Africa

The ANC was on about 32 percent of the vote after almost half of the votes were counted in municipal elections.

South Africa’s early municipal election results have shown the African National Congress (ANC) with a sharply reduced vote share, weakening the long-dominant party’s control of key cities such as Johannesburg.

The ANC was on about 32 percent of the vote, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) in second place at 25 percent, after more than 60 percent of the votes had been counted in this week’s municipal elections, data from the election commission showed late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, former President Jacob Zuma’s breakaway opposition uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party was in third place with 8.5 percent, below levels suggested by opinion polls.

About 15.9 million of 29.2 million registered voters cast ballots, the electoral commission said, putting turnout at an estimated 54.5 percent, up from 46 percent in the pandemic-hit 2021 local elections.

The ANC, which has been South Africa’s largest party since it led the country out of apartheid in 1994, has tended to do worse in municipal elections than nationally and has acknowledged its failures in local governance.

From nearly 70 percent of the national vote in 2004, the ANC fell below 50 percent for the first time in the 2021 municipal elections, winning 46 percent.

At the 2024 national elections, it managed just more than 40 percent and was forced to accept a unity government with nine other parties, including the DA.

The party, now led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has borne the brunt of criticism about years of municipal mismanagement that have left South Africans grappling with failing water supplies, persistent power cuts and crumbling public services.

It has also faced corruption allegations, while splinter parties have eaten away at its support base.

The results of this week’s local ballot will offer a key measure of voters’ sentiment ahead of the 2029 general election.

Control of the country’s eight major metropolitan municipalities is up for grabs, alongside dozens of district and local councils.

The MK party had been tipped as one of the few parties capable of securing an outright majority in the eastern port city of Durban.

But projections by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a state-funded research body, put its support there at 32 percent.

The DA, meanwhile, was forecast to retain control of tourist magnet Cape Town with 56 percent of the vote, with its leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, already declaring victory.

The party was also leading with 34 percent in Johannesburg, the country’s financial capital, after running a spirited campaign spearheaded by its former leader, Helen Zille, 75, according to CSIR projections.

With outright majorities far from assured in several major cities, the results could usher in another round of complex coalition negotiations, with parties bargaining to assemble the alliances needed to govern.

Final results are expected on Sunday.

Melat Kiros becomes the first Generation Z woman elected to Congress, embodying a new era of political representation.

The outcome of the 2026 US midterm elections has marked a historic shift in American politics, as a new generation of younger and more diverse leaders won key positions across the country.

Out of 117 Generation Z candidates who ran for Congress this year, 24 made it onto the general election ballot. Among them was Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old Ethiopian-born democratic socialist from Colorado, who became the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress. She joins Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida, who became the first Gen Z member of the House in 2022.

Unprecedented Firsts

The election brought several historic breakthroughs for marginalized and underrepresented groups:

First Muslim American Senator: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won his race in Michigan, becoming the first Muslim American elected to the US Senate.

First Native American Woman Senator: Peggy Flanagan was elected to the Senate, following Deb Haaland’s victory as governor of New Mexico.

Historic Senate Representation: Illinois became the first state represented in the Senate by two women of color (Juliana Stratton and Tammy Duckworth).

Additionally, three Black women will serve in the Senate at the same time for the first time in U.S. history.

State governor races saw record-breaking diversity across the country:

Black Leadership: Keisha Lance Bottoms (Georgia) became the first Black woman elected governor in US history. Alongside new governors Byron Donalds (Florida), David Crowley (Wisconsin), Aaron Ford (Nevada), and re-elected Wes Moore (Maryland), a record five Black governors will serve together in 2027.

Latino Leadership: Gina Hinojosa became Texas’s first Latina governor after defeating incumbent Greg Abbott, while Xavier Becerra became California’s first Latino governor since 1875.

Amy Acton (Ohio), Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), and Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) all became the first female governors of their respective states. In total, at least 17 women will serve as governors in 2027, breaking the previous record of 14.

Women also set new records in the House of Representatives:

Democratic women won at least 100 House seats, setting a new record for the party.

Overall female representation in the House is projected to reach at least 139 seats in the upcoming 120th Congress.

Accra, Ghana – Ghana needs more than 1.8 million additional housing units, but attracting investment to build them is only half the challenge. For millions of people, the deeper problem is that the homes reaching the market remain beyond their means.

That tension ran through the Africa Real Estate Conference & Expo (ARCE), which brought developers, policymakers, investors and technology entrepreneurs to Accra this week. While participants presented plans to expand construction, improve housing finance and deploy new technologies, their discussions pointed to a stubborn question: how can Ghana make housing commercially viable for developers without pricing out the people who need it?

The stakes are considerable. Some 56.7 percent of Ghana’s population lives in urban areas, yet only about 5 percent of Ghanaians can afford housing without state support. The gap between housing need and effective purchasing power continues to shape the market, limiting the reach of both private developers and conventional mortgage lenders.

