Zambia

After months of dispute, Pretoria high court says Edgar Lungu’s family must hand over his body for burial in Zambia, against their wishes.

A South African court has ruled that Zambia’s former president, Edgar Lungu, who died in South Africa, should be buried in Zambia against his family’s wishes.

Lungu’s burial has been the subject of a two-month dispute between Zambia’s government, which had planned a state funeral for him in Lusaka, and his family, who wanted him buried in South Africa.

Lungu, Zambia’s head of state from 2015 to 2021, died in South Africa on June 5 while receiving medical treatment.

South Africa’s high court halted plans for Lungu to be buried in Johannesburg on June 25, hours before a private ceremony was due to start.

Zambia’s government had approached the court arguing that Lungu should be given a state funeral and buried at a designated site in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, like all other presidents since independence from the United Kingdom in 1964.

Lungu’s family said the late leader did not want the current president, Hakainde Hichilema – a longstanding political rival and his successor – at his funeral.

On Friday, a high court judge in Pretoria said Lungu’s body should “immediately” be handed over to a representative of Zambia’s court system for repatriation and burial in Lusaka.

“A former president’s personal wishes or the wishes of his family cannot outweigh the right of the state to honour that individual with a state funeral,” the court said.

Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha, who was at the court, said the government appreciated the judge’s ruling.

Lungu’s sister, Bertha Lungu, also at the court, was in tears after the judgement was read out.

Lungu’s Patriotic Front party said the family had “filed an appeal against the judgement”.

Lungu was elected to lead the copper-rich Southern African country in 2015, but lost elections six years later to Hichilema, from the United Party for National Development.

Since then, his wife and children have been charged with corruption and possession of suspected proceeds of crime, in what the family has claimed is part of a political vendetta.

Lungu’s daughter, Tasila Lungu, was arrested in February on money laundering charges, having previously been detained with her mother and sister on fraud charges in 2024.

Her brother, Dalitso, is also facing corruption charges.

The United States Department of State has announced the first foreign citizens to be subject to bonds of up to $15,000 should they visit the country on tourist visas.

On Tuesday, Zambia and Malawi, both African countries, were the inaugural entries on a list of countries that the State Department will subject to visa bonds.

The idea, announced earlier this week, is to impose bonds on countries whose citizens have high rates of overstaying their US visas.

Tourists from those countries would have to pay an amount ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 at the time of their visa interview to enter the US. Then, if the tourist departs on or before their visa’s expiration, that amount would be refunded to them.

The money would also be returned if the visa were cancelled, if the travel does not occur, or if the tourist is denied entry into the US.

Should a tourist overstay their visa — or apply for asylum or another immigration-related programme while in the US — the federal government would keep the money.

More countries, in addition to Malawi and Zambia, are expected to be added to the list. The bond requirement is slated to take effect for those two countries starting on August 20.

“This targeted, common-sense measure reinforces the administration’s commitment to US immigration law while deterring visa overstays,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump has taken a hardline approach to immigration since his return to office in January for a second term.

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order called “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”, which denounced the “unprecedented flood of illegal immigration” into the US.

It pledged to forcefully execute US immigration laws. That executive order was ultimately cited as the basis for the new visa bonds.

The bonds are part of a pilot programme announced on Monday, slated to last 12 months.

“This [temporary final rule] addresses the Trump Administration’s call to protect the American people by faithfully executing the immigration laws of the United States,” a filing to the Federal Register reads.

Every year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releases a report about visa overstays in the US.

The most recent report, released in 2024, found that there were 565,155 visa overstays for fiscal year 2023. That amounted to only 1.45 percent of the total non-immigrant admissions into the US.

“In other words, 98.55 percent of the in-scope nonimmigrant visitors departed the United States on-time and in accordance with the terms of their admission,” the report explains.

In its breakdown of country-by-country overstay rates, the report indicated that both Malawi and Zambia had relatively high visa overstay rates, at 14.3 and 11.1 percent, respectively.

But Zambia and Malawi are both smaller countries with relatively few tourism- or business-related arrivals in the US.

According to the report, only 1,655 people arrived from Malawi in fiscal year 2023 for business or pleasure. Of that total, 237 overstayed their visas.

Meanwhile, 3,493 people arrived from Zambia for tourism or business during the same time frame. Of that total, 388 surpassed their visa limits.

Those numbers are dwarfed by the sheer numbers from larger, more populous countries with larger consumer bases. An estimated 20,811 Brazilians stayed in the US longer than their tourism or business visas allowed, for instance, and 40,884 overstays were from Colombia.

Critics have also pointed out that the newly imposed bonds put travel to the US — already a pricey prospect — further out of reach for residents of poorer countries.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, was among those that denounced the new bond scheme as discriminatory. It described the system as a form of exploitation — a “legalised shakedown” — in a statement on Tuesday.

