Daughter of S. Africa ex-president accused of recruiting for Russian forces.

South African police are investigating claims that a daughter of ex-president Jacob Zuma was involved in recruiting men to join Russian mercenaries in the Ukraine war, they said Sunday.

The allegations against Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, an MP in her father’s MK political party, were made by one of her sisters in an affidavit asking for a formal investigation, police said.

It claims Zuma-Sambudla and two other people were involved in recruiting 17 South Africans whom the presidency said this month it had been asked to be rescued from Ukraine’s war-ravaged Donbas region.

It was alleged the “men were lured to Russia under false pretences and handed to a Russian mercenary group to fight in the Ukrainian war without their knowledge or consent,” the statement said.

The case had been handed to a special police unit that investigates crimes against the state to determine the charges.

The presidency said in early November it had been asked to bring home the 17 men who were allegedly “trapped” in Donbas after being lured there “under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts”.

The war that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has drawn in mercenaries on both sides, including from several African countries.

Reports in South African media said the men were allegedly sent to Russia for security training by the opposition MK party, which is headed by Zuma, the president between 2009 and 2018.

It is illegal for South Africans to join foreign armies unless authorised by the government.

There will be no US delegation at the closing ceremony of the G20 Leaders’ Summit on Sunday despite a last-minute request from Washington to accommodate members of its local mission at the event, according to well-placed SA government officials.

Armed men abduct children and staff at a #Catholic school in #Nigeria, days after latest abduction.


The attack and abductions took place at St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in Agwara local government’s Papiri community, said Abubakar Usman, the secretary to the Niger state government. He did not disclose the number of students and staff abducted, nor who might be responsible for the attack.

Local media broadcaster Arise TV said 52 schoolchildren were abducted.

The Niger State Police Command said the abductions took place in the early hours of Friday and that military and security forces have since been deployed to the community. It described St. Mary’s is a secondary school, which serves children between the ages of in 12 and 17.

The statement by the secretary to the Niger state government said the incident occurred despite prior intelligence warning of heightened threats.

“Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk,” it read.

The abductions took place days after gunmen on Monday attacked a high school and abducted 25 schoolgirls in the neighboring Kebbi state, in Maga, around 170 kilometres (105 miles) from Papiri. One the girls later escaped and is safe, the school’s principal said.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu postponed his trip to this weekend’s Group of 20 summit after promising to intensify rescue efforts.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Niger and Kebbi state, but analysts and locals say gangs often target schools, travelers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransom. Authorities say the gunmen are mostly former herders who have taken up arms against farming communities after clashes between them over strained resources.

Abductions have come to define the insecurity prevailing in Africa’s most populous nation and the painful consequences.

At least 1,500 students have been abducted in the region since Boko Haram jihadi extremists seized 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago. But bandits are also active in the region, and analysts say gangs often target schools to gain attention.

Nigeria was recently thrust into the spotlight after U.S. President Donald Trump singled the country out, stating that Christians are being persecuted — an allegation that the government rejected.

Analysts and residents blame the insecurity on a failure to prosecute known attackers, and the rampant corruption that limits weapons supplies to security forces while ensuring a steady supply to the gangs.

A satellite view shows the school compound, rectangular in shape, surrounded by a wall and attached to an adjoining primary school, with over 50 classroom and dormitory buildings. It is located on the outskirts of the town of Aguara, near the main Yelwa-Mokwa road.

Dyepkazah Shibayan, The Associated Press

At least 32 people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (#DRC), according to officials, after a bridge at a copper and cobalt mine collapsed due to overcrowding.

DR #Congo mine collapse kills at least 32: official, The bridge came down Saturday onto a flooded zone at the mine in Lualaba province, Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the provincial interior minister, told reporters. He said 32 bodies had been recovered and more were being searched for.

The DRC produces more than 70 per cent of the world supply of cobalt, which is essential for batteries used in electric cars, many laptop computers and mobile phones.

More than 200,000 people are estimated to be working in giant illegal cobalt mines in the giant central African country.

Local authorities said the bridge collapsed at the Kalando mine, about 42 kilometres (26 miles) southeast of the Lualaba provincial capital, Kolwezi.

“Despite a formal ban on access to the site because of the heavy rain and the risk of a landslide, wildcat miners forced their way into the quarry,” said Mayonde.

He said that miners rushing across the makeshift bridge, built to get across a flooded trench, made it collapse.

