Africa

Powerful storm batters Mozambique’s Inhambane a day after killing at least 41 people in Madagascar.

Cyclone Gezani has hit Mozambique’s southern coastal province of Inhambane, killing at least four people, according to officials.

The toll in Mozambique on Saturday came a day after the cyclone tore through Madagascar, killing at least 41 people and leaving a trail of destruction across the island.

The AFP news agency, citing meteorologists, said the storm lashed Inhambane with winds of up to 215km per hour (134mph).

It brought down trees and power lines, leaving more than 13,000 people without power, the national electric company said.

Water supplies were also cut off in several districts of the city of Inhambane.

The city is home to some 100,000 people.

Mozambique has been hit by frequent weather-related disasters that ‌scientists say have been exacerbated by climate change.

The Southern African country is only just recovering from severe flooding that affected more than 700,000 people and damaged more than 170,000 homes in recent weeks, according to the United Nations Office for the ⁠Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

In Madagascar, the government declared a national emergency and said the storm had caused an estimated $142m in damage.

In addition to the deaths, at least 427 people were injured, and some 16,300 were displaced, according to officials.

The eye of the cyclone passed on Tuesday over Madagascar’s second-largest city, Toamasina, which has a population of 400,000, leaving it devastated.

The Indian Ocean island’s leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, said about 75 percent of the city had been destroyed.

Tania Goosens, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Madagascar director, said on Friday that “the scale of destruction is overwhelming” in Toamasina. “The authorities have reported that 80 percent of the city has been damaged,” she told reporters.

“The city is running on roughly 5 percent of electricity, and there is no water,” she said, adding that the WFP’s office and one warehouse “were also completely destroyed”.

Witnesses say the motorcycle riding gunmen attacked three communities in northern Nigeria, killing and abducting dozens.

Gunmen on motorcycles have rampaged through three villages in northern Nigeria, killing at least 32 people and abducting several more, according to witnesses and local police.

The raids on Saturday in the Borgu area of Niger State came amid a complex security crisis in northern Nigeria, featuring armed groups affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) as well as gangs that abduct people for ransom money.

Wasiu Abiodun, ‌the Niger State police spokesperson, confirmed the attack in one of the villages.

“Suspected bandits invaded Tunga-Makeri village,” he said. “Six persons lost their lives, some houses were also set ablaze, and a yet-to-be ascertained number of persons were abducted.”

He added that the assailants had moved on to Konkoso village, while details of other attacks remained unclear.

Jeremiah Timothy, a resident of Konkoso, told the Reuters news agency that the attack on ⁠his village began in the early hours with sporadic gunfire.

“At least 26 people were killed so far in the village after they set the police station ablaze,” said Timothy, adding that the ⁠attackers entered Konkoso around 6am (05:00 GMT), shooting indiscriminately.

He said residents heard military jets flying overhead.

Abdullahi Adamu, another resident of Konkoso, said 26 people were killed. “They were operating freely without the presence of any security,” he told The Associated Press news agency.

The AFP news agency, citing an unnamed humanitarian source, put the death toll in Konkoso at 38. The source said the victims were shot dead or had their throats slit.

Most of the homes in the village were burned down, and apart from those already counted as dead, “other bodies are being recovered”, the source told AFP.

The agency cited a Konkoso resident as saying that the gunmen had killed his nephew and abducted four women.

“After Konkoso, they went to Pissa, where they set a police station on fire and killed one person.”

“At the moment, many people are missing,” he said.

The AP also reported an attack in Pissa, without providing details.

The attacks in Niger State followed a deadly attack by armed fighters earlier this month in neighbouring Kwara and Katsina states that killed nearly 200 people.

The border between Niger and Kwara states is home to the Kainji Forest, a known haven for bandits and fighters, including from the armed group Boko Haram. Last October, the al-Qaeda affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) also claimed responsibility for its first attack on Nigerian soil, near Woro, in Kwara State.

