The shootings took place at the Thiaroye military camp just outside Dakar after African troops who had fought for France in World War II protested against delays in pay.

Many details remain unclear, including the number of soldiers killed, their identities and the burial sites of the victims. Those killed were not only Senegalese but also men from other West African countries.

In April 2024 Senegalese authorities established a committee of researchers to create the report to submit to the government.

A press release from the Senegalese Government Information Office on Wednesday said the white paper was “a product of rigorous research, documentation and focus” and aimed to “shed light on the circumstances surrounding the massacre, honour the memory of the victims, and promote shared historical recognition among the nations concerned”.

Bullets unearthed in Senegal cemetery could shed light on Thiaroye massacre

Soldiers return to Dakar

Around 1,600 soldiers from West Africa who had been captured by Germany while fighting for France were sent back to Dakar in November 1944.

After arriving at the Thiaroye military camp, discontent mounted over unpaid wages and demands to be treated on a par with white soldiers. Some protesters refused to return to their home countries without their due.

French forces opened fire on 1 December, killing at least 35 people, French authorities said at the time. Historians say the real death toll could be as high as 400.

The Senegalese government accuses France of withholding archival documents that would shed light on the death toll.

Visual retelling of Thiaroye massacre sheds new light on French colonial atrocity

Earlier this year, Biram Senghor, the only known descendant of a Senegalese rifleman killed in Thiaroye, filed a legal complaint against the French state, accusing it of concealing mass graves and blocking justice.

In July 2024, six soldiers killed at Thiaroye – including Biram’s father M’Bap Senghor – were officially recognised as having “died for France”, a symbolic gesture that Senegalese advocates say falls short of justice.

France maintains that relevant archives have been opened, citing a 2014 pledge by former president François Hollande. But critics say access remains complicated.

Last November, France acknowledged the massacre the day before commemoration of its 80th anniversary, which Senegal marked on an unprecedented scale.

(with AFP)

On 16 October 2020, 47-year-old Paty was stabbed and then beheaded by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Russian refugee of Chechen origin. Police shot him dead shortly after the attack.

Paty had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed during a lesson on freedom of expression. But false claims spread online that he had forced Muslim students to leave the room before showing the images.

The attack took place near the middle school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb north of Paris where Paty taught.

Tributes have taken place across France this week to honour Paty, whose death shocked the country.

A park in Éragny-sur-Oise, where Paty liked to walk, was renamed after him on Sunday. In March, the school where he worked was also given his name.

French court issues severe sentences to those linked to beheading of teacher Samuel Paty

‘Anger not over’

Paty’s sister, Gaëlle, said in an interview with AFP that the shock has not faded.

“The wounds have not healed, the anger is not over,” she said. The feeling was only “slightly softened” after the trial in 2024.

Eight people were convicted last year for their roles in Paty’s murder, including the father of a schoolgirl who falsely claimed her teacher had made Muslim students leave the room – even though she had not attended the class.

Gaëlle Paty welcomed the verdict but warned that the “digital cabal” that led to her brother’s death “could happen again”.

In her new book A Trial for the Future, co-written with a historian and a cartoonist, she reflects on the trial and the motivations of the accused. Four of them plan to appeal in 2026.

“We have talked a lot about Islamism, but particularly about Chechen Islamism, which is relatively unknown in France,” she wrote.

“What I took away from this was that these young people found themselves stuck between the Western culture they were taught at school and the rigorous Chechen culture.”

Five years on, teachers say they feel more exposed than ever.

French government to ban knife sales to minors after deadly school attack

Fear in classrooms

“There is clearly a before and after Samuel Paty,” said Jean-Remi Girard, president of the teachers’ union Snalc. Teachers are now “aware that the profession is exposed, and that a rumour or a social media post can spiral very fast”.

A string of recent attacks has deepened that fear.

In September, a music teacher in Bas-Rhin was injured in a knife attack by a student.

In June, a school supervisor was stabbed to death in Nogent, a Paris suburb, by a 14-year-old boy during a police bag check. In April, a high school student in Nantes killed a 15-year-old girl and injured three others.

The government has banned knife sales to minors, but teachers and unions say not enough is being done to support school mental health, which has worsened since the Covid pandemic.

“The state clearly needs more resources,” said Christine Guimonnet, a history and geography teacher in Pontoise. That means “fewer students per class so we can take care of them properly”.

Endemic violence

Like many teachers Guimonnet remembers Samuel Paty. 

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about Samuel Paty. We’ve been feeling anger since Samuel’s assassination, and it hasn’t subsided,” she said.

“We don’t do this job to be attacked, injured, or murdered.”

A report by the Senate inquiry commission published in March 2024 highlighted other forms of violence that are now commonplace.

“Insults, threats, pressure and assaults are now daily realities for teachers and staff,” wrote Senators Francois-Noel Buffet and Laurent Lafon. They said such violence exists in all areas, rich and poor, urban and rural.

Researcher Johanna Dagorn from the International Observatory of Violence in Schools told France Inter there has been no overall increase in violent acts, but there is more “paroxysmal violence” – sudden outbursts that lead to “much more serious acts”.

Paty murder puts focus on role of teachers in passing on French values

Growing self-censorship

Fear of being targeted has also led some teachers to censor themselves, said Jerome Fournier, national secretary of the SE-Unsa union.

“Before, there was a kind of innocence; we didn’t ask so many questions. Now, we think twice. We think about the consequences of a lesson,” he told France Info.

Since Paty’s murder, requests for protection by school staff have surged. Any public employee who faces threats can ask for security support from their administration.

In 2024, 79 percent of these requests were granted, according to figures from the Ministry of Education.

On Tuesday, schools across France held a minute of silence in memory of Paty and Dominique Bernard, a 57-year-old French teacher murdered in 2023 in Arras by one of his former students, who was listed for Islamist radicalisation.

But Gaëlle Paty said these moments are “too improvised, without real educational support,” and feel like an “obligation” for teachers and students.

She wants schools to replace minutes of silence with discussions and collective projects.

“I would like teachers to leave their classrooms, for there to be collective projects within schools between management, teaching staff and even families, so that these subjects become less emotional,” she said.

The first motion, put forward by the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), fell 18 votes short of the 289 needed to bring down the government.

It was backed by some Socialist MPs as well as Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) and the small right-wing Union of the Rights for the Republic (UDR).

A second motion, tabled by the RN and the UDR, was put to the vote shortly afterwards and gathered 144 votes.

During heated debates before the first vote, Socialist MP Laurent Baumel defended the party’s choice to support Lecornu’s government.

“This is by no means a non-censure pact for the future,” he told MPs. “The very survival of your government depends on the effective suspension of the promised pension reform, and there will be no tricks or procedural ruses.”

Outgoing Prime Minister Lecornu prepares for talks to end political gridlock

‘Reform is a decoy’

LFI’s Aurélie Trouvé and National Rally leader Marine Le Pen both tried to sway undecided MPs to vote for their own censure motions.

Trouvé called Lecornu’s move to suspend the reform “a decoy, a deception, a subterfuge”, warning fellow MPs not to be “taken in by this illusory handout”.

Le Pen, meanwhile, accused right-wing parties of siding with the Socialists, saying they were “united by the terror of the election”.

Lecornu gained crucial support from the Socialists on Tuesday when he pledged to halt the government’s plan to raise the retirement age, a reform originally pushed by President Emmanuel Macron.

In return, Socialist MPs agreed not to back either no confidence motion.

Lecornu unveils budget as France faces tough talks on spending

Legacy on the line

Lecornu told lawmakers on Wednesday he would propose in November an amendment to the social security financing law in order to suspend the reform.

But he has warned that delaying Presiden Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform would cost some €400 million in 2026 and €1.8 billion the year after, and that it must be offset by savings elsewhere. 

By putting the pension reform on the chopping block, Lecornu threatens to kill off one of Macron‘s main economic legacies at a time when France’s public finances are in a perilous state, leaving the president with little in the way of domestic achievements after eight years in office.

France is in the midst of its worst political crisis in decades as a succession of minority governments seek to push deficit-reducing budgets through a parliament split into three ideological blocs.

The Socialists on Wednesday set their sights on including a tax on billionaires in the 2026 budget as talks over its passage began in parliament.

(with newswires)

Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, were arrested in May 2022 and have been detained ever since. Their current location is unknown after they were moved from Tehran’s Evin prison in the wake of the Israeli strike on the facility in the June war.

They are among a number of Europeans still held by Iran in what several European governments, including France, describe as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking by Tehran to extract concessions from the West.

“The French state is responsible, every day that goes by, for the survival of Cecile and Jacques,” Noemie Kohler, Cecile’s sister, told reporters.

She said she had spoken to the pair on Tuesday “for eight minutes via video call” under heavy surveillance, with the brief communication still offering no clues over where they were being held.

“It was a distress call,” she said.

“They told me they were exhausted,” she said, adding the pair are “at the end of their tether”.

Iranian court sentences two French nationals to 31 and 32 years for spying

Cecile Kohler told her sister she could not endure “another three months or even a few weeks of detention”.

Anne-Laure Paris, daughter of Jacques Paris, said she wanted to be “the mouthpiece for his exhaustion, his despair, his distress and his anger”.

“My father told me: ‘I am staring death in the face’,” she added.

They confirmed that the sentence, initially announced by the Iranian judiciary on Tuesday, amounted to 17 years in prison for Jacques Paris and 20 years for Cecile Kohler.

The families insist they are wholly innocent and were only visiting Iran as tourists.

President Andry Rajoelina left between 11 and 12 October after “explicit and extremely serious threats were made against the life of the Head of State,” the presidency said in a statement late Wednesday.

The threats had come when he was due to travel abroad for a mission, the statement sent to AFP said.

Media reports indicated the 51-year-old leader was evacuated on Sunday aboard a French military plane.

On Monday, he said he had taken refuge in a “safe place” without giving further details.

Madagascar army seizes power after president Rajoelina flees country

Rajoelina, who first came to power after a military-backed coup in 2009, accused the National Assembly of colluding with the military to remove him from office.

The military officers who seized power said their leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, would be sworn in as new president on Friday.

The youth-led Gen Z movement that initiated the protests on September 25 over lack of water and energy welcomed Randrianirina’s intervention.

The international community voiced alarm, with the United Nations censuring what it called an “unconstitutional” takeover and the African Union announcing Wednesday it was suspending Madagascar “with immediate effect”.

Madagascar is the latest of several former French colonies to have fallen under military control since 2020, after coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon and Guinea.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the rise was fuelled by human-caused emissions, massive wildfires and a drop in the ability of forests and oceans to absorb carbon – a feedback loop that scientists fear could make climate change spiral faster.

From 2023 to 2024, the global average concentration of carbon dioxide surged by 3.5 parts per million (ppm), the biggest increase since records began in 1957.

The annual growth rate has now tripled since the 1960s, climbing from 0.8ppm per year to 2.4ppm per year between 2011 and 2020.

“The heat trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases is turbo-charging our climate and leading to more extreme weather,” WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett said in a statement.