Government seeks to unlock housing finance

The government has introduced measures intended to reduce borrowing costs and stimulate construction. The National Homeownership Fund has lowered mortgage rates to 8.4 percent, from 13.5 percent, while a revolving fund of three billion Ghanaian cedis (about $256m) targets public sector workers with repayment periods of 15 to 20 years.

Authorities are also seeking to revive the stalled Saglemi Housing Project, targeting the first 700 units for March 2027, and have announced plans for a 200-acre Green City Project at Dedesua.

At the National Conference on Housing Finance earlier this month, President John Dramani Mahama announced an allocation of one billion Ghanaian cedis (about $85m) in the 2027 budget for the National Housing Fund. He also highlighted the difficulties informal-sector workers face in accessing mortgages, despite earning regular incomes, because they often lack payslips and conventional banking records.

“A system that cannot recognise these livelihoods excludes a substantial part of our nation from the opportunity to own a home,” Mahama said, urging banks to develop alternative ways of assessing borrowers.

Housing Minister Ahmed Ibrahim, who represented the president at ARCE, also called for greater private-sector participation in affordable housing and mortgage finance.

These interventions address important barriers, but their impact will depend on whether financing reaches the households most in need and whether developers can build at prices those households can sustain. Lower interest rates cannot compensate indefinitely for expensive land, infrastructure and construction.

The costs behind the shortage

About 90 percent of Ghana’s housing is built through personal savings and incremental construction, while mortgage penetration stands at just 0.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The figures point to a market in which most households must finance construction themselves, often over many years, rather than buy completed homes through conventional mortgages.

Bako Ambianda, CEO of Backbone Capital Ventures and an ARCE keynote speaker, said the central problem was not a lack of demand but the difficulty of turning that demand into viable housing projects.

“Africa’s housing challenge is not a lack of demand,” he told Al Jazeera. “It is a mismatch between the cost of delivering homes, the financing available to build them, and the purchasing power and payment patterns of households.”

Samuel Amegayibor, executive director of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), identified access to finance and secure land as two of the biggest obstacles facing developers.

Although borrowing costs have fallen from around 30 percent to between 9 and 15 percent, depending on the bank, finance remains expensive. Land can be equally difficult to secure, with ownership complications and inadequate infrastructure adding uncertainty and expense.

“Our land tenure system, you know the problems we have. It has always been a challenge for people to get secured land,” Amegayibor said.

Even after acquiring land, developers may have to extend electricity and water connections and construct access roads before building can begin. Those costs are eventually reflected in selling prices.

Materials create another pressure. Amegayibor estimated that about 70 percent of housing inputs are imported, leaving developers exposed to import costs and taxes.

“Apart from sand, gravel and water, most of the things are import-based,” he said.

He argued that expanding local production could reduce reliance on imports while creating investment opportunities across the construction supply chain.

“That deficit is a business opportunity for both the supply side and the demand side,” he said, encouraging investors to establish domestic manufacturing capacity.

The difficulty is ensuring that lower production costs translate into lower house prices rather than simply improving developers’ margins.

Rent exposes the same affordability gap

For tenants, the financial barrier often comes before monthly rent begins. Although Ghana’s Rent Act of 1963 limits advance rent to six months, landlords routinely demand one to two years up front, forcing tenants to find large sums before securing accommodation.

Government enforcement measures reportedly introduced in April 2026 carry penalties of up to 3,000 Ghanaian cedis (about $257) or six months’ imprisonment. The FirstKey app is intended to help identify non-compliant landlords and verify listings. Under the proposed Easy Rent programme, the National Housing Fund would pay rent advances directly to landlords, with workers repaying the amount monthly.

Such measures could ease the immediate burden, but they do not address the underlying shortage of homes within reach of ordinary earners. About 70 percent of Ghanaians fall within the low- and middle-income bracket, yet much housing development continues to target higher earners.

The challenge, therefore, is not simply to increase supply, but to align that supply with what households can afford to buy or rent.

Can technology help close the gap?

At ARCE, 30 PropTech startups presented tools intended to improve building performance, reduce operating costs and modernise property management. Their innovations offer potential savings, but their contribution to affordability depends on up-front costs, adoption and whether benefits reach households rather than only property owners and developers.

Isaac Ayitey Chris-Quaye, co-founder of NeuraHomes, said smart-home systems can help residents monitor energy use, improve security and make better-informed decisions. His company allows homeowners to introduce features gradually instead of paying for a complete system up front.

“Traditional homes seem affordable or cheap,” he said. “Cheap because you end up paying the price for it in the future.”

Chris-Quaye cited one case in which property managers reduced energy costs by 20 percent annually, with the system paying for itself within four years. The result illustrates the potential to reduce operating expenses, although actual savings depend on installation costs and energy consumption.

“A smart home is not a luxury,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s human dignity.”

William Atitso Amankwah, founder of AWA Roofing Sheets, is addressing energy use through a Cool Roof coating that reflects up to 60 percent of sunlight. He estimates that it can lower indoor temperatures by 2-5 degrees Celsius (3.6-9 degrees Fahrenheit) and reduce cooling-energy consumption by 11 to 27 percent.

