Africa

China Tells Citizens to Leave Eswatini: August 26, 2026

China has told its people to get out of Eswatini. The foreign ministry’s consular department said Tuesday that Chinese nationals and institutions already in the southern African kingdom “should evacuate as soon as possible or relocate to relatively safer areas such as South Africa,” citing “rampant cyber fraud and online gambling criminal activities.” Anyone who stays, it warned, faces “extremely high security risks, and the timeliness of receiving consular assistance may be affected.” Spokesman Lin Jian repeated the line in Beijing on Wednesday: telecom fraud and online gambling are “rampant,” public-order risks are “extremely high,” and China “will take necessary measures” to protect its citizens overseas.

Mbabane answered the same day. Acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said Eswatini respected any country’s right to advise its own citizens, but called the picture of an exceptional security threat “unsupported” and “regrettable.” A recent police operation against suspected organized cybercrime, involving mostly Chinese nationals, was not proof the country had lost control, the statement said. It was “an isolated criminal operation” that law enforcement had disrupted. “Eswatini remains a peaceful, stable and law-governed State.” The kingdom “will not be coerced, disadvantaged or destabilised” over its diplomatic choices.

Those choices are the point. Eswatini is one of 12 countries, and the only one in Africa, that still recognizes Taiwan. Beijing claims the island as its own. Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te visited in May after an April trip was cancelled; Taipei had accused China of leaning on neighboring states to revoke overflight permits. The BBC reported that Beijing’s foreign ministry afterwards called Lai “an international laughing stock.” On May 1, Beijing extended zero tariffs to every African country except Eswatini. A commerce ministry source told The Korea Times more than 200 Chinese nationals work there in textiles, retail, and restaurants.

The security file is real and messy. The Times of Eswatini reported Tuesday that 40 Chinese nationals have been held since last month after first being arrested in March, with dozens of other foreigners, in raids on alleged illegal online gambling centers in Mbabane. Their lawyers say they pleaded guilty to immigration offenses, paid fines, were released on High Court orders, and were then re-arrested unlawfully. The Korea Times, citing the crackdown, put the year’s haul at about 200 foreign nationals, including at least 55 Chinese citizens. China did not spell out what, beyond fraud and gambling, makes the kingdom too dangerous to stay in. Eswatini says the raids prove the police are working, not that the country is falling apart.

Sources: BBC; The Korea Times; China Daily; Times of Eswatini.

Tanzania Vice President Resigns: August 26, 2026

Tanzania’s vice president is leaving, and it has not happened before. Emmanuel Nchimbi, 54, posted his resignation letter on Instagram on Tuesday and said he would step down on September 4, less than ten months after he was sworn in. President Samia Suluhu Hassan accepted the letter the same day. Chief Secretary Moses Kusiluka said constitutional steps to name a successor would follow. BBC reporting, confirmed by sources in Nchimbi’s office and the presidency, called him the first vice president to quit in the history of the East African state.

“I have become convinced, without doubt, that the president wants changes, and I have therefore decided to fulfil my promise,” Nchimbi wrote. He said he had told Samia in August 2025 that he would go if she wanted a different deputy. He is retiring from politics and public service, thanked her and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, and said he would remain a “good citizen of Tanzania.” He cited Articles 50(2)(c) and 149(2) of the constitution. The president then has 14 days to appoint a replacement, who needs a National Assembly majority before taking the oath.

He had been Samia’s running mate in last October’s election. They were sworn in on November 3, 2025, at Chamwino State House in Dodoma after a result the electoral commission put at 98 percent. An official inquiry later put post-election deaths at at least 500. Opposition parties and rights groups accused the security forces of a crackdown. Nchimbi had been CCM secretary-general, information minister, home affairs minister, and ambassador to Brazil and Egypt. Last month he told Tanzanians to “fight for a new constitution” before 2030, tying it to justice, rights, and democracy — remarks BBC said may help explain the break with the president. Reuters noted the government’s statement did not give a reason.

Sources: BBC; Reuters; The Citizen; Daily News (Tanzania).

World Brief: August 26, 2026

A Himalayan flood is still unfolding this morning, Hormuz diplomacy is stuck in the same ditch, and a CIA director’s secret Moscow stop was followed by drones. Ten stories as of Wednesday, August 26.

1. Nepal–Tibet border. A wall of mud and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river on Wednesday, sending a flash flood down the Bhote Koshi that has killed at least 95 people in Nepal and left hundreds missing, including foreign tourists. Helicopters could not land in Rasuwa district settlements such as Timure and Syapru Besi; roads, bridges, and hydropower plants were torn out. Across the line in Gyirong, Chinese officials reported people missing after a mudslide hit the border crossing, and Xi Jinping ordered an all-out search. Researchers said an ice-rock avalanche likely dammed a tributary and then released; they also warned a second surge is possible.