“Reducing emissions is therefore essential not just for our climate but also for our economic security and community well-being.”

Climate change linked to 16,500 heat deaths in European cities this summer

Storage systems weakening

Average carbon dioxide levels reached 423.9ppm in 2024, compared to 377.1ppm when the WMO first began issuing its annual greenhouse gas bulletin in 2004.

About half of all CO2 released each year stays in the atmosphere, while the rest is absorbed by land ecosystems and oceans.

But that balance is shifting. Hotter oceans hold less gas, and drought and fires are reducing forests’ capacity to store carbon. The effect was especially strong in 2024, the hottest year ever recorded, as a powerful El Niño caused extreme drought and wildfires in the Amazon and southern Africa.

“There is concern that terrestrial and ocean CO2 sinks are becoming less effective, which will increase the amount of CO2 that stays in the atmosphere, thereby accelerating global warming,” Oksana Tarasova, a WMO senior scientific officer, said.

“Sustained and strengthened greenhouse gas monitoring is critical to understanding these loops.”

The likely reason for the record rise between 2023 and 2024 was the combination of wildfire emissions and reduced CO2 uptake by land and sea. Warmer ocean waters are less able to dissolve carbon dioxide, while dry vegetation and fire damage further limit natural absorption.

Biggest French wildfire since 1949 a ‘catastrophe on an unprecedented scale’

Record highs

Methane and nitrous oxide – the second and third most important greenhouse gases linked to human activities – also hit record highs in 2024.

Methane levels climbed to 1,942 parts per billion, up 166 percent from pre-industrial times. About 60 percent comes from human sources such as cattle farming, rice cultivation, fossil fuel extraction and landfills, while the rest comes from natural sources like wetlands. Methane accounts for roughly 16 percent of the warming effect from long-lived greenhouse gases.

Nitrous oxide, mostly produced through fertiliser use and industrial processes, reached 338 parts per billion – a 25 percent rise above pre-industrial levels.

The WMO released its findings ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, in November, where governments are expected to seek stronger commitments on emissions.

Today’s carbon dioxide emissions will continue to heat the planet for centuries, the agency warned, underscoring the need for urgent action to cut greenhouse gases.

The Council of State announced its decision on Wednesday, confirming the immediate enforcement of Le Pen’s ineligibility sentence following her conviction earlier this year for misappropriation of public funds.

In March, the Paris Criminal Court found Le Pen and several members of her Rassemblement National party guilty of diverting European Parliament funds to pay party staff between 2004 and 2016.

Does ‘politically dead’ Marine Le Pen still have a path to power?

She received a four-year prison sentence – with two years suspended – a €100,000 fine, and a five-year ban from holding public office.

Unlike the prison sentence and fine, the ineligibility penalty took effect immediately, effectively barring her from standing in any upcoming elections, including the presidential contest scheduled for 2027. Le Pen has denied any wrongdoing and described the case as politically motivated.

Le Pen had argued that the Electoral Code’s automatic enforcement of ineligibility for crimes involving corruption, fraud, or misuse of public funds violated her political rights.

She asked the court to overturn the then Prime Minister François Bayrou’s refusal to repeal the relevant legal provisions.

The Council of State dismissed her challenge, stating that the appeal sought “to amend the law, which exceeds the Prime Minister’s powers.”

Bardella ready to lead National Rally if Le Pen barred from 2027 elections

It also ruled that the contested articles either did not exist or were unrelated to the execution of ineligibility penalties, and therefore refused to refer the matter to the Constitutional Council.

Le Pen has already appealed her criminal conviction, with a trial scheduled between 13 January and 12 February. The Court of Appeal is expected to deliver its ruling before summer 2025, well ahead of the presidential campaign. If acquitted, she could regain her eligibility to run.

Paris court sets January appeal date that could decide Le Pen’s political future

If the conviction stands and she chooses to pursue a presidential campaign regardless, the Constitutional Council – France’s top authority on national elections – would have the final say on the validity of her candidacy.

The ruling casts significant doubt for Le Pen, who finished second in the last three presidential elections and remains a leading contender in opinion polls for 2027.

(with newswires)

The presidential campaign officially began on Friday 10 October.

President Alassane Ouattara has led the country since April 2011, and is seeking a fourth term. 

He managed to establish himself as a heavyweight in Ivorian politics over the past thirty years, and is credited with keeping Côte d’Ivoire prosperous and economically dynamic. But Ouattara’s Côte d’Ivoire is also seen as “France’s last bastion”.

Now 83, he can run after changing the constitution in 2016 to remove presidential term limits, which has angered most of the opposition in Côte d’Ivoire.

Four candidates are standing against the incumbent president, the only ones having been ruled eligible by the country’s constitutional court: former ministers Jean-Louis Billon, Ahoua Don Mello and Henriette Lagou, and Simone Gbagbo, ex-wife of president Laurent Gbagbo and therefore a former first lady.

But neither of the main opposition parties – PDCI and PPA-CI – have been able to secure a candidate, as the court disqualified many, including former president Gbagbo and Tidjane Thiam, a businessman and former minister of development.

Why Côte d’Ivoire’s election could be more complex than it seems

The election campaign will end on 23 October, two days before voting begins.

Provisional results will be published at the national level by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) between Sunday 26 October and Thursday 30 October 2025.

To be elected in the first round, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority of the votes cast. If none does, a second round of the presidential election could take place on Saturday 29 November.

Our guest this week is Paul Melly, researcher on West Africa and consulting fellow with the Chatham House think tank in London, UK.

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale’s English language service.

The Mouvement associatif, which represents 700,000 French organisations, organised a protest on 11 October to deliver what it called “a wake-up call” to public authorities across France.

“We came to support each other because our activities are in danger,” said Florence Bouhmana, an employee of Solidarité Laïqu, an organisation that fights inequality and promotes access to education in France and abroad. “Ça ne tient plus –  everything is falling apart,” she told RFI.

The Mouvement associatif points out that associations are facing increasing needs and rising costs due to inflation, while receiving fewer resources from public authorities in the midst of a “budget crisis”.

Organisations working in international solidarity, including Solidarité Laïque, are also feeling the strain of partially frozen funding from the French Development Agency (AFD), the main public funder in this sector.

Funding cuts 

These difficulties were highlighted in a survey across nearly 5,000 associations, whichwas first published in spring 2025 and recently updated.

According to this survey, 30 percent of the 1.4 million associations reported having little or no cash flow. 

Following delays in some payments – due to the 2025 budget only being adopted in January – 58 percent reported a decrease in public funding, and 20 percent even mentioned complete cuts in subsidies from the state or local authorities. 

France’s debt: how did we get here, and how dangerous is it?

“People have had enough,” said Lofti Ouanezar, CEO of Emmaüs Solidarité, lamenting the stagnant or declining resources despite growing hardship.  

“We’re seeing more and more people on the streets, but also new groups – more women, young people, and poor retirees. For example, in our daytime shelter at Châtelet, we’ve gone from 200 to 300 people a day, but with the same resources. Yet we are the last safety net: after us, it’s the street!” 

‘A dynamic sector’

The situation also impacts a dynamic economic sector that employs 1.8 million people – 11 percent of the salaried workforce.

One in three associations had to reduce their payroll in 2025, according to the same survey. Claire Thoury, director of the Mouvement associatif, stated during a press conference ahead of the protest that the number of liquidations and rescue plans had doubled since 2022. 

“We launched a redundancy plan just last week,” confirmed Marc Dixneuf, CEO of AIDES, an organisation that has been fighting HIV and hepatitis for 40 years. 

“Sixty-one jobs will be cut out of around 500, that’s 12 percent of our staff,” explains the director. This is due to “600,000 euros in subsidies from the Health Ministry cut overnight, changes in pricing for testing and health centers and effects of the Ségur healthcare reforms.”

In the middle of the crowd, Uriel Moulet walked around holding a sign that reads: “Do you have any questions?” The young woman works for CNAJEP, a coordinating body for youth and popular education organisations. 

“When I was younger, I didn’t realise that many of the things I had access to – summer camps, community and youth information centers – were tied to associations,” she explained. 

“Sports, culture, youth, popular education, international solidarity, social services, the environment… associations are everywhere,” she emphasizes. And “without them, society falls apart,” reads a placard.

“Associations carry out part of the work of public services through delegation,” explained Alexandra Cordobard, Socialist Party mayor of the 10th arrondissement of Paris, who came to support the protest. “So de-funding them also means abandoning those public policies.” 

Culture and sports sectors under pressure 

The cultural and sports sectors, representing 25 percent and 20 percent of all associations respectively, are particularly under pressure. 

A survey from May 2025 by the association of elected officials for sports (Andes) found that 43 percent of local governments cut their sports budgets this year.

Culture has been hit just as hard: almost half of local governments reduced their cultural budgets between 2024 and 2025, according to the Observatory of cultural policies (OPC).

France roiled by anti-austerity protests as unions demand budget rethink

At the national level, things haven’t been better. The government froze part of the Pass Culture funding for six months, and the Pass’Sport program, which gave discounts on sports club memberships, hasn’t been available since September for kids aged 6 to 13.

Feminist organisations

Feminist organisations have also raised concerns. At the end of August, the Fondation des femmes (Women’s Foundation) warned of a “particularly critical” situation for associations supporting women victims of violence, at a time when demand continues to grow. A survey of 148 organisations found that over 70 percent reported worsening financial conditions in 2025.

“For years, feminist associations have been a lifeline for thousands of women experiencing violence. By cutting their funding, we’re closing that door – and leaving women to face their abusers. That’s a grave political failure, with consequences counted in human lives,” Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the foundation, said.

“When associations are attacked, it’s the most marginalised people who are being attacked,” added Sarah Durocher, president of Planning Familial, at the Mouvement Associatif’s press conference.

Like others, she criticised a growing climate of mistrust, exemplified by the “Republican Commitment Contract” (CER) introduced in 2021, which associations must sign to receive public funding or accreditation.

Some funding cuts are simply “political choices,” she argued. 

This is a view shared by Cordobard: “Now you also have to agree with the government to get support!” she warned, in reference to threatening statements made by former Interior minister Gérald Darmanin (in 2023) about funding for the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (LDH). 

“We need the associations doing the work,” the mayor insisted. “In my arrondissement, food is distributed every night. If associations don’t do it, who will?” 

This story was adapted from RFI’s original version in French.

Alghorra (Zuma Press), who is still in Gaza, was recognised for his series “Trapped in Gaza: Between Fire and Famine”. Last year, he won Bayeux’s young reporter award.

His work on the plight of civilians trapped in the Palestinian territory by the Israeli military campaign also saw him pick up the 2025 Humanitarian Visa d’Or award at Visa pour l’image festival in Perpignan in September.

Gaza was the focus of the other two recipients for this category with Ali Jadallah (Anadolu Agency) in second place and Jehad Alshrafi in third.

Jadallah’s image of Israeli fire raining over Deir al-Balah in Gaza also won the Public’s Choice award.

