Africa StreaM

In tonight's edition: Ghana's parliament cracks down on the sale or repurposing of land used to grow the country's most important crop, cocoa. Also, DR Congo is set to open its largest ever Ebola treatment facility. Plus a deeply moving Rwandan movie ramps up action across the country's cinema scene.

Camille Knight is pleased to welcome Derk Segaar, IFRC Special Envoy for Sudan. Sudan's humanitarian crisis has become one of the defining yet least visible crises of the twenty first century. Segaar argues that the conflict can no longer be understood merely through the lens of shifting frontlines or military developments. Rather, he presents a picture of systemic societal collapse, in which war has hollowed out public services, displaced entire communities, accelerated disease, and created conditions where humanitarian need extends far beyond the active battlefields. Sudan is not simply a conflict zone but a nation experiencing the cumulative breakdown of its social, economic and institutional fabric.

A Russian ship under US sanctions, the Mikhail Britnev, dropped off its cargo of military vehicles at the Port of Lomé in Togo on July 9. It’s the first time that Togo has been a stop for a Russian shipment of weapons to Mali, carried out as part of Moscow’s support for the Malian government.

After tens of thousands rushed on the Spanish border at Ceuta, authorities say that 70,000 have since returned to Morocco. According to Spain, 75 bodies of migrants who tried to swim across to Spain have also been found. As people are returning to Morocco, it's also hope and anxiety for Moroccan families who are desperately looking for their loved ones.

Cape Verde’s veteran goalkeeper ⁠Vozinha arrived in Chile ​on August 2nd to join first division club Colo-Colo, the Chilean football club announced on August 3rd. The 40-year-old has joined on ​a six-month ‌contract, with the possibility of a one-year extension. Chilean media said he was likely to make his debut on August ‌16. The goalkeeper acquired a cult following during the FIFA World Cup, where his heroics helped Cape Verde reach the round of 32.

On July 29th, Nigerian law enforcement dismantled a meth lab left behind in an abandoned shed -- remnants of an alleged multimillion-dollar transnational meth operation. The lab, the largest of its kind ever discovered in Nigeria, sat on an acre of land in a forest that straddles the border of Abidagba and Iroto villages.

Faruku Hassan Bunza, a Nigerian judge abducted from his home in Bunza town by unidentified gunmen on July 26, has been freed, police said on August 3. Kidnappings are routinely used by criminal groups in Nigeria to secure lucrative ransom payments from either the government or victims' families. The exact details of Bunza's release were not immediately clear, and the attackers remain at large.

The biggest escalation since the signing of the 2022 Pretoria agreement shook Ethiopia's Tigray over the weekend, with both the TPLF and members of the Ethiopian government blaming each other. A mass exodus of the region is taking place over fears of a full-blown regional conflict erupting, despite a pause in the fighting since August 1st. FRANCE 24's Tom Canetti reports from Addis Ababa.

In tonight's edition: Hundreds of people run from the most serious fighting to break out in Tigray since 2022, with many heading to Sudan despite the conflict there. Also, Nigeria is still probing links that Mexican drug cartels may have to Africa's top economy. Plus Cape Verde's veteran goalkeeper ⁠Vozinha arrives in Chile ​to join first division club Colo-Colo.

Several people ended up in the river after an important bridge collapsed on June 3 in the village of Hombo in the eastern part of the DRC. The bridge is one of the failing critical infrastructures in a territory that is home to one of the most lucrative mines in the region.

Delano D'Souza is pleased to welcome Dr. Manlio Graziano, Founder and Director of Nicholas Spykman International Center for Geopolitical Analysis. Italy's temporary suspension of the Schengen Agreement with Spain, following the migration episode in Ceuta, is presented less as a meaningful European policy than as a symbolic act driven by domestic politics. Dr Graziano argues that the episode reveals how migration has become an instrument of political positioning rather than policy making. His analysis suggests that Giorgia Meloni's principal audience is not Brussels or Madrid, but Italy's increasingly fragmented right, where competition from parties positioned even further to her right is compelling her to continually reaffirm her hardline credentials.

Jennie Shin is pleased to welcome Antoni Vives, policy analyst and the former Deputy Mayor of Barcelona. Vives offers a nuanced geopolitical interpretation of the Ceuta migration crisis, arguing that the events cannot be understood solely as a humanitarian emergency or a spontaneous wave of migration. Vives frames the crisis within a broader framework encompassing historical colonial legacies, demographic and economic inequalities, regional power competition between Morocco and Algeria, and the strategic use of migration as an instrument of statecraft. While acknowledging the aspirations of young Moroccans seeking economic opportunity, he contends that the scale and timing of the crossings reflect deliberate geopolitical signalling by Morocco toward Spain.

In the Moroccan town of Fnideq, parents are gathering along the border fence, waiting for news of their children. On July 30 and 31, over 60,000 migrants crossed the border to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

Most of the estimated 60,000 people who rushed into Ceuta have returned to Morocco since the territory's largest mass migrant crossing. Spanish authorities reported at least 72 deaths on August 2. France 24 asked Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, former Spanish Justice Minister and current MEP, constitutional law professor, and jurist from the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party how Ceuta is reckoning with the aftermath of the border surge.

Stuart Norval is pleased to welcome Camille Le Coz, Director at Migration Policy Institute Europe. Le Coz offers a nuanced interpretation of the recent events in Ceuta that challenges the dominant political narratives emerging across Europe. She shifts attention away from emotionally charged images toward the structural forces shaping migration: demographic pressures in North Africa, labour shortages in Europe, the role of smuggling networks amplified by social media, and the enduring tendency of migration crises to become instruments of domestic political competition. In doing so, she offers a reminder that Europe's migration debate is often driven less by the movement of people itself than by competing political narratives about what those movements represent.

The Sudanese army struck a traditional court in a Rapid Support Forces-held village in North Darfur with drones on Sunday, killing 35 people, a rights group said. Emergency Lawyers said the attack hit Garra al Zawaya as civilians gathered for local court hearings, wounding several others during the afternoon strike.

Spain has installed a 500-metre-long sea barrier between its North African enclave of Ceuta and neighbouring Morocco. It comes after tens of thousands of migrants breached the border earlier this week, with at least 67 people dying in the attempt. While most of those who crossed quickly returned to Morocco, the incident has reignited the immigration debate in Europe and beyond. The EU is due to hold an emergency video conference on the issue on Tuesday. Charlotte Hughes reports.

Almost all of the migrants who entered Spain’s enclave of Ceuta had left by Saturday, according to officials. An estimated 60,000 migrants entered Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco over just a few days, with at least 67 people losing their lives in the attempt. Spain has announced plans to install a 500-metre-long containment barrier along the sea border. Meanwhile, a majority of EU countries have called for emergency talks in an open letter to the bloc’s interior ministers. Matthew-Mary Caruchet from our France24 International Affairs desk gives more details.

Almost all of the migrants who entered Spain’s enclave of Ceuta had left by Saturday, according to officials. An estimated 60,000 migrants entered Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco over just a few days, with at least 67 people losing their lives in the attempt. Spain has announced plans to install a 500-metre-long containment barrier along the sea border. Meanwhile, a majority of EU countries have called for emergency talks in an open letter to the bloc’s interior ministers. Catherine Viette reports.