Know Afrika

Puntland and the United States signed a new security cooperation agreement Sunday, August 3, 2026, following a meeting in Bosaso between Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni and a delegation from US Africa Command led by Major General Claude Tudor, allowing Washington to expand its military facility in the port city to support counterterrorism operations and strengthen maritime security across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. In my opinion, this is one of the more consequential security agreements to come out of the Horn of Africa in recent years, even if the official statement is deliberately modest about what it actually involves. The U.S Ambassador to Somalia Justin Davis met Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni in Garowe back in may 21, 2026. What the Agreement Covers According to a statement from the Puntland presidency, the agreement expands cooperation between the two sides and formally authorizes the US to enlarge its existing facility in Bosaso. The statement did not specif...

Five Kenyan security officers, including four members of the elite Special Operations Group, were killed Tuesday, July 28, 2026, after their patrol vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Mandera County, in what officials describe as part of a rapid surge in cross-border attacks along Kenya's northern frontier . Members of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) deployed to the border at undislcosed time. How the Attack Unfolded The explosion struck in the El-Raamo area of Kutulo, along the Alungu Main Supply Route, a road frequently used by security forces near the Kenya-Somalia border. Police said a patrol team from SOG Alungu came into contact with al-Shabaab militants in the general area of Wantey Dam around noon on Tuesday . The blast destroyed the patrol vehicle, killing four Special Operations Group officers and a Kenya Police Reservist. Moments after the explosion, suspected militants opened fire, triggering a gun battle before the attackers escaped toward the border. A R...

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday in Vogan, a town roughly 60 kilometers south of Lomé, to protest against Togo's 2024 constitutional reform , which opposition groups and civil society organizations call an illegal power grab by President Faure Gnassingbé. People protest against Togo's longtime leader, Faure Gnassingbe, in Lome, Togo June 26, 2025. What Happened in Vogan The rally, organized by opposition parties and civil society groups including the Cadre national de concertation pour le changement, opened with a traditional libation ceremony before opposition leaders joined supporters in singing Togo's national anthem. The gathering drew participation from prominent figures, among them lawyer Dodji Apévon, activist Eric Dupuy, and professors Aimé Gogué and David Dosseh . David Dosseh, spokesperson for the civil society group Front Citoyen Togo Debout, called the 2024 changes completely illegal, describing them as a constitutional coup that Togolese people will never...

CAPE TOWN-South Africa's annual consumer inflation accelerated to 5.0% in June 2026, up from 4.5% in May, marking the highest reading since June 2024 . In my opinion, this number is a fairly clean illustration of how little control a country like South Africa actually has over its own cost of living. A woman uses a trolley as she shops at a Pick n Pay store at the Dobson Point Shopping Centre, in Soweto, South Africa, March 19, 2024.  Fuel Is Doing Most of the Damage Statistics South Africa said transport was by far the biggest driver of the increase, with the annual transport inflation rate accelerating to 12.7% in June from 9.4% in May. Fuel prices themselves climbed 34.3% over the past year, driven by a 50.8% jump in diesel prices and a 31.7% rise in petrol prices . From my perspective, that surge into passenger transport inflation, up 8.1% in June alone, is the part of this story that matters most, since minibus taxi fares jumped 11.5% and that's the mode of transport mos...

The international community has intensified its rebuke of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) following firm determinations regarding the deployment of prohibited munitions. Official evaluations conclude that the military leadership under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan utilized chemical weapons in clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention . Despite dismissive responses and rejections from Port Sudan authorities, global oversight bodies and diplomatic offices have stood firm on the necessity of accountability, transparency, and strict adherence to international humanitarian law. Sudanese army soldiers celebrate in Salha, south of Omdurman, two days after the Sudanese army recaptured it from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on May 22, 2025. Defying International Conventions and Global Norms The core of the current international crisis centers on compliance with foundational treaties designed to protect humanity from the horrific impacts of toxic warfare. The U.S. State Departme...

