrowing.

No party has ever won more than two consecutive terms in the country’s democratic history.

The head of the Church of England, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, is under pressure to resign after an investigation found he failed to inform the police as soon as he became aware of serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps.

Some members of the General Synod, the church’s national assembly, have launched a petition calling on Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to resign, saying he has “lost the trust of his clergy”. The petition had garnered more than 1,800 signatures on Change.org by late Monday morning London time.

Adding to the pressure, a senior clergywoman has joined those who believe he should resign. Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle, told the BBC that Mr Welby’s position was “untenable”.

Calls for Mr Welby to resign have grown since Thursday when the Church published the results of an independent investigation into John Smyth, who sexually, psychologically and physically abused around 30 boys and young men in the UK and 85 in Africa over five decades.

The 251-page report concludes that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, shortly after he became Archbishop of Canterbury.

Last week, Mr Welby took responsibility for failing to ensure the allegations were pursued as “vigorously” as they should have been after he became aware of the abuse but said he had no intention of resigning.

On Monday, his office issued a statement reiterating Mr Welby’s horror at the scale of John Smyth’s gross abuse.

“As he has said, he had no knowledge or suspicion of the allegations prior to being informed of them in 2013, and, upon reflection, he has no intention of resigning,” the statement said. “He hopes the Makin Review will support the ongoing work to build a safer church here and around the world.”

Church officials first became aware of the abuse in 1982, when they received the results of an internal investigation into Smyth. The recipients of that report “engaged in an active cover-up” to prevent the investigation’s findings from being revealed, the Makin report said.

Between 1984 and 2001, Smyth settled in Zimbabwe , and then South Africa . He continued to sexually assault boys and young men in Zimbabwe, and there is evidence that the abuse continued in South Africa until his death in August 2018.

Smyth’s abuse was not made public until a 2017 investigation by British television network Channel 4, which led to Hampshire police launching an investigation. Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and were preparing to extradite him.

The Makin report concluded that if Smyth had been reported to police in 2013 it could have helped uncover the truth, prevented further abuse and led to a possible criminal conviction.

“Indeed, three and a half years have been lost, time during which John Smyth could have been brought to justice and the abuses he was committing in South Africa could have been uncovered and stopped,” the study concluded.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England and is considered the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries. He is considered first among equals compared to other primates of the communion.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced a substantial increase in the prize pool for the 2024 Women’s Champions League, with the winner now set to receive $600,000—a 52% boost from previous years.

The tournament, which begins on November 9 in Morocco, promises financial support for every participating club, as each team is guaranteed at least $150,000, CAF confirmed in a statement on Thursday.

The increased prize money is part of CAF’s broader commitment to grow women’s football across Africa, with ambitions to invest further in youth academies and enhance the appeal of CAF competitions globally.

This year’s prize structure offers substantial rewards for all top placements:

– Winner: $600,000

– Runner-up: $400,000

– 3rd Place: $350,000

– 4th Place: $300,000

– 3rd in Group: $200,000 each

– 4th in Group: $150,000 each

Launched in 2021 under CAF President Dr. Patrice Motsepe, the Women’s Champions League has quickly become a highlight of African women’s football. This year’s increased investment is expected to strengthen the tournament’s appeal and inspire greater participation across the continent.

At least 14 people were killed Thursday when warplanes of the Israeli Defence forces targeted the Al-Shati Elementary Boys School.

Citing medical sources Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that over 20 people were injured in the strike. Adding that the school is affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and houses displaced Palestinians.

“They show no mercy to anyone. They show no mercy to anyone — not to adults, children, or the elderly. They kill us like rats or cockroaches,” a mother said.

The Israeli military said the building was being used by Hamas to plan and execute attacks on Israel.

Since the start of the Israeli military campaign in the strip in the aftermath of the Hamas deadly October 7th attacks, at least 43,391 Palestinians have been killed.

Palestinian Women and children are believed to make up most of casualties.

Another 102,347 have been injured so far.

The United Nations said in September that around 85% of all schools in Gaza have been hit or damaged.