Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa – When the millionaire mining magnate-turned-president of South Africa landed in Washington to meet the billionaire real estate tycoon-turned-president of the United States, it was with a deal in mind.

Tensions have been escalating between the US and its African trade ally since Donald Trump took office this year, cut off aid to South Africa, repeated false accusations that a “white genocide” is taking place there and began welcoming Afrikaners as refugees.

At the meeting between Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House on Wednesday, the South African president began by focusing heavily on trade and investments, highlighting the two countries’ years of cooperation, in keeping with statements made by South Africa’s presidency that Ramaphosa would present a trade deal to the US.

But Trump responded with a well-prepared redirect that South African media and analysts described as an “ambush” and a move that “blindsided” Ramaphosa.

Ready with printouts of news articles about alleged white victims of killings in South Africa and a video of firebrand opposition politician Julius Malema singing Kill the Boer, Trump insisted that white farmers were being targeted and murdered – an assertion Ramaphosa politely yet firmly denied, saying criminality was a problem for all South Africans regardless of race.

The team Ramaphosa assembled to join him on his working visit – which included four white South Africans: two golf legends, the wealthiest man in the country and the agriculture minister – all reaffirmed Ramaphosa’s facts that while violence was widespread, white people were not specifically being targeted.

“We have a real safety problem in South Africa, and I don’t think anyone wants to candy-coat that,” said John Steenhuisen, the agriculture minister and a member of the Democratic Alliance party, which is part of South Africa’s governing coalition.

“Certainly, the majority of South Africa’s commercial and smallholder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work,” the minister, who is himself an Afrikaner, said. Trump claimed that “thousands” of white farmers were fleeing South Africa.

Steenhuisen added that the people in the video Trump showed were leaders of opposition minority parties and his party had joined forces with Ramaphosa “precisely to keep those people out of power”.

‘The lion’s den’

The meeting began cordially where Trump complimented South African golfers, including well-known Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, who were part of the delegation. They both implored Trump for enhanced trade to uplift South Africa’s economy.

Also in the delegation was South Africa’s richest man, Johann Rupert, a luxury-goods mogul and an Afrikaner. He countered claims of racial persecution against the white minority, saying that while criminality was rife, Black people were more often the victims.

“We have too many deaths, but it’s across the board. It is not only white farmers,” Rupert said to Trump.

Ramaphosa kept his cool, local media and observers said, noting that the South African president chose to remain calm, patient and light-hearted even in light of Trump’s attack.

He steered talks back to trade, saying South Africa needed economic investment from its allies, and mostly sat expressionless while the video was played, occasionally stretching his neck to look at it.

Ramaphosa went into “the lion’s den” and was met with an ambush but he remained calm, South African political analyst Sanusha Naidu said.

“Ramaphosa and the delegation did not allow themselves to be baited into an emotional response. That’s critical. They made Trump feel like he had the upper hand in the meeting,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that given the narrative from Trump before Ramaphosa’s arrival, it “could have gone worse”.

When asked by a reporter whether he wanted the impasse between the US and South Africa resolved, Trump said he was open to it.

“I hope it has to be resolved. It should be resolved,” he said, adding that if it were not resolved, it would be “the end of the country”.

‘Reset’ relations

Before the two leaders met on Wednesday, Ramaphosa’s office said the aim was to “reset” relations, especially as the US is South Africa’s second largest trading partner after China.

“Whether we like it or not, we are joined at the hip, and we need to be talking to them,” the South African president said before his trip.

Christopher Isike, a political scientist at the University of Pretoria, told Al Jazeera that direct engagement between the leaders was important, given the tense relations between their countries.

“This is an opportunity for South Africa to correct misinformation peddled by President Trump and try to reset trade relations between the two countries,” he said.

Isike noted that both presidents’ backgrounds as businesspeople could provide common ground for discussing mutually advantageous deals.

“Rich friends of Ramaphosa are also rich friends of Trump, and that may have helped facilitate the meeting,” Isike added.

Common ground and level heads would be useful as the leaders continued private talks away from the media on Wednesday, observers said.

Before the visit, Ramaphosa maintained that while Trump was a dealmaker, he too was adept at making deals and even joked about the possibility of playing a round of golf with his US counterpart.

Washington, however, has criticised Pretoria for a host of matters since Trump took office. This continued in the meeting on Wednesday.

Trump focused on the white farmers, particularly Afrikaners – the descendants of mainly Dutch settlers who instituted apartheid. He alleged they are being killed because of their race despite evidence showing that attacks and killings are common across all groups in the country.

Trump also mentioned South Africa’s land reform law that allows land in the public interest to be taken without compensation in exceptional circumstances in an effort to redress apartheid injustices. Pretoria said no white land has been taken, but the US said the law unfairly targets minority white South Africans who are the majority landholders.

Despite Pretoria consistently seeking to rectify false assertions, the Trump administration has pushed ahead with a plan to take in Afrikaners as refugees. The first group arrived last week. He has also cut aid, including vital support for life-saving HIV programmes, to South Africa.

Additionally, there are worries that Trump may not attend the Group of 20 summit being held in South Africa in November and his government may not renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), key US trade legislation that assists economies in sub-Saharan Africa. It expires in September.

Trade and investments

Before Wednesday’s meetings, Ramaphosa said strengthening trade relations between the two countries was his primary motivation for travelling to Washington, DC.

“We want to come out of the United States with a really good trade deal, investment promotion. We invest in the United States, and they invest in us. We want to strengthen those relations. We want to consolidate relations between the two countries,” he said.

This week, South Africa’s ministers of trade and agriculture, Parks Tau and Steenhuisen, met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to present the first draft of a trade deal.

In 2024, total goods trade between the US and South Africa amounted to $20.5bn. This included $5.8bn in US exports to South Africa and $14.7bn in South African exports to the US.

However, some observers said that at the heart of the potential trade deal is what South Africa could offer billionaire and close Trump ally, Elon Musk, given his ongoing claims about obstacles he allegedly faces in operating Starlink, his satellite internet company, in the country where he was born due to its transformation laws.

These laws seek to redress past injustices that kept Black people destitute and require businesses over a certain size to have a 30 percent equity stake held by members of previously disadvantaged groups.

Speaking at the Doha Economic Forum on Tuesday, Musk reiterated his assertions about laws he claimed were biased against white people despite experts explaining that most of those only seek to promote racial justice.

“All races must be on equal footing in South Africa. That is the right thing to do. Do not replace one set of racist laws with another set of racist laws, which is utterly wrong and improper,” Musk said.

“I am in an absurd situation where I was born in South Africa but cannot get a licence to operate Starlink because I am not Black,” he claimed.

Before Wednesday’s meeting, a White House official told the Reuters news agency Trump is likely to tell Ramaphosa that all US companies in South Africa should be exempt from “racial requirements”.

Opposition figure Malema’s party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), threatened legal action after news that the government was considering offering regulatory assurances to Musk’s Starlink. The EFF said the move would be unconstitutional and shows Ramaphosa is willing to compromise the country’s sovereignty to “massage the inflated ego of Musk and Trump”.

Isike said that while trade concessions would be discussed, he doubted the South African government would give up its laws to appease Musk.

“I will be surprised if Starlink gets its way by refusing to follow South African transformation laws, which require 30 percent Black ownership of a foreign company,” he said.

‘Genocide’ claims

Meanwhile, in private talks, Ramaphosa and Trump were also expected to discuss foreign policy issues, including peace prospects between Russia and Ukraine and South Africa’s support for Palestine and its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Some political observers said Pretoria is in the US crosshairs partly because of its actions against the key Washington ally.

Patrick Bond, a sociology professor at the University of Johannesburg, predicted before the talks that the US might offer to retract claims of “white genocide” in exchange for South Africa dropping its case at the ICJ.

South Africa is seeking to hold Israel accountable for its assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians since October 2023. The US is Israel’s strongest ally and arms supplier.

“We are very rational when it comes to discussing global and geopolitical matters. We will put South African positions first, and our foreign policy positions will be clarified,” Ramaphosa said before the meeting.

As the Gaza genocide case against Israel continues in The Hague, US allegations of a widely discredited “white genocide” in South Africa continue to follow the country’s leadership.

Before Trump and Ramaphosa retreated to private meetings on Wednesday, a reporter asked the US president if he had decided whether genocide was being committed in South Africa. “I haven’t made up my mind,” he replied.

The unfounded claim of white genocide has “taken on a life of its own”, analyst Paolo von Schirach, president of the Global Policy Institute in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.

It will be difficult for Ramaphosa and Trump to rebound after the Oval Office “ambush”, he said.

“We know that Elon Musk certainly fanned this story [about a white genocide], and he’s probably not the only one,” von Schirach said. “It’s going to be hard for Trump to say, ‘Oh, so sorry. I was misinformed.’”