“This is not about national security,” said Robert McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs director. “It’s about weaponising immigration policy to extort vulnerable visitors, punish disfavored countries, and turn America’s welcome mat into a paywall.”

Citizens of countries that are part of the US’s visa waiver programmes are not subject to the visa bonds unveiled this week.

Nigeria cruised into the semi-finals of the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations with a statement 5-0 victory over Zambia in Casablanca.

The Copper Queens had been expected to pose a tough challenge for the record nine-time champions, but were blown away by a stunning performance which was underlined by clinical finishing.

The West Africans never looked back after centre-back Osinachi Ohale was left unmarked at a free-kick in the second minute and headed past Petronella Musole.

Grace Chanda missed a glorious chance to equalise on the half hour mark and three minutes later Nigeria doubled their lead through a fine finish from the impressive Esther Okoronkwo.

Chinwendu Ihezuo capitalised on hesitancy in the Zambia defence to make it 3-0 to the Super Falcons on the stroke of half-time with a composed finish.

Oluwatosin Demehin nodded in the fourth from another pinpoint free-kick delivery midway through the second half at the Larbi Zaouli Stadium, and Folashade Ijamilusi rounded off the scoring in the first minute of stoppage time.

Zambia had beaten Nigeria to finish third at the 2022 finals, yet their formidable strike partnership of Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji – who had scored three goals apiece in the group stage – failed to register a shot on target between them.

Nigeria, who are still yet to concede a goal at this year’s finals, will face either defending champions South Africa or Senegal in the semi-finals on Tuesday (16:00 GMT).

Those two sides meet in the last eight in Oujda on Saturday at 19:00 GMT.

The atmosphere inside the Olympic Stadium in Rabat was crackling with anticipation ahead of kick-off between Morocco and Senegal and, for the first time this tournament, there was not a spare seat to be seen.

Pounding drums helped lift the volume further, while giant Moroccan flags waved in a stiff breeze that made conditions far cooler once the sun went down.

But fans hoping to be entertained by two teams who had found goalscoring easy in their first two group games were left disappointed by a stop-start affair that often threatened to become ill-tempered.

While the decision for Mrabet’s goal was the most important intervention of the evening, the assistant referees’ flags also played a key role.

Both teams had the ball in the net during the 90 minutes, only to see the goals ruled out by a late flags for offside. Jraidi and Senegal forward Nguenar Ndiaye also saw the flag go up following good chances they failed to finish.

While most of those offside decisions were clear, VAR had to intervene again in added time at the end of the game after Morocco captain Ghizlane Chebbak found the back of the net.

Referee Nabadda was also busy keeping discipline in what developed into a niggly affair, issuing a total of seven yellow cards.

While Senegal huffed and puffed, the West Africans never really looked like creating much in the way of clear chances.

The hosts always looked the superior footballing side and saw Chebbak and Jraidi also spurn excellent opportunities that were onside.

Topping the group means Morocco stay in the capital for their quarter-final on Friday, while Zambia remain in Mohammedia for their clash the same day.

If Senegal do manage to progress, the Lionesses of Teranga will travel to Oujda to take on the winners of Group C next Saturday.

Banda, 25, came into the tournament off the back of a stellar 12 months which saw her also named BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year, score the winning goal for club side Orlando Pride in the National Women’s Soccer League Championship final, and become Africa’s all-time leading scorer – male or female – in Olympic football.

However, she had been forced to wait a long time to make her mark at a Wafcon.

An unused member of the Copper Queens squad in 2018, she saw the 2020 edition cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and missed out in 2022 amid confusion over ‘gender eligibility’ rules, with the situation later resolved.

But her first contribution on African football’s biggest stage caused obvious fear in the Moroccan rearguard, with three defenders backing off as Banda carried the ball from the halfway line to the edge of the box.

Her shot was on target but should have been saved by goalkeeper Khadija Er-Rmichi, who somehow allowed it to squirm past her to provide a truly electric start.

But Morocco, who dominated with over 70% of possession throughout the game, were not behind for long.

Play was initially waved on by referee Shamirah Nabadda following a clumsy challenge inside the box by Grace Chanda on fellow midfielder Najat Badri, but the video assistant referee advised Nabadda to go to the monitor and the Ugandan duly overturned her original decision.

Jraidi made no mistake from the spot, hitting the ball high into the net to level proceedings in the 12th minute, lifting the volume inside the Olympic Stadium, the venue which will also host the final on 26 July.

Orlando Pride forward Banda then showed her class again 15 minutes later, finding time on the ball to slide a defence-splitting pass into the path of another player based in the USA, Bay FC’s Racheal Kundananji, Africa’s most expensive player, who finished calmly past Er-Rmichi.

And deep in first-half injury time, Banda looked set to tap home another goal at the back post, only to see Morocco full-back Hanane Ait El Haj pull off an amazing headed clearance from her own goal line.