For a typical Greater Accra household, he estimates annual savings of 330–810 cedis (about $28–69). The coating adds an estimated 120–500 cedis (about $10–43) to the price of a pack of 20 roofing sheets. Whether the investment pays off quickly depends on energy use, installation costs, and electricity tariffs.

Alternative construction methods may also help reduce costs. Acheampong Builderman, managing partner of Builderman Estates, has developed homes using sandbags and recycled materials but is seeking partners and funding to expand the approach.

“People were interested, but they wanted you to fund everything,” he told Al Jazeera.

The examples demonstrate how technology and alternative materials could improve efficiency or lower some costs. But neither digital tools nor energy-saving products can independently resolve insecure land titles, inadequate infrastructure or expensive development finance.

As Ambianda warned, “A beautifully designed app will not make an overpriced plot affordable, provide a road or drainage system, lower the cost of capital by itself, or resolve an unclear title.”

Financing homes around people’s incomes

For Ambianda, the solution also requires rethinking how households qualify for housing finance. Conventional mortgages often fail to accommodate informal-sector workers whose incomes arrive daily or weekly rather than through regular salaries.

“We should stop assuming that the conventional mortgage is the only route to homeownership,” he said.

With borrowers’ consent, lenders could assess repayment capacity using transaction histories, savings behaviour, mobile-money activity and rental-payment records. Such approaches could bring more households into the formal financing system, provided that affordability, data privacy and responsible lending remain priorities.

Land policy also needs attention. Ambianda called on governments to make secure, serviced land available through transparent and predictable processes. The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) has proposed a National Housing Authority led by technocrats and insulated from political cycles, arguing that housing delivery requires consistent policy beyond individual governments’ terms.

For Ghana, the challenge is to connect investment with secure land, reliable infrastructure, lower construction costs and financing suited to household incomes. Government programmes, private capital and technological innovation can all contribute, but none is sufficient on its own. The measure of success will be whether they enable developers to deliver homes that ordinary Ghanaians can actually afford.

“Africa’s housing opportunity is immense, but the answer is not simply to attract more money,” Ambianda told Al Jazeera. “It is to make projects deliverable, financing accessible and homes genuinely attainable.”

Ten years ago, the Paris Agreement entered into force, binding nearly every country to a shared goal: to hold global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C (2.7F).

A decade on, the deal has helped drive stronger climate policies and a rapid expansion of clean energy. But emissions remain near record highs, temperatures keep climbing and countries are still far from the cuts needed to keep a 1.5C limit within reach.

In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera looks at what the Paris Agreement set out to do, how far global temperatures have risen since and which countries are driving emissions.

What is the Paris Agreement?

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding climate treaty adopted by 196 parties at the United Nations climate summit in Paris, also known as COP21, on December 12, 2015. It entered into force on November 4, 2016.

The United States, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter after China, has joined and left the agreement twice. President Donald Trump ordered both withdrawals. The first took effect in November 2020, and President Joe Biden rejoined in February 2021. The US left again in January this year, 12 months after Trump ordered its exit for a second time.

Today, 194 parties, 193 countries and the European Union, belong to the agreement.

Rather than imposing the same cuts on everyone, the agreement asks each government to set its own targets through nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, outlining how it will cut emissions and adapt to climate change.

Countries submit a new, more ambitious NDC every five years, and a Global Stocktake assesses collective progress on the same cycle. The agreement also covers reporting, climate finance and support for developing countries.

The agreement does not force countries to meet their targets. It relies on transparency and international pressure to raise ambition.

How close is the world to breaking the 1.5C limit?

Temperatures have kept rising since the deal was adopted.

In 2024, the planet was more than 1.5C warmer than preindustrial levels across a full calendar year for the first time.

The past three years, 2023 to 2025, were the hottest on record and the first three-year period to average more than 1.5C of warming.

The long-term warming average now stands at about 1.4C, and scientists expect it to surpass 1.5C around the end of this decade.

In October, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the chance of keeping warming to 1.5C without overshooting it has been lost.

“Every additional fraction of a degree and additional year of warming above 1.5C increases climate impacts and risks, such as the deadly floods, heatwaves and wildfires that have plagued many nations this year,” UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said.

Still, the outlook is less bleak than it was in 2015.

When the Paris Agreement was signed, existing policies put the world on course for about 3.6C of warming by 2100. According to the Climate Action Tracker, that projection has since fallen to about 2.6C as countries adopted climate policies and clean energy expanded.

Progress has stalled since 2021, however, and current policies still point to far more warming than the agreement promised.

Which countries emit the most?

Carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming, comes mostly from burning coal, oil and natural gas while deforestation removes trees that once absorbed it.

China, the US and India now produce more than half of the world’s annual emissions. China alone emits more than the US, India, Russia and Japan combined although the US has released the most carbon emissions historically.

Investments in clean energy are now almost double those in fossil fuels, but emission cuts have been too slow to keep 1.5C within reach.

The graphic below ranks the biggest emitters in 2024 and shows how their emissions have changed since the agreement took effect in 2016.