A BRITISH tourist has been arrested in Namibia over an alleged series of sex attacks on San tribal children at a cultural “living museum” in the remote north-east of the country.

Douglas Robert Brooks, 65, was detained on Sunday at the Ju’/Hoansi Living Museum near Grashoek after allegedly offering sweets to local children in exchange for naked photos and inappropriate touching.

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He now faces 38 charges, including rape, indecent assault, human trafficking and child exploitation, under
Namibia’s Child Care & Protection Act of 2015 and international protocols.

Brooks also faces charges of crimen injuria, which means a deliberate attack on a person’s dignity through the use of vulgar or racially offensive words or gestures.

The pensioner allegedly persuaded 33 minors to strip and allow him to touch their private parts, with the promise of sweets he had brought to the camp.

He appeared at Grootfontein Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon, where prosecutor Erastus Christian laid out the charges. No plea was taken.

Namibian police Inspector Maureen Mbeha said Brooks is accused of groping the breasts and backsides of 16 teenage girls, 14 teenage boys and three younger children.

Police say the alarm was raised by concerned parents, leading to his arrest just a day after arriving at the remote museum for his third annual visit.

It’s believed that his detention has since prompted further allegations.

Brooks entered Namibia on May 15 and drove six hours from the capital Windhoek to the camp, which is part of a network of seven
“living museums” set up by the Living Culture Foundation Namibia (LCFN), a German-Namibian organisation.

The museums are designed to preserve San traditions and culture by allowing visitors to observe and take part in daily activities such as bow-and-arrow hunting, fire dances, and traditional craft-making.

While some adult women remain topless in keeping with cultural norms, management said teenage girls are always fully clothed in leather antelope-skin dresses.

Tourists are explicitly warned not to give sweets to children due to the lack of dental care, and instead encouraged to donate to local groups who distribute gifts fairly.

The Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism has condemned his alleged actions stating they were “deeply disrespectful” to the people of the San.

A spokesman said: “The allegations are a serious violation of our law regarding the protection of minors and it is unacceptable for tourists to exploit them.

“We applaud the Namibia police for their swift actions in attending to this matter and are confident that the law and justice will take place in due course”.

Brooks has been remanded in custody by Magistrate Abraham Abraham and is due to reappear in court on June 19.

It is not yet clear if he will be transferred to a main prison.

The San – or bushmen as they were known in colonial times and a description some find outdated – are the oldest surviving civilisations in Southern Africa.

Their small stature and semi-nomadic lifestyle saw them persecuted and hunted and forced into poverty when their traditional hunting grounds were taken.

Some 2000 of the 30,000 San in Namibia remain faithful to their traditional roots, hunting and farming for survival, and do not entertain the modern way of living.

The San are thought to have diverged from other nomadic hunting groups some 200,000 years ago and spread out across Southern Africa surviving in the wild.

They are known for their “click language” and supreme hunting and tracking skills and knowledge of nature and do not believe in possessions but sharing.

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Tea is the most popular drink in the world other than water. It beats out coffee and beer, which hold second and third place.

May 21 is designated as International Tea Day by the United Nations, marking the significance and value of the drink globally, not just economically but culturally too.

Tea plays a meaningful role in many societies. From Tibetan po cha to a good old English breakfast brew, tea is considered a unifying and hospitable beverage.

While the exact origins of tea are unknown, it is believed to have originated in northeast India, northern Myanmar and southwest China, according to the UN. There is evidence that tea was consumed in China 5,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest beverages in the world.

How to say tea around the world

Across the globe, nearly all words for tea can be derived from the root words “cha” or “te”.

In many parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the word for tea is derived from cha.

• In Mandarin: 茶 (chá)
• In Arabic: شاي (shāy)
• In Turkish: çay
• In Hindi: चाय (chāi)

In Western Europe, many countries use some derivative of te. For example, “tea” was introduced into the English language as a result of trade routes in the East. The word was taken from China, where it was pronounced “te” in the Hokkien dialect.

• In English: tea
• In French: thé
• In Spanish: té
• In German: tee

Who produces the most tea globally?

The tea plant is usually grown in tropical and subtropical climates where its cultivation and processing support the livelihoods of millions of people.

According to the latest data from the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal‘s Global Tea Report, China produces nearly half of the world’s tea (48 percent). India is the second largest producer, accounting for 20 percent of world production, followed by Kenya (8 percent), Turkiye (4 percent) and Sri Lanka (3 percent).

The rest of the world accounts for 17 percent of tea production globally.

How much tea is consumed daily worldwide?

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), world tea consumption reached 6.5 million tonnes in 2022, growing from previous years.

Consumption in China, the largest consumer of tea, reached 3 million tonnes in 2022, representing 46 percent of global consumption.

India, the second largest consumer, accounted for a share of nearly 18 percent at 1.16 million tonnes in 2022, followed by Turkiye with 250,000 tonnes, Pakistan with 247,000 tonnes and Russia with 133,000 tonnes.

According to the FAO, tea consumption expanded by 2 percent in 2022 compared with 2021 and further increased in 2023.

However, tea consumption in countries in Europe and North America has been declining due to increasing competition from other beverages while for Russia, tea imports have been negatively impacted by the war in Ukraine.

Five odd teas around the world

To mark this year’s International Tea Day, here are five somewhat unusual teas from around the world and how to make them:

Butter tea (po cha)

Found in: Tibet and other Himalayan regions

What’s odd?: It’s in the name. Made with yak butter, black tea and salt, butter tea is broth-like. Apparently, there is a tradition where the host will refill your cup with butter tea until you refuse or until they stop filling it, signalling it’s time for you to leave.

Kombucha – is it tea?

Found in: China, Japan and the Koreas

What’s odd?: Kombucha is considered a tea. It’s a fermented tea made using a jelly-like SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). Kombucha fans often name their SCOBYs, treat them like pets and pass them to friends like family heirlooms.

Butterfly pea flower tea

Found in: Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam

What’s odd?: It is known as blue tea because of its colour, which then changes to purple when lemon juice is added. It’s caffeine free and made from a concoction of floral petals from the blue pea flower.

Baobab leaf tea

Found in: sub-Saharan Africa

What’s odd?: Baobab leaf tea is traditionally used in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa as a mild herbal remedy and nutritional drink.

Unlike most herbal teas, which are often floral or fruity, baobab leaf tea has a mildly earthy or even slightly bitter taste, a bit like spinach water.

Guava leaf tea

Found in: Philippines, Central America, Africa

What’s odd?: The tea is made from the leaves of the guava tree, which have an earthy flavour. In Philippine culture, it is said to have medicinal benefits for soothing stomach aches and bathing wounds.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has granted refugee status to 49 white Afrikaners, echoing a debunked conspiracy theory about “white genocide” in South Africa. The move comes after Trump cut aid to the nation and threatened to boycott meetings with its government. What’s behind Trump’s fixation on South Africa?

President Yoweri Museveni’s government has frequently defended military trials, citing national security concerns.

Uganda’s parliament has passed a controversial bill authorising military tribunals for civilians, drawing condemnation from opposition figures and rights groups, who accuse the government of trying to silence opponents, which it denies.

The practice has long been used in Uganda, but was struck down by the country’s top court in January. The Supreme Court had ruled that the military tribunals lacked legal competence to try civilians and failed to meet fair trial standards.

Despite that ruling, lawmakers moved ahead Tuesday with the legislation, which permits civilians to be tried in military courts.

“Today, you proved you are fearless patriots! Uganda will remember your courage and commitment,” said General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, head of the military and son of President Yoweri Museveni, in a post on X.

Earlier this month, Kainerugaba said that he was holding a missing opposition activist in his basement and threatened violence against him, after the man’s party said he was abducted.

Museveni’s government has frequently defended military trials as necessary for national security amid concerns about armed opposition and alleged threats to state stability.

Military spokesperson Chris Magezi said the legislation would “deal decisively with armed violent criminals, deter the formation of militant political groups that seek to subvert democratic processes, and ensure national security is bound on a firm foundational base”.

But critics say the move is part of a broader pattern of repression. “There’s no legal basis to provide for the trial of civilians in the military court,” opposition MP Jonathan Odur told parliament during debate on the bill. He described the legislation as “shallow, unreasonable and unconstitutional”.

Uganda has for years used military courts to prosecute opposition politicians and government critics.

In 2018, pop star-turned-opposition-leader Bobi Wine was charged in a military court with illegal possession of firearms. The charges were later dropped.

Kizza Besigye, a veteran opposition figure who has challenged Museveni in multiple elections, was arrested in Kenya last year and returned to Uganda to face a military tribunal.