Between June 20 and 22, 2026, more than 140 millimetres of rain fell in parts of Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, and Nigeria within a single 24-hour period overwhelming drainage systems, submerging roads, and triggering flash floods from Lagos to Monrovia. At least 34 people died in Ghana, where June rainfall reached its highest level since 1995, while Côte d'Ivoire recorded 59 deaths since the rainy season began in May . In Accra, emergency teams rescued more than 400 people in a single day as floodwaters entered homes across the capital. Residents walk in a flooded area during rescue operations in Maiduguri, northern Borno state, Nigeria September 12, 2024. What the Science Found A World Weather Attribution study published in July 2026 found that human-induced climate change significantly increased the likelihood and intensity of the extreme rainfall event that triggered the June flooding across the Gulf of Guinea coast . The research, conducted by scientists from Côte d'Ivo...

There is a number that puts everything else in context: 70 percent. By January 2026, it was estimated that 70 percent of Sudan's population approximately 35 million people urgently needed humanitarian assistance , making Sudan the most catastrophic active humanitarian crisis on earth. That number did not emerge from a natural disaster. It was produced by a civil war whose duration, intensity, and resistance to resolution has been systematically prolonged by four regional powers Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt whose overlapping interventions have made every ceasefire attempt structurally impossible to sustain. A Sudanese girl who fled the conflict in Darfur, where she had lived as a displaced person, moves past makeshift shelters near the border of Sudan and Chad. Turkey: Weapons to Both Sides, Accountability to Neither Turkey's involvement in Sudan has evolved into one of the most legally and strategically significant external interventions in the conflict . Turkish fir...

  NAIROBI, Kenya Kenya's High Court on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, dismissed a petition by the Rastafari Society of Kenya seeking to legalize cannabis for religious purposes, ruling that the community had failed to prove the country's drug laws violate its constitutional right to freedom of religion. A Rastafarian smokes as they gather outside Milimani Law Courts, after the high court dismisses a Rastafarian case seeking to legalize marijuana, in Nairobi, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. What the Court Ruled Justice Bahati Mwamuye said Kenya's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act does not unconstitutionally infringe on Rastafarians' religious freedom, and that granting an exemption would require a firmer constitutional and legal foundation than the petitioners presented. The judge noted that while all witnesses agreed cannabis functions as a sacrament in Rastafarian worship, they could not agree on whether its use is essential or merely preferred a distin...

A government strategy is only as credible as the infrastructure behind it. Abu Dhabi's $3.54 billion commitment to become the world's first AI-native government by 2027 has attracted attention for its ambition. What has attracted less attention is the specific, documented, and already-operational infrastructure architecture that makes the target more than a press release. The delivery chain behind the DGE's Government Digital Strategy for 2025-2027 involves Microsoft, G42, OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, SoftBank, and Cisco and it is already being built. Omar Al Olama, the UAE's Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy and Remote Working making a speech on Dubai increasingly becoming a global centre for artificial intelligence. Stargate UAE: Nation-Scale Compute Stargate UAE, a one-gigawatt compute cluster being built by G42 and operated by OpenAI and Oracle, with NVIDIA supplying Grace Blackwell GB300 systems, SoftBank as a strategic partner, and Cisco providing zero-trust se...

It started with a forged letter. It ended with a fictitious government council securing office space at Nigeria's Federal Secretariat, opening bank accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, appearing in the 2026 national budget with an allocation of ₦1.3 billion approximately $944,300 and operating for over a year before anyone in the government formally raised an alarm. The story of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council is not just a tale of individual fraud. It is a forensic map of exactly how Nigeria's institutional oversight fails. Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, PFIPC's director general. The Man Behind the Council Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew presented himself as the Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, claiming the agency had been established in 2024 to attract foreign investment to Nigeria . To support that claim, he produced an appointment letter bearing the name of Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gba...

Reports emerging on social media describe fresh violence in Dunnottar, Ekurhuleni, on July 9, 2026, as tensions between South African residents and Ethiopian and Somali nationals boiled over once again. According to circulating accounts, South African residents refused to surrender the town to foreign nationals, with Ethiopians and Somalians reportedly demanding that local South Africans leave the area. Violence broke out between the two communities as the standoff escalated. Anti-immigration protest in Durban, South Africa, on June 30, 2026. Dunnottar Has Been Here Before This is not Dunnottar's first flashpoint. In May 2026, residents took to the streets demanding law enforcement verify the legal status of foreign nationals and inspect their shops , following the alleged killing of a local teenager identified as Lesedi, who residents believe was beaten to death in February by a group of undocumented foreign nationals. Eight undocumented immigrants were arrested during those prot...