Author: damazah@gmail.com

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) says 26 persons have been rescued alive, while eight persons, including a baby girl, have died following the collapse of a three-storey shopping complex in the Alakija area of Lagos. LASEMA disclosed this in an update issued on Thursday, confirming the figures as of 4:20 p.m. The agency added that search and rescue operations were still ongoing, with emergency responders continuing efforts to locate and extricate any additional victims trapped beneath the rubble. The building collapsed earlier on Thursday in Alakija, Ori-Ade Local Council Development Area, prompting the activation of a multi-agency emergency…

Demonstrators mark the second anniversary of a 2024 protest where 60 people were killed by security forces.Published On 25 Jun 202625 Jun 2026Kenyan police have dispersed protesters in the capital and detained others who took to the streets in memory of the demonstrators who were killed in anti-government rallies against tax rises two years ago.Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said on Thursday that a total of 355 people were arrested in various parts of the country. He called those detained “criminals” and apologised for the use of barricades and other security measures aimed at containing the protests.Recommended Stories list of 3…

By Cynthia Alo The Cocoa and Coffee Farmers Alliance Association of Africa (COCEFAAA) has called for a unified African cocoa producers’ bloc and a minimum floor price of not less than $6,000 per metric tonne, to coordinate production and strengthen bargaining power for farmers across the continent. The association said the measures would help end Africa’s dependence on commodity exchanges in London and New York, which continue to influence global cocoa pricing. Global President of COCEFAAA, Comrade Adeola Adegoke, made the call in a statement, while commending the successful hosting of the 7th Steering Committee of the Côte d’Ivoire–Ghana Cocoa Initiative…

In Nigerian e-commerce, most deals run into the same standoff: the buyer is reluctant to pay a  stranger, and the seller is reluctant to ship without payment. It is a deadlock that quietly kills  countless transactions before they happen, and it is the problem EscrowPay, which launches on  26 June 2026, has been built to solve.  EscrowPay is a WhatsApp-native escrow service for Nigerian buyers and sellers. It holds a  buyer’s payment securely until an order is delivered, then releases the funds to the seller, removing the need for either party to trust the other upfront. Its founder and CEO, Toye …

Laleye Dipo in Minna The Niger State House of Assembly is embroiled in crisis in what political observers said was a fallout of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Primary election, where candidates of the party for next year’s election were picked. During the election, 19 out of the 27 member house including the deputy speaker, Mrs Affiniki Dauda , all APC members did not receive the tickets to contest the 2027 election. The legislators blamed their defeats on Governor Umar bago, who allegedly betrayed them after giving assurances that they would all be returned without opposition. The governor, it was…

An image of the 2024 total solar eclipseAllexxandar/Alamy On 12 August, a total solar eclipse will sweep across parts of Europe and the Atlantic ocean as the moon passes between Earth and the sun, blocking out sunlight. Parts of the US and Africa, along with the entire UK and much of Europe and Canada, will see a partial solar eclipse. Where can I see the eclipse? Totality, which occurs when the moon lines up perfectly with the disc of the sun and blocks it out entirely, will begin in Russia around midday before sweeping eastward across the Arctic ocean. It…

Key eventsPablo, Jeff and Alex have now signed off. Thank you for all the brilliant questions. Join our reporters now for live coverage of Germany v Ecuador and Curaçao and Côte d’Ivoire in Group E.ShareIs football fever hitting the USA now they won their group?Stooze asks: As the USA have won the group and qualified well, is there a sense of growing interest in wider American society? Are the team getting more mentions on the news bulletins, chat shows, and general discussion? What’s the view/feeling of the wider US public right now? double quotation markAlex: It’s not exactly night and…

Layers of overpaint have been removed from a 17th-century painting, confirming that it was painted by Rembrandt and revealing that a turban on one of the figures had been replaced with a traditional Dutch soft cap.A later anonymous hand had amended or sanitised Rembrandt’s original, apparently misunderstanding that its biblical theme – “Let the Little Children Come Unto Me” – is about tolerance, with Christ blessing children as well as adults. In the gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus rebukes his disciples for turning away parents who brought their children to him: “Suffer [allow] little children, and forbid them not, to…

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has rescheduled the hearing of an appeal challenging the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party and three other political parties to 7 July. The appeal stems from a Federal High Court judgement that directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the five parties. The appellate court shifted the hearing after lawyers informed the panel that the record of appeal and the Federal High Court’s judgement were only recently transmitted, making it necessary for parties to file and exchange their briefs of argument before the appeal can be heard. On…

I met him through Ferial Haffajee, a fellow judge on the CNN African Journalist of the Year panel for several years and also a fellow member of the board of the World Editors Forum in those early days. Ferial is one of the most outstanding journalists on the continent, but this article is not about her. It’s partly about the lesson I learned from Tony Weaver, formerly of the Daily Maverick of South Africa, whom Ferial introduced to me many years ago. Take It Off? I remember Tony because of a recent request by Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Idris Mohammed,…