Following the Supreme Court’s January ruling, his trial was moved to a civilian court. His party, the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), has denounced the charges as politically motivated.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has previously criticised Uganda’s military courts for failing to meet international standards of judicial independence and fairness.

Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at HRW, said earlier this year: “The Ugandan authorities have for years misused military courts to crack down on opponents and critics”.

The United Nations has called this the most devastating humanitarian and displacement crisis in the world.

Killings, rapes and famine are affecting millions of people. What will happen to the people of Sudan if things don’t change? And why is this crisis being mostly ignored by the international community?

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Elbashir Idris – Political affairs analyst
Bayadir Mohamed-Osman – Activist and poet
Omer Elnaiem – Head of UNHCR Africa content hub

Public spending cuts across six African countries have resulted in the incomes of health and education workers falling by up to 50 percent in five years, leaving them struggling to make ends meet, according to international NGO ActionAid.

The Human Cost of Public Sector Cuts in Africa report published on Tuesday found that 97 percent of the healthcare workers it surveyed in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi and Nigeria could not cover their basic needs like food and rent with their wages.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to blame for these countries’ failing public systems, the report said, as the agency advises governments to significantly cut public spending to pay back foreign debt. As the debt crisis rapidly worsens across the Global South, more than three-quarters of all low-income countries in the world are spending more on debt servicing than healthcare.

“The debt crisis and the IMF’s insistence on cuts to public services in favour of foreign debt repayments have severely hindered investments in healthcare and education across Africa. For example, in 2024, Nigeria allocated only 4% of its national revenue to health, while a staggering 20.1% went toward repaying foreign debt,” said ActionAid Nigeria’s Country Director Andrew Mamedu.

The report highlighted how insufficient budgets in the healthcare system had resulted in chronic shortages and a decline in the quality of service.

Women also appear to be disproportionally affected.

“In the past month, I have witnessed four women giving birth at home due to unaffordable hospital fees. The community is forced to seek vaccines and immunisation in private hospitals since they are not available in public hospitals. Our [local] health services are limited in terms of catering for pregnant and lactating women,” said a healthcare worker from Kenya, who  ActionAid identified only as Maria.

Medicines for malaria – which remains a leading cause of death across the African continent, especially in young children and pregnant women – are now 10 times more expensive at private facilities, the NGO said. Millions don’t have access to lifesaving healthcare due to long travel distances, rising fees and a medical workforce shortage.

“Malaria is an epidemic in our area [because medication is now beyond the reach of many]. Five years ago, we could buy [antimalarial medication] for 50 birrs ($0.4), but now it costs more than 500 birr ($4) in private health centres,” a community member from Muyakela Kebele in Ethiopia, identified only as Marym, told ActionAid.

‘Delivering quality education is nearly impossible’

The situation is equally dire in education, as budget cuts have led to failing public education systems crippled by rising costs, a shortage of learning materials and overcrowded classrooms.

Teachers report being overwhelmed by overcrowded classrooms, with some having to manage more than 200 students. In addition, about 87 percent of teachers said they lacked basic classroom materials, with 73 percent saying they paid for the materials themselves.

Meanwhile, teachers’ wages have been gradually falling, with 84 percent reporting a 10-15 percent drop in their income over the past five years.

“I often struggle to put enough food on the table,” said a teacher from Liberia, identified as Kasor.

Four of the six countries included in the report are spending less than the recommended one-fifth of their national budget on education, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

“I now believe teaching is the least valued profession. With over 200 students in my class and inadequate teaching and learning materials, delivering quality education is nearly impossible,” said a primary school teacher in Malawi’s Rumphi District, identified as Maluwa.

Action Aid said its report shows that the consequences of IMF-endorsed policies are far-reaching. Healthcare workers and educators are severely limited in the work they can do, which has direct consequences on the quality of services they can provide, it said.

“The debt crisis and drive for austerity is amplified for countries in the Global South and low-income countries, especially due to an unfair global economic system held in place by outdated institutions, such as the IMF,” said Roos Saalbrink, the global economic justice lead at ActionAid International. “This means the burden of debt falls on those most marginalised – once again. This must end.”

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa will begin a state visit to the United States on Monday in what his government describes as an attempt to “reset” the relationship between the two countries, which many experts say has become the frostiest in decades.

The visit comes just days after the US welcomed a group of 59 white South African “refugees” who President Donald Trump claims are being persecuted in South Africa because of their race, and are facing a “genocide”. They flew to the US on a special relocation plan and will be allowed to settle there.

Ramaphosa’s government denies those allegations and says whites, who own more than 70 percent of the land despite making up just 7 percent of the population, are not discriminated against.

In a statement, Ramaphosa’s office said the two leaders would discuss “bilateral” and “global issues of interest”. The White House has not yet made a statement regarding the meeting.

This is the first time Trump will host an African leader at the White House since he took office in January. South Africa, which currently presides over the G20, will hand over leadership to the US in November.

Here’s the timeline of the anticipated meeting, as well as a breakdown of the main issues which have caused tension and are most likely to be tabled:

When is the meeting?

Ramaphosa will travel on Monday, May 19, and will meet with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, May 21.

His office did not share an agenda for the talks, but said that “the president’s visit to the US provides a platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries”.

The agenda is expected to include the treatment of white South Africans, aid cuts and the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

What will Trump and Ramaphosa discuss?

The agenda is expected to include the following subjects:

Treatment of white South Africans

The issue of relations between South Africa’s historically advantaged white minority population and Ramaphosa’s Black-led government has been the most touchy one between the two governments.

White Afrikaners are descendants of mainly Dutch colonisers who, until 1990, controlled the country under an apartheid system that segregated and excluded the Black majority. Many of the most successful business leaders and farm owners in the country are still white. More than half of the Black population is categorised as poor.

Trump and his billionaire ally, South African-born Elon Musk, have severely criticised the Ramaphosa administration’s alleged poor treatment of these white people in the country, following Ramaphosa’s signing into law of an Expropriation Bill which allows the government to confiscate land, in some instances, without compensation. The law, signed in January, allows expropriation from any land owner for redistribution to marginalised groups such as women and people with disabilities.

Some Afrikaner groups say the law could allow their land to be redistributed to some of the country’s Black majority.

Trump has highlighted allegations by a group of white South Africans who fear that their land will be seized. This group also says white farmers face a disproportionate number of violent assaults, which have led to several deaths and amount to a “genocide”.

The South African government has denied that there is a genocide and says the attacks are part of a wider crime problem. Speaking at the Africa CEO forum in Abidjan in Ivory Coast on May 13, Ramaphosa said the US government “has got the wrong end of the stick”, as South Africa suffers overall from high rates of violent crime, regardless of the race of victims. Both white and Black farmers have been targeted in farm attacks, in which armed criminals have assaulted, robbed and sometimes murdered farm workers in usually remote locations.

Meanwhile, Musk, who is the founder of internet company Starlink, also blames the government for the company’s failure to launch in South Africa because of its Black empowerment laws which require that large corporations and businesses seeking government contracts be owned in part by marginalised groups such as Black people.

In a March post on his X social media platform, Musk said Starlink was not allowed to launch “because I am not black”. Officials have denied these allegations and say the country’s business laws are meant to right historical wrongs.

Tariffs and aid cuts to South Africa

Since re-entering the White House in January, Trump has implemented a triple whammy of economic policies that have hit South Africa hard.

First were the sweeping aid cuts the US announced after Trump signed an executive order pausing foreign aid to all countries for at least 90 days.

That disrupted funding for treatment and research in South Africa for deadly communicable diseases like HIV. South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV in the world, and until then, the US provided about 18 percent of the government’s HIV budget. In 2023, the US provided $462m in HIV aid. Since January, some HIV treatment programmes have remained cut, while others have had their funding reinstated, although it’s unclear how many.

In February, Trump ordered that additional financial aid be cut specifically to South Africa over what he said was “unjust racial discrimination”, citing the alleged confiscation of white-owned land. He also cited South Africa’s filing of its genocide case against Israel over its war on Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023. Details of the further aid cuts were not made public.

Finally, South Africa has also been hit by Trump’s tariff war. The country was slapped with a 30 percent tariff on all goods in April. An additional 25 percent tariff was placed on South African-made vehicles entering the US, putting vehicle surcharges at 55 percent.

Ramaphosa described Trump’s actions as “punitive” and said the tariffs would “serve as a barrier to trade and shared prosperity”.

Although Trump paused reciprocal tariffs for most countries (including South Africa) for 90 days on April 9, South Africa’s government wants tariffs to be permanently dropped. South Africa also still faces the baseline 10 percent tariff on goods that Trump has imposed on all countries.