In the print journalism category, Wolfgang Bauer (Zeit Magazin) from Germany won first place for “The Forgotten”, about the only hospital still able to perform surgery in Sudan‘s capital, Khartoum.

The journalist thanked “all the doctors, nurses and volunteers” at the hospital “who do everything they can to save lives every day” in a video message, on the verge of tears.

Reports from Gaza, Sudan, DRC honoured at French photojournalism festival

Second place in the print category went to Declan Walsh’s “Sudan on Fire” published by The New York Times. His article also won the honorary Ouest-France-Jean Marin prize.

Third place went to Alexander Clapp for “Cocaine, bananas, and tongueless children: behind the scenes of the world’s latest narco-state Ecuator” for The Economist.

Syrian women have their say

Swiss-Canadian journalist Maurine Mercier (RTS-RTBF) received the top prize for radio for her report “Pokrovsk: Two Flowers in the Ruins”, about the sexual lives of women in eastern Ukraine.

“These women live, they defend democracy and freedom,” Mercier told the nearly 1,560 spectators gathered at the award ceremony, “but I didn’t think you would be ‘punk’ enough to award this report.”

Second prize in radio went RFI’s Manon Chapelain for “Barrage de Tichrine: le dernier front de Syrie” (Tichrine Dam: Syria’s last frontline) and third prize to Radio France’s Aurélien Colly for “Syrie: la folie de la tyrannie” (Syria and the folly of tyranny).

In the television category, Julie Dungelhoeff, James André and Sofia Amara from France 24 won first place for their report, “Inside Assad’s terror machine”, focused on the prisons liberated by the Syrian regime.

“It’s important that we continue to go out into the field whenever possible to tell these stories,” said Amara told the audience.

The second prize in television went to Solenn Riou, Pauline Lormant and Oleksii Sauchenko for a report on Ukrainian commandos on the frontline.

The third prize went to Jomana Karadsheh, Tareq Al Hilou, Mohammed Al Sawalhi, Mick Krever and Mark Baron from CNN for their documentary about the lives of children in Gaza which also won the special Normandy Region Prize, designated by students and trainees.

A documentary on the conflict in Ethiopia called “Tigray: rape, the silent weapon” by Agnès NABAT, Marianne Getti (Kraken Films / Arte) scooped up the Grand Format television trophy, awarded by the Caen Memorial museum.

The Young Reporter Award was awarded to Pierre Terraz (Politis, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Grands Reportages), who distinguished himself with “Burma: A Clandestine Plunge into Civil War.”

“Every day, Burmese journalists are arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and executed, sometimes in public,” Terraz said on stage. “I think about them every day.”

Global press freedom at ‘tipping point’, media watchdog RSF warns

Tributes to journalists who perished

The Video Image Award went to Edward Kaprov (Lila Production for ARTE Reportage) for “Donbass, Between Life and Death,” a poignant account of the war in Ukraine.

Presided by American journalist Jon Lee Anderson, the international jury of the 32^nd edition of the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award combed through hundreds of entries to chose winners in the ten categories.

“This has definitely been one of the strongest journalistic offerings I have seen since I have come to the Prix Bayeux,” Anderson said after seeing the numerous entries.

“We evaluated an incredible array of material that included many examples of real journalistic excellence, and it came from all over the globe. We had vigorous debates which were always stimulating and ultimately rewarding. I am tired, but feel very satisfied by the process we have engaged in, and I trust that the public will agree with our choices,” Anderson said.

During the ceremony, tributes were paid to journalists killed recently in the line of duty.

Aida, the partner of French photojournalist Antoni Lallican, who was killed on 3 October in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, in a Russian drone attack, sent a message saying she “already misses the joy of living” of the “talented” reporter who died at the age of 37.

A tribute was paid to Syrian journalist Anas Kharboutli, who died a few days before Bashar al-Assad fled the country.

The Bayeux Calvados-Normany Awards for war correspondents exhibitions are open to the public until 9 November.

The archives in the basement of Wits University are a real maze – but Ajit Gandabhai knows exactly where he is going.

“There are a multitude of categories,” he said. “But we’re heading for the sports section.”

It contains valuable resources for historians and sports enthusiasts: a collection of objects and documents that show how, long before the end of apartheid, black, Indian and mixed-race communities were already playing cricket, rugby and tennis.

“These are financial reports from clubs dating back to 1973,” Gandabhai said. “And this is the trophy for the cricket competition – only for the non-racial federations. The winner took it home.”

South Africa to examine past failures to prosecute apartheid crimes

Boycott and resistance

South Africa was expelled from the Olympic Games in 1964 and, six years later, from the football World Cup. The apartheid government tried cosmetic reforms to make it look more acceptable to the world.

Rejecting any compromise with the regime, activists created the South African Council of Sport (SACOS).

“Sport became a prime way to fight the segregationist state without violence,” said Gandabhai. “And we had the slogan: ‘No normal sport in an abnormal society.’ That is still true today.”

Along with campaigning for an international boycott of South African teams, SACOS and allied clubs built a parallel network of non-racial sport inside the country.

Keeping the memory alive

To make sure this history is not forgotten, activists and sports officials, including Gandabhai, set up a dedicated archive fund in 2014.

“We cannot lose the memory of the people who sacrificed their lives, who were detained by the police,” he told RFI. “This story must be told – and not just from 1995.”

The year 1995, when South Africa won the Rugby World Cup under president Nelson Mandela, is widely seen as the symbolic start of the country’s integrated sporting era.

Because official media under apartheid ignored these competitions, archivists have had to rely on alternative sources – records kept by former players and local supporters.

The legacy of Nelson Mandela 30 years after his election as president

Women’s sport still missing

Michael Kahn, the fund’s secretary-general, said the work is far from complete.

“Several sections are still not well documented,” he said. “And particularly in relation to women’s sport, there are gaps. Black women also played sport – in really difficult conditions.”

The archivists continue to track down testimonies, photographs and documents to fill those gaps and to honour all those who fought for the right to play on equal terms.

The people behind the archive say their work is not just about remembering the past. It also highlights how, three decades after the end of apartheid, access to sport in South Africa still varies sharply between communities.

This story was adapted from RFI’s original version in French

An estimated 750,000 people over 60 are living out what French charity Petits Frères des Pauvres (Little Brothers of the Poor) calls a “social death” – rarely or never seeing a friend, relative, neighbour or community worker.

The figure has soared by 42 percent in the past four years. Previous surveys put it at 530,000 in 2021 and 300,000 in 2017.

The organisation’s president, Anne Géneau, says loneliness and isolation has become far more widespread, affecting all aspects of social life.

In its latest report, published on Tuesday, the charity found that 2.5 million older people feel lonely daily and nearly 6 million say they don’t have anyone to talk to about their feelings.

Beyond family and friends, interactions with local businesses and home professionals such as caregivers or cleaners have also broken down, with 30 percent of seniors reporting less than one exchange per month.

Lasting loneliness

“We thought the worsening observed in 2021 was an accident linked to Covid, which made people withdraw into themselves,” Géneau says, referring to social distancing and lockdowns during the pandemic.

“But that is not the case. We are not back to pre-crisis levels.”

The charity points to a number of other factors behind the figures. Poverty is the main one, affecting 9 percent of those interviewed for the 2025 poll.

There are also a growing number of seniors without children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

The impact of lockdown on young people in France, five years after Covid crisis

Augmented reality

Often overlooked, isolation is a striking theme at the Photoclimat Biennale in Paris, an open-air festival that brings together artists and NGOs working to address social issues.

French photographer Sacha Goldberger spent time interviewing seniors who receive help from Petits Frères des Pauvres for his exhibition “Augmented Solitude”. Some of them hadn’t left their apartments in months or even years, he says.

Based on their conversations, he used artificial intelligence to splice together portraits of his subjects with images of someone they’d like to meet or keep them company. Spectators use their smartphones to view the augmented-reality photographs and learn the backstory.

Goldberger says that while the series exploits AI, it also shows that retreating into a virtual universe can be dangerous. “It highlights the vital necessity of human relationships in the digital age to combat isolation,” he says.

Digital isolation

The internet can also be a powerful tool against solitude, for those who can access it.

Despite declining sharply during the Covid crisis, digital isolation – being cut off from online services – is contributing to the loss of social contact.

“While the pandemic may have encouraged and sometimes even ‘forced’ the use of digital tools among elders, the rate of elderly people who never use the internet has risen from 20 percent in 2021 to 27 percent today,” said Quentin Llewellyn of the CSA institute, which carried out the poll.

Some people are sacrificing their internet subscription for financial reasons or fears over cyber security, the CSA observed.

At Photoclimat, painter Bertrand de Miollis focuses on the internet’s power to bring people together.

In collaboration with the Afnic Foundation, which strives to expand access to the internet for all, he created works that celebrate examples of people using technology to find community, stay in touch, learn new skills or explore their creativity.

Zoom on optimism

People living at the intersection of poverty and isolation are particularly in need of help, according to French charity Entourage.

“For the 5 million people who are in precarious situations and the 330,000 people without homes, the chances of getting out of their situation are almost zero,” the NGO says. “These numbers are only increasing.”

It works to promote connections between people who might not necessarily cross paths, in a bid to change the way society sees poverty and social isolation.

Intergenerational living helps relieve isolation for seniors and students

The charity invited Dutch-Croatian photographer Sanja Marusic to take portraits of both volunteers and beneficiaries involved in its social outreach programmes.

She says it was important to inject a touch of fun and colour to the project – to draw out the optimism which can help people feel empowered to make a difference.

“The most important part for me is that there’s no hierarchy [in the photos],” she told RFI. “I love that you don’t really see who is helping who. It can go both ways.”

Photoclimat Biennale is a free, outdoor exhibition in Paris and surrounding suburbs that runs until 12 October.

Rallied by online collectives including GenZ 212 and Morocco Youth Voices, thousands of mainly young Moroccans took to the streets in a dozen towns and cities last weekend waving placards and shouting slogans including: “Stadiums are here, but where are the hospitals?”

Although the estimated €6 billion costs of building and revamping stadiums and roads for the World Cup appear to be the main conductor for their anger, the month-long Africa Cup of Nations that starts on 20 December could bear the brunt.

“Football is much more than entertainment or sport,” said Abderrahim Boukira, professor of the sociology of sport at Hassan 1 University in Settat.

“It’s a vehicle for national pride and identity and a perfect tool for social cohesion and inclusion – if it is used in the right way.

“But also football exposes structural weaknesses such as inequality, lack of spaces and social exclusion.”

Morocco Gen Z protests enter sixth day with calls to oust government

Double hosting duties

The Confederation of African Football (Caf), which organises the biennial Cup of Nations, declined to comment about the protests which, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry, have left at least 589 police officers as well as 50 civilians injured and led to nearly 500 arrests.

The 35th Africa Cup of Nations was handed to Morocco in September 2023, a year after Guinea was stripped of hosting duties due to its lack of progress on revamping stadiums and roads.

