Africa | Big Brother Wildlife
- Details
- By Benon Oluka, Sam Schramski and Tulani Ngwenya
- Investigations
Surveillance technology designed to protect endangered species is being weaponised against communities living in natural areas across the African continent. Its repercussions range from harassment to physical violence.
DRC | Behind enemy lines
- Details
- By Ukweli Coalition Media Hub/ZAM
- Investigations
Ever since the capture of much of the eastern DRC by Rwanda-aligned rebel movements, journalists in the region have been forced to work under new, dictatorial, rulers. Amid their challenges are broadcasting bans, muzzled sources, direct threats, and self-censorship. As if that wasn’t enough, they are now also viewed with suspicion by their own DRC government and journalists’ union in the capital, Kinshasa.
DRC & Belgium | Treasure hunt
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- By Jack Wolf, Janvier Murairi, Quentin Noirfalisse
- Investigations
Sixty years after Congolese independence, immensely valuable data on the DRC’s mineral wealth remains in the possession of a Belgian museum rather than the Democratic Republic of Congo itself. Yet instead of reclaiming these “treasure maps”, the Congolese government now appears poised to hand them directly to the US mining firm KoBold Metals as part of a recent agreement with the administration of Donald Trump. Ironically, it is the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, near Brussels, itself a relic of the colonial era, that now stands in the way.
Guinea-Bissau | Exploiting health scarcity
- Details
- By Molly Fitzpatrick
- Politics & Opinion
Why was a study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and conducted by Danish researchers set to be carried out on infants in Guinea-Bissau, one of Africa’s poorest countries? Anthropologist and reproductive health researcher Molly Fitzpatrick examines the reproductive politics underlying the cancelled vaccine trial, which was investigated for ZAM by Samba Baldé.
South Africa | A victory for legal sex work
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- By Heidi Thembeka Sincuba
- Politics & Opinion
South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution, which unapologetically centres human equality and rights for all, is now paving the way for the decriminalisation of sex work in the country.
Nigeria | The dream of the Caliphate
- Details
- By Theophilus Abbah
- Investigations
Nigeria’s army readily collaborated with the United States when Donald Trump ordered a Christmas Day 2025 missile strike against what he described as “ISIS terrorist scum” in northwestern Nigeria. It also cooperated in the more recent US-led operation that killed senior ISIS commander Abu-Bilal al-Minuki in the Lake Chad Basin. Yet the Nigerian government still refuses to call a spade a spade when it comes to what many of these Islamist militants regard as their ultimate objective: the eradication of Christians in Nigeria.
Tirailleurs
- Details
- By ZAM Reporter
- Arts
Until 14 June 2026, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), or House of World Cultures in Berlin, a centre for international contemporary art and non-European cultures, presents Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations, subtitled “From Cannon Fodder to Avant-Garde—The Forgotten Soldiers Who Freed Europe.” The exhibition highlights the often overlooked fact that the majority of the 250,000 troops in the so-called B Army, the main French force that liberated southern France from the Nazis in 1944, were African soldiers from then-French colonies.
Elections Circus
- Details
- By ZAM Reporter
- Investigations
Millions of EU money in “elections support” prop up bad African leaders
An estimated hundred+ million euros of EU taxpayers’ money, intended to support democratic elections in five African countries, has instead strengthened autocratic and corrupt leaders in these countries over the past decade. Expensive training programmes and workshops for state officials, ruling parties and police have been funded with this money, while countless “voter education” programmes continue to prop up a façade of democracy in places where even the best-educated citizens are cheated out of their votes. EU observer missions have regularly pointed out failings, but change has not followed.
Ivory Coast | A mirage of democracy
- Details
- By Selay Kouassi
- Investigations
It is March 2025, seven months before the much-anticipated presidential elections. In the brightly lit conference room of the Plateau Mövenpick Hotel in Abidjan, government representatives, diplomats, political party leaders, religious figures, electoral commission officials, and civil society representatives gather to loud applause. The EU delegation to Ivory Coast has just announced a €7 million package to support violence-free and transparent elections through its programme, “Tous engagés #ElectionsSansGbangban”.
Nigeria | Technology 0, politicians 1
- Details
- By Theophilus Abbah
- Investigations
“I was so frustrated and exhausted,” Josephine Ochadamu says when asked about her experiences as an Assistant Presiding Officer at a polling unit in Nasarawa State during Nigeria’s 2023 elections. Connected through a mutual acquaintance, she has agreed to a telephonic interview to share her struggles with the new technology that was meant to deliver, in the words of the then-national electoral commission chair, the “best election ever.” Through state-of-the-art machines, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was intended to upload votes directly to a connected Result Viewing Portal.
Uganda | A humanitarian veneer
- Details
- By ZAM Reporters
- Investigations
The European Union does not provide electoral support to the Ugandan state because of human rights abuses by its government, led by 81-year-old autocrat Yoweri Museveni. But it is also not supporting grassroots activists in their fight for democracy in the country. “We were told we should not support troublemakers.”
Kenya | Sound and fury
- Details
- By Eric Mugendi, Africa Uncensored
- Investigations
As Kenyan voters, we have become used to experiencing, every five years, a high-stakes drama full of sound and fury, in which the stage is set years in advance, the actors are meticulously costumed, and the script is written in a language only the elite truly speak. EU funds provide the software for the show.