The US is South Africa’s second-largest bilateral trading partner after China. Under the duty-free Africa Growth Opportunity Act introduced in 2000, South Africa sells precious stones, steel products and cars to the US, and buys crude oil, electrical goods and aircraft in return.

The AGOA framework, which includes 32 African countries, is up for renewal this year, but it’s unclear if Trump’s White House will follow through with it.

Israel-Gaza ICJ case and Gaza War

The South African government filed its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on December 29, 2023, accusing it of “genocidal acts” during its assaults on Gaza, to the anger of Israel’s ally and major weapons supplier, the US.

The landmark case highlighted the African country’s vocal and visible support for the Palestinian cause and was the first court case against Israel in the ongoing war in Gaza. Hearings began in January 2024. In March 2024, the ICJ issued an emergency order that Israel ensure food aid deliveries into Gaza and cease its offensive in Rafah.

Both Joe Biden’s and Trump’s administrations in the US have opposed South Africa’s move, with Trump denouncing Pretoria’s “aggressiveness”. On February 7, Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing aid to the country. The order cited the ICJ case, the Afrikaner issue and South Africa’s alleged collaboration with Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

South Africa, meanwhile, has promised not to withdraw its case despite this backlash. Foreign minister Ronald Lamola told The Financial Times in February that there was “no chance” the country would back down.

“Standing by our principles sometimes has consequences, but we remain firm that this is important for the world and the rule of law,” he said.

Ukraine-Russia War

Trump and Ramaphosa are also expected to discuss peace and mediation efforts in the Ukraine-Russia war as representatives of the two countries hold talks for the first time since the war began in February 2022.

The Trump administration has taken a lead role in mediating between Russia and Ukraine. During his election campaign, Trump promised to negotiate an end to the war “within 24 hours” if elected. Much of that effort, seen by some as aggressive, has fallen flat, however. A state visit to the US by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ended with Trump and his deputy, JD Vance, shouting at their guest in February this year.

South Africa, meanwhile, has opted to stay neutral in the conflict and has called for dialogue between the sides. The country is a historical ally of Russia because of the former Soviet Union’s support during apartheid. Both are also founding members of the growing BRICS alliance of economies, alongside India, Brazil and China, which some see as a rival to the G5 group of richest countries.

South Africa has not condemned Russia or Putin for the invasion of Ukraine, and has abstained from a United Nations resolution that did so.

At the same time, Pretoria has remained friendly with Ukraine. In April, Ramaphosa hosted Zelenskyy during a state visit during which they discussed increasing trade and the ongoing war, with the Ukrainian leader calling for more pressure on Moscow.

Hours before Zelenskyy met with Ramaphosa, the South African leader said he spoke over the phone with Trump, and they both agreed that the war needed to stop.

The world is dangerously off course, comes the stark warning from the United Nations after it found that more than 295 million people faced acute hunger in 2024.

Fears are growing for the future as major donor countries are set to reduce funding this year.

Climate change and economic crises are affecting 96 million people in 18 countries, including Syria and Yemen.

Conflict and violence are the leading causes of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Sudan, after two years of civil war.

In Gaza, Israel’s blockade of all food, water and medicine has entered a third month, creating a manufactured crisis.

So is global food hunger a failure of systems – or a failure of humanity?

Presenter:

Guests:

Chris Gunness – Former director of communications at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

Elise Nalbandian – Regional advocacy and campaign manager for Oxfam in Africa

Sara Hayat – Specialist in climate change law and policy

Suicide bomber targets queue of young recruits registering at a military base in the capital.

Several people have been reported killed in a suicide bomb attack at an army recruitment centre in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

The attacker on Sunday targeted a queue of young recruits lining up outside Damanyo base, killing at least 10 people, Reuters news agency quoted witnesses as saying.

Teenagers were lining up at the base’s gate when the suicide bomber detonated their explosives, they said.

Abdisalan Mohamed, said he had seen “hundreds of teenagers at the gate as we passed by in a bus”.

“Abruptly, a deafening blast occurred, and the area was covered by dense smoke. We could not see the details of casualties,” he added.

A military captain who gave his name as Suleiman described the attack as he had seen it unfold.

“I was on the other side of the road. A speeding tuk-tuk stopped, a man alighted, ran into the queue, and then blew himself up. I saw 10 people dead, including recruits and passers-by. The death toll may rise,” he told Reuters news agency.

Dozens of abandoned shoes and the remains of the suicide bomber remain visible at the scene.

Medical staff at the military hospital told Reuters that they had received 30 wounded people from the blast and that six of them had died immediately.

Separately, an official told Anadolu the attack had killed at least 11 people.

The government has cordoned off the entire area.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the attack echoed a similar incident in 2023 when a suicide bomber killed 25 soldiers at the Jale Siyad base, located opposite the Damanyo facility.

Sunday’s attack also follows the assassination on Saturday of Colonel Abdirahmaan Hujaale, commander of battalion 26, in the Hiiran region, amid local reports of al-Shabab armed group’s infiltration into government and security forces.

Al-Shabab has been fighting the Somali government for nearly two decades and frequently targets government officials and military personnel.

In the context of emerging new world, key global powers are thumbing up their strategic agendas, seriously evaluating their approaches in taking positions on diverse issues including security, trade and economics with implications for and impact on developing countries. Notwithstanding, Africa has seemingly become the center of the geopolitics, and the United States tariffs China’s trade while Russia attempts to assert its control over Ukraine’s ambitions to join North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO].

In early May 2025, MD Africa editor Kester Kenn Klomegah had the chance to talk with Professor Arnold Boateng over a number questions connecting evolutionary geopolitical process and its implications and likely impact on shaping world’s landscape. Professor Arnold Boateng is an Entrepreneur, Consultant, Speaker and Author. [Books: Dreams of Our Youth: The African Youth Question: Ananse Verses: Foundations for Life…Available from Amazon & Kindle Store].  Here are the interview excerpts:

Which global power is emerging and could, in the near future, be recognized as the super power?

Professor Arnold Boateng: In terms of Security Russia is already a superpower. It has a much [official records] ICBMs and nuclear weapons as the United States. On the economic front, China is more likely to take over. It has the ambition and intent. By purchasing power parity, it surpassed the United States a year ago or two ago.

Russia on the other seems to be more interested in dethroning the United States to put an end to America’s unilateralism, exceptionalism and the chaos in Eastern Europe, the Pacific and Latin America. Recently, Robert Gates was quoted as saying; “The United States is  the most destabilizing force on earth.”

China has a long way though. The final chip for a really superpower is to have your currency as “reserve currency.” China is a long way from that but within reach in a couple of years.

Would China want to be a superpower having seen what unchecked power has altered American foreign policy and excesses?

AB: Global majority is seriously betting on China. And my bet is on China too. But this does not rule out Russia if it could have the ambition. China should learn from the errors of the United States. It should acknowledge that one leader may sit on the throne but he does not rule alone. If Beijing is willing to have a multipolar world, then as they say;” China would have the Mandate of Heaven to lead and NOT rule.

Does it mean power is steadily moving from the northern hemisphere to South-South coalition?

AB: Power has already shifted. It did when Russia and China won Eurasia. We are merely waiting to see the reality play out in the open. Europe is deindustrialising. Their manufacturing sector has slowed due to high energy cost among other factors.

On security front, its benefactor has been the United States through NATO. With Trump’s policy of America first Europe has seen the writing on the wall. Resources for Europe’s industrial drive have largely come from the south. Nigerien uranium power 70% of France’s energy needs. Cobalt, gold, and other minerals driving their tech and general industrial push have come from the south.

The South-South coalition is on the rose. First, they have the raw materials and energy resources. They have a Highly educated and skill workforce in STEM. They have a youthful population and fast moving economies.

Apparently is it rather West vs. East?

AB: It should be the East. The world, especially Africa, has seen the enough to choose the East over the West. The West’s colonial project set Africa back for more than a century. We have endured their economic hitmen, wars and falsification of African history. Everywhere they have been, had been destabilized. In India, during the colonial project, opium wars in China; Libya, Iraq and regime change in Latin America and all over the world.

In a context of this inevitable evolutionary process, how can describe Africa’s position in the shifting power dynamics?

AB: For now Africa is divided. Africa looks either confuse or has failed to read the shifting power centres.

Africa is central to China’s rise and maintaining their position. Without DRC cobalt, the electronic industry and new tech economies could  not be sustained.

Africa is the King who does not know who he is. 

Can we conclude that China is the leading economic power? What makes Africa’s economic position uncertain in sharing global power?

AB: China controls more 85% of global supply chain. It is in the lead but it cannot get to the top alone. It lacked historical prestige. Much of its 5,000 year history it has been a closed system especially after the Ming took over from the Yuan Dynasty. It opened up under British Imperial project and closed again until President Nixon opened it up. Then Tiananmen happened.