A week later, Morocco’s football administrators were celebrating anew. The bosses at Fifa, world football’s governing body, awarded them co-hosting duties with Portugal and Spain for the centenary edition of the World Cup in 2030.

Two years on, with protests in their second week and GenZ 212 calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, a poser has emerged for Moroccan politicians and football tournament organisers.

Now that they have been questioned, how can they effectively appease the disaffection to ensure a friction-free Cup of Nations and show the demonstrators that they are responding?

Young and angry

Tahani Brahma, a researcher and secretary general at the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, told RFI: “Moroccan youth are taking to the streets to call for functioning hospitals, quality schools and decent jobs.

“They’re rejecting the reality of billions being spent on stadiums for the World Cup while basic services are collapsing.

“Most importantly, Moroccan youth do not want promises, they want their rights.”

People born between 1995 and 2010 make up a fifth of Morocco’s population of 38 million. In August, Morocco’s national statistics office reported unemployment rates of 35.8 percent for 15- to 24-year-olds and 21.9 percent for the 25 to 34 cohort.

The demographic’s ability to mobilise swiftly and vocally on the streets via online platforms such as TikTok and Discord has transformed them into an unpredictable mass with palpable reasons for anger – such as a string of deaths on a maternity ward in Agadir that they say are evidence of the public health sector’s shortcomings.

How Gen Z is taking the fight for their rights from TikTok to the streets

Akhannouch, who is also mayor of Agadir, responded to protests outside that hospital in early September by acknowledging that the centre had been facing problems for decades. 

The billionaire fuel and media tycoon insisted that the government was in the process of building and upgrading hospitals across all the country’s regions.

Data from the World Health Organisation suggests that quest could be long.

In 2023, WHO statistics showed Morocco having 7.7 medical professionals per 10,000 inhabitants and far fewer in certain regions, including Agadir, with 4.4 per 10,000. The WHO recommends 25 per 10,000.

Spending priorities

The government has also been accused of failing to adequately help victims of the earthquake that struck Morocco’s Atlas Mountains on 8 September 2023.

More than 2,900 people were killed and 5,500 people injured during the 6.8-magnitude tremor and its aftershocks.

Just over two years on, Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan inaugurated the 68,000-seat Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat. Amid the pomp and ceremony for the heir to the throne, officials cooed over how the old stadium was demolished and replaced within two years with a state-of-the art venue that will host the first match at the Cup of Nations as well as the final.

Ongoing hardship for Moroccan quake survivors still struggling to rebuild

A few days later, dozens of quake survivors congregated in front of Morocco’s parliament as part of a public plea to the government to take reconstruction aid as seriously as the World Cup projects.

Brandishing banners with the names of villages destroyed during the earthquake, they chanted: “Quake money, where did it go? To festivals and stadiums.”

Tourism concerns

While GenZ 212 and other organisers are urging peaceful protests, there have been reports of violence in several smaller towns over the past week, including three deaths in the village of Lqliaa near Agadir on Wednesday night.

Officers fired on protesters “in legitimate defence” after they allegedly tried to storm a police station, the authorities said.

In Sale, near Rabat, groups of young men hurled stones at police, looted shops, set banks ablaze and torched police vehicles. Security forces in Tangier faced a barrage of stones, and in Sidi Bibi, masked youths burned the commune headquarters and blocked a main road.

Gatherings since then have been largely peaceful, but the shadow of unrest may be enough to worry tourism chiefs.

Tourism contributes significantly to Morocco’s economy, accounting for 7 percent of its GDP. Between January and the end of August 2025, Morocco welcomed 13.5 million visitors, a 15 percent rise on a similar period in 2024, said the Ministry of Tourism.

The 2025 Cup of Nations is expected to improve those figures. But the numbers arriving in Rabat, Agadir, Casablanca, Fez, Marrakech and Tangier for the tournament could be affected if a threat of protests and violence were to stalk the nine venues.

Sports sociologist Boukira suggested it was the opposite of the image the Moroccan administration hopes to project.

“Football is also a tool of soft power,” he said. “Hosting big tournaments, improving infrastructure and attracting global attention shows that football functions beyond sport: it’s a way to project a modern image and to engage internationally.”

He also pointed out the potential benefits at home: “Events like the Cup of Nations and the World Cup also create employment, bring in more tourists and investments. And all that helps in our socio-economic development.”

But with young protesters demanding fundamental reform, there is no guarantee that logic will convince them.

“Young people in Morocco have been suffering for a long time, and not only young people, but the entire population,” said human rights campaigner Brahma.

“Young people are demanding freedom and dignity, and I think these demands will only increase.”

Raila Odinga, one of the defining figures of modern Kenyan politics, has died at the age of 80 while travelling in India. 

He will be remembered as a tireless campaigner whose charisma, flair and stubborn idealism helped steer the country from one-party rule to multi-party democracy.

In his home town of Kisumu, where Odinga was a household name, his death turned the lakeside streets silent on Wednesday.

“People woke up to the sad news that their political father had died in India,” according to RFI Kiswahili’s Victor Abuso. “They’re saying Raila Odinga has left them as orphans. They don’t know who to turn to.”

Shops were shuttered and mourners gathered in tears, chanting his name in disbelief.

Though he never achieved his life’s ambition of becoming president, Odinga’s imprint on Kenya’s political story was unmistakable. To his supporters, he was “Baba” – father of the nation’s democratic spirit – a man who continued to fight, even after five failed presidential runs.

Odinga died after suffering a cardiac arrest during a morning walk in Kerala, southern India, according to Devamatha Hospital.

He had recently signed a surprise political pact with President William Ruto, bringing his opposition party into government policymaking after years of rivalry – a final act of pragmatism from a man whose career was defined by both confrontation and reconciliation.

Kenya presidential hopeful Odinga vows court challenge after polls defeat

From prisoner to reformer

Born on 7 January 1945 in Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria, Raila Amolo Odinga was the son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first vice-president and an early ally-turned-critic of Jomo Kenyatta.

Educated in East Germany as an engineer, Raila returned to Kenya in the 1970s to teach at the University of Nairobi and run a small business manufacturing gas cylinders.

His rise to prominence, however, was marked by struggle. Under Daniel arap Moi’s regime, Odinga was accused of participating in the failed 1982 coup attempt.

He denied the charge,  but spent much of the next decade in detention, enduring torture and isolation.

“I was beaten with a table leg,” he later recalled, describing those years as both brutal and formative. He emerged from prison convinced that Kenya could only survive through pluralism and reform.

By the 1990s, as multiparty politics took root, Odinga had become the voice of a new generation. Winning a Nairobi parliamentary seat in 1992, he built a  following among Kenyans frustrated by corruption and inequality.

His political base in the Luo-dominated west of the country gave him considerable strength, but he often succeeded in reaching beyond it, forging coalitions with leaders from rival ethnic groups

Defeated Odinga files challenge against Kenya election result

The 2007 election crisis

His defining moment arrived during the 2007 presidential election. After years of grassroots mobilisation, Odinga appeared on the brink of unseating the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki.

Crowds thronged his rallies, and even experienced observers believed his time had come. But when the Electoral Commission announced Kibaki as the winner by a narrow margin, allegations of vote-rigging plunged Kenya into chaos.

Speaking to Radio France International in Nairobi the following day, Odinga as defiant.

“If these results are allowed to stand,” he warned, “Kenyans will ask, why is it necessary for us to go to the ballot if, at the end of the day, decisions are made by a few clerks? That is the end of democracy.”

Yet even amid anger and bloodshed, he insisted on non-violence. “We have urged our supporters to conduct themselves with restraint and to desist from any acts of hooliganism,” he told RFI. “We are going to carry out mass action which is peaceful.”

The ensuing violence claimed more than a thousand lives and ripped through Kenya’s fragile social fabric. “No Raila, no peace” became the rallying cry of opposition supporters.

Though Odinga was never accused of inciting unrest, two future presidents – Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto – faced charges at the International Criminal Court, which were later dropped.

The crisis ended with Odinga taking the post of prime minister in a power-sharing deal brokered by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. 

The pursuit of democracy

Over the next decade, Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement remained a dominant presence in Kenyan politics, leading protests against corruption, championing constitutional reform and rallying the opposition.

He ran for president again in 2013, 2017 and 2022, each time claiming electoral manipulation.

As RFI’s Victor Abuso noted, “It’s very sad that Odinga has died not being president of Kenya. He tried for it five times, four times close to power, but he never reached what he really wanted.”

For many in his home region, his defeat after decades of effort remains a wound that has never fully healed.

Even his critics recognised his resilience. Age never appeared to diminish his appetite for the struggle. And while he could at times seem tired on the campaign trail, his rhetoric – part preacher, part professor – retained the magnetism that had elevated him to national prominence.

Odinga’s last major campaign was not for State House but for continental office – a failed bid in early 2025 to become chair of the African Union Commission.

Presidential candidate Ruto claims government is attempting to ‘sabotage’ his rallies

As Kenya awaits official funeral arrangements, there is a growing demands among his supporters for Odinga to be accorded the nation’s highest honours.

“His supporters are expecting that he will be granted a state funeral and a period of national mourning,” Abuso says, reflecting the views of many who regard him as a statesman who rose above party politics.

As Odinga himself said in 2007: “This time, things are different. Kenyans have moved on. They are not Kenyans of the 60s and 70s. These are now Kenyans who are enlightened, who know their democratic right.”

In the end, it was his enduring faith in ordinary Kenyans that secured Raila Odinga’s place among Africa’s most influential political figures.

Odinga is survived by his wife, Ida.

The agreement was signed on Tuesday in Doha after mediation by Qatar, Congolese government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said on X.

M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka confirmed the signing and called it “a significant advancement”.

The body will oversee the implementation of a permanent ceasefire, investigate reports of violations and help prevent renewed fighting, Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

It will include representatives from Congo, M23 and the 12-country International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. Observers from Qatar, the African Union and the United States will also take part, while the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, Monusco, will provide logistical support.

Qatar’s foreign ministry described the move as “a pivotal step toward enhancing confidence-building and moving forward toward a comprehensive peace agreement”.

Kabila death sentence deepens political and regional divides in DR Congo

Wider peace talks

The agreement marks progress in months of Qatar-mediated talks after the two sides missed an 18 August deadline to finalise a peace deal.

Doha has hosted several rounds of discussions since April, focusing on restoring trust and setting the conditions for a lasting truce.

The ceasefire monitoring body was one of two steps required before broader peace talks could begin. The other was a prisoner exchange deal signed in September, though the exchange itself has not yet happened.

In July, Congo and M23 signed a declaration of principles in Doha aimed at ending the conflict and restoring government control in eastern cities now held by the rebels.

Both sides blamed each other for missing the August deadline to complete a full peace agreement.

International NGOs report mass killings and sexual violence in eastern DRC

Years of violence

The M23, also known as the March 23 Movement, is one of more than 100 armed groups fighting for control in eastern Congo. The group launched a new offensive in 2022 and has seized several towns since then.

