- 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.”
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- 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.
- Details
- 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,
- Details
- 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.
- Details
- By Mukudzei Madenyika
- Investigations
One cannot really go near most mining sites in Zimbabwe. Armed security men guard even the surrounding areas, and you wait for sources to tell you that now, if ever, it might be safe. When you do manage to get close, you hear stories of the relocation of communities, dispossession, and pollution.
- Details
- By Charles Mafa
- Investigations
Suddenly, the gold mining company representative turns hostile. “Who sent you? Is it the (opposition) Patriotic Front?” he asks, his tone growing sharper. The shift from amiable agreement to defensiveness is surprising, as no probing question has yet been asked in this interview about mining in Rufunsa—an area east of the capital, Lusaka — where the man’s company, Gold Hunters, is active.
- Details
- By By Charles Mafa (Zambia), Mukudzei Madenyika (Zimbabwe), Estacio Valoi (Mozambique), Mariam Sankanu (The Gambia) & Jack Wolf (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Investigations
In Zambia, an entire political class is involved. In Mozambique, it still helps to know a general. The DRC has bred functionaries who guide investors to the richest prospecting. In The Gambia, the connected few build on protected wetlands, risking the capital’s survival. In Zimbabwe, natural wealth lies in the hands of the president and his loyalists.
- Details
- By Seth J. Bokpe and Edmund Agyemang Boateng
- Investigations