The world is not seeking for another Superpower again considering the excesses of the United States around the globe when the Soviet Union declined in the 1990s. We are looking for a round table leadership. Africa is divided. We lack a coherent continent wide vision. Clearly, without sounding disrespectful, it looks like Africa does not know what is going on. We are oblivious to the shifting centres of power. African must stand together. We must have a common BRICS policy. A common China policy and assert good governance; regional industrial policy; common resource extraction and contracts policy. Common intelligence and security infrastructure among other critical systems necessary for being part of the shapers of the emerging global order.

Tebogo talks to Al Jazeera about breaking the American and Jamaican dominance, and the future of sprinting in Africa.

Doha, Qatar – Loud cheers greeted Letsile Tebogo when he stepped onto the track for the men’s 200-metre race at the World Athletics Doha Diamond League in Qatar and stepped away a winner a few minutes later.

The Botswanan Olympic gold medallist made his Doha debut with a time of 20.10 seconds on a balmy Friday evening, coolly glancing sideways at his closest competitor as he crossed the finish line 0.01s ahead of Courtney Lindsey of the United States (US).

It was a leisurely run compared with his triumphant 19.46s finish at the Stade de France nine months ago, when he left a star-studded American lineup – including 100m gold medal winner Noah Lyles – in his wake as he brought Botswana its first Olympic gold.

As a young boy, Tebogo was a keen footballer with a preference for manning the left wing, but was pushed towards athletics by his teachers.

Seven years later, the reluctant sprinter made the world sit up and take notice as he became the first African to win a 200m gold at the Olympics.

A day prior to the Doha Diamond League, the World Athletics 2024 Athlete of the Year sat down with Al Jazeera to reflect on his achievement in Paris and its the impact on the African continent:

Al Jazeera: How has life changed for you since winning the Olympic gold?
Letsile Tebogo: In so many ways.

To begin with, there’s increased awareness of the scale of my achievement, which has brought along commercial interest.

I now have multiple opportunities to support myself as multiple brands want to be associated with my name.

What I’m most excited about, though, is the impact I have made on aspiring athletes.

I have proved that by staying on the right track and working hard, it is possible to achieve your dreams no matter which part of the world you’re from.

Wherever you are, whatever you have, just make sure you put in enough effort and dedication.

Al Jazeera: How difficult is it for you to step out of your house when you’re in Botswana?
Tebogo: I’m never out unless it’s for an event. I stay locked up indoors because I don’t want to be out there too much.
I like having an element of mystery and want to leave people wondering: where is he, what’s he doing?

Al Jazeera: How does it feel to break the American and Jamaican hold on sprinting medals at the Olympics?
Tebogo: That’s always been my goal. To snap their dominance. It was sad to see only two nations rule the sport for decades.

I wanted to make a breakthrough for African athletes. I aspired to be the one to make it happen and then take in the world’s response. And that reaction has been heartwarming.

Al Jazeera: When compared with the success in distance running, Africa has not been able to bag as many medals in sprinting. What challenges do African athletes face when it comes to sprinting at the highest level?
Tebogo: It’s mostly down to infrastructure and support but I am not entirely sure. However, I can see that Africa is looking towards investing in its athletes beyond distance running.

Once the governments are on board, it makes a massive difference to the sport.

Al Jazeera: Can you see the impact of your success for Batswana athletes?
Tebogo: It’s still early days but I’ve definitely seen athletes shed a layer of self-doubt. They are no longer afraid of coming forward to showcase their talent.

I hope the new [Botswana] government will take the next step and help these athletes.

Al Jazeera: How do you see the future of sprinting in Africa?
Tebogo: Africans are stepping up and we see an increased number of African athletes in global competitions.

I dream of an all-African lineup at the Olympics one day.

Amid the geopolitical reconfiguration, Russia’s invaluable support for multitude engagement with African countries and integration associations across the continent were aspects of the significant theme thoroughly discussed at the 4th “Russia-Africa Forum: What Next?” and the inaugural Forum of Young Diplomats Russia-Africa from 22nd-25th April, 2025, at the Moscow University of International Affairs (MGIMO), and that week-long event included a plenary session, roundtables, expert and panel discussions, business games, and many others in hybrid format.

As anticipated, the week-long activities, in their totality, gave a new impetus to strengthening Russian-African youth cooperation. More or less, it thus contributed to the preparation of the next second Russia-Africa Foreign Ministers Forum this fall, as well as the third Russia-Africa Summit.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated, in a video message, that the second ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum would take place in one of the African countries in 2025, while the third Russia-Africa summit is planned for 2026. Without a doubt, Russia has set the course for comprehensive interaction with Africa. It has created a new specialized department dedicated to partnership with Africa within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which underscores the importance Russia places on this diplomatic priority.

Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russian-African relations are on the rise, and Moscow would continue to help reinforce the continent’s position as an independent center of power in the emerging multipolar world order. Further, he explained that Russia endorses the desire of Africans to play an active role in world affairs. According to Sergey Lavrov, there would be more efforts toward practical cooperation in trade and economic spheres, which would continue to help Africans in their quest to possess advanced technologies in order to strengthen their political and economic sovereignty. 

Russian Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Bogdanov, highlighted the potential of organizing a Youth Day within the framework of these meetings, calling the initiative promising. “Today, our country is firmly committed to the comprehensive strengthening of relations with African countries and their regional integration bodies. We look forward to aiming at elevating Russian-African cooperation to a new and higher level,” Mikhail Bogdanov stated.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, said at the plenary session that African countries were taking steps, in the face of current drastic changes, to ensure their political freedom and sovereignty. In a video message to the participants, Nebenzya attributed the multiple crisis situations in many African countries predominantly as a consequence of long years of colonial dependence and consistent opposition to the manifestation of neo-colonial practices in Africa.

Vasily Nebenzya recalled that Russia, in its turn, consistently opposes modern practices of neocolonialism. “Trust in the collective West as a partner is declining everywhere, and there is a growing demand for fundamental changes in the modern system of international relations. Examples of successful cooperation on independent multilateral platforms, such as the Non-Aligned Movement, are multiplying,” he emphasized.

In order to bridge the information gap, Russia’s TASS news agency intends to strengthen its presence in African countries, according to the news agency’s Deputy Director General Mikhail Petrov. So far, compared to the Soviet period, the TASS news agency does not maintain such a large-scale presence in Africa — it currently works in only six African countries. That, however, Mikhail Petrov also highlighted the contributions of TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman to fostering media ties with Africa, noting his long-running interview series Formula of Power. This allows African partners to better understand Russia with Africa and gives indications of building more productive interactions in the near future. The news agency was the general media partner during the Russia-Africa summits in 2019 and 2023.

The discussions on issues, such as the fight against neo-colonial practices to technological and sanctions challenges, continued in 2024 during a media forum held with TASS support on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. “Such a multimedia dialogue, in our opinion, helps promote cooperation in other areas as well and builds mutual trust, which should form the foundation of sound and effective collaboration,” Deputy Director General Mikhail Petrov concluded his discussions with participants at the Moscow-based MGIMO University.

Africa is the continent of the future, and the future is created by young people. This applies fully to foreign policy. Therefore, the Russia-Africa Forum of Young Diplomats is an initiative by the Council of Young Diplomats of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Such a meeting fits in well with numerous MGIMO initiatives devoted to Africa, such as Africa in the Focus of Russian Interests, School of Young Africanists on Food Security, Africa Week, and the MGIMO Model African Union. 

In order to provide a multifaceted field of activity with the necessary resources, the Department for Partnership with Africa was created at the Foreign Ministry in January 2025. Its functions include promoting political, economic, scientific, educational, and cultural ties with the African integration associations. In conclusion, it is worth remembering that Russian-African friendship and partnership have a long history: in the past century, Russia selflessly helped Africans in their courageous struggle for freedom and independence. Advancing relations with the African countries is among Russia’s unconditional priorities, and this approach is enshrined in the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation approved by President Vladimir Putin.

Their situation seemed desperate; their demeanour, portrayed in several videos published by news outlets, was sour.

On a recent weekday in March, men, women, and even children – all with their belongings heaped on their heads or strapped to their bodies – disembarked from the ferry they say they were forcibly hauled onto from the vast northwest African nation of Mauritania to the Senegalese town of Rosso, on the banks of the Senegal River.

Their offence? Being migrants from the region, they told reporters, regardless of whether they had legal residency papers.

“We suffered there,” one woman told France’s TV5 Monde, a baby perched on her hip. “It was really bad.”

The deportees are among hundreds of West Africans who have been rounded up by Mauritanian security forces, detained, and sent over the border to Senegal and Mali in recent months, human rights groups say.