Religious and community leaders from the Borgu area in Niger State last week called on President Bola Tinubu to establish a military base in the area to put an end to the recurring attacks, Nigerian media reported.

Nigeria is also under pressure to restore security since United States President Donald Trump accused ‌it last year of failing to protect Christians.

Authorities, however, denied that there is systematic persecution of Christians, while independent experts say Nigeria’s security crises kill both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.

Nigeria’s government, meanwhile, has stepped up cooperation with Washington to improve security, and in December, the US military carried out air strikes in Sokoto State, targeting what Washington said were armed fighters.

At the opening of the 39th summit of the African Union, the Chairman of the Commission Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said the “extermination” of the Palestinian people must end.

Captain Aiden Markram hits an unbeaten 86 in seven-wicket defeat of New Zealand in Ahmedabad.

South Africa are on the brink of reaching the Twenty20 World Cup’s Super Eight stage after captain Aiden Markram’s storming half-century led them to a dominant seven-wicket victory over New ⁠Zealand, securing their third straight Group D win.

New Zealand on Saturday suffered their first loss in the campaign after they posted 175-7 as South Africa’s Marco Jansen took four wickets.

In response, opener Markram hit four ⁠sixes and eight boundaries in his unbeaten knock of 86 off 44 balls, the highest by a South African captain in the tournament’s history, helping his team reach 178-3 with 17 balls to spare.

Last edition’s finalists South Africa chose to bowl first in Ahmedabad, India, and it immediately paid off as player of the match Jansen (4-40) dismissed most ‌of New Zealand’s top order by the seventh over.

Finn Allen (31 off 17 balls) tried to mitigate the damage after Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra fell to Jansen. But Jansen got Allen caught at mid-off in the sixth over, leaving New Zealand struggling at 58-3.

Mark Chapman (48) and Daryl Mitchell (32) turned things around with a 74-run partnership for the fifth wicket until Jansen got Chapman caught by Ryan Rickelton at backward point in the 14th.

New Zealand scored only 17 runs in the next four overs until James ⁠Neesham’s unbeaten 23 off 15 balls got them to a fighting total.

Markram’s magic seals the deal for South Africa

Chasing 176, South Africa got off to a fast start with Markram hitting three sixes and five boundaries to steer his team to 62-0 in four overs.

Losing fellow opener Quinton de Kock (20) did not affect Markram, who hit Mitchell Santner for a ⁠six down long-on to reach his half-century in just 19 balls. By the time Rickelton (21) fell in the eighth over, South Africa had already crossed ⁠the 100-run mark.

With the required run rate falling below six per over, Markram ⁠did not hit a single boundary in the next seven overs and focused on rotating the strike, getting South Africa within 28 runs of victory with 30 balls left.

“It’s about managing it through the right phases, I guess, but up front, you’ve seen how teams are ‌taking on the powerplay and we’d be silly not to try that. It’s not always going to come off, but when it does, … we can get ahead of the game,” Markram said.

David Miller, who scored an ‌unbeaten ‌24, cleared the mid-wicket boundary to bring up the winning runs.

South Africa will conclude their group campaign against the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, a day after New Zealand play Canada.

Black Caps openers Finn Allen and Tim Seifert had come out swinging after their side batted first.

Allen hit four fours and two sixes for his 17-ball 31 before Marco Jansen (4-40) crucially took three wickets in quick succession to bring South Africa back into the game.

The seamer sent back Seifert for 13 in his first over before dismissing Rachin Ravindra and Allen in the space of four balls in the final over of the powerplay.

Mark Chapman and Daryl Mitchell rebuilt the innings and New Zealand were scoring at around 10-an-over for more than half the innings.

They were 138-5 when Chapman fell to the last ball of the 14th over, having made 48 from 26 balls, with their opponents able to drag it back from there and restrict New Zealand to 175-7.

It appeared short at the halfway stage and within a few balls of the reply, that was confirmed.

Markram and De Kock got after opening bowlers Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson from the off, then gave Jacob Duffy the same treatment when he came on.