China remains by far the largest polluter, and its emissions have kept rising alongside those of India and Indonesia as these fast-growing economies burn more coal to meet soaring power demand. Indonesia has climbed into the top 10, replacing Canada.

Germany, Japan and the US have cut their emissions, largely by replacing coal with renewables and gas. But growth elsewhere has outweighed those cuts, and global emissions are 9 percent higher than in 2016.

Seoul proposes expanding its Cheonghae unit’s operational areas to waters near Duqm in Oman amid pressure from US to support war on Iran.

South Korea plans to expand its anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia to waters closer to the Strait of Hormuz, the Ministry of National Defense said, following pressure from the United States to provide support for the war on Iran.

The government will ask the National Assembly to extend the mandate of the Cheonghae unit, a naval task force due to expire at the end of 2026, a Defence Ministry spokesperson told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. The request would also widen the unit’s area of operations to waters near the port of Duqm in Oman, about 650km (403 miles) from the Strait of Hormuz.

The motion will go to lawmakers after the cabinet endorses it next week, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The Cheonghae unit has patrolled the Gulf of Aden since 2009 to protect commercial shipping. Its latest contingent sailed from South Korea’s Busan on October 2 on board the Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin, a 4,400-tonne destroyer carrying a maritime helicopter and about 300 service members.

Under the new mandate, the unit would push northeast into the Arabian Sea south of Oman, roughly doubling its operating radius to about 1,930km (1,200 miles), officials told Yonhap.

It would add 75 personnel, including a bomb disposal team, and a P-8A maritime patrol aircraft to help monitor shipping routes.

Officials told Yonhap the mission would be strictly noncombat and the unit would remain under South Korean command, operating independently of allied forces.

“The enhancement of the Cheonghae unit’s mission is to protect our citizens and safeguard our economic interests,” a defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Yonhap.

“Operations will remain restricted to the open waters south of Oman, and the maritime patrol aircraft will be prohibited from targeting or monitoring Iranian territory, territorial waters or the interior of the Strait of Hormuz during their missions,” he said.

The latest proposal follows pressure from US President Donald Trump for Seoul to support Washington’s war on Iran.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pledged in April to help safeguard shipping during talks led by the United Kingdom and France. In September, he said he would avoid any deployment that could draw South Korea into the war.

Opposition lawmakers have argued against an expansion of the Cheonghae unit’s mission.

“Expanding the Cheonghae unit’s operational area amounts to a troop deployment,” Kim Joon-hyung, the floor leader of the small left-leaning Rebuilding Korea Party, said at a news conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday.

“It is not a clever solution but a deceptive workaround.”

Kim warned that an expanded mission could expose South Korean forces to Iranian retaliation, even if Seoul insisted that its personnel would not take part in combat.

“If President Donald Trump boasts that South Korea was the first country in the world to dispatch troops, we would become the first country to join the Middle East war,” he said.

Sudan accuses Ethiopia of aiding RSF attacks, while Ethiopia claims Sudan backs Tigray rebels.

Ethiopia has ordered six Sudanese diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours and closed Sudan’s consulate in the border town of Asosa, according to Ethiopian and Sudanese officials.

The orders on Tuesday came as tensions between the countries rise, with Sudan accusing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group of using Ethiopian territory to launch drone attacks on civilian infrastructure. Ethiopia claims Sudan backs rebels in its northern Tigray region.

On Sunday, ⁠Sudan lodged a complaint against Ethiopia with both the United Nations Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, accusing Ethiopia of allowing the RSF to use its territory to launch deadly drone attacks against civilian infrastructure in Sudan.

“The Sudanese government remains committed to its right to defend its territory. Nevertheless, it is making ⁠every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia,” Amjad Farid, political and foreign affairs adviser for Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, said.

A direct military confrontation with Addis Ababa would severely strain an already exhausted Sudanese military apparatus, which is still involved in intense battles with the RSF in the southeast of the country.

Sudan’s military has repeatedly accused Ethiopia of aiding the RSF, which it has been fighting in a civil war since April 2023. Addis Ababa denies it supports the RSF in Sudan’s civil war.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia has accused the Sudanese military of backing rebels linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a charge Khartoum denied.

Severing diplomatic ties

Ethiopia also accused Egypt and Eritrea of supporting the Tigrayan rebels who launched an offensive ⁠against government forces in September. All three countries have rejected the accusations.

The latest expulsions of Sudanese diplomats follow Ethiopia’s decision to expel 10 Eritrean diplomats and close its embassy in Eritrea on October 1. Eritrea responded by severing diplomatic ties.

Ethiopia also expelled an Egyptian diplomat last month. For Egypt, its dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam remains a major strategic concern that has long strained relations between the neighbours.

Polls suggest the governing party could fall below 40 percent as voters weigh failing services.

South Africans are voting in local elections widely seen as a verdict on the African National Congress (ANC), the party that led the country out of white minority rule in 1994 but has steadily lost support over the past decade.

Polls opened at 7am (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday and close at 9pm (19:00 GMT). A record 29.2 million people are registered to vote at 23,696 voting stations, according to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). More than 1.4 million special votes were cast on Monday and Tuesday.

