Few days to Ugandas presidential polls on 15 January 2026, the usual buzz of campaigning and civic debate is being overshadowed , not only by the internet shutdown which is making waves , but by the suspension of key human rights and civil society organisations that normally monitor the vote.

Mahmoud Dicko has been living in Algeria since 2023. The imam hopes to rally the Malian population behind his new movement to overthrow the country’s junta.

Somalia’s leadership insists the cancellations are necessary to defend national sovereignty, as power rivalries in the Horn of Africa continue to draw in regional and international actors.

Trade unions at the museum have denounced the policy calling for strike action over the change.

They were recovered after months of investigation in collaboration with international police agency Interpol, and UNESCO.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said he would regularise the status of young Algerians living abroad “in vulnerable and illegal situations.”

Austria faced overnight disruption into Tuesday morning as black ice continued to refreeze roads and pavements, while icebreaking operations protected cruise ships on the Danube.

Farmers from FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs unions left Paris after protesting rising costs. Tractors entered Toulouse, defying a local ban, under police watch.

Soldiers have been deployed onto the streets for the polls in a move that has alarmed opposition figures.

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung surprised everyone by playing drums to K-pop hits after formal talks in Tokyo.

More than 150,000 people fled two Kurdish-held pockets of the city in the five days of fighting that saw almost two dozen people killed.

The revision is likely to influence market expectations and policy discourse ahead of the next monetary policy decisions by the Central Bank, which closely watches inflation dynamics in setting interest rates.

Former Burkinabe minister Yolande Viviane Compaoré has been assassinated at her home in Ouagadougou, the capital’s public prosecutor’s announced on Tuesday.

Aid groups say insufficient shelter materials are entering Gaza, leaving families exposed to winter storms and flooding.

President Yoweri Museveni and his political opponents in Uganda held their final rallies on Tuesday before an election that authorities will oversee with soldiers in the streets — deployments that have alarmed opposition figures who see signs of the authoritarianism they want to do away with.

Tens of thousands of football fans have been following the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations at a fan zone on the international campus of Riad, an upscale district of Rabat.

A landslide in eastern Congo early Tuesday killed at least 13 people and left over 30 still missing, according to local authorities.

President Yoweri Museveni and his political opponents in Uganda held their final rallies on Tuesday before an election that authorities will oversee with soldiers in the streets — deployments that have alarmed opposition figures who see signs of the authoritarianism they want to do away with.

Morocco coach Walid Regragui expects a spectacle in the Africa Cup of Nations semifinals, with the continent’s four best teams all capable of winning the title, and says better conditions mean fewer upsets in the future.

Analysts say the discussions could be pivotal in clarifying U.S. intentions, easing tensions and reinforcing commitments to Greenland’s sovereignty in the face of strategic interests from Washington.

Some 2,000 people have been killed in Iran since protests erupted at the end of last month, US-based activists said on Tuesday. An anonymous Iranian security official appeared to confirm the count.

Senegal and Ivory Coast were among the countries added in December to the list of states with partial restrictions on entry to the United States. Both have qualified for the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

Niger has revoked the licenses of around thirty transport operators and truck drivers for refusing to transport fuel to neighboring Mali, which is facing shortages due to a jihadist blockade.

Gunmen attacked three industrial sites and kidnapped civilians in western Mali over the weekend, local sources told AFP on Monday, as jihadists seek to disrupt the economy.

The United States House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a three-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. The trade programme gives more than 30 sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to American markets.

For nearly three years, the administration has operated from its wartime base in Port Sudan.

Pix of the Day January 13, 2026

Fans of two of Africa’s top soccer nations have had their World Cup plans upended because of a travel ban imposed by the Trump administration.

Rights groups including the United Nations and Amnesty International have accused Ugandan authorities of cracking down on dissent ahead of the vote, citing arrests of Wine’s supporters.

Ten years after his death, the American boxer and activist is being honoured with a commemorative United States postage stamp.

The United Nations population agency (UNFPA) says this includes donating their own blood.

The authoritarian rule of former dictator Yahya Jammeh was marked by human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests.

It accuses the UAE of undermining the country’s sovereignty and unity.

Louise Mushikiwabo has headed the Organisation international de la Francophonie since 2019.

The new UN High Commissioner for Refugees lauded their inclusion into local services..

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado was granted a private audience with Pope Leo XIV on Monday at the Vatican.

Former Marseille coach Rolland Courbis, a charismatic figure of French soccer who became a prominent pundit, has died. He was 72.

Somalia says it has cancelled all agreements with the United Arab Emirates due to evidence the Gulf state is engaged in undermining Somalia’s sovereignty, national unity, and political independence.

Authorities have pledged to crack down on illegal dredging, but residents say enforcement remains inconsistent — as Lagos faces rising flood risks from the loss of its natural lagoon bu

Long-awaited hearings at the United Nations top court opened in The Hague on Monday in a case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya minority.