News

The first Trace Awards and festival in Africa will be held in Kigali, Rwanda on October 21 at the BK Arena, and the Trace Awards and Festival will be presented by Visit Rwanda and Martell. The awards will be broadcast live to some 500 million people in 190 countries as a global TV spectacular that celebrates the creativity, talent and influence of African and Afro-inspired music and artists.

The awards will celebrate genres such as Afrobeats, dancehall, hip hop, mbalax, amapiano, zouk, kizomba, genge, coupé décalé, bongo flava, soukous, gospel, rap, rai, kompa, R&B and rumba.

ACCRA — West Africa’s main regional bloc ECOWAS has agreed on a “D-day” for a possible military intervention to restore democracy in Niger if diplomatic efforts fail, a senior official said on Friday, without disclosing a specific date.

The official made the comments at the end of a two-day meeting of West African army chiefs in Ghana’s capital Accra, where they have been hashing out the logistics and strategy for a possible use of force in Niger that ECOWAS has said would be a last resort.

At least 1,400 people have starved to death in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray since food aid was suspended because it was being stolen, an official has said.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) and the US’s leading aid agency halted food aid to Tigray about four months ago.

A subsequent investigation by Tigrayan authorities found that almost 500 people were involved in the theft, the official told the BBC.

Tigray was hit by a brutal conflict in 2020, causing famine-like conditions.