According to one estimate from the Mauritanian Association for Human Rights (AMDH),1,200 people were pushed back in March alone, even though about 700 of them had residence permits.

Those pushed back told reporters about being randomly approached for questioning before being arrested, detained for days in tight prison cells with insufficient food and water, and tortured. Many people remained in prison in Mauritania, they said.

The largely desert country – which has signed expensive deals with the European Union to keep migrants from taking the risky boat journey across the Atlantic Ocean to Western shores – has called the pushbacks necessary to crack down on human smuggling networks.

However, its statements have done little to calm rare anger from its neighbours, Mali and Senegal, whose citizens make up a huge number of those sent back.

Mali’s government, in a statement in March, expressed “indignation” at the treatment of its nationals, adding that “the conditions of arrest are in flagrant violation of human rights and the rights of migrants in particular.”

In Senegal, a member of parliament called the pushbacks “xenophobic” and urged the government to launch an investigation.

“We’ve seen these kinds of pushbacks in the past but it is at an intensity we’ve never seen before in terms of the number of people deported and the violence used,” Hassan Ould Moctar, a migration researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, told Al Jazeera.

The blame, the researcher said, was largely to be put on the EU. On one hand, Mauritania was likely under pressure from Brussels, and on the other hand, it was also likely reacting to controversial rumours that migrants deported from Europe would be resettled in the country despite Nouakchott’s denial of such an agreement.

Is Mauritania the EU’s external border?

Mauritania, on the edge of the Atlantic, is one of the closest points from the continent to Spain’s Canary Islands. That makes it a popular departure point for migrants who crowd the coastal capital, Nouakchott, and the commercial northern city of Nouadhibou. Most are trying to reach the Canaries, a Spanish enclave closer to the African continent than to Europe, from where they can seek asylum.

Due to its role as a transit hub, the EU has befriended Nouakchott – as well as the major transit points of Morocco and Senegal – since the 2000s, pumping funds to enable security officials there to prevent irregular migrants from embarking on the crossing.

However, the EU honed in on Mauritania with renewed vigour last year after the number of people travelling from the country shot up to unusual levels, making it the number one departure point.

About 83 percent of the 7,270 people who arrived in the Canaries in January 2024 travelled from Mauritania, migrant advocacy group Caminando Fronteras (CF) noted in a report last year. That number represented a 1,184 percent increase compared with January 2023, when most people were leaving Senegal. Some 3,600 died on the Mauritania-Atlantic route between January and April 2024, CF noted.

Analysts, and the EU, link the surge to upheavals wracking the Sahel, from Mali to Niger, including coups and attacks by several armed groups looking to build caliphates. In Mali, attacks on local communities by armed groups and government forces suspicious of locals have forced hundreds over the border into Mauritania in recent weeks.

Ibrahim Drame of the Senegalese Red Cross in the border town of Rosso told Al Jazeera the migrant raids began in January after a new immigration law went into force, requiring a residence permit for any foreigner living on Mauritanian soil. However, he said most people have not had an opportunity to apply for those permits. Before this, nationals of countries like Senegal and Mali enjoyed free movement under bilateral agreements.

“Raids have been organised day and night, in large markets, around bus stations, and on the main streets,” Drame noted, adding that those affected are receiving dwindling shelter and food support from the Red Cross, and included migrants from Togo, Nigeria, Niger, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Benin.

“Hundreds of them were even hunted down in their homes or workplaces, without receiving the slightest explanation … mainly women, children, people with chronic illnesses in a situation of extreme vulnerability and stripped of all their belongings, even their mobile phones,” Drame said.

Last February, European Commission head, Ursula von der Leyen, visited President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani in Nouakchott to sign a 210 million euro ($235m) “migrant partnership agreement”. The EU said the agreement was meant to intensify “border security cooperation” with Frontex, the EU border agency, and dismantle smuggler networks. The bloc has promised an additional 4 million euros ($4.49m) this year to provide food, medical, and psychosocial support to migrants.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was also in Mauritania in August to sign a separate border security agreement.

Fear and pain from a dark past

Black Mauritanians in the country, meanwhile, say the pushback campaign has awakened feelings of exclusion and forced displacement carried by their communities. Some fear the deportations may be directed at them.

Activist Abdoulaye Sow, founder of the US-based Mauritanian Network for Human Rights in the US (MNHRUS), told Al Jazeera that to understand why Black people in the country feel threatened, there’s a need to understand the country’s painful past.

Located at a confluence where the Arab world meets Sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritania has historically been racially segregated, with the Arab-Berber political elite dominating over the Black population, some of whom were previously, or are still, enslaved. It was only in 1981 that Mauritania passed a law abolishing slavery, but the practice still exists, according to rights groups.

Dark-skinned Black Mauritanians are composed of Haratines, an Arabic-speaking group descended from formerly enslaved peoples. There are also non-Arabic speaking groups like the Fulani and Wolof, who are predominantly from the Senegal border area in the country’s south.

Black Mauritanians, Sow said, were once similarly deported en masse in trucks from the country to Senegal. It dates back to April 1989, when simmering tensions between Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers in border communities erupted and led to the 1989-1991 Border War between the two countries. Both sides deployed their militaries in heavy gunfire battles. In Senegal, mobs attacked Mauritanian traders, and in Mauritania, security forces cracked down on Senegalese nationals.

Because a Black liberation movement was also growing at the time, and the Mauritanian military government was fearful of a coup, it cracked down on Black Mauritanians, too.

By 1991, there were refugees on either side in the thousands. However, after peace came about, the Mauritanian government expelled thousands of Black Mauritanians under the guise of repatriating Senegalese refugees. Some 60,000 people were forced into Senegal. Many lost important citizenship and property documents in the process.

“I was a victim too,” Sow said. “It wasn’t safe for Blacks who don’t speak Arabic. I witnessed armed people going house to house and asking people if they were Mauritanian, beating them, even killing them.”

Sow said it is why the deportation of sub-Saharan migrants is scaring the community. Although he has written open letters to the government warning of how Black people could be affected, he said there has been no response.

“When they started these recent deportations again, I knew where they were going, and we’ve already heard of a Black Mauritanian deported to Mali. We’ve been sounding the alarm for so long, but the government is not responsive.”

The Mauritanian government directed Al Jazeera to an earlier statement it released regarding the deportations, but did not address allegations of possible forced expulsions of Black Mauritanians.

In the statement, the government said it welcomed legal migrants from neighbouring countries, and that it was targeting irregular migrants and smuggling networks.

“Mauritania has made significant efforts to enable West African nationals to regularise their residence status by obtaining resident cards following simplified procedures,” the statement read.

Although Mauritania eventually agreed to take back its nationals between 2007 and 2012, many Afro-Mauritanians still do not have documents proving their citizenship as successive administrations implement fluctuating documentation and census laws. Tens of thousands are presently stateless, Sow said. At least 16,000 refugees chose to stay back in Senegal to avoid persecution in Mauritania.

Sow said the fear of another forced deportation comes on top of other issues, including national laws that require students in all schools to learn in Arabic, irrespective of their culture. Arabic is Mauritania’s lingua franca, but Afro-Mauritanians who speak languages like Wolof or Pula are against what they call “forced Arabisation”. Sow says it is “cultural genocide”.

Despite new residence permit laws in place, Sow added, migrants, as well as the Black Mauritanian population, should be protected.

“Whether they are migrants or not, they have their rights as people, as humans,” he said.

Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) claims attack on Djibo military outpost, SITE Intelligence Group says.

An al-Qaeda affiliate has claimed it killed 200 soldiers in an attack on a Burkina Faso army base this week, according to an NGO that tracks armed groups’ online activity.

The base in the northern town of Djibo came under attack on Sunday morning, and a police station and market were also targeted, security sources told the news agency Reuters. Although there was no official toll, three Djibo residents told Reuters that dozens of soldiers and civilians were killed.

Al Jazeera was not able to independently verify the death toll. A Burkina Faso military source told Al Jazeera that the armed group was exaggerating the number of casualties.

The United States-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online activity of armed groups, said Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) made the claim in a formal statement.

“The operation comes amid increased JNIM activity in Burkina Faso over the past month inflicting a high number of casualties,” SITE said.

The organisation previously said Ousmane Dicko, head of JNIM in Burkina Faso, had appeared in a video urging residents of Djibo to leave the town for their own safety.

Reporting from Dakar, Senegal, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque said the attack took place over a number of days.

“One of the major military outposts that was supposed to protect this town of about 200,000 people was razed to the ground, such was the firepower of the armed groups,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Senegal, Dakar.

“This is one of the deadliest attacks in Burkina Faso, and it comes just as Ibrahim Traore [Burkina Faso’s military leader] has been saying that the country has been gaining territory, encouraging people to go back to their homes, but this latest attack proves the opposite,” said Haque.

A video circulating on social media from the al-Qaeda affiliate warned people to leave their homes and said it would seize more territories.

“What we’re seeing here is the pivot point where these armed groups that normally attack villages are now trying to take over towns. It’s a major blow for Burkina Faso’s armed forces,” Haque said, noting the attacks come just as Traore was visiting Russia, asking President Vladimir Putin for more training and arms to fight off armed groups.

JNIM claimed responsibility for another assault this week targeting a military post in Burkina Faso’s northern Loroum province in which the group said 60 soldiers were killed, according to SITE.

The attacks highlight the difficulties the three Sahel nations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, ruled by military leaders, are facing in containing the armed groups.

Burkina Faso authorities have not commented on the latest attacks.

A notable attack occurred in the Burkina town of Sole, where JNIM fighters raided the army military post and killed soldiers, SITE Intelligence said, without specifying on which day it took place.

A Military government took power in Burkina Faso in 2022, but they have largely failed to provide stability, as more than 60 percent of the country is estimated to be outside government control.

The United States and China have surprisingly agreed to a dramatic de-escalation in their trade war.

Under the agreement, the world’s two largest economies have paused their respective tariffs for 90 days.

That breaks an impasse which has brought much of the commerce between the two nations to a halt.

Critics say the talks in Geneva did not appear to yield any meaningful concessions. The two sides aim to reach a broader deal, but this takes too long to negotiate.

Also in this episode, we examine whether the US-UK trade pact will deliver real benefits, or is it symbolism over substance?

Also, Senegal is capitalising on its energy wealth to change its fortunes.

Johannesburg, South Africa – On a chilly Sunday evening in Johannesburg, OR Tambo International Airport was filled with tourists and travellers entering and exiting South Africa’s busiest airport.

On one side of the international departures hall, a few dozen people queued – their trollies piled with luggage, travel pillows and children’s blankets – as they waited to board a charter flight to Washington Dulles International Airport in the United States.

Dressed casually and comfortably for the 13-hour journey that would follow, the group – most young, all white – talked among themselves while avoiding onlookers. Although they blended into the bustling terminal around them, these weren’t ordinary travellers. They were Afrikaners leaving South Africa to be refugees in Donald Trump’s America.

When Charl Kleinhaus first applied for refugee resettlement in the US earlier this year, he told officials he had been threatened and that people attempted to claim his property.

The 46-year-old, who claimed to own a farm in Limpopo, South Africa’s northernmost province, was not required to present proof of these threats or provide details regarding when the alleged incidents occurred.

On Sunday, he joined dozens of others accepted by the Trump administration as part of a pilot programme granting asylum to people from the Afrikaner community – descendants of mainly Dutch colonisers that led the brutal apartheid regime for nearly five decades.

The Trump administration claims white people face discrimination in South Africa – a country where they make up some 7 percent of the population but own more than 70 percent of the land and occupy the majority of top management positions.

“I want you all to know that you are really welcome here and that we respect what you have had to deal with these last few years,” US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau told Kleinhaus and the others when they landed at the Dulles International in Virginia.

“We respect the long tradition of your people and what you have accomplished over the years,” he said on Monday.

Speaking to a journalist at the airport, Kleinhaus said he never expected “this land expropriation thing to go so far” in South Africa.

He was referring to the recently passed Expropriation Act, which allows the South African government to, in exceptional circumstances, take land for public use without compensation. Pretoria says the measure is aimed at redressing apartheid injustices, as Black South Africans who make up more than 80 percent of the population still own just 4 percent of the land.

South African officials say the law has not resulted in any land grabs. There is also no record of Kleinhaus’s property being expropriated.

Kleinhaus was unaffected by any threats and the government was unaware of anyone who might have threatened his property, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told Al Jazeera.

“The people of South Africa have not been affected by the expropriation of land. There’s no evidence. None of them are affected by any farm murders either,” the minister emphasised.

Discredited ‘genocide’ claims

In February, when Trump signed an executive order granting refugee status to Afrikaners, he cited widely discredited claims that their land was being seized and that they were being brutally killed in South Africa.

On Monday, Trump again claimed that Afrikaners were victims of a “genocide” – an accusation South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and other experts maintain is based on lies.

“Farmers are being killed,” Trump told reporters. “White farmers are being brutally killed, and the land is being confiscated in South Africa.”

Ramaphosa has also debunked claims that the group who left this week faced any persecution at home.

“They are leaving because they do not wish to embrace the democratic transformation unfolding in South Africa,” he said.

For 60-year-old Sam Busa, watching Kleinhaus and the 48 other South Africans leave to be resettled in the US was a hopeful moment.

Busa, who has also applied for asylum, is waiting in anticipation for an interview that would qualify her for resettlement. She has begun selling excess household items in anticipation of her new life in the US.

The semi-retired businesswoman has been at the forefront of efforts – through a website called Amerikaners – encouraging Afrikaners to take an interest in the US offer to grant refugee status on the grounds that they face racial persecution in South Africa.

When asked how she has experienced persecution because of her race, Busa recounted an incident where she was held at gunpoint at her home in Johannesburg – the commercial capital of South Africa and one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

She later moved to KwaZulu-Natal on the country’s east coast, where she ran a business that provided services to the government.

When asked whether she believed she was targeted because of her race or if she was simply a victim of common crime, Busa asserted it did not matter.

She didn’t feel safe, she said. “I am not overly sensitive. When I watch Julius Malema singing about killing the Boer, it is extremely terrifying.”

Malema, the far-left leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party, often sings a famous anti-apartheid song, Kill the Boer (Boer meaning farmer in Afrikaans), which the courts have ruled is not hate speech or an incitement to violence.

‘Persecution’

For Busa, much like Kleinhaus, new legislation passed to bolster racial transformation, which includes having specific hiring targets for employment equity, has been “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

“Expropriation without compensation is a huge issue, along with the amendment to employment equity,” she said, restating her belief that white people don’t have a future in South Africa.

“It’s coming hard and fast, and it’s becoming clear to [white] South Africans that we struggle with fears of home invasion. I don’t live on a farm, but there are massive fears because of the constant threat of crime. It has become clear to white South Africans; it’s not disguised,” she claimed.

The narrative of fear is prevalent among those engaged in the refugee programme despite the fact that several experts have debunked the assertion that they were victims of racially motivated attacks and not common crime.

South Africa sees about 19,000 murders a year. According to data from the police, most victims of rural crime are Black, with evidence showing that white farmers are not disproportionately being killed.

Meanwhile, many participants in the US’s Afrikaner refugee resettlement programme do not even live on farms; many are urban dwellers, according to Minister Ntshavheni.

Katia Beedan, who lives in Cape Town, is also anticipating resettlement in the US. She told Al Jazeera that refugee hopefuls do not have to prove racial persecution but simply articulate it.

“For me, it’s racial persecution and political persecution,” she said about her reasons for wanting to leave South Africa.

The copywriter-turned-life coach pointed to racial transformation laws targeting employment equity and land expropriation, which she believes the government is “overwhelming us with”, as a key reason for her desire to flee.

However, many other South Africans see sections of the Afrikaner community – including their right-wing lobby groups like AfriForum that first pushed the false narrative of a “white genocide” – as struggling to exist equally in a country where they were once considered superior because of their race.

“I think AfriForum is struggling with the reality of being ordinary,” social justice activist and South Africa’s former public protector, Thuli Madonsela, told local TV channel, Newzroom Afrika, in March.

“The new South Africa requires all of us to be ordinary, whereas colonialism and apartheid made white people special people.

“I think some white people … [are] seeking to reverse the wheel and find reason to be special again. They seem to have found an ally in the American president,” she said.

‘Absurd and ridiculous’

In February, as Trump expedited efforts to resettle Afrikaners in the US, he was closing off his country’s refugee programme to other asylum seekers from war-torn and famine-stricken parts of the world.

For Loren Landau from the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, the Afrikaner refugee relocation is “absurd and ridiculous”.

“They have not been welcomed as tourists or work permit holders, but as refugees. The idea of a refugee system is to protect those who cannot be safeguarded by their own states and who fear persecution or violence because of who they are or their membership in a social group. Can Afrikaners make that case?” he asked.

Although “there are people in South Africa who discriminate against them,” and Afrikaners now “have less privilege and protection than during the apartheid era”, it cannot be said that this is indicative of state policy, he said, adding that many different people are robbed, killed, and face discrimination in South Africa.

“Are they [Afrikaners] specially victimised because of who they are? Absolutely not!” Landau added.

He said all statistics on land ownership, income, and education levels indicate that South Africa’s white population far outstrips others: “They are still by far in the top strata of South African society. No one is taking their land. No one is taking their cars.”

Even fringe groups that may have called for land grabs have done little to enact their threats, observers note.

However, for Busa, that doesn’t matter. “I fear for my children. You never know when the EFF decides they want you dead. It’s not a country I want to live in,” she said. The EFF has said those who decide to leave South Africa should have their citizenship revoked.

Confronted with the implications of this situation, the government is considering whether those who exit as refugees could easily return to the country. Ramaphosa is expected to discuss the ongoing matter with Trump at a meeting in the US next week.

Meanwhile, for the Afrikaners now in the US, most will settle in Texas, with others in New York, Idaho, Iowa and North Carolina, while the government helps them find work and accommodation.

They will hold refugee status for one year, after which they can apply for a US green card to make them permanent residents. At the same time, the Afrikaner resettlement programme remains open to others who want to apply.

When Kleinhaus and his group arrived in the US on Monday, they had smiles on their faces as they met officials and waved US flags.

Yet, for South Africa’s president, their resettlement in the US marks “a sad moment for them” – and something he believes may not last.

“As South Africans, we are resilient. We don’t run away from our problems,” he said at an agricultural exhibition in Free State province on Monday.

“If you look at all national groups in our country, Black and white, they’ve stayed in this country because it’s our country.

“I can bet you that they [the Afrikaners who left] will be back soon because there is no country like South Africa.”

Pretoria says the visit is to ‘reset’ ties with Washington, after the US welcomed dozens of white Afrikaners as refugees.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet United States President Donald Trump at the White House next week in an attempt to “reset” ties between the two countries, Pretoria has said.

The reported visit comes after the US welcomed dozens of white Afrikaners as refugees this week, following widely discredited allegations made by Trump that “genocide” is being committed against white farmers in the majority-Black country.

“President Ramaphosa will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of interest,” South Africa’s presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The president’s visit to the US provides a platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries,” it added, saying the trip will take place from Monday to Thursday and the two leaders will meet on Wednesday.

The White House had no immediate comment on the meeting, which would be Trump’s first with the leader of an African nation since he returned to office in January.

Relations between Pretoria and Washington have soured significantly since Trump returned to the White House.

Trump has criticised Ramaphosa’s government on multiple fronts. In February, he issued an executive order cutting all US funding to South Africa, citing disapproval of its land reform policy and its genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against US ally Israel.

‘Wrong end of the stick’

Trump’s order also offered to take in and resettle people from the minority Afrikaner community, whom he alleges are being persecuted and killed because of their race – claims that have been disproven by experts and South Africa’s government.

Afrikaners are descendants of mainly Dutch colonisers who led the apartheid regime for nearly five decades.

Pretoria maintains there is no evidence of persecution of white people in the country and Ramaphosa has said the US government “has got the wrong end of the stick”, as South Africa suffers overall with the problem of violent crime, regardless of race.

The US’s criticism also appears to focus on South Africa’s affirmative action laws that advance opportunities for the majority-Black population, who were oppressed and disenfranchised under apartheid.

A new land expropriation law gives the government power to take land in the public interest without compensation in exceptional circumstances. Although Pretoria says the law is not a confiscation tool and refers to unused land that can be redistributed for the public good, some Afrikaner groups say it could allow their land to be redistributed to some of the country’s Black majority.

According to data, white people, who make up about 7 percent of South Africa’s population, own more than 70 percent of the land and occupy most top management positions in the country.

Ramaphosa has spoken repeatedly of his desire to engage with Trump diplomatically and improve the relationship between the two countries.

The US is South Africa’s second-largest bilateral trading partner after China.

The Moroccan autonomy proposal, which has been advanced as a “realistic” solution to the Western Sahara conflict, reflects a deeply flawed understanding of international law, decolonization, and regional stability. Far from offering a genuine path to peace, the autonomy plan is a strategic repackaging of occupation that violates the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination and undermines the very foundations of international order.

The Moroccan autonomy proposal is premised on denying the Sahrawi people their inalienable right to self-determination. This right is not aspirational—it is enshrined in international law, including the UN Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV), which mandates the immediate and unconditional end of colonialism. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its 1975 advisory opinion, found no legal ties of sovereignty between Morocco and Western Sahara, reinforcing the principle that sovereignty must be decided by the people of the territory, not imposed by external actors.

Even on its own terms, Morocco’s proposed autonomy lacks credibility. In Morocco the king rules, and in the Moroccan constitution there are red lines (especially concerning the monarchy and Western Sahara) that cannot be crossed. The idea that such a system could guarantee democratic freedoms, autonomy, and political rights to Sahrawis is implausible.

Moreover, Rabat has not implemented meaningful decentralization within Morocco itself, making the Western Sahara “autonomy” claim look more like a political smokescreen than a genuine offer. How can Morocco offer regional autonomy while denying it in other regions in Morocco?

The 1991 UN-brokered peace agreement was based on a clear premise: a referendum allowing Sahrawis to choose between independence, integration with Morocco, or autonomy. Morocco initially agreed to this but has since blocked all efforts to hold a credible vote. Now it seeks to erase independence as an option entirely. This is not negotiation—it is blackmail. The Sahrawi people, through their recognized representative, the Frente POLISARIO, continue to demand the referendum they were promised.

The Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara since 1975 constitutes a textbook case of colonial acquisition of territory by force. Supporting Morocco’s autonomy plan is not a neutral act—it legitimizes the notion that military occupation can eventually be sanitized through diplomatic delay and political rebranding. This directly undermines international norms established after World War II to prevent wars of conquest.

If the international community endorses this model in Western Sahara, what prevents other states from using similar tactics? The implications for global peace and conflict resolution are deeply concerning.

Perhaps most troubling is the erasure of Sahrawi voices from the autonomy discourse. The overwhelming majority of Sahrawis, both in the occupied territories and in refugee camps in Algeria, reject Morocco’s proposal. They see it not as compromise, but as capitulation. Peace cannot be imposed through coercion; it must be built on consent. To impose autonomy without a referendum is to deny Sahrawis their most basic political agency.

The European Union, which has long presented itself as a defender of international law and multilateralism, is uniquely placed to play a constructive role in resolving this conflict. A just and lasting solution in Western Sahara would not only align with the EU’s normative values—it would serve its strategic interests.

First, stability in the Maghreb is essential for European security. The region is geographically close, interconnected via migration routes, and strategically situated near Europe’s southern flank. Instability in Western Sahara, if left unresolved, continues to fuel regional tensions and prevents effective regional cooperation.

Second, Western Sahara is rich in resources that are important to the EU, including fisheries, phosphates, agriculture, and renewable energy (especially solar and wind potential). The EU has been embroiled in repeated legal disputes over trade and fisheries agreements involving Western Sahara, which European courts have ruled cannot be applied to the territory without the consent of its people. A political resolution grounded in international law would finally end these legal and ethical challenges.

Third, resolving the Western Sahara issue would create a foundation for genuine regional integration. A stable, cooperative Maghreb—encompassing an independent Sahrawi Republic, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Libya, and Morocco—could emerge as a reliable partner to the EU, offering a bloc of stability, trade, and renewable energy cooperation. Such a development would support the EU’s ambitions for a sustainable, secure, and diversified energy transition.

Fourth, a lasting resolution would also help the EU manage migration more humanely and effectively. Stability and economic development in the Maghreb reduce the drivers of irregular migration. Yet the continued occupation and marginalization of the Sahrawi people contribute to regional insecurity, frustration, and radicalization risks—pressures that ultimately impact Europe.

Finally, the EU must protect its credibility. Supporting Morocco’s autonomy plan while ignoring UN resolutions and EU court decisions undermines the Union’s claims to be a values-based global actor. If Europe allows geopolitical convenience to trump principle, it erodes trust in its foreign policy and emboldens others to disregard international norms.

Rather than doubling down on flawed frameworks, the international community—especially the European Union—should explore innovative, justice-based solutions that prioritize regional cooperation and free association. A revived Maghreb Union could serve as a model of post-colonial regional integration. But such a vision can only be realized once the colonial injustice in Western Sahara is addressed through genuine decolonization, not disguised through autonomy.

The autonomy proposal is not a step toward peace—it is a sophisticated attempt to entrench occupation and delay justice. It is rooted in imperial logic, not international law. It ignores the clear legal, moral, and political rights of the Sahrawi people to choose their own future.

If the world truly believes in justice, peace, and the rules-based international order, it must stop rewarding colonial conquest. It must uphold its commitment to decolonization and demand a fair, credible referendum that includes independence as an option.

To accept anything less is to betray the Sahrawi people—and the principles on which global peace and European credibility depend.