- Details
- By ZAM Reporter
- Investigations
In the interviews, Siele, Sys, and Cabello shed light on a chaotic picture marked by ineffective land-based carbon offsets, the reinforcement of exploitative neo-colonial structures, and the abuse of power by local political opportunists. Science urges us to address the climate crisis, the interviewees argue, but the solutions must be both non-exploitative and effective. They also question whether current practices constitute solutions at all.
- Details
- By ZAM reporter
- Investigations
Battery recycling, often portrayed as a ‘green’ process that protects the environment, provides employment for many in the Ogijo community in Nigeria. Refurbished batteries from the town are sold to car manufacturers around the world. Yet while Western companies centre this recycled “green” solution in their marketing, unsafe production practices and regulatory violations have poisoned the very Nigerian communities where these batteries are processed.
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- By Estacio Valoi and Evelyn Groenink
- Investigations
Very little has changed in Montepuez since the lawsuit. The Gemfields mining company, with its London head office and its local ruling party co-owners, still guards its concession avidly. Poverty reigns behind the “forbidden to enter” gates.
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- By Martin Siele/Africa Uncensored
- Investigations
On April 30th 2025, Maasai youth disrupted the signing of a carbon offsetting project agreement in Kajiado county, Kenya. On the face of it, they had simply rejected a controversial carbon project.
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- By Burundi reporter
- Investigations
Burundi’s new capital, the showcase city of Gitega, is dressed to the nines, celebrating itself — in the words of the president — as a “Garden of Eden”. Yet behind this façade lie deep-seated economic and political crises.
- Details
- By Evelyn Groenink
- Investigations
They have often had to survive on very little, faced threats both physical and legal, been routinely slandered in online campaigns orchestrated by the powerful, and sometimes forced to work undercover or from exile, but they enter 2026 smiling.
- Details
- By Aziz Badarou, Matin Libre
- Investigations
Ivory trafficking in the West African country of Benin is endangering the elephant population, causing losses to the tourism sector, linked to terrorist activities, and driving the outflow of millions of dollars that fuel international organised crime.
- Details
- By Tim Luimes, Zuza Nazaruk, and Grzegorz Szymanowski
- Investigations
Western consumers, regulations, and “fair” and “green” certification agencies and companies have sought to make mineral sourcing in the DRC more responsible. Yet as the conflict persists, “blood minerals” continue to mingle with green ambitions.
- Details
- By Estacio Valoi
- Investigations
Exactly ten years ago, in 2015, ZAM published the investigation The Ruby Plunder Wars of Montepuez. It revealed that in Montepuez, Mozambique — home to the world’s richest ruby deposit — a “local general pockets proceeds while artisanal miners get shot by Special Forces.”
- Details
- By By Stijn Bakker, Parcival Weijnen, Marian Ansah, and ZAM
- Investigations
Ghanaian fishermen who migrated to Europe because of overfishing along Ghana’s coastline have found themselves exploited in the European fishing industry. The companies that depend on their labour do little to ensure decent working conditions.
- Details
- By ZAM Reporter
- Investigations
Kleptocracy, a society or system ruled by those who use political power to appropriate their country’s resources for personal gain, became one of ZAM’s central themes
- Details
- By ZAM reporter
- Investigations
The transnational investigation into the recruitment of African young women for Russia’s Alabuga drone site (see link to main story) was conducted by investigative journalists from seven African countries. They are...
- Details
- By William Moige
- Investigations
Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Diaspora Affairs, Roseline Njogu, recently appealed to Kenyans to verify every job opportunity they come across. “The National Employment Authority can inform you about credible and licensed agents,”
- Details
- By Beloved John
- Investigations
The Alabuga Start Programme says on its Telegram page that only those of us between 18 and 22 can apply, because “this is considered an ideal age range to begin building a career from scratch.” Maybe they just target impressionable youth?
- Details
- By Garikai Mafirakureva
- Investigations
I am 47, I live in Harare, and my daughter is 19. She was active in various youth programmes (1), and when she told me she was leaving for Russia, I was not surprised, and I wished her well. My daughter and I are very close, so when she stopped calling, I became very worried about her.
- Details
- By Emmanuel Mutaizibwa
- Investigations
When, on 12 August 2025, nine men were intercepted at Uganda’s Entebbe airport, ready to be flown as mercenaries to Russia, the scandal made headlines for days. The former private military contractors,...
- Details
- By Josephine Chinele
- Investigations
A Malawi flag on a stage where young women are dancing to celebrate their welcome into Alabuga is the only physical sign of participants from my country in all the material emanating from this industrial compound east of Moscow.
- Details
- By Samuel Baker Byansi
- Investigations
When 19-year-old Silas* left his family home in Sampeke, rural Burundi, in early 2023, he believed he was embarking on the opportunity of a lifetime. Russian recruiters had promised him vocational training, steady employment, and a chance to send money home.
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- By Charles Mafa
- Investigations
When we finally get to speak to a young African woman in Alabuga, the contrast with the cheerful PR shown to the Zambian public could not be greater. Brochures circulated through various media, events hosted by Russian-linked associations in the capital,
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- By Elizabeth BanyiTabi
- Investigations
“Please, where can I register? I want to fight for both Ukraine and Russia,” says a Facebook post by Gertrude Njong from April this year. A post from the same period, by a young man, agrees: “How do they do it? Better I should waste in a foreign land fighting than die of hunger in Cameroon.”
- Details
- By Samuel Baker Byansi (Great Lakes), Elizabeth BanyiTabi (Cameroon), Charles Mafa (Zambia), Beloved John (Nigeria), Josephine Chinele (Malawi), Emmanuel Mutaizibwa (Uganda), William Moige (Kenya)
- Investigations
Among the shocking findings of this transnational investigation, is the involvement of high-ranking government officials in six of the seven countries—in sending their countries’ young women abroad.
- Details
- By Jack Wolf, Sophia Pickles, Janvier Murairi
- Investigations
The small town of Manono in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) sits at the centre of a geopolitical scramble for minerals essential to green and military technologies. Chinese and American companies are competing for access to what is believed to be one of the world’s largest lithium deposits.
- Details
- By Anas Aremeyaw Anas & Tiger Eye
- Investigations
Rural families in northeastern Ghana and parts of the Sahel have been losing vital farm donkeys—essential for ploughing and transporting crops—to a syndicate that kills the animals for their skins.
- Details
- By Mariam Sankanu
- Investigations
The Tanbi Wetlands in The Gambia are vital for protecting both a thriving oyster trade and the flood-prone capital, Banjul. However, they have been severely threatened by unchecked industrial development led by politically connected business interests.
- Details
- By Estacio Valoi
- Investigations
At lunch in Maputo, my source—neatly dressed in a blue suit, tall, with a somewhat square head and a crew cut, and who calls himself a ‘lobbyist’—insists there be no recording and no mention of his name.