A report by the SAEMAPE government agency which monitors and helps mining co-operatives said that the presence of soldiers at the Kalando mine had caused a panic.

The report said the mine had been at the heart of a longstanding dispute between the wildcat miners, a cooperative that was meant to organize digging there and the site’s legal operators, who were said to have Chinese involvement.

The miners who fell “piled on top of each other causing the deaths and injuries”, the report said.

Images sent to AFP by the provincial office of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) showed miners digging out bodies from the trench, with at least 17 bodies laid out on the ground nearby.

CNDH provincial coordinator Arthur Kabulo told AFP that more than 10,000 wildcat miners operated at Kalando. Provincial authorities suspended operations at the site on Sunday.

Accusations over the use of child labour, dangerous conditions and corruption have long cast a shadow over the DRC’s cobalt mining industry.

The DRC’s mineral wealth has also been at the heart of a conflict that has ravaged the country’s east for more than three decades.

#Islamic State-backed rebels kill 17 in eastern Congo hospital attack.

The attack by the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, took place in the village of Byambwe, in the Lubero territory of North Kivu province on Friday night, Col. Alain Kiwewa, the local administrator, told The Associated Press.

“Women who were breastfeeding were brutally slaughtered and found with their throats slit in their hospital beds,” Kiwewa said, adding that 11 women and six men were killed.

The rebels also attacked other villages, said Samuel Kakule Kagheni, a civil society leader in the Manzya area, which includes Byambwe, but could not confirm the number of casualties there.

Armed groups have carried out several deadly attacks in eastern Congo, including the ADF and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The ADF, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019, operates along the border with Uganda and often targets civilians.

In August, ADF fighters killed at least 52 people during several attacks in the same week, according to the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo.

The group also killed nearly 40 people in Ituri province in July, when it stormed a Catholic church during a vigil and opened fire on worshippers, including many women and children.

The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following discontent with President Yoweri Museveni. In 2002, following Ugandan military strikes, the group moved to neighbouring Congo and has been blamed for the killings of thousands of civilians.

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Justin Kabumba, The Associated Press

#Britain and South Africa have handed back to Ghana more than 130 gold and bronze artefacts taken between the 1870s and early 20th century, the West #African state’s Asante king announced.

#Senegal’s president and the political party he belongs to have issued conflicting statements over the leadership of the ruling coalition, a clear sign of dissension among top leaders amid drawn-out talks with the International Monetary Fund.

Sudan relief operations are ‘on the brink of collapse,’ UN migration agency warns.

“Despite the rising need, humanitarian operations are now on the brink of collapse,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement. It added: “Warehouses are nearly empty, aid convoys face significant insecurity, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid.”

The IOM said more funding is needed to ease the humanitarian impact of the war between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The agency warned of “an even greater catastrophe” if its appeal went unheeded.

“Our teams are responding, but insecurity and depleted supplies mean we are only reaching a fraction of those in need,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement.

The RSF’s recent capture of North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, left hundreds dead and forced tens of thousands of people to flee reported atrocities by the paramilitary force, according to aid groups and UN officials. The IOM said nearly 9O,000 people have left el-Fasher and surrounding villages, undertaking a perilous journey through unsafe routes where they have no access to food, water or medical assistance.

Tens of thousands have arrived at overcrowded displacement camps in Tawila, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from el-Fasher. In the camps, the displaced find themselves in barren areas with few tents and insufficient food and medical supplies.

#Lebanese bar owner killed by Russian mercenary in #Mali. The Russian had spent time last Wednesday to Thursday night in the bar in the capital’s Badalabougou district alongside other mercenaries, before firing three shots at point-blank range at the owner.

The exact circumstances were not immediately clear, with a member of the civil protection service telling AFP it occurred after the Russian was told to leave.

“When our teams arrived on the scene, the wounded man had already lost a lot of blood,” the civil protection service member said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

The victim was taken to hospital where he died on Thursday.

“He ultimately died despite attempts to remove the bullets from his skull,” a hospital source told AFP.

The allied Malian army and Africa Corps mercenaries are regularly accused of committing atrocities against civilians.

A leader of the Lebanese community in Mali told AFP that “not a week goes by without atrocities” committed by the mercenaries, alleging that Malian authorities were trying to cover up the affair.

After Mali turned its back on its former colonial ruler France, it drew closer to Russia and its Wagner security group, which later was replaced by Africa Corps, in its fight against jihadists.