Ferguson bowled De Kock with a slower ball but there was no slowing the Proteas as Markram continued his charge, first alongside Rickelton then Dewald Brevis, who both made 21.

Markram was able to watch from the non-striker’s end as David Miller finished the job in style – launching Ferguson into the stands for a monstrous six.

South Africa will official qualify for the Super 8s if the United Arab Emirates fail to beat Afghanistan on Monday.

Heads of state are arriving in Addis Ababa for the 2026 African Union Summit, with a water-focused theme centred on climate change. Conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan, DR Congo and the Sahel loom, while Israel’s recognition of Somaliland adds pressure over borders.

Gezani is forecast to return to cyclone status when it strikes southern Mozambique on Friday evening.

Nearly 40 people have been killed and more than 12,000 others displaced after Cyclone Gezani slammed into Madagascar’s second-largest city earlier this week, as Mozambique braced for the storm’s arrival.

Updating its tolls as assessments progressed, Madagascar’s National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) said on Thursday it had recorded 38 deaths, while six people remained missing and at least 374 were injured.

Gezani made landfall on Tuesday at the Indian Ocean island nation Madagascar’s eastern coastal city, Toamasina, bringing winds that reached 250km/h (155mph).

Madagascar’s new leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, has declared a national disaster and called for “international solidarity”, saying the cyclone had “ravaged up to 75 percent of Toamasina and surrounds”.

Images from the AFP news agency showed the battered city of 500,000 people littered with trees felled by strong winds and roofs blown off buildings.

Residents dug through piles of debris, planks and corrugated metal to repair their makeshift homes.

More than 18,000 homes were destroyed in the cyclone, according to the BNGRC, with at least 50,000 damaged or flooded. Authorities say many of the deaths were caused by building collapses, as many give inadequate shelter from strong storms.

The main road linking the city to the capital, Antananarivo, was cut off in several places, “blocking humanitarian convoys”, it said, while telecommunications were unstable.

The storm also caused major destruction in the Atsinanana region surrounding Toamasina, the disaster authority said, adding that assessments were still under way.

France announced the dispatch of food aid and rescue teams from its Reunion Island, about 1,000km (600 miles) away.

Thousands of people had been forced to leave their homes, said the United Nations’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), describing “widespread destruction and disruption”.

The cyclone’s landfall was likely one of the strongest recorded in the region during the satellite era, rivalling Geralda in February 1994, it said. That storm killed at least 200 people and affected half a million more.

Gezani weakened after landfall but continued to sweep across the island as a tropical storm until late on Wednesday.

It was forecast to return to cyclone status as it reaches the Mozambique Channel, according to the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre La Reunion (CMRS), and could from Friday evening strike southern Mozambique.

Mozambican authorities issued warnings on Thursday about the approaching storm, saying it could cause violent winds and rough seas of 10-metre waves and urging people to leave the area of expected impact.

Both Madagascar and Mozambique are vulnerable to destructive storms that blow in off the Indian Ocean. Just last month, the northwestern part of Madagascar was hit by Cyclone Fytia, killing at least 14 people.

Mozambique has already faced devastating flooding from seasonal rainfall, with nearly 140 lives lost since October 1, according to the country’s National Disasters Management Institute.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the military will work with the country’s police force to counter ‘gang wars’ that threaten ‘our democracy’.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he will deploy the army to work alongside the police to tackle high levels of gang violence and other crimes in the country.

Ramaphosa said on Thursday that he had directed the chiefs of the police and army to draw up a plan on where “our security forces should be deployed within the next few days in the Western Cape and in Gauteng to deal with gang violence and illegal mining”.

“Organised crime is now the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development,” the president said in his annual state of the nation address.

“Children here in the Western Cape are caught in the crossfire of gang wars. People are chased out of their homes by illegal miners in Gauteng,” he told Parliament in his address.

“I will be deploying the South African National Defence Force to support the police,” he said.