Voters are electing councils for the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district councils and 205 local councils. Those councils then choose mayors.

The ANC fell below 50 percent in municipal polls for the first time in 2021. In the 2024 national election, it lost its parliamentary majority and was forced into a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and other parties. Polls suggest the ANC’s support could drop below 40 percent this time.

“Municipal failures have contributed to declining public trust and confidence in democratic governance,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter, “From the Desk of the President”.

Ramaphosa is due to vote at Hyde Park High School in Johannesburg, the presidency said.

Johannesburg is the biggest prize in this election. The country’s financial capital has had five mayors in four years.

The DA has fielded its 75-year-old former leader, Helen Zille, for the city’s top job. Her campaign stunts included snorkelling in a mud-filled trench that was flooded by a burst municipal water pipe.

A News24 poll put Zille at 36 percent, meaning she would need coalition partners, particularly the ANC, to govern. Zille told the Associated Press news agency that the ANC was “in free fall”.

This is the first local vote for former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is mounting a strong challenge in the coastal city of Durban.

“We are going to start by taking back our country here,” Zuma told supporters in the city on Sunday, the AFP news agency reported. Durban has become a centre of anti-migrant sentiment, a prominent theme in the campaign.

Turnout may be a concern. Only 46 percent of registered voters took part in the 2021 municipal elections.

Coalition government is already widespread: 74 of the country’s 257 municipalities were run by coalitions or minority administrations as of February, according to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection.

Security has also been tightened. Police said 21 election-related cases have been recorded since Sunday. KwaZulu-Natal has 165 voting stations classed as high risk, the most of any province.

Final results are expected on Sunday. They are expected to shape the race to succeed Ramaphosa as ANC leader at the party’s conference in December 2027.

FIFA Council members may view documents related to Gianni Infantino’s doomed plan, but only in person in Zurich

FIFA will release details of President Gianni Infantino’s aborted plan to sell off stakes in future World Cups to private investors, but they will not be shared with the public.

Reports in the British media said members of the FIFA Council, the main decision-making body of football’s world governing body, will be given access to “key documents” related to the proposal, named FIFA Forward Enterprise.

However, they can only view them under “strict protocols to preserve confidentiality”, the reports said. Those include the 37 members of the council having to register for an in-person appointment to view selected paperwork in Zurich, Switzerland, in the next two weeks.

The news came out late on Monday, the deadline European football’s governing body, UEFA, had set for FIFA to release details about the $4.2bn scheme and answer questions about how the proposal came about and who approved it before the plans were dropped in July amid a worldwide backlash.

UEFA set the deadline after a tense council meeting at which Infantino apologised for the proposal but provided no details about how the plan was formed. He asked council members to submit their questions in writing.

UEFA is leading attempts to remove Infantino before or at the FIFA presidential election on March 18 in Rabat, Morocco. Infantino, who was elected in 2016, is seeking a fourth term through 2031.

It’s one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

The dispute over the territory of Western Sahara started more than 50 years ago. It began with the end of Spanish colonial rule in the region.

Since then, both Morocco and the Polisario Front have claimed the Western Sahara.

In the 1990s, the United Nations tried to reach a settlement, and deployed a peacekeeping mission to the region.

Last week, that effort ended when Russia and the United States blocked proposals to extend the mission’s mandate.

So, could this development lead to renewed fighting?

Presenter: Imran Khan

Guests:

Samir Bennis – Political analyst and author of the book The Self-Determination Delusion: How Activist Scholars and Journalists Have Hijacked the Western Sahara Case

Irene Fernandez-Molina – Senior lecturer in International Relations at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and author of the book Moroccan Foreign Policy under Mohammed VI, 1999-2014

Mahjoub Mleiha –  Advocacy head of Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA)

Attacks the latest to disrupt electricity supplies; army reports new defections from paramilitary RSF.

Drone strikes are reported to have hit three electricity substations in eastern and northern Sudan, the latest attacks in a concentrated campaign.

The attacks on Monday, which caused widespread power outages across parts of the country, brought the number of strikes reported to target Sudan’s electricity network to 18 over the past week.

Sudan’s military government has claimed that Ethiopia is aiding the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – which it has been fighting since April 2023 – in carrying out the attacks.

Facilities in New Halfa and Aroma in eastern Kassala state were hit early on Monday, while the al-Ghazali substation in Sudan’s Northern State was also targeted, according to local media.

Videos circulating on social media appeared to show fires at the facilities, with civil defence teams trying to extinguish the fires. Al Jazeera was not able to immediately verify the footage and reports.

On Sunday, Sudan’s government said it had filed complaints against Ethiopia with the United Nations Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, accusing Addis Ababa of involvement in the ongoing campaign of attacks on civilian infrastructure and power stations.

The Sudanese army also reported on Monday that a group of RSF members had defected by surrendering to its forces in Damazin, the capital of southeastern Blue Nile state.

The announcement follows a declaration, in video footage obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera, by senior RSF commander Siddiq Ander that he had defected.