Backed by neighbouring Rwanda, the rebels say they are protecting Congolese Tutsis from ethnic attacks. Rwanda denies supporting M23, but UN experts reported in July that Kigali’s army played a “critical” role in the group’s operations.

Fighting between M23 and Congo’s army has displaced about 7 million people. The UN has described the situation as “one of the most complex and serious humanitarian crises on Earth”.

Qatar has hosted repeated mediation efforts in recent months, working alongside the African Union and regional partners to keep both sides at the table. Despite those efforts, clashes continue in several parts of North Kivu province, forcing more families to flee.

The ‘wowo’ women carrying DRC’s border trade on their backs, despite the risks

Ongoing fighting

On Tuesday, the Congolese army accused M23 fighters of killing 39 civilians in Rutshuru territory between 6 and 12 October.

UN special envoy for the Great Lakes region Huang Xia told the Security Council this week that “the agreed ceasefire is not being respected”.

He said that after a short lull, “the parties to the conflict have regrouped and resumed military operations”.

The so-called “one-in, one-out” plan was signed in July and took effect in August as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government faced growing pressure to control record levels of immigration.

The appeal was lodged with France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State. The NGOs argue that the deal should have been ratified by parliament before it came into force.

“The implementation decree… is tainted with illegality, as it fails to comply with the procedure prescribed by the constitution,” the groups said in a joint statement.

Among the organisations involved are Utopia 56, which supports migrants, and the medical charity Médecins du Monde.

Their lawyer, Lionel Crusoe, said France’s constitution requires any such bilateral agreement to be approved by parliament before being signed into law. He said the court is expected to decide by the end of the week whether to hold a hearing.

UK deports Indian man to France under ‘one in, one out’ migrant scheme

Record crossings continue

Under the deal, Britain has so far removed 26 people to France and taken in 18 migrants in return, the British government said last week.

British authorities had hoped the deal would curb record levels of irregular Channel crossings, which have fuelled the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party.

The organisations argued that “the number of dangerous and illegal crossings of the Channel has not decreased” following the agreement.

More than 8,400 migrants have entered the UK on dinghies since the deal was implemented, according to an AFP count based on official British data.

Nearly 35,500 such migrants have landed on British shores since the beginning of the year.

At least 27 people have died trying to make the perilous Channel crossing by sea during that same period, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

(with newswires)

Accounts linked to the juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have, among other things, announced the (fake) death of Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara and alerted followers to a (fictitious) coup.

In August, several accounts with total followers in the tens of thousands “attempted to show there had been an insurrection to incite unrest” in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s National Agency for Information System Security (ANSSI) said.

At the time thousands of opponents were protesting peacefully against Ouattara’s re-election bid in the city, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire.

One Burkinabe group with 116,000 followers alleged “gunshots were reportedly heard in the west of the city and dozens of people were killed”.

Ouattara staunchly opposed the coups of 2020–2022 that brought the military to power in Burkina, Mali and Niger, which recently joined forces as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

Côte d’Ivoire opposition calls for daily protests ahead of presidential election

Disinformation targeting Ouattara

In March, a disinformation campaign alleged Ouattara had died.

While not all voters swallowed the story outright, the operation appeared intended to sow doubts in their minds about the 83-year-old incumbent’s physical ability to continue as head of state.

That campaign was spearheaded by a Burkinabe account that used fake screen captures purporting to be from French broadcaster France 24 and a falsified graphic attributed to pan-African weekly magazine Jeune Afrique.

The fake visuals were shared widely by cyberactivists close to the opposition, which has urged its followers to demonstrate across the country ahead of the October 25 election.

“According to our investigations, the accounts responsible for this (disinformation) campaign are mainly identified as having links to Burkina Faso and its supporters,” the ANSSI said.

Côte d’Ivoire presidential election 2025: What’s at stake?

Online influence network

Burkina Faso also has a group of highly influential cyberactivists sharing the military junta’s propaganda on social media.

It is known as the Rapid Intervention Communication Battalion (BIR-C) and is run by US-based Ibrahima Maiga, who has 1.3 million followers on Facebook.

“Independent analyses and probes have uncovered accounts linked to the… military juntas and in some cases controlled by them, including individuals directly linked to the Burkinabe junta, such as the two brothers of (junta leader) Captain Ibrahim Traore,” a security analyst in the region told AFP.

Traore’s younger brother Kassoum is in charge of the captain’s social media communications.

He is suspected of being behind the BIR-C along with older brother Inoussa, Traore’s special advisor in charge of the digital economy, the researcher continued.

Côte d’Ivoire presidential race begins amid rising tensions

Coordinated propaganda

“The key to the success of the BIR-C is their ability to seize on current events, turn them into distorted and manipulated content, and spread this via very active accounts with a huge audience in a coordinated and rapid manner,” said Jeremy Cauden, co-director of Afriques Connectees, an online reputation management firm in Abidjan.

Accounts supportive of the military leaders of Burkina, Mali and Niger enthusiastically share online criticism of their Côte d’Ivoire counterpart.

In addition to opposing the 2020–2022 coups, Côte d’Ivoire maintains good relations with France – the former colonial power in all four countries – which the region’s military rulers have shunned in favour of closer ties with Russia.

Côte d’Ivoire bans protests after opposition leaders barred from vote

Anti-French narratives

“Among key narratives that have emerged is allegations of a military coup, an uprising against Ouattara shortly before he confirmed his fourth term bid and claims that France is directly funding his presidency,” said Beverly Ochieng, an analyst at Control Risks.

“Destabilising the Ivorian electoral process allows juntas to divert attention from their own (promised political) transitions and justify them continuing to hold onto power by discrediting neighbouring democratic alternatives,” the security analyst in the region said.

While no-one appears to have documented direct involvement by Russia, researchers note that Moscow has already helped the military rulers of the three Sahel states mount propaganda operations.

One Ivorian security source told AFP that to tackle the disinformation campaigns, the national authorities have set up a system designed to identify threats, analyse their impact and determine how to respond.

Details of the plan, which will continue during and after the election, remain confidential.

But the source said there had already been legal action and “prosecutors are dealing with it”.

Ghana, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa have all experienced the slings and arrows of fortune at the most prestigious national team tournament on at least three occasions since it began in 1930.

Thirteen teams from South America, North America and Europe put in for that inaugural competition in Uruguay. Egypt were the only side from Africa to throw their hat into the ring but literally missed the boat.

A storm in the Mediterranean delayed their voyage from Egypt to Marseille and the onward connection The Florida set off from southern France without them. The hosts beat Argentina 4-2 in the final to claim the 13-team fest.

Egypt were on board for the 1934 World Cup in Italy to become the first team from Africa to appear at the event.

And the country’s finest secured their passage for the 2026 World Cup on 8 October with a 3-0 romp in Djibouti.

Egypt coach Hossam Hossan, who played for Egypt at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, told Egyptian broadcaster MBC Masr 2:  “It is a great honour to reach the World Cup as both a player and a coach. We did a great job during the qualifiers because we have great players.”

Egypt – boasting English Premier League stars such as Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Manchester City’s Omar Mamoush as well as Al Ahly’s Zizo and Trézéguet – were predicted to emerge from a group containing Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau.

And they notched up 26 points out of a possible 30 from their 10 games in Group A to vindicate the optimism.

Road to 2026: Nigeria knuckle down as South Africa seek to claw back points

Shock qualification

Cape Verde’s progress from Group D came against the odds. They were in a pool with Cameroon who have played at eight World Cups – a record in Africa. Angola and Libya, both tough outfits, were also in the mix.

But the Blue Sharks – as they are nicknamed –  shrugged off their failure to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to achieve the most salient coup in a footballing history that was launched with a 1-0 loss to Guinea on 19 April 1978.

The path to glory started inauspiciously. Cape Verde drew with Angola, beat Eswatini and lost 4-1 in Cameroon.

But a run of five wins, including a 1-0 victory at home over Cameroon, left them top of the group.

In the ninth round of games as Cameroon were ahead in Mauritius, it all appeared to be disintegrating when Libya led Cape Verde 3-1 with 30 minutes to play in Tripoli.

But two late goals salvaged a 3-3 draw to provide the platform for Monday night’s pyrotechnics in the 3-0 win against Eswatini at the National Stadium in Praia.

“What a historic moment,” said Gianni Infantino, the head of Fifa which organises the World Cup.

Road to 2026: Senegal target top as Ivorians stay solid and Nigeria wake up

Infantino video messge

“Your work on football development in recent years has been incredible,” he added in his video eulogy to the Cape Verdean federation.

“And this is a moment where your stars will become global and power a new generation of football lovers across Cape Verde.

“Congratulations to everyone in Cape Verde for making the World Cup for the first time. Your flag will fly and your anthem will be heard at the greatest World Cup ever.”

So far, so feel-good. Cape Verde’s progress as the second smallest country by population to feature at the tournament has yielded a narrative to justify Infantino’s brainchild of increasing the number of teams at the World Cup from 32 to 48.

But the decision to stage matches at 11 venues in the United States as well as five others in Mexico and Canada has brought uncertainty.

A month after warning that he would strip a host city from holding a match, the US President Donald Trump repeated that he would pressure Fifa to remove games from a designated venue on the basis of that city’s politics.

Speaking during a media event with the Argentinian president Javier Milei, who was visiting the White House after the announcement of a €20bn bailout for the country, Trump said: “If someone is doing a bad job, and I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni, who is phenomenal, and say: ‘Let’s move it to another location,’” 

“And he would do that. He wouldn’t love to do it, but he’d do it. Very easily, he’d do it.”

Cape Verde boss Bubista urges squad to seize chance to reach first World Cup

Organisation of major tournament

As the realpolitik rages, seven of the nine African sides who qualified for the World Cup will test their tournament mettle during the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco from 21 December.

Ghana will miss out on the month-long continental championship.

In November 2024, when they failed to advance to the Cup of Nations for the first time since 2004, head coach Otto Addo was under threat of losing his job.

But like his Cape Verdean counterpart, Bubista, he remained to usher the squad along the road to redemption.

“To say it simply, we scored more goals in the World Cup campaign than we did during the Cup of Nations qualifiers,” Addo deadpanned.

“We are more mature and we were more clinical when taking our chances.

“I think we have come together as a united team,” he added. “If you have unity, everything is easy.”

Following a 5-0 win in Latvia on Tuesday night, England became the first of the 16 European sides to book a ticket for next summer and take the tally of qualified so far up to 28.

As the nine African teams savour their achievements and anticipate the draw on 5 December in Washington for the World Cup group stages, the four best runners-up from the World Cup qualifiers in Africa will fight in a mini-tournament in November for a berth at the intercontinental play-off next March with opponents from Asia, North America, South America and Oceania.

Nigeria, who are seeking a seventh appearance, will face potential debutants Gabon and Cameroon will take on Democratic Republic of Congo who were last at the World Cup in 1974 when the country was known as Zaire.

“This campaign is not finished,” said Nigeria coach Eric Chelle. “This is the beginning. And it will be very, very difficult.”

