Gender activist Rosa Namises threw cold water on the uptick of women getting elected as regional councillors across Namibia, saying the whole thing looks more like political maneuvering than actual progress. Women grabbed seats in Ohangwena, Oshana, Omusati, Khomas, Kavango East and West, Otjozondjupa, Oshikoto, and Kharas, but Namises claims Swapo is just trying to lock down power instead of letting democracy breathe. She thinks voters are getting pushed around at polling stations about who should win, and she called out the party for playing keep-away with leadership positions rather than serving communities properly.
Former presidential candidate Ally Angula saw things differently and said attitudes are shifting toward accepting...
Police over in the Zambezi region are looking into a break-in at the Bush Baby shop in Katima Mulilo after thieves jacked N$59,000 from eight gambling machines. The crew cut through the roof to get inside, then snipped alarm wires before busting open the jackpots and grabbing the cash. Cops have not arrested anyone yet, and the money is still missing.
Somebody also snatched a bag with a laptop and wallet worth N$15,439 from a car parked outside the Choppies store. That theft went down when the vehicle was sitting in the lot, and authorities have not made any busts or recovered the stolen gear. Investigations are still ongoing for both incidents.
Health minister Esperance Luvindao dropped an update about multiple disease outbreaks hitting Namibia after measles cases popped up around Opuwo and cholera got confirmed near Grootfontein. The measles situation spread to 11 districts with 564 suspected cases and 198 confirmed infections, plus two people died at Grootfontein and Okahao. Mass vaccination campaigns are rolling out, and parents need to get their kids immunized. The cholera outbreak showed three positive cases out of five suspected ones, and all infections came from local transmission rather than travel.
Mpox stayed contained to one family cluster at Swakopmund with two confirmed cases that have already recovered, and surveillance continues for another couple of months...
Angola's president, João Lourenço, basically picked a side at the seventh EU-African Union Summit in Luanda by signing off on language that takes shots at American trade policy. The declaration complains about tariff chaos and unstable trade moves while hyping up Europe as the stable partner offering predictable rules for African countries. Lourenço seems to be rolling with whatever Brussels is selling him right after former US president Joe Biden made a historic visit, where everyone was talking about breakthroughs in relations and investments.
The whole thing gets messy because Trump had recently congratulated Angola on 50 years of independence and was talking up energy collaboration while inviting Lourenço to Washington. The...
William Minnie just became one of the youngest councillors at Mariental after getting elected through the Landless People's Movement at 23 years old, and he says his game plan centers on getting jobs for young people and fixing broken municipal services. His priority list hits youth employment through public works programs and skills training, plus speeding up land distribution for young families while making sure new neighborhoods actually get water and electricity without the usual delays. He wants emergency fixes on busted infrastructure and better trash pickup routes within the next year.
Minnie expects pushback but says it won't be about his age; rather, it's the bureaucratic mess and old-school institutional habits that block...
Namibian Correctional Service confirmed they're holding 10 kids at Evaristus Shikongo Correctional Facility alongside adult prisoners, but Assistant Commissioner Salmi Hangula insists the juveniles stay in separate units the whole time. The breakdown includes two sentenced Namibian minors, five unsentenced Namibian kids, and three unsentenced non-Namibian juveniles. Hangula says there aren't enough juvenile inmates to justify building a dedicated facility, and she mentioned the correctional system is actually running below capacity with 4,616 inmates against 5,430 available beds.
The National Council's oversight committee spotted awaiting-trial kids mixed in with adults at some facilities between January and March, and they flagged...
Independent candidates cleaned up in Namibia's Kavango regions during recent council elections, and political analysts say it happened because parties keep picking favorites instead of actual talent. Re-elected independent councillor Paulus Mbangu from Rundu Rural says voters are getting tired of promises that never turn into real development, and they're figuring out who can actually deliver. He pointed out that independents like Petrus Kashumali and Michael Naiteta grabbed seats in Mashare and Ncuncuni, which shows people want leaders who serve everyone instead of just party members.
Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah says Mbangu's first-term performance had a massive effect on this shift because people saw he could get things done...
UNICEF and UNAIDS dropped some grim projections ahead of World AIDS Day, saying kids with HIV keep getting shafted on testing and treatment. If funding gets slashed in half, models show 1.1 million more children could catch HIV by 2040, and 820,000 could die from AIDS-related stuff. Even keeping things at current levels means 1.9 million new infections and 990,000 deaths among kids because progress has been crawling.
About 120,000 children under 14 caught HIV recently, and 75,000 died from AIDS complications, which breaks down to roughly 200 deaths every single day. Only 55 percent of kids living with HIV got antiretroviral therapy compared to 78 percent of adults, leaving around 620,000 children untreated. Sub-Saharan Africa is taking...
More than 900 people are dead across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Thailand after massive flooding and landslides tore through the region, and rescue teams are still hunting for hundreds who went missing. Sri Lanka got hammered the worst by Cyclone Ditwah, with the death count hitting 334, and parts of Colombo sitting underwater. President Anura Dissanayake called it the biggest disaster the island has seen since the 2004 tsunami that killed around 31,000 people, and he declared a state of emergency while promising to rebuild with help from other countries.
Over in Indonesia, at least 442 people died on Sumatra island, with another 402 still unaccounted for. Thousands got stranded without food or water after landslides wrecked roads and...
