President Bola Tinubu has approved a salary increase of between 30 percent and 80 percent for roughly 250,000 members of Nigeria’s armed forces, a move that will raise the military’s annual wage bill by 264 billion naira to 924 billion naira effective September 1. Junior personnel from private to staff sergeant will receive the highest increment of 80 percent, while officers from colonel to warrant officer will see a 50 percent rise and senior officers above colonel a 30 percent boost. The presidency said the adjustment recognises the sacrifices of troops battling insurgency, banditry and kidnapping nationwide and forms part of a broader strategy to improve welfare and operational capacity.
In Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch has warned that a cycle of impunity persists eight years after security forces killed six people and injured 35 during post-election protests in Harare on August 1, 2018. The rights group said President Emmerson Mnangagwa has failed to implement key recommendations of the Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry, despite early pledges that perpetrators would face justice. No security personnel have been arrested or prosecuted, victims remain uncompensated, and the lack of accountability has fuelled further abuses, including the deadly crackdown on January 2019 protests. The organisation urged authorities to end the culture of impunity and deliver on the commission’s findings.
Funerals have been held in Ethiopia’s Amhara region for 14 worshippers killed when a hillside collapsed onto the Tsadqane Debre Mitmaq St Mary Monastery during an overnight prayer service. The landslide, triggered by hours of heavy rain, buried congregants gathered for a holy water cleansing ritual. Seven others were injured, five seriously. Rescue operations have concluded, with 11 victims buried at the monastery site and the remainder returned to their home towns. Scientists have linked the increasing frequency and intensity of such extreme rainfall events across East Africa to climate change, underscoring the region’s vulnerability during the rainy season.
Kenya Wildlife Service investigators suspect cyanide-laced pesticides used on nearby tomato farms may have caused the deaths of 15 elephants just outside Amboseli National Park. Preliminary tests detected traces of cyanide in samples from the carcasses, and the animals displayed symptoms consistent with poisoning. While deliberate poisoning has not been ruled out, conservationists and local farmers have questioned the pesticide theory, arguing that elephants would need to consume massive quantities to die and that other wildlife sharing the habitat was unaffected. The incident has reignited concerns over the proliferation of illegal agrochemicals, weak regulatory enforcement and escalating human-wildlife conflict as agriculture encroaches on migration corridors.
In Cameroon, President Paul Biya, 93, has signed decrees reshuffling the military high command while remaining in Geneva, Switzerland, where he has stayed for nearly two months on what his office describes as a private visit. The changes include the promotion of five colonels to brigadier general and the reappointment of Raymond Jean Charles Beko’o Abondo as head of the elite presidential guard. The moves come amid mounting public speculation over Biya’s Health and prolonged absence, with critics warning of an institutional vacuum. The government insists the president remains fully in charge and will return to Yaoundé soon.
Together, these developments highlight the divergent pressures facing African states: Nigeria is investing heavily in troop morale to secure volatile regions, Zimbabwe struggles to close a chapter of state violence, Ethiopia confronts the deadly intersection of faith and climate disaster, Kenya battles to protect iconic wildlife amid regulatory gaps, and Cameroon navigates a delicate transition of power shrouded in secrecy.