The World Food Program (WFP) warned that six key operations – in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan – “are currently facing major disruptions, which will only get worse by year-end”.

“WFP is facing a staggering 40 percent reduction in funding, with projections of $6.4 billion compared to $9.8 billion in 2024,” the Rome-based agency wrote in a new report.

“The humanitarian system is under severe strain as partners pull back from frontline locations, creating a vacuum,” it added.

It did not name any one country, but noted a report in The Lancet medical journal about the huge impact of cuts to US assistance.

Donald Trump slashed foreign aid after returning as US president in January, dealing a heavy blow to humanitarian operations worldwide.

Global aid in chaos as Trump proposes to slash funds and dismantle USAID

“Programme coverage has been slashed and rations cut. Life-saving assistance to households in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) is at risk, while preparedness for future shocks has dropped drastically,” the report said.

The IPC, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), is a UN-backed initiative that measures hunger and malnutrition around the world.

Lifeline

Across the world, “WFP estimates that its funding shortfalls could push 10.5 to 13.7 million people currently experiencing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) levels of acute food insecurity into Emergency (IPC Phase 4)”, it said.

“The world is facing hunger issues on a scale never seen before – and the funds needed to help us respond are woefully insufficient,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain.

“We are watching the lifeline for millions of people disintegrate before our eyes.”

The WFP said just 600,000 people will get its food aid this month in DRC, down from a planned 2.3 million, while less than 10 percent of those in need are getting assistance in Afghanistan, despite soaring malnutrition rates.

In South Sudan, expensive airdrops in famine-risk areas are under threat due to funding constraints, WFP said, while in Haiti, families are receiving half the agency’s standard monthly rations.

Global hunger “is at record levels”, with 319 million people facing acute food insecurity, including 44 million in emergency levels of hunger, the agency said.

The UN formally declared a famine in Gaza earlier this year, while the WFP said Wednesday that the number of people categorised as “in famine or on the brink” has doubled in just two years to 1.4 million across five countries.

UN declares famine in Gaza, first ever in the Middle East

Rising hunger levels not only put lives at risk but also undermine regional stability and fuel the displacement of communities, McCain said.

“We are at risk of losing decades of progress in the fight against hunger,” she said.

(with AFP)

The bodies were handed over late on Tuesday through the International Committee of the Red Cross. Kan said the government decided to cancel an earlier plan to halve the number of aid trucks entering Gaza after delays in returning the remains.

The crossing had been closed for several days. Israel had threatened to block aid shipments if Hamas failed to return the bodies of hostages as promised under the truce agreement.

Around 600 trucks a day are now expected to cross at Rafah, carrying goods from the United Nations, approved international organisations, private firms and donor countries.

Families confirm identities

Families confirmed on Wednesday that three of the four victims had been identified by Israel’s national forensic institute. The identity of the fourth remained unconfirmed.

The Israeli military said that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners was not a former hostage.

After overnight forensic tests on the four bodies returned on Tuesday, the army said medical officials concluded that one “does not match any of the hostages”.

In a statement, the military warned that “Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages”.

Macron welcomes Hamas return of Israeli hostages as truce plan begins

Relatives of those identified expressed their grief publicly.

“It is with immense sadness and immense pain that we announce the return of the body of our beloved Ouriel Baruch from the Gaza Strip, after two long years of prayers, hope and faith,” the family said in a statement posted online.

Baruch, 35, from Jerusalem, was abducted at the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023.

The families of Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levy said their bodies had also been returned. Nimrodi, 18, was a soldier captured at a base near Gaza. Levy, a 53-year-old taxi driver, was killed after dropping off a friend at Kibbutz Beeri that morning.

Four additional bodies were expected to be handed over later on Wednesday, RFI’s Jerusalem correspondent Frédérique Misslin reported. Around 20 deceased hostages have yet to be returned.

Four bodies were returned on Monday, making Tuesday’s handover the second batch this week.

Hamas has said it is struggling to locate all of the remains, while Israel continues to press the group to meet its commitments under the truce. Funerals for the returned victims were scheduled during the day.

Vital aid needs

Jonathan Crickx, communications director for Unicef Palestine, said that allowing 600 trucks a day is vital for civilians.

“Before the war, there were about 500 trucks entering the Gaza Strip. What we saw during the ceasefire in January was a situation where 600 trucks were entering every day,” he told RFI.

“At that time, we were able to see that food prices in the markets returned to normal and we could distribute basic necessities.”

Israeli daily Haaretz reported that negotiations on the next phase of a peace agreement have resumed.

The Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which owns around 30 Courbet paintings, unveiled the exhibit The Desperate Man on Tuesday.

The self-portrait by Gustave Courbet was last shown to the French public in a major retrospective in 2007-2008, which also travelled to New York.

At that time, the painting was loaned by an unknown private collector with help from French bank BNP Paribas, but has since been bought by Qatar Museums, a state body responsible for developing the art scene in the oil-rich emirate.

Private owners

The Desperate Man depicts Courbet with a wild-eyed stare looking out of the canvas in a work that is one of his best known alongside The Stone Breakers and The Origin of the World.

Then a young painter from the east of France seeking success in Paris, Gustave Courbet depicts himself with features distorted by horror, fear, or madness, holding his head, his arms and face caught in a striking chiaroscuro.

Like other works by the artist, the painting – also called Self-Portrait of the Artist or Despair – has never been part of French public collections and was for a very long time in the hands of private owners.

The father of French psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan, owned The Origin of the World, which joined the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in 1995.

The dispersal of the artist’s work is largely due to his legal and political troubles. Condemned in France for his participation in the Paris Commune uprising of 1871, Gustave Courbet went into exile in Switzerland to escape prison and had to sell his paintings to pay the heavy penalty imposed by the justice system.

Qatar Museums

Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, head of Qatar Museums and sister of the Gulf state’s ruler, said the painting was destined for the Art Mill Museum and “will travel regularly between Doha and Paris in the future”.

The Art Mill Museum in Doha is part of the emirate’s plan to become a Middle Eastern art hub, with the vast complex designed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena scheduled to open in 2030.

As head of Qatar Museums, Sheikha Al Mayassa is one of the world’s biggest contemporary art buyers and has already amassed a multi-billion-dollar portfolio.

(with AFP)

After parliament toppled his two predecessors over cost-cutting measures, Lecornu, French president’s seventh premier since 2017, is battling to keep his cabinet alive long enough to pass a much-needed austerity budget by the end of the year.

The Socialists, a swing group in parliament, had threatened to vote to topple the government if he did not immediately suspend the pensions reform that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64.

In a policy speech to lawmakers, Lecornu supported suspending the 2023 pensions reform until the next presidential election.

“There will be no increase in the retirement age from now until January 2028,” he pledged.

The reform, which the government forced through parliament without a vote in 2023, sparked months of protests.

Lecornu also promised parliament that he would not use the controversial article 49.3 tool to bypass a vote in the lower house on any draft laws, and put all proposed bills to debate.

French social partners start three months of pension reform discussions

In a bid to gain opposition backing, Lecornu earlier this month promised not to force legislation through, and allow all bills to be debated in the lower house.

“The government will make suggestions, we will debate, and you will vote,” Lecornu said.

France’s public deficit

Lecornu, who became prime minister last month, resigned on Monday last week after criticism of his newly appointed government.

He was re-appointed on Friday and proposed a new team of ministers on Sunday – just in time for the government to approve and file a draft budget with parliament.

Reappointed French PM faces tight deadline to form government, negotiate budget

In the draft approved by his government Tuesday, France’s public deficit was cut to 4.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Lecornu said, warning it must remain below five percent after parliamentary debate on the budget.

France’s debt-to-GDP ratio is the European Union’s third-highest after Greece and Italy, and is close to twice the 60-percent limit fixed by EU rules.

Freezing the pensions reform would cost some 400 million euros in 2026 and 1.8 billion euros the year after, Lecornu said, adding the suspension must be offset by savings, not by increasing the deficit.

The former defence minister told lawmakers the move was not about “suspending for the sake of suspending,” but an opportunity to chart a new course for the country’s pension system.

Under pressure

Lecornu is under severe pressure from opponents.

The hard-left France Unbowed party and far-right National Rally have already filed motions to topple Lecornu’s new cabinet, although they stand little chance of succeeding without the backing of the Socialists.

The Socialists did not immediately respond to Lecornu’s promise on the pension bill.

After the speech, the Green party said it would vote to oust Lecornu’s government even after the suspension, while the centre-right Horizons party called the reform a “dangerous shortcut”.

Earlier on Tuesday, Macron had warned that any vote to topple Lecornu’s cabinet would force him to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.

Macron has also faced unprecedented criticism.

Some opposition leaders are urging him to call snap elections or resign, and even key allies such as former prime minister Edouard Philippe have distanced themselves from the 47-year-old president.

The far-right senses its strongest chance yet to seize power in the 2027 presidential elections, when Macron’s second and last term runs out.

National Rally (RN) leader Jordan Bardella mocked the new government as “Emmanuel Macron’s saviour club,” saying its members shared only a “fear of the ballot box”.

(with AFP)

Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris are the only two remaining French citizens held in Iran and have been detained since 2022 when they were arrested at the end of a tourist trip.

Without specifically naming the defendants, the court sentenced one French citizen to six years in prison for spying on behalf of France, five years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime against national security, and 20 years of imprisonment for assisting Israeli intelligence services.

The other defendant was handed 10 years in prison for spying on behalf of France, five years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime against national security, and 17 years of imprisonment  for assisting Israeli intelligence services.

The charges could have led to the death penalty.

The two defendants can appeal their sentences to a higher court.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot have repeatedly called for the release of Kohler and Paris.

France has accused Iran of holding them arbitrarily, keeping them in conditions akin to torture in Tehran‘s Evin prison and not allowing proper consular protection.

The Islamic Republic denies the accusations.

ICJ drops France’s case on jailed couple in Iran as families urge action

No prisoner swap

In early September, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a television interview that a prisoner swap involving the French pair was nearing its “final stage” – with a proposed exchange for Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian woman arrested in France in February over promoting terrorism on social media.

Iran has repeatedly requested her release, arguing that she was unjustly detained.

Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday that accusations against Esfandyari were baseless and that France had refused to release her temporarily on bail.

“Follow-ups have taken a while but they have not stopped… We are striving for her release without conditions,” he added.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have detained dozens of foreign and dual nationals in recent years, often on espionage-related charges. Rights groups and Western countries accuse Tehran of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips, which Iran denies.

Lennart Monterlos, an 18-year-old French-German cyclist arrested this year, was released last week after a court acquitted him of espionage charges.

(with newswires)

The online movement, a driving force behind more than two weeks of near-nightly protests in the kingdom, called for demonstrators to take part in sit-ins Saturday in cities across the country.

“We call on young people in Morocco and all citizens to massively mobilise to support this movement until our demands are met,” the group, whose founders remain unknown, said in a statement.