2. Strait of Hormuz / Tehran. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday that Tehran and Oman had agreed how to share the strait and its revenues, but a senior Iranian source told Reuters the accord is not finished and talks on the details continue. President Trump, in a brief morning call with Al Jazeera, said he is “not in a hurry” to resume negotiations and has “no time schedule.” The Guards added the waterway will not reopen unless Washington meets Tehran’s conditions, including an end to the U.S. blockade. Oman’s foreign minister, after Tuesday talks in Tehran, said he hoped a temporary corridor would be announced soon.

3. Moscow and Ukraine. Overnight into Wednesday, Ukraine resumed drone attacks toward Moscow hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe left the Russian capital, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Kyiv had agreed to a U.S. request not to strike Moscow during the unannounced Tuesday visit. The Kremlin confirmed Ratcliffe met Russian intelligence counterparts and did not see Vladimir Putin, who was briefed; spokesman Dmitry Peskov still called U.S.–Russia ties a “profound crisis.” Russia claimed to have intercepted hundreds of Ukrainian drones; Ukraine said Russia launched more than 160 drones at it, with civilian deaths reported in Chernihiv.

4. Islamabad, Pakistan. A fire in the nursery at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences killed 14 of 15 newborns Wednesday morning. Hospital officials said an air-conditioning unit ignited and oxygen connections accelerated the blaze on the third floor of the maternal ward. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif suspended federal health secretary Aslam Ghauri; a fact-finding committee has 24 hours to report on the cause, fire safety, and the emergency response. Families gathered outside; a doctor rescued the one surviving infant.

5. Occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli security forces seized UNRWA’s Qalandia Training Centre, the last of the agency’s facilities still operating in occupied East Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the evacuation, repeating accusations that UNRWA staff took part in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, which the agency denies. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the raid as a violation of U.N. premises. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined the operation and filmed himself in the director’s chair.

6. Caribbean Sea. The U.S. military struck a boat in the Caribbean on Tuesday that it said was being used to smuggle drugs, killing four people. U.S. Southern Command did not release evidence the vessel was carrying narcotics. The campaign, now nearly a year old, has killed at least 227 people in 68 strikes, according to tallies drawn from U.S. statements. Tuesday’s attack came two days after a strike in the eastern Pacific that killed two.

7. South Africa. In Cape Town’s National Assembly, President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed that perpetrators of anti-foreigner violence will be arrested and prosecuted, answering EFF leader Julius Malema, who said the lack of arrests looked like state-sanctioned xenophobia. Ramaphosa said South Africa had not been isolated by other African leaders and called for a special African Union summit on migration’s root causes. Ghana has asked that xenophobic violence in South Africa be put on the next ordinary AU summit agenda.

8. Kiribati. Kiribati’s parliament is due to vote on a constitutional amendment that would limit diplomatic relations to U.N. member states or permanent observers — a move that would lock in recognition of Beijing over Taipei. The Pacific island nation switched from Taiwan to China in 2019; President Taneti Maamau backs the bill, which does not name either government. A similar attempt fell short of a two-thirds majority in April. Taiwan still has a dozen formal diplomatic allies, including three in the Pacific.

9. Iceland. A Maskína poll published Wednesday found 51.3 percent of Icelanders support restarting EU membership talks, with 48.7 percent opposed, ahead of Saturday’s referendum in Reykjavik. The ballot is not a vote on joining; any accession deal would need a second referendum. Talks were shelved in 2013. Cost of living, the war in Ukraine, and Trump’s threats involving Greenland have all been cited as reasons interest has revived.

10. Chile–Argentina (Magellan roundup). Overnight we covered Chile’s protest after Argentine Air Force chief Gustavo Valverde treated the Strait of Magellan and Drake Passage as a sovereignty issue. Buenos Aires moved Tuesday to cool it: the foreign ministry said the 1881 and 1984 treaties remain fully in force and “definitive,” and reaffirmed cooperation with Santiago, including the joint Antarctic naval patrol. Chilean officials had called sovereignty over the entire strait “indisputable.”

DR Congo Ceasefire Mission: August 25, 2026

A ceasefire verification team is now on the ground in eastern Congo, which is the closest this long war has come in months to anyone checking the truce instead of just announcing one. The group arrived Monday in Minembwe, in South Kivu, on two MONUSCO helicopters. It includes Congolese government and M23 representatives plus military observers from International Conference on the Great Lakes Region states. The job is to document alleged ceasefire violations. South Kivu’s governor said the mission is also supposed to go to Uvira and Kalehe.

