Key players in the country’s art history feature in a hefty new tome that covers everything from royal-carvers to bronze-smiths to work inspired by a horrific video smuggled out of a torture chamber

One Sunday last year, the Cameroonian-Guadeloupean-French artist Roxane Mbanga was relaxing in bed when she received a message that made her sit up. It was about working on an art history project.

Growing up in Paris, she had been a regular at Maasai Mara, the now defunct restaurant owned by her father, where Africans in the diaspora, including the artists whom he helped organise exhibitions, convened to eat and chat. Thus the concept of a book, attempting for the first time to comprehensively compile and document key players in Cameroon’s vast visual art history, made obvious sense to her.

Police fire teargas as protests break out in city of Minna after deaths of suspected illegal goldminers, many of whom were children

Survivors from a prison cell in Nigeria where 37 suspected illegal goldminers died while in the custody of a paramilitary group this week have recounted their panic and struggle for breath, as police on Friday fired teargas at people protesting against the deaths and imposed an overnight curfew in the city of Minna.

The victims – many of whom were children – were found dead on Thursday in the cells of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), which had raided suspected illegal goldmines and ⁠locked up dozens of miners in the city, the state capital of the mineral-rich state of Niger.

Public offering of Aliko Dangote’s Nigerian oil refinery business could swell his net wealth by two-thirds

The fortune of Africa’s richest person could swell by two thirds to nearly $60bn (£44bn) after his refinery in Nigeria listed publicly in the continent’s biggest-ever initial public offering.

If Monday’s flotation of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals on the Nigerian exchange goes to plan, then Aliko Dangote will add a further $23bn (£17bn) to his $35bn net worth.

Togo-sponsored resolution called to phase out traditional map that depicts continent as similar size to Greenland

The United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

In a session at its headquarters in New York, the UN general assembly officially retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design.

Referendum result means fewer seats in parliament and new rules on candidates, ahead of December elections

Guinea-Bissau voters have approved a new constitution, which critics say will undermine democracy, that significantly expands presidential powers ahead of elections due in December.

According to provisional results, 70% of voters approved sweeping changes in the tiny west African state’s first constitutional amendment since revisions that ended the one-party socialist state more than three decades ago.

President hails operation to rescue captives held in dense forests of Kainji Lake national park in north-central region

Nigerian security forces have rescued more than 300 abducted people in what the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, hailed as the largest single-day hostage recovery in the country’s history.

The release was announced on Wednesday after a joint operation, conducted by the military, police and counter-terrorism units, freed victims held captive in the dense forests of the Kainji Lake national park in the north-central region.

Fuelled by TikTok and street dance battles, the coupé-décalé offshoot is latest expression of Côte d’Ivoire’s pop culture

The 400-strong crowd, perched on plastic chairs and wooden benches in Abidjan’s Yopougon-Selmer neighbourhood, roared with approval as Sauce Graine twisted and turned on the spot with breathtaking speed and dexterity.

The dancer, named after the Ivorian palm nut delicacy, was competing in a series of street dance battles set to biama, a frenetic offshoot of coupé-décalé, a type of percussive dance music popular across west Africa that originated in Côte d’Ivoire around the turn of the century.

Incumbent Carlos Vila Nova hopes to defeat his former party and secure second term as independent

Voters in São Tomé and Príncipe go to the polls for a presidential election on Sunday as one of Africa’s least populous countries seeks to burnish its democratic credentials.

According to the National Election Commission, about 142,000 people are registered to vote in the tiny African state’s elections, approximately 15% of whom live in the diaspora.

Shipment discovered at airport in Monrovia and valued at £14.2m had been falsely declared as seasoning cubes

Authorities in Liberia have charged five suspects over one of the largest drug seizures in the country’s history, after police found more than 200kg of cocaine falsely declared as Maggi seasoning cubes.

The shipment, with an estimated value of $19m (£14.2m), was discovered at the international airport in Monrovia on 8 June, but the suspects were not named until a press briefing at the weekend.

Authorities say rainy season getting deadlier, with Ghana reporting 13 dead and floods hitting Benin, Togo and Nigeria

Floods in Côte d’Ivoire have killed 59 people since May, the communication minister told a cabinet meeting in Abidjan.

There are fears the toll could further rise as rescue teams continue to search for victims during the rainy season, which runs from May until July, the minister, Amadou Coulibaly, added.

Son and stepson of Cameroon’s Paul Biya are seen as main contenders to be vice-president

Since taking power in Cameroon 44 years ago, Paul Biya has done without a vice-president. In 1972, a decade before he first won the presidency, the role had been scrapped as the central African country transitioned from a federal to unitary state.