The protests erupted in late September, after the deaths of eight pregnant women during Caesarean sections at a hospital in Agadir, in southern Morocco, sparked anger over conditions at public health facilities. 

Protesters are also outraged over the state of the education system, alleged corruption and other issues.

The movement announced a pause in the protests ahead of King Mohammed VI’s annual address to parliament Friday.

In the closely watched speech, the monarch said creating jobs for young people and improving the health and education systems were “priorities” – but made no reference to the protest movement.

How football mega tournaments became a lightning rod for Morocco protesters

€40 for a medical consultation

Nearly 36 percent of 15–24-year-olds are unemployed in Morocco. Those lucky enough to have work must contend with a high cost of living, particularly when it comes to healthcare.

“If I want treatment in a public hospital, there’s nothing available,” says Fadil. “If I go to a private clinic, they’ll charge me €40 just for a consultation – that’s 10 percent of my salary,” he told RFI.

The kingdom projects the image of an emerging nation with strong growth and widespread construction.

But economist Najib Akesbi says there is a fundamental problem in how resources are allocated. “The needs of the majority of the population are clearly not being prioritised,” he told RFI. “Instead, ostentatious, prestige-driven spending is favoured. That’s the great imbalance.”

CAF ‘absolutely confident’ AFCON will go ahead in protest-hit Morocco

Investments often ‘not profitable’

The country’s large-scale sports infrastructure – the stadiums built or renovated for the Africa Cup of Nations and the FIFA World Cup, with a combined budget of nearly €2 billion – are the most striking example, Akesbi argues.

“The big problem in Morocco is that we invest massively, but often in projects that are not profitable, that generate neither sufficient growth nor enough jobs,” he says.

While the Ministry of Health’s budget increased by more than 30 percent between 2022 and 2024, basic needs are unmet.

“People still lack material resources, medicines are missing from hospitals, and essential tools and equipment are in short supply. No serious or credible reform has been implemented,” notes the economist.

How Gen Z is taking the fight for their rights from TikTok to the streets

Dozens of arrests

The recent rallies, that have drawn crowds ranging from dozens to several hundred people, have been largely peaceful, though some nights have seen spates of violence and vandalism.

Three people were killed in clashes with security forces earlier this month, while police have made dozens of arrests.

GenZ 212 also called Monday for a boycott campaign, without specifying the targets.

At protests in Casablanca, reporters with AFP news agency have seen demonstrators brandishing placards against Afriquia, a fuel-distribution company that is a subsidiary of the Akwa group, co-owned by Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch’s family.

Akhannouch is Morocco’s third-richest person, with a fortune estimated at $1.5 billion, according to Forbes.

(with newswires)

Going into the final round of games, Benin, second-placed South Africa and Nigeria in third all had the chance to advance to the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

With a two-point advantage over South Africa, Benin simply needed to match South Africa’s result while Nigeria had to beat Benin by at least two goals and hope Rwanda held South Africa to a draw.

But it was South Africa who clinched the berth with their win in front of delirious partisans at the Mbombela Stadium.

In the prelude to the game, the South Africa boss Hugo Broos said his team needed to beat Rwanda and then pray for a miracle.

Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen emerged as that godsend. The 26-year-old struck twice in the first-half and completed his hat trick shortly after the pause to end Benin’s dream. Frank Onyeka racked up the fourth in stoppage-time.

Goals within the first half hour from Thalente Mbatha and Oswin Appolis settled South Africa’s nerves and Evidence Makgopa added the gloss with just under 20 minutes remaining to send South Africa to the World Cup for the first time since they were hosts in 2010.

“It’s wonderful,” Broos told South African broadcaster SABC after the victory as fireworks exploded around the stadium. “We all knew that we could do it. We believed in ourselves.

“You could see from the beginning that the players wanted to win that game.

“The only thing that could stop us was what was happening in Nigeria … but Nigeria did what they had to do and we did what we had to do. So we’re going to the World Cup. It’s fantastic.”

Nigeria’s victory pushed them up into the runners-up spot with 17 points.

In Dakar, Mané was the star of the show at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium.

The 33-year scored his 47th international goal on the stroke of half-time to open the scoring. And within minutes of the restart, he notched up his 48th.

Iliaman Ndiaye and Habib Diallo added the gloss for the hosts.

Pape Bouna Thiaw’s squad ended their 10 Group B matches with 24 points from seven wins and three draws.

Democratic Republic of Congo finished on 22 points after Theo Bongonda’s strike in the 29th minute edged them past Sudan at the Stade des Martyrs in Kinshasa.

Cote d’Ivoire beat Senegal on penalties to reach last eight at Cup of Nations

Kessié starts the party

Côte d’Ivoire’s only threat to a fourth appearance at the World Cup lay 3,500km away in Franceville where second-placed Gabon were entertaining Burundi.

An Ivorian slip-up at the arena where they outwitted Nigeria to claim their third Africa Cup of Nations title in February 2024 would allow the Gabonese to progress to their first World Cup with a win.

Franck Kessié, who scored in Côte d’Ivoire’s 2-1 victory over Nigeria, eased the nerves of the partisans at the Alassane Outtara Stadium with a strike in the seventh minute.

Yan Diomande doubled the advantage in the 54th minute and Amand Diallo hit the third five minutes from time to make proceedings in Franceville irrelevant.

Two goals late in the match from Bryan Meyo Ngoua and Mario Lemina furnished Gabon with a win and a points haul of 25 in Group F to send them into a play-off with three of the other best runners-up.

The winners of that tournament will advance to a play-off with a team from another confederation for a slot at the World Cup.

Hosts’ zany triumph caps feral month at Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire

South Africa advance

Earlier on Tuesday, South Africa claimed a spot at the World Cup for the first time since hosting the tournament in 2010 with a 3-0 win over Rwanda in Mbombela.

The victory, coupled with Nigeria’s 4-0 romp over Group E pacesetters Benin, allowed Hugo Broos’ charges to claim supremacy with 18 points from their 10 matches. Nigeria were a point behind in second.

It’s wonderful,” Broos told South African broadcaster SABC after the victory as fireworks exploded around the stadium. “We all knew that we could do it. We believed in ourselves.

“You could see from the beginning that the players wanted to win that game.

“The only thing that could stop us was what was happening in Nigeria. Nigeria did what they had to do in case we lost but we did what we had to do. So we’re going to the World Cup. It’s fantastic.”

In 2016, 39 percent of French people were experiencing difficulties with cumbersome administrative procedures. By 2024, this had soared to 61 percent.

The survey found that 23 percent of public service users had given up something they had a right to in the last five years, due to the complexity of the procedures involved.

Respondents also reported they had given up their rights due to negative experience with the authorities, with 50 percent saying they have experienced discrimination from a public service.

Those struggling come from all social and educational backgrounds, and age groups – although while older people had previously reported  being the most comfortable in dealing with administration, this is no longer the case.

According to the Defender of Rights – France’s independent institution to ensure the protection of citizen rights, which conducted the survey – this is due to the digitisation of these procedures.

French government will use AI to modernise public services

Getting in touch

To overcome the difficulties users experience, the government has set up a network of service centres, named France Services, staffed by advisors who can help guide them through complex bureaucratic processes.

Serge arrived at a France Service centre in Boulogne-Billancourt, west of Paris, with a pile of documents. With the help of Alice, an advisor, he put together his pension application.

“Thank goodness she’s here!” he said. “They asked for additional information. There were some things I didn’t understand. I couldn’t do it on my own.”

‘It’s a fairly common request, so we give them the information. Then they do the rest themselves,’ Alice added.

Getting in touch with France’s administrative bodies to obtain the right information was the most common hurdle encountered by users, followed by difficulty making an appointment.

Serge didn’t even try to call his pension fund, feeling discouraged before he began.

“When you call, you get voicemail. It’s not easy to get through to them,” he explained.

There are more than 2,800 France Services locations across the country, with the aim that all French people should live within 20 minutes of one of the centres, and last year the government pledged to open 300 more by 2027.

Benefits bureaucracy estimated to save French state billions in unpaid welfare

Online access

In the office next door, Michel needs to renew his vehicle registration.

While he already had the access codes for the dedicated website, this is not always the case for users who come to Rémi Lafonpuyo, manager of this France Services centre.

He said: “To access online services, you need to have an account. This means that users need to be able to access their emails on their phones, because security codes are required. This already requires a minimum level of technical proficiency.”

He added that often he has to start by setting up an email account for people who don’t have one. Currently less than half of people in France say they are able to complete online procedures without any help.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French.

Populist billionaire Andrej Babiš has swept back into power after voters, frustrated by unfulfilled promises and a stagnant quality of life, turned their backs on the centre-right government.

According to Ondračka, Babiš’s resurgence reflects deep public disillusionment with the political establishment – alongside his skill as a pragmatist who “tells people whatever they want to hear.”

While Brussels voices unease over his return, Ondračka argues that Babiš is neither aligned with Moscow nor guided by ideology.

Instead, he describes him as a tycoon whose loyalties lie squarely “where the money is” – inside the European Union.

Czech populist’s comeback a win for politics of pragmatism in shifting Europe

As the Czech Republic enters coalition talks and joins Hungary, Slovakia and Poland in navigating a shifting political landscape, Ondračka warns that Europe’s populist wave is far from receding, continuing to test the strength of the liberal centre.

The presidential campaign officially began on Friday 10 October.

President Alassane Ouattara has led the country since April 2011, and is seeking a fourth term. 

He managed to establish himself as a heavyweight in Ivorian politics over the past thirty years, and is credited with keeping Côte d’Ivoire prosperous and economically dynamic. But Ouattara’s Côte d’Ivoire is also seen as “France’s last bastion”.

Now 83, he can run after changing the constitution in 2016 to remove presidential term limits, which has angered most of the opposition in Côte d’Ivoire.

Four candidates are standing against the incumbent president, the only ones having been ruled eligible by the country’s constitutional court: former ministers Jean-Louis Billon, Ahoua Don Mello and Henriette Lagou, and Simone Gbagbo, ex-wife of president Laurent Gbagbo and therefore a former first lady.

But neither of the main opposition parties – PDCI and PPA-CI – have been able to secure a candidate, as the court disqualified many, including former president Gbagbo and Tidjane Thiam, a businessman and former minister of development.

Why Côte d’Ivoire’s election could be more complex than it seems

The election campaign will end on 23 October, two days before voting begins.

Provisional results will be published at the national level by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) between Sunday 26 October and Thursday 30 October 2025.

To be elected in the first round, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority of the votes cast. If none does, a second round of the presidential election could take place on Saturday 29 November.

Our guest this week is Paul Melly, researcher on West Africa and consulting fellow with the Chatham House think tank in London, UK.

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale’s English language service.

Erdogan said this week that Turkey would work with the United States on civil nuclear energy, in a new signal to Washington that Ankara is looking west for its energy needs.

Turkish companies last month signed a 20-year, multibillion-dollar deal with American firms to buy liquefied natural gas.