South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with approximately 60 deaths each day involving killings in wars between drug gangs in areas of Cape Town and mass shootings linked to illegal mining in Johannesburg’s Gauteng province.

The South African leader said other measures to fight crime include recruiting 5,500 police officers and boosting intelligence while identifying priority crime syndicates.

“The cost of crime is measured in lives that are lost and futures that are cut short. It is felt also in the sense of fear that permeates our society and in the reluctance of businesses to invest,” Ramaphosa said.

Crime syndicates

Guns are the most commonly used weapon in South Africa, according to authorities, and illegal firearms are used in many crimes, despite the stringent rules governing gun ownership in the country.

Authorities in South Africa have also long struggled to prevent gangs of miners from entering some of the 6,000 closed or abandoned mines in the gold-rich nation to search for remaining reserves.

The government claims that the miners, referred to as “zama zamas”, or “hustlers” in Zulu, are typically armed, undocumented foreign nationals who are involved in crime syndicates.

In 2024 alone, South Africa lost more than $3bn in gold to the illegal mine trade, according to authorities.

Ramaphosa also said authorities would pursue criminal charges against municipal officials who fail to deliver water to communities where shortages are among the main issues that anger most voters.

“Water outages are a symptom of a local ⁠government system that is not working,” the president said of the worsening water crisis resulting from a drying climate and consistent failures to maintain ⁠water pipes.

“We will hold to account those who neglect their responsibility to ⁠supply water to our people,” he said.

Residents of the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, held scattered protests this week after taps had been dry in some neighbourhoods for more than 20 days.

Ramaphosa also called out “powerful nations” who exert their “dominance and influence over less powerful states” and said South Africans could not consider themselves “free” as “long as the people of Palestine, Cuba, Sudan, Western Sahara and elsewhere suffer occupation, oppression and war”.

Ramaphosa, who became head of state in 2018, has led South Africa’s first-ever coalition government since ‌June 2024, when the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since ending apartheid 30 years earlier.

The coalition, which includes the pro-business Democratic Alliance, has helped restore confidence in Africa’s largest economy.

But widespread, persistent unemployment has not improved, and the government is under pressure to show it can improve service delivery.

On January 6, a group of 25 British members of parliament tabled a motion urging global sporting authorities to consider excluding the United States from hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup until it demonstrates compliance with international law. It followed weeks of mounting pressure across Europe over the political climate surrounding a tournament expected to draw millions of viewers and symbolising international cooperation.

Dutch broadcaster Teun van de Keuken has backed a public petition urging withdrawal from the competition while French parliamentarian Eric Coquerel has warned that participation risks legitimising policies he argued undermine international human rights standards.

Much of the scrutiny has focused on US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and broad assaults on civil liberties. The deaths of Minneapolis residents Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti during immigration enforcement operations in January triggered nationwide outrage and protests. In 2026, at least eight people have been shot by federal immigration agents or died in immigration detention.

These developments are serious, but they point to a broader question about power and accountability – one that extends beyond domestic repression and into the consequences of US policy abroad. The war in Gaza represents a far deeper emergency.

For decades, Washington has served as Israel’s most influential international ally, providing diplomatic protection, political backing and roughly $3.8bn in annual military assistance. That partnership finances and shapes the destruction now unfolding across Palestinian territory.

Since the day the war began on October 7, 2023, Israel’s military has killed more than 72,032 Palestinians, wounded 171,661 and destroyed or severely damaged the vast majority of Gaza’s housing, schools, hospitals, water systems and other basic civilian infrastructure. Nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s population – about 1.9 million people – has been displaced, many repeatedly, as bombardments move across the enclave. Meanwhile, Israeli forces and armed settlers have intensified raids, farmland seizures and sweeping movement restrictions across Palestinian communities in Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.

By many accounts, Israel is carrying out a genocide.

Across the African continent, this grave assault carries profound historical resonance because organised sports competitions have often been inseparable from liberation struggles.