In a statement, the army said that the development was the latest in increasing defections from the paramilitary group in Blue Nile state.

It added that the group’s commander had provided information concerning the management of military operations in Damazin, including “Ethiopian support” for the RSF.

One-way drone attacks have killed or wounded 484 civilians since February, Khartoum says.

Sudan has lodged a complaint against Ethiopia with both the United Nations Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council after a series of deadly drone attacks this year.

In a statement late on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group of using Ethiopian territory to launch “brazen aggression” against “civilian sites and power stations” in Sudan, resulting in hundreds of casualties and disruptions to essential services.

The string of incidents “places Ethiopia before international law”, the ministry added.

Sudan’s military has repeatedly accused Ethiopia of aiding the RSF, which it has been fighting in a civil war since April 2023. Ethiopia, meanwhile, has accused the Sudanese military of backing rebels linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a charge Khartoum denied.

The ministry’s statement came alongside a report from Sudan’s army-led Transitional Sovereignty Council that alleged 70 assaults from February 15 to October 27 involving 187 one-way attack drones.

The attacks killed or wounded 484 civilians and killed 176 Sudanese soldiers, the report said, with another 200 soldiers wounded.

“Since February 2026, armed drones have taken off from Ethiopian soil … to strike Sudanese cities and civilians,” the report said.

The report identified launch sites at Asosa Airport in western Ethiopia, the Kurmuk-Gizen border area and Bahir Dar airbase in northwestern Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

Last month saw 28 attacks carried out by 97 drones, the report said.

It cited an October 9 attack on displaced families in Wad el-Mahi, located in Sudan’s Blue Nile region near the Ethiopian border, which it said killed 30 civilians – 26 women and four children – and wounded 100.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday that he was “appalled” by the impact of drone strikes in Sudan, days after another strike on a market in RSF-controlled territory in Darfur killed more than 100 people.

The secretary-general “strongly condemns the escalating drone attacks in Sudan by the parties to the conflict and the catastrophic toll these attacks are inflicting on civilians”, the spokesman said, adding that the strikes constitute violations of international humanitarian law.

Since Joe Root returned as Test skipper, England have not picked a frontline spinner and have instead favoured a four-man pace attack of Jofra Archer, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.

South Africa’s victory in the third Test suggests they will need an alternative before long.

Off-spinner Simon Harmer, who once considered playing for England before opting for the country of his birth, took 10-120 to bowl the Proteas to victory in Cape Town – the venue of the third Test against England.

Newlands is not typically a spinner’s surface but it turned big from the third day. The overall average amount of turn throughout the Test (4.35 degrees) was the fourth-highest in Cape Town on record. The Test a place ahead on the list was last year, against Pakistan.

Harmer was helped by having left-arm pace bowlers Starc and Marco Jansen creating footholes outside the right-handers’ off stump throughout. Starc will not be a factor against England but Jansen will.

England’s spin issues are longstanding, meaning there is no easy answer.

And whether they pick Shoaib Bashir, return to Jack Leach or Mason Crane or hand a debut to Nottinghamshire’s Liam Patterson-White – the recent recipient of an England development contract – they will have stiff competition.

Since Harmer returned to Test cricket in 2022, no spinner has a better average anywhere in the world.

Simon Harmer picked a career-best 6-16 as South Africa beat Australia by 176 runs to clinch Test series 2-1.

Australia ‌captain Pat Cummins said it was fair to ask questions about his side after they ⁠slipped to two heavy ⁠defeats in a row against hosts South Africa to lose the three-match series 2-1 at Newlands on Saturday.

Set 288 for victory, Australia were rocked early on and could ⁠manage only 111 to lose the third Test by 176 runs, following their defeat by an innings and 31 runs in the second match in the series.

Australia next host New Zealand, and Cummins ⁠said the series loss meant questions were inevitable as South Africa took over from them as the number one side in the Test world rankings.

“We lost two games in a row. I think it’s fair to be asking questions and we’ll be asking them internally as well,” Cummins told reporters. “We are a very good ‌side, but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one [in the world].

“Maybe that’s a change of style, maybe it’s a change of personnel in some instances. We’ll work it out.”

Cummins made the surprise decision to bowl first after winning the toss on the first morning, something that had been done only 11 times before in Tests at Newlands since 1889.

As it proved, batting last was difficult on a wearing ⁠surface, and Australia fell to the spin of Simon Harmer, who took ⁠career-best figures of 10-120 in the match.

“We knew it was going to be a high-scoring game,” Cummins said. “We probably thought it was going to do a little bit more on day one than it did.

“You don’t win the toss and think you’re ⁠going to bowl the opposition out for 100 or 200, but we thought we could get 10 wickets on day one and that would ⁠put us right ahead of the game.”

Cummins said poor decisions cost ⁠his batters and that their chase was as good as over in the first half-hour of the day.

“Chasing 280-odd was never going to be easy, but we all turned up today and saw a pretty clear path forward. I thought it was ‌achievable, but we never really gave ourselves a chance,” he said.