The deployment follows a roadmap Congolese officials and the Rwanda-backed AFC/M23 agreed after closed-door talks in Switzerland from August 17 to 21. Switzerland announced the deal on Sunday. It is not a full peace treaty. It sets sequenced steps and timelines under the Doha framework from last year and creates a body to review whether those commitments are actually being kept. The United States, Qatar, Togo, Switzerland, and the African Union Commission were in the room. Fighting in North and South Kivu has continued through previous ceasefires, and it has not stopped around Minembwe.

Kinshasa used Monday to pile on accusations. The government said M23 had killed more than 300 people in June and July in areas it controls, through alleged summary executions, massacres, and bombings. Those figures come from the Congolese state, not from an independent count. M23, for its part, accused government forces of an artillery attack on a village near Minembwe. Both sides have a habit of trading unverifiable claims. Access for journalists and aid groups around Minembwe has been poor for months.

Rwanda’s president made the regional problem explicit. At a Kigali news conference, Paul Kagame again tied any Rwandan role in eastern Congo to the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu armed group that Kigali says Kinshasa arms and even folds into its own forces. “If this problem is not resolved, it is natural for Rwanda to remain involved,” he said. He told reporters Rwanda would protect itself “without fear, day or night.” Rwanda denies backing M23, despite a long record of U.N. and research reporting that says otherwise. Congo denies supporting the FDLR.

There is a paper peace architecture: a U.S.-brokered Rwanda–DRC deal signed in Washington in 2025, and a Doha track between Kinshasa and M23. The new Swiss roadmap is an attempt to make those documents do something on the ground. Analysts talking to DW were careful. Signing is easy. Implementation is the hard part, especially while M23 still holds large parts of the Kivus and while Kigali’s “buy-in” remains the unstated condition. For displaced Congolese, the test is simpler than the communiqués: whether it gets safer to go home.

World Brief, Evening: August 25, 2026

World Brief, Evening: August 25, 2026

1. Iran/Oman — A Hormuz corridor inches forward, while the sanctions fight gets louder. Iranian and Omani foreign ministers discussed a temporary joint navigation corridor and mine-clearing work in the Strait of Hormuz, though Tehran says the strait is not fully reopening. Iran also vowed to resist expanded U.S. sanctions, while Washington stopped short of immediately targeting the biggest foreign banks tied to Iranian trade.

2. Ukraine — Kyiv says a short peace proposal is ready for Moscow. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine, the United States and European partners have drafted a one-page set of ideas that includes a ceasefire and a proposed third-party-administered free economic zone in the Donbas. He described the period through next summer as the main window for U.S. mediation before the 2027 presidential campaign complicates diplomacy.

3. Russia — Putin opens the door to state takeovers after Ukrainian drone strikes. A new decree allows the government to temporarily take control of critical infrastructure when private owners fail to protect or repair it. Ukraine said it struck the Afipsky and Novoshakhtinsk oil refineries overnight, the latest pressure on Russia’s energy network.

4. Gaza — New strikes hit civilians and aid supplies as news organizations renew an accountability demand. Local medical sources said Israeli strikes killed at least seven Palestinians, while Medical Aid for Palestinians said an overnight attack destroyed a warehouse holding nutrition supplies for children and mothers. Separately, AP and Reuters again called for a full Israeli explanation one year after the double strike on Nasser Hospital killed 22 Palestinians, including journalists and rescue workers.

5. Haiti — The scale of the Kenscoff gang attack grew clearer. The United Nations said at least 47 people were killed and more than 50 kidnapped in the raid outside Port-au-Prince; 22 victims were reportedly executed in a church compound where they had sought shelter. Residents are demanding stronger protection after one of Haiti’s largest mass kidnappings in recent years.

6. Canada/United States — Ottawa answered Washington’s tariff escalation. Canada announced retaliatory duties on about $20 billion in U.S. goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment, after the United States imposed 50% tariffs on Canadian goods over the weekend. The new Canadian tariffs are due to take effect September 8, with trade talks still broken down.

7. Syria/United States — Washington formally ended Syria’s terrorism-list designation. The United States removed Syria from the state-sponsors-of-terrorism list after 47 years, lifting a major barrier to investment and wider economic reintegration. It is a consequential opening for President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government, but Syria remains politically fragile and caught between competing regional powers.

8. South China Sea — Satellite images point to another step in China’s military buildup. New installations have appeared on Yagong Island near Antelope Reef in the disputed Paracel Islands, according to imagery reviewed by Reuters. Analysts said the work may be an early-warning radar or observation post linked to what they believe could become China’s largest base in the area, though Beijing describes nearby construction in civilian terms.