On June 16, 1976, 15-year-old Hastings Ndlovu joined thousands of schoolchildren in Soweto protesting against the imposition of Afrikaans language education. By the end of the day, he was dead, shot by police as officers opened fire on unarmed pupils marching through their own neighbourhoods.

Hastings was murdered by a regime that viewed African children as political threats rather than students or even human beings. Police killed 575 youths and injured thousands more that day, yet the bloodshed failed to disrupt diplomatic and sporting relations between the apartheid state and several Western allies.

Weeks later, as families buried their children in solemn funerals, New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, landed at Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg on June 25, ready to play competitive matches inside the segregated republic.

The tour provoked fury among many young African governments. Within weeks, the backlash reached the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games in Canada. Twenty-two African countries withdrew after President Michael Morris and the International Olympic Committee chose not to act against New Zealand.

Athletes who had trained for years packed their bags and left the Olympic Village in Montreal, some after already competing. Morocco, Cameroon, Tunisia and Egypt began the Games before withdrawing as their delegations were urgently recalled by their governments.

Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia pulled out of the men’s football tournament, collapsing first-round fixtures at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium and Varsity Stadium mid-competition. Television viewers worldwide watched empty lanes and abandoned tracks replace what had been promoted as a global event. More than 700 athletes forfeited Olympic participation, including world-record holders Filbert Bayi (1,500 metres) of Tanzania and Uganda’s John Akii-Bua (400-metre hurdles).

African leaders recognised the scale of the decision. Nonetheless, they concluded that their countries’ Olympic participation would give “comfort and respectability to the South African racist regime and encourage it to continue to defy world opinion”.

That moment offers a defining lesson for 2026: Boycotts come at a cost. They demand sacrifice, coordination and political courage. History shows that collective refusal can redirect global attention and force both institutions and spectators to confront injustices they might otherwise overlook.

Nearly five decades later, Gaza presents a similar test amid a deepening and seemingly endless catastrophe.

Take what happened to Sidra Hassouna, a seven-year-old Palestinian girl from Rafah.

She was killed along with members of her family during an Israeli air strike on February 23, 2024, when the home they had sought shelter in was struck amid intense shelling in southern Gaza.

Sidra’s story mirrors thousands of others and reveals the same truth: childhoods erased by bombardment.

These killings have unfolded before a global audience. Unlike apartheid South Africa, Israel’s destruction of Gaza is being transmitted in real time, largely through Palestinian journalists and citizen reporters, nearly 300 of whom have been killed by Israeli air and artillery strikes.

At the same time, the US continues supplying Israel with weapons, diplomatic cover and veto protection at the United Nations. While Trump’s civil liberties abuses are serious, they are not comparable in scale to the devastation endured by Palestinians in Gaza.

The humanitarian toll is measured in destroyed hospitals, displaced families, enforced hunger and children buried beneath collapsed apartment blocks.

The central question now is whether football can present itself as a weeks-long celebration of sporting prowess across 16 host cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico from June to July while the United States continues to sustain large-scale civilian destruction abroad.

African political memory understands these stakes. The continent has witnessed how stadiums and international competitions can project political approval and how withdrawal can destroy that image.

A coordinated boycott would require joint decisions by governments representing the qualified teams – Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cape Verde and South Africa – supported by the African Union, regional institutions and the Confederation of African Football.

The consequences would be immediate.

The tournament would lose its claim to global inclusivity, and corporate sponsors would be compelled to confront questions they have long avoided.

Most importantly, international attention would shift.

Boycotts do not end conflicts overnight. They accomplish something different: They remove the comfort of pretending injustice does not exist. The 1976 Olympic withdrawal did not dismantle apartheid instantly, but it accelerated isolation and broadened the universal coalition opposing it.

At present, FIFA’s longstanding political contradictions intensify the need for external pressure. At the World Cup draw in Washington, DC, on December 5, its president, Gianni Infantino, awarded Trump a “peace prize” for his efforts to “promote peace and unity around the world”.