Now, at the age of 93, people close to the world’s oldest head of state appear to have had a change of heart, and – according to their critics – they have one thing on their mind: the creation of a dynastic system that would transfer power to his son or his stepson.

Africa is leading a change in news consumption habits – and transforming the lives of current affairs enthusiasts

Last year Amahle-Imvelo Jaxa posted a TikTok video about South African peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She explained an argument that had erupted between the South African and Rwandan presidents, then listed roles different South African groups would play in a war with Rwanda: the Sotho strategists, the Xhosa negotiators, the Afrikaner muscle. The video went viral and she racked up 100,000 followers in three days.

This breakout video enabled Jaxa to pivot from being a marketing and restaurant entrepreneur to a “professional yapper and current affairs enthusiast”, part of a group of content creators explaining the news to young South Africans who, like many of their global peers, are eschewing traditional news in favour of social media.

Surprise coordinated attack by jihadists and separatists last weekend has rattled the regime and its security ally Russia

“The Grand Ball of Bamako”, as organisers tagged the Saturday evening soiree at the Hotel de l’Amitié in the Malian capital, was meant to provide one of the west African country’s biggest headlines last weekend.

Many sponsors including Orange Mali, the local subsidiary of the French telecoms company, had bankrolled the show, which organisers hoped would demonstrate Mali’s capacity to put on big cultural events in the teeth of a security crisis raging on multiple fronts. On the eve of the concert, a convoy of cars picked up the main attraction, Grammy award-winning Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, from the Modibo Keita international airport.

Military intelligence chief reportedly also killed in sweeping attacks by jihadists and separatist rebels

Mali has been left reeling from sweeping attacks by jihadists and separatist rebels who seized several towns and military bases and killed the defence minister and military intelligence chief.

The weekend assault on the west African state’s security architecture was coordinated by al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the separatist Tuareg-led movement Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) – former foes with distinct agendas.

Late-night gallery tours and new venues signal a city staking its claim as a regional arts capital

On a recent weekday evening, the doors of more than a dozen galleries and museums across Abidjan stayed open till midnight, several hours later than usual, as art enthusiasts went around town on a bus tour. It was the Night of the Galleries, designed for people to drop in after work and enjoy Abidjan art week to the fullest.

The after-hours special showcase was first tested in January 2024 on the sidelines of the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament hosted and won by Côte d’Ivoire. The tradition continued this year during the art week’s third edition, which ran from last Tuesday to Sunday.

• UN votes to describe slave trade as ‘gravest crime against humanity’

Despite resistance from states who had role in chattel slavery, many feel this is an idea whose time has come

John Mahama knows a thing or two about beating the establishment. On Wednesday, less than two years after completing a remarkable comeback as Ghana’s president with a landslide defeat of the ruling party candidate, he rallied the world to ratify a landmark vote against transatlantic chattel slavery, despite major opposition from the same western entities that drove it for centuries.

The resolution to declare the practice as “the gravest crime against humanity” passed with a decisive majority at the UN general assembly and has been largely welcomed across Africa. Yet the details of the tally reveal a world still deeply divided on the gravity of the sin of enslaving more than 15 million people as chattel over the course of 400 years.

Members call for reparatory justice as landmark resolution aims for ‘political recognition at the highest level’

The United Nations has voted to describe the transatlantic chattel slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations as “a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs”.

The landmark resolution passed on Wednesday was backed by the African Union (AU) and the Caribbean Community (Caricom). It had been proposed by Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, who said: “Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of millions who suffered the indignity of slavery.”

Nigeria had largest increase in terrorism-related deaths, ranking fourth in global index behind Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Niger

Jihadist violence rose sharply in Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo last year, even as global deaths from terrorism dropped to their lowest level in a decade, according to a new report.

Nigeria recorded the largest increase in terrorism deaths globally in 2025, with fatalities rising by 46% from 513 in 2024 to 750, placing it fourth in the Global Terrorism Index, behind Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Niger.

More than 100 others injured in bombings targeting post office, market areas and hospital in Maiduguri

At least 23 people have been killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple suspected suicide bombings in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, shattering its reputation as a relative oasis of calm in recent years as a long-running insurgency was pushed to the rural hinterlands.

Authorities said the explosions went off at the post office and market areas, as well as the entrance to the University of Maiduguri teaching hospital, on Monday evening during iftar, the breaking of fast in the month of Ramadan.

Djidji Ayôkwé was handed to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month

A sacred artefact looted by French colonial authorities more than a century ago has been returned to Côte d’Ivoire in one of the most significant cultural restitutions to a former French colony in years.

The Djidji Ayôkwé, a talking drum confiscated in 1916 by French administrators, landed at 8.45am on Friday at the airport in Port Bouët on the outskirts of the economic capital, Abidjan. It was handed over to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month after being removed from the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum.