HGE NEWS

Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus‑stricken cruise ship MV Hondius began flying home on military and government aircraft after the vessel anchored in Tenerife, with one American testing positive and a French traveler developing symptoms during their separate repatriation flights on Sunday. Evacuations under tight biosecurity after ship docks in Tenerife Seventeen Americans were flown out, and U.S. officials confirmed that one tested positive for hantavirus despite showi

A passenger aboard the MV Hondius has made an emotional appeal from the quarantined cruise ship, as it remains anchored off Cape Verde following a deadly suspected hantavirus outbreak. Jake Rosmarin, speaking from onboard, described the fear and uncertainty facing those still confined to the vessel. “What’s happening right now is very real for all of us here. We’re not just a story, we’re not headlines, we are people — people with families, with lives, with people waiting for

Djibouti began counting votes Friday in a presidential election expected to hand a sixth term to 78-year-old Ismail Omar Guelleh, who faces just one little-known opponent in the small but highly strategic Horn of Africa nation. Guelleh has ruled the east African country of about one million people for 27 years with an iron grip, leveraging its key location to turn it into an international military and maritime hub. Its mere 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) host m

One of the principal figures convicted in an infamous 2009 stadium massacre in Guinea died in custody Wednesday in the capital Conakry, the west African country's prison service said. Aboubakar Sidiki Diakité, known as Toumba Diakité, was serving a 10-year sentence for his role in the September 2009 killing of 156 people and the rape of at least 109 women by pro-junta forces under then-dictator Moussa Dadis Camara. He is at least the second person convicted in connection with

A former holding company of United States-sanctioned Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler is paying $30 billion to settle a Dutch corruption investigation over mining deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Netherlands-registered firm, Fleurette, has been under investigation since 2018. Investigations have been looking at whether Fleurette, which served as the holding company for the Gertler group, and commodities group Glencore paid bribes for copper and cobalt mining righ

Although it is an oil producing country, Nigeria is highly vulnerable to price fluctuations linked to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. But in order to avoid shortages, the nation can rely upon billionaire Aliko Dangote’s refinery in Lagos, which is capable of processing some 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day. On Tuesday, the refinery slashed the price of gasoline and diesel in line with the overall price of crude oil. Prices are now 1,075 naira per liter of gasoline and 1,430

Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in northern Morocco due to heavy rains and flooding. It was through a call from her local mosque's loudspeakers that Kasia El Selami learnt it was time to flee as floodwaters rose in her Moroccan village of Ouled Ameur. Selami is among more than 150,000 people to have been evacuated over the past week as heavy rainfall battered provinces in Morocco's north. "We felt immense fear... especially for our children", sai

More than 640,000 people affected by catastrophic Mozambique floods Catastrophic flooding across Mozambique has affected more than 640,000 people, authorities say, with more than half of those in Gaza province. The regional capital Xai-Xai is submerged and fears of hunger and disease are mounting. Local authorities are coordinating with the country’s relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD), to ensure aid reaches those in need. "In less than 24 hours,

The wife of Ugandan opposition politician Bobi Wine has been speaking to journalists from her hospital bed in Kampala, describing what she says was an overnight raid on her home by soldiers searching for her husband. Barbra Itungo Kyagulanyi said she was strangled and held at gunpoint during the raid. "One of the main reasons was to look for my husband because his phone has been home. I switched it on yesterday because there is a password I was looking for and then that was l

China's top diplomat on Saturday warned against any foreign interference in Tanzania in the wake of its contested election late last year. In a statement shared at the end of an official visit, Wang Yi, congratulated the country for what he described as the "successful conduct" of the polls. "China reiterated its full confidence in Tanzania's leadership and institutions to manage internal affairs independently," it added. The legislative and presidential elections saw Samia S