The organisation cannot portray itself as a neutral body while extending symbolic legitimacy to a leader overseeing mass civilian death.

In that context, nonparticipation becomes a critical moral position.

It would not immediately end Gaza’s calamity, but it would challenge US support for the sustained military onslaught and honour children like Hastings and Sidra.

Although separated by decades and continents, their lives reveal a shared historical pattern: Children suffer first when imperial systems determine that Black and Brown lives hold absolutely no value.

Africa’s stand in 1976 reshaped international resistance to apartheid. A comparable decision in 2026 could strengthen opposition to contemporary systems of domination and signal to families in Gaza that their suffering is recognised across the continent.

History remembers those who reject injustice – and who choose comfort while children die under relentless air strikes and occupation.

If African teams compete in the 2026 World Cup as if nothing is happening in Gaza City, Rafah, Khan Younis, Jenin and Hebron, their involvement risks legitimising colonial power structures.

While European critics urge authorities to exclude the US, our history demands a complete withdrawal.

Football cannot be played on the graves of Palestinian martyrs.

Africa must boycott the 2026 World Cup.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

In 1994, Rwanda was devastated when Hutu leaders orchestrated a systematic genocide against the Tutsi population – violence rooted in decades of engineered ethnic division and political manipulation designed to fracture the country. In the span of 100 days, nearly a million lives were taken, leaving communities destroyed and neighbours turned into enemies.

Decades later, the nation continues the difficult task of rebuilding trust. This episode follows Karenzi, a former perpetrator who was allowed to return to his village through the Gacaca courts, Rwanda’s traditional community tribunals. Under this system, reintegration depended not on serving long prison terms, but on openly confessing crimes, acknowledging the truth and seeking forgiveness from survivors. Karenzi’s path forces him to confront the weight of his actions and to engage directly with those who carry the memory of what he did.

As Karenzi and Murakatete begin to speak to each other, the episode witnesses how truth-telling, accountability, and the willingness to listen create a space for mutual healing, in the spirit of Mvura Nkuvure: “I heal you, you heal me.” Through their shared effort, the film explores how Rwanda’s reconciliation process continues to evolve, shaped by the people who dare to face one another after unimaginable loss.

A film by Fatima Lianes

David Miller’s batting heroics in the second super over got South Africa over the line against Afghanistan in Ahmedabad.

South Africa edged Afghanistan in a second super over following a dramatic Group D game on Wednesday that was tied after regulation at cricket’s T20 World Cup.

Fazalhaq Farooqi’s runout ended Afghanistan’s chance to win it in regulation with a ball to spare, leaving both teams tied on 187.

Afghanistan posted 17 in the first super over, and Farooqi was in position to win it again, restricting South Africa to 11 runs with one ball remaining, until Tristan Stubbs plundered a six to level the scores again.

South Africa batted first in the second tiebreaker, posting 23 with David Miller and Stubbs combining for three sixes.

Keshav Maharaj gave South Africa control with a wicket and two dot balls to start the second super over, leaving Afghanistan needing 24 from four balls – or four sixes.

Enter Rahmanullah Gurbaz. With nothing to lose, the big-hitting opener – who earlier blazed 84 from 42 as Afghanistan chased South Africa’s target of 187-6 – hit three consecutive sixes to get the required runs down to six off one delivery.

A wide from Maharaj lowered the target to 5 from one delivery and raised the prospect of yet another tiebreaker, but the South Africa spinner rebounded by having Gurbaz caught at backward point on the next delivery. It was game over.

Lungi Ngidi, who took 3-26 during the match and then bowled the first of the super overs, was voted player of the match.

“I’ve lost so much weight today. I’ve never been that stressed in my life in a cricket game,” he said. “Being able to win two super overs with our hitters hitting like that … very happy.”

South Africa earlier beat Canada in their opening match. Afghanistan have lost both their group matches after an opening loss to New Zealand and are unlikely to progress to the Super Eights from a group containing three highly-ranked teams. Only the top two teams in each of the four groups will advance.