9. Global oceans — Sea-surface temperatures set an unusual August record. The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said the global average reached 21.1 degrees Celsius on Friday and Saturday, edging past the March 2024 record. The timing is especially worrying because ocean temperatures normally peak in March or April, with an intensifying El Niño now adding to long-term human-driven warming.

10. Zambia — Court closures clouded the deadline for challenging the presidential election. Courts in Lusaka and elsewhere were sealed for what authorities called security reasons on the final day opposition candidate Brian Mundubile could challenge President Hakainde Hichilema’s reelection. The Law Association of Zambia raised concerns about access to justice, while Mundubile alleged irregularities in the vote.

Sudan Arms Embargo: August 25, 2026

The United States asked the UN Security Council on Monday to stretch a two-decade arms embargo on Darfur across the whole of Sudan, and to write drones into the ban in so many words. President Donald Trump’s Africa envoy, Massad Boulos, told the council it had to cut off “external financial and military support to the parties, such as drones and related technologies.” The existing Darfur measures expire on September 12 unless the council renews or rewrites them.

The draft has four pieces: a country-wide embargo, an explicit drone clause, more experts on the sanctions-monitoring panel, and better sharing with other UN teams that track the asset freeze and travel ban. France backed expanding the embargo. Russia and China, both veto powers, did not. Sudan’s UN ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, called the plan a fundamental change, not a technical tweak, and said a wider sanctions net would “weaken the protection of civilians.” Khartoum wants a simple rollover of what is already on the books.

The timing is the war, not the calendar. Sudan’s conflict is in its fourth year, pitting the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The army holds much of the centre and east; the RSF is based in Darfur and also holds ground in the south. BBC reporting puts the toll in the tens of thousands dead and about 14 million people displaced. UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the council the true death count is “likely to be in the hundreds of thousands,” and that the UN had documented 1,100 civilian deaths from drone strikes between January and June alone.

Drones are the point of the American text. DiCarlo said both sides have hit markets, schools, fuel stations and water works. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said recent fighting has been “characterised by the heavy use of drones.” As the council met, the army was reported to have struck RSF positions around Nyala, a Darfur logistics hub, hours after a large cargo flight landed. Boulos said armed drones accounted for most recorded civilian deaths in the first half of this year.

Sudan’s military chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, was unimpressed. Speaking at a police graduation in Khartoum on Monday, he said talk of sanctions “will neither affect us nor weaken our resolve.” The council did not vote. With Russia and China opposed, a nationwide embargo is not a done deal. What Monday made plain is that the Darfur-only regime is running out of time, the weapons getting into Sudan are getting more sophisticated, and Washington wants the next resolution to match the war the country actually has.

Mass Mosque Abduction in Nigeria: August 24, 2026

A video circulating since Sunday appears to show hundreds of people — many of them women, children, and older men — sitting in a forested clearing, ringed by armed men. The footage, posted on Facebook and WhatsApp, is being linked to a Friday raid on mosques in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state.

Gunmen struck during Jumu’at prayers on August 21 in Dekara (also reported as Dekera) and nearby communities in Borgu Local Government Area, including Kpenya, Sabon-Gida, and Gidan-Zana. Residents described simultaneous attacks on several villages and mosques. The Niger State Police Command confirmed the raid and said it happened around 2 p.m. Police have not verified a headcount. Local residents and some international reports have put the number taken as high as 500 to 600; officers say they still cannot confirm how many people were abducted.

In the video, children can be heard crying. A gunman speaking Hausa told families to look for relatives. “These are all your people,” he said, according to footage quoted by Al Jazeera and Reuters. Residents, including Abdulmutallib Muqaddas Dindi, told reporters they recognized elders, wives, and children among the captives. News agencies said they could not independently verify where or when the video was filmed, though no earlier copy has turned up online.

Niger State Information Commissioner Obed Nuhu Nana said Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has ordered a joint rescue operation to “assess the situation, track the attackers, and facilitate the rescue of the abducted worshippers.” Police spokesperson SP Wasiu Abiodun said no lives were lost in the attack itself. Some residents have since claimed later deaths and said hundreds of people have fled across the border into Benin Republic; those claims have not been independently confirmed.

Mass kidnapping for ransom has become a grinding crisis across northwestern and north-central Nigeria. Armed gangs raid villages, schools, and highways and hold people until families or communities pay. The latest attack lands as President Bola Tinubu prepares for a presidential election in January, with security already a central campaign issue. Amnesty International has urged Nigerian authorities to secure the worshippers’ release.

Africa

World Brief: August 26, 2026

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