“There were a few really poor decisions. I know it’s a day-five wicket, but I don’t think it was drastic. There were runs to ‌be ‌scored out there; there were lots of balls to face.

“I think there are a few decisions the boys would like back. We have to get better. It’s happened a few times now.”

The prime minister has ruled out financial reparations despite longstanding Caribbean demands ahead of Commonwealth leaders’ summit.

Britain’s prime minister has opened the door to a formal apology for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, while ruling out financial reparations.

Andy Burnham set out his position in a Guardian article on Friday, ahead of a Commonwealth leaders’ summit  in Antigua and Barbuda on Sunday.

The Commonwealth comprises 56 countries, mostly former British colonies, whose Caribbean members have long pressed Britain to acknowledge slavery’s legacy and offer redress.

Burnham offered structured talks with countries and campaign groups affected by slavery, including discussions on whether Britain should issue an official state apology.

“Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process and I am open to them,” Burnham wrote.

He expressed “sorrow and regret” for the suffering of millions of enslaved people, but rejected calls for financial compensation.

“I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part,” he said.

The stance maintains the position of previous British governments, despite his willingness to discuss an apology.

Instead, he proposed an international effort to ease the debt burden on poorer nations by extending repayment periods and cutting interest rates.

Burnham also said that former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will assist with the initiative, adding that more than 40 percent of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries spend more on debt interest than on healthcare.

Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley welcomed the opening for talks but reiterated her government’s position on reparations.

In a statement reported by the Guardian on Saturday, she said cooperation could also cover healthcare, education, development and fairer borrowing terms.

Antigua’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who is hosting the summit, welcomed the debt initiative and promises of cooperation on renewable energy.

CARICOM, the regional bloc of Caribbean countries, has drawn up a 10-point plan for reparations.

Its demands go beyond payments to include an apology, support for health and education, as well as measures to address the economic and social damage left by slavery.

The dispute surfaced at the last Commonwealth summit in Samoa in 2024, when leaders called for discussions about reparations, despite opposition from then Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

King Charles III will also attend the summit. However, Buckingham Palace has said he will not issue a formal apology for slavery during his trip, despite calls from countries in the region.

The UN Security Council rejected the competing proposals, leaving the peacekeeping mission without an approved extension.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the disputed Western Sahara faces an uncertain future after competing United States and Russian resolutions failed at the UN Security Council.

Russia vetoed the US-backed proposal on Friday, despite support from 11 members of the 15-member council.

A rival Russian draft then failed to secure the nine votes needed for adoption.

The mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is due to expire on Saturday unless the council reaches a last-minute agreement.

Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony in northwest Africa. Morocco considers the territory its own while the Algeria-backed Polisario Front seeks to establish an independent state called the Sahrawi Republic.

The UN established MINURSO in 1991 to monitor a ceasefire and prepare a referendum on the territory’s future, but disagreements over who could vote have prevented it from taking place.

The US draft would have extended the mission for a year while removing “referendum” from its name and making Morocco’s autonomy proposal the only basis for further talks.

Under that plan, the territory would manage its internal affairs but remain under Moroccan sovereignty.

The council had already made the proposal a basis for negotiations last year.

US Ambassador Mike Waltz told the council in New York on Friday that the referendum had been stalled for decades.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said at the same meeting that Moscow opposed the draft because it favoured one side.

Russia instead proposed renewing the existing mission without those changes.

Morocco’s royal palace welcomed the failure to renew MINURSO, saying on Friday that UN personnel and equipment should leave the territory.

Sidi Omar, the Polisario Front’s representative at the UN, told reporters on Friday that he welcomed Russia’s veto because the US proposal would undermine Sahrawi self-determination.

Low-level fighting has continued since Polisario said it was resuming armed struggle in 2020.

EXCLUSIVE

Siddiq Ander has accused RSF leader Hemedti of running the paramilitary group like a family business and suppressing dissent.

Senior commander Siddiq Ander says he has defected from Sudan‘s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to exclusive video footage obtained by Al Jazeera.

The footage, published on Friday, shows Ander accusing relatives of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti”, of tightly controlling the group’s finances, weapons, troop movements and military promotions.

Ander’s exit follows a string of high-profile defections this year, with some commanders leaving alongside hundreds of fighters.

“It has become clear to us beyond any doubt that we were serving a purely family-based project controlled by Hemedti’s relatives in every aspect, money, weapons, fighters’ movements and the granting of ranks,” Ander said.

“Anyone who speaks out and tells the whole truth faces expulsion, imprisonment or a hidden death.”

Hemedti’s brother, Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, serves as the RSF deputy commander.

Senior commanders break ranks

A wave of defections has seen several senior RSF commanders leave the group this year, including Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Azraq al-Fanjari, who announced on October 8 that he was leaving, along with 300 officers and soldiers and 30 military vehicles.

Al-Fanjari also urged other fighters to abandon the RSF, expressing regret over the suffering caused by the war.

His announcement came after the September 25 defection of Al-Tayeb al-Wahidu, who joined the enemy Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) with 50 fighters in Omdurman, across the Nile from the capital, Khartoum, according to The Sudan Tribune.