The agreement came during Erdogan’s visit to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump in late September. During that meeting, Trump urged Erdogan to reduce ties with Moscow and end Turkey’s reliance on Russian oil and gas.

“In a sense, he [Trump] is offering a grand bargain to Erdogan,” said Asli Aydintasbas of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

She summed up the deal: “Stop the hedging, stop the stuff with Russia, stop the geopolitical balancing, and then let’s re-establish the partnership, and then we can move along and can really become key partners in the region.”

Turkey walks a tightrope as Trump threatens sanctions over Russian trade

Economic pressure

Trump often praises Erdogan as a “friend”, but the US leader has shown he is willing to use economic pressure. During his first term, he triggered a collapse in the Turkish lira over the jailing of an American pastor.

He could again target Ankara with secondary sanctions if Turkey keeps importing Russian energy.

Russian fossil fuels still provide nearly half of Turkey’s total energy. Zaur Gasimov, a Russian-Turkish expert with the German Academic Exchange Service, said Europe’s experience shows how costly a sudden break with Moscow could be.

“It was the case with some Western European countries in 2022 that caused an augmentation of the prices,” said Gasimov. “And the Turkish economy is struggling with inflation that would immediately and heavily affect the life of the average citizen. No party power in Turkey would take such a decision.”

Ankara has ruled out ending its Russian energy contracts, but oil imports from Russia have fallen to their lowest levels in a year.

Some gas deals, signed decades ago, are due for renewal. Analysts say Turkey may use that moment to slowly cut its dependence on Moscow – a move that would deal a serious blow to Russia, which now relies on Turkey as its last major European gas customer.

Druzhba pipeline: dependence, diplomacy and the end of Russian leverage in Europe

Strategic balancing

Energy trade has long been at the heart of Erdogan’s personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The partnership has survived the war in Ukraine, despite the fact Turkey also supplies arms and support to Kyiv.

Turkey’s balancing act helps keep regional rivalries under control, said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, who heads the Marshall Fund office in Ankara.

“Turkey and Russia have been fighting proxy wars in the Caucasus, in North Africa, in the Levant,” he said. “Turkey is getting the upper hand in the end. But Turkey could still manage its relationship with Russia.”

Unluhisarcikli added that Ankara would want guarantees from the West before distancing itself from Moscow, since “it would have security implications on Turkey”.

Turkey would have to be “certain” that it would be welcomed back to Europe and have assurances from the United States, he suggested.

Erdogan spoke with Putin by phone this week, though such contacts have reportedly become less frequent as their once-close relationship cools.

Ankara remains aware of the risks: when Turkey accidentally shot down a Russian bomber near the Syrian border in 2015, Putin responded with sanctions that hit Turkish exports and tourism, and several Turkish soldiers in Syria were later killed in what Moscow called an accident.

Turkey eyes Ukraine peacekeeping role but mistrust clouds Western ties

Declining leverage

With Russia weakened by sanctions and isolation over its war in Ukraine, analysts say its influence on Turkey is diminishing.

“It is the window to Europe. It is a way to the outside world,” Gasimov says. “The number of flights to Turkey is getting bigger and bigger.

“For Russia, Turkey remains a very, very important partnership. So the leverage Moscow once possessed over Ankara is getting less and less.”

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

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More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec rfi” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”, and you’ll be counseled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, the International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis.

Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service.  Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show.  

Teachers take note!  I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 24 July, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognize a State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly, which was in September.

Following Macron’s announcement, there was a two-day conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. Co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, ministers from across the world discussed fostering the Israeli and Palestinian states living peacefully side-by-side.

You were to re-read our article: “UN gathers to advance two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict”, and send in the answer to this question: Aside from recognizing Palestinian statehood, what other three issues were discussed at the conference?

The answer is, to quote our article: “Beyond facilitating conditions for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the meeting will focus on three other issues – reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from Palestinian public life, and normalisation of relations with Israel by Arab states.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Rafiq Khondaker, the president of the Source of Knowledge Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Rafiq’s question was: “What is your favorite historical site in your country? Why?”

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us!

The winners are: Fatematuj Zahra, the co-secretary of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Fatematuj is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Fatematuj.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Naved Raiyan, the president of the RFI Fan Club in Murshidibad, India, along with a fellow Murshidabadite, Asif Ahemmed, a member of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club. There are RFI Listeners Club members Rodrigo Hunrichse from Ciudad de Concepción in Chile, and last but not least, RFI English listener Miss Kausar, a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khānewāl, Pakistan.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Ständchen” by Franz Schubert, arranged by Franz Liszt and performed by Vladimir Viardo; the traditional “Longa Alla”, performed by the Ensemble musical de Palestine; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and the selections from the anonymous L’amour de moy, performed by Doulce Mémoire conducted by recorder player Denis Raisin Dadre with singer Jean François-Olivier.

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article about the winner, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 3 November to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 8 November podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

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France

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As French politicians remain deeply divided over how to address the country’s growing deficit, one measure appears to unite public opinion across the political spectrum: the Zucman tax. Devised by 38-year-old economist Gabriel Zucman, the idea is to add a two percent tax on the ultra-rich, who often use holding companies to shield their wealth from income taxes. While the left sees it as fiscal justice, many on the right are concerned about additional taxes in a country that already has a lot, and maintain taxing the wealthiest will drive them abroad. (Listen @2′)

Ali Akbar left his native Pakistan aged 18, looking to make enough money to buy his mother a decent home. Since arriving in France in 1973, he’s managed to do just that – selling newspapers like Le Monde on the streets of Paris’s Left Bank district. A popular figure in the neighbourhood, Akbar – the capital’s last remaining hawker – was recently selected for the National Order of Merit by President Emmanuel Macron, a former customer. He talks about loving his work, the collapse of the newspaper culture and how recognition by France will help to “heal” the injuries of his past. (Listen @18’30”)

France abolished the death penalty on 9 October 1981. Forty-four years later, the justice minister who fought to change the law, Robert Badinter, is entering the Pantheon, the monument dedicated to French heroes. (Listen @11′)

Episode mixed by Cécile Pompeani

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

After a 13-year break, Turkish and Egyptian warships last week carried out a major naval drill in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The exercise is the latest step in repairing ties after years of tension that began when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“It marks the consolidation of the improvement in relations,” said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, adding the drill sent “a powerful message to Israel of a new alignment”.

Guvenc said naval drills in the eastern Mediterranean have typically involved Cyprus, Greece and Israel, but this time Egypt broke with those countries, signalling it was no longer part of the anti-Turkey camp in the region.

Erdogan’s Washington visit exposes limits of his rapport with Trump

Shift in alliances

The Turkish-Egyptian exercise follows years in which Cairo built strong ties with Ankara’s rivals in the region. The shift has not gone unnoticed in Israel.

“Definitely, this is a major event that Turkey and Egypt have conducted a naval exercise after so many years,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

The joint drill comes as Ankara has expanded and modernised its navy in recent years. Lindenstrauss said this has unsettled some of Turkey’s neighbours, giving Israel common ground with Greece and Cyprus.

“Some of them also have quite big disputes with Turkey, such as Cyprus and Greece,” she said. “Greece and Cyprus relations with Israel have been developing since 2010. We’ve seen a lot of military drills together. We saw weapons procurements between the three actors, and this has been going on for some time. So Israel is not alone.”

Turkey has long-standing territorial disputes with Greece and the Greek Cypriot government in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

Guvenc said Israel has gained the upper hand over Turkey in their rivalry centred on Cyprus.

“The Greek Cypriots acquired a very important air defence system from Israel and activated it. They made life far more difficult for the Turkish military, in particular for the Turkish Air Force,” he said.

“This gives you an idea about the shifting balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean as a result of Israel taking sides with Cyprus and Greece.”

Macron and Erdogan find fragile common ground amid battle for influence

Tensions over Gaza

Despite those rivalries, Turkey and Egypt are finding common ground in their opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and in wider concerns over Israel’s growing regional power.

In September, Sisi reportedly called Israel an enemy.

“There is competition over who is the most dominant and important actor in the Middle East, in the Muslim world in general,” said Lindenstrauss.

“I really can’t imagine a unified Turkish and Egyptian action against Israel. I can imagine them cooperating to pressure Israel to change its position, which is what is happening now.”

Cairo and Ankara remain at odds over Libya, where they back rival governments. But analysts warn that the fallout from the Gaza conflict is increasingly shaping the region’s power calculations.

Guvenc said the outcome of peace efforts could determine the future balance in the Mediterranean.

“We see an alignment of Greece, Greek Cypriots and Israel. But once the Gaza issue is tackled, from an Israeli perspective, Turkey is strategically more important than these two countries,” he said.

“But if the strategic makeup of the region may not secure a solution, we may see deterioration in the general situation. Then outside actors will be invited by one side or the other, such as Russia, China or even India, to further complicate the issue.”

Madhya Pradesh is often referred to as the Heart of India. Located right in the middle of the country, the Indian region shows everything India has to offer through its abundant diversity. The IFTM trade show, which took place in Paris at the end of September, presented the perfect opportunity for travel enthusiasts to discover the region.

Sheo Shekhar Shukla, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board, sat down to explain his approach to sustainable tourism.

“Post-covid the whole world has known a shift in their approach when it comes to tourism. And all those discerning travelers want to have different kinds of experiences: something offbeat, something new, something which has not been explored before.”

Through its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Shukla wants to showcase the deep history Madhya Pradesh has to offer.

“UNESCO is very actively supporting us and three of our sites are already World Heritage Sites. Sanchi is a very famous buddhist spiritual destination, Bhimbetka is a place where prehistoric rock shelters are still preserved, and Khajuraho is home to thousand year old temples with magnificent architecture.”

All in all, Shukla believes that there’s only one way forward for the industry: “Travelers must take sustainable tourism as a paradigm in order to take tourism to the next level.”

In partnership with Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board.

Also known as the Land of the Beautiful Islands, Malaysia’s landscape and cultural diversity is almost unmatched on the planet. Those qualities were all put on display at the Malaysian stand during the IFTM trade show.

Libra Hanif, director of Tourism Malaysia, explained the appeal of the country as well as the importance of promoting sustainable tourism today: “Sustainable travel is a major trend now, with the changes that are happening post-covid. People want to get close to nature, to get close to people. So Malaysia being a multicultural and diverse [country] with a lot of natural environments, we felt that it’s a good thing for us to promote Malaysia.”

Malaysia has also gained fame in recent years, through its numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which include Kinabalu Park and the Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley.

Green mobility has also become an integral part of tourism in Malaysia, with an increasing number of people using bikes to discover the country: “If you are a little more adventurous, we have the mountain back trails where you can cut across gazetted trails to see the natural attractions and the wildlife that we have in Malaysia,” says Hanif. “If you are not that adventurous, you’ll be looking for relaxing cycling. We also have countryside spots, where you can see all the scenery in a relaxing session.”

With more than 25,000 visitors at this IFTM trade show this year, Malaysia’s tourism board got to showcase the best the country and its people have to offer.

In partnership with Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board. For more information about Malaysia, click here.