Al-Wahidu cited abuses within the RSF as his reason for leaving.

Earlier, in May, Brigadier Ali Rizqallah, known as Savannah, announced his departure.

Yet another senior commander, Major General al-Nour Ahmed Adam, known as al-Qubba, joined the SAF in April and was publicly welcomed by Sudanese leader and military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Al-Qubba’s departure followed disagreements over military appointments within the RSF leadership, the Tribune reported.

Sudan’s war erupted in April 2023 after a power struggle between the army and the RSF, including disagreements over plans to integrate the paramilitary group into the regular military.

The conflict has since displaced about 13 million people and pushed parts of the country into famine.

The latest defections come as both sides increasingly use drones in attacks that have caused mounting civilian casualties.

On October 26, strikes hit a market and residential area in Nyala, an RSF-controlled city in South Darfur.

Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese rights group, reported more than 100 deaths, although other medical organisations recorded lower figures.

The United Nations says drone strikes have become the leading cause of civilian deaths in Sudan’s war.

Authorities ​are struggling to find a way to control the outbreak, with no approved treatments or vaccines.

The death ⁠toll ⁠from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surpassed 5,000, government data ⁠show, with authorities yet to find a way to control the ⁠country’s deadliest outbreak of the virus on record.

The latest death toll was announced on Friday.

Ebola has infected more than 10,000 people in the DRC since the outbreak was declared in May.

There are no approved treatments or vaccines to combat the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, responsible for the ongoing outbreak.

Delayed detection, conflict and strained health services have helped the virus spread more rapidly than in past outbreaks, reaching eight of the DRC’s 26 provinces to date.

The virus has spread to neighbouring countries as well.

Last week, Nigeria became the fourth African country to report an Ebola case, extending the outbreak’s geographic ‌spread to West Africa. East African countries Kenya and Uganda have also reported cases.

This year’s Ebola outbreak is the second-largest ever, behind only the 2014-2016 epidemic that infected more than 28,600 people and killed more than ⁠11,000 people across Guinea, Liberia ⁠and Sierra Leone.

Some governments have been restricting travel to affected countries or quarantining travellers who have recently visited or transited through them.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia suspended travel to and entry from Kenya, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The measures include suspending travel by Saudi citizens to Kenya and a pause on issuing all types of visas to travellers from the country.

The kingdom is also prohibiting entry to travellers arriving from Kenya, including those transiting through third countries who have stayed in Kenya or other Ebola-affected countries within the previous 21 days.

In June, Saudi Arabia suspended travel to and entry from the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan.

Alieu Kosiah killed civilians and unarmed soldiers, and ordered lootings and other crimes against humanity.

Switzerland’s supreme court upheld a 20-year jail sentence for former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah on Friday, but overturned a conviction for crimes against humanity.

In 2021, Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court found Kosiah, now 51, guilty of multiple atrocities committed during the first of Liberia’s back-to-back civil wars, in which about 250,000 people died between 1989 and 2003.

In 2023, the court’s appeals chamber upheld his 20-year sentence for war crimes and, for the first time in Swiss history, also made a new ruling that Kosiah was guilty of crimes against humanity.

The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland was asked to review the case, and its verdict, dated September 28, was published on Friday.

The court “rejected the appeal filed by a high-ranking Liberian military official challenging his conviction for violations of the laws of war committed between 1993 and 1995 during the first Liberian civil war”, it said in a statement.

“However, the court has acquitted the individual of the charge of crimes against humanity, based on a strict application of the principle of non-retroactivity.”

Switzerland recognises the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows it to prosecute individuals suspected of international crimes, regardless of where those crimes were committed.

The court said the offence of crimes against humanity – introduced into Swiss law in 2011 – could not be applied to acts committed before then.

Kosiah’s conviction for violating the law of war was upheld, as was the maximum 20-year custodial sentence imposed.

“The decision makes final the first war crimes conviction ever handed down by a Swiss civilian court, and the first conviction anywhere of a Liberian for war crimes committed during the country’s civil wars,” said the Swiss organisation Civitas Maxima, which works to bring perpetrators of international crimes to justice.

Kosiah settled in Switzerland in the late 1990s and was arrested in 2014.

“Today the survivors of Alieu Kosiah’s crimes have final justice,” said Civitas Maxima director Alain Werner, who represents victims in the case.

“We are, however, deeply disappointed by the acquittal on crimes against humanity. What happened in Lofa between 1993 and 1995 is the very definition of a crime against humanity.”

Like war crimes, crimes against humanity refer to atrocities, including murder, torture and rape. However, instead of isolated or sporadic events, the charge is used for incidents carried out in a widespread or systematic way.

In the 2021 verdict, Kosiah was found guilty of a slew of war crimes committed as commander of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy rebel group.

He ordered or participated in the killing of 17 civilians and two unarmed soldiers, as well as rape and the deployment of a child soldier, the court ruled.

He had also ordered looting and repeatedly ordered, or had himself inflicted, cruel and humiliating treatment of civilians and mishandled corpses, according to the verdict.