Ghanaian threaten showdown over high cost of alcoholic drinks

The Ghana Drunkards Association has issued a three-week ultimatum to the government to reduce the prices of alcoholic beverages or face a massive nationwide protest from its reported 16.65 million members.

In a video posted on X on Sunday, a man identified as Moses Obuah, believed to be the association’s leader or spokesperson, said the government must act swiftly in response to the recent appreciation of the Ghanaian cedi, which he said should have led to a reduction in alcohol prices.

“To date, the prices of alcoholic drinks keep going up. If you purchase alcohol, there is an increment of about 15%, and this affects vendors.

“We’ve learnt that the cedi has gained some strength and the price of some items has been reduced. However, the cost of alcohol remains high,” the association’s representative states.

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He further appealed directly to authorities, saying, “We are therefore calling on President John Dramani Mahama and his Minister for Trade and Industry to do something about the prices.

Ghanaian threaten showdown over high cost of alcoholic drinks

Floods sink fully loaded school bus, bodies of pupils found

The search for schoolchildren swept away by floods in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province has resumed after being halted overnight, officials have said.

The children were on their way to school in the town of Mthatha when their bus was carried away in flood waters as it was crossing a bridge on Tuesday morning.

A total of eight bodies, including that of the bus driver, have so far been recovered, Eastern Cape community safety official Xolile Nqatha has told private TV station Newzroom Afrika.

Other officials said three students were rescued on Tuesday, but it was unclear how many pupils were on the bus, which has since been found on a riverbank with no-one inside.

Public broadcaster SABC reported that the three children who were rescued were found clinging to trees.

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On Wednesday morning, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane visited the scene to witness rescue efforts, and to meet affected communities.

He told Newzroom Afrika that while the situation was a “difficult one”, he was “quite happy” with the response of the emergency services.

South Africa has been hit by heavy snow, rains and gale force winds that have officially claimed the lives of 14 people, nine from the floods and five in a road accident.

Nearly 500,000 homes were left without electricity on Tuesday – and state-owned power provider Eskom says efforts are being made to restore connections.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his condolences to the families of those who died as he urged citizens to “display caution, care and cooperation as the worst impacts of winter weather take effect across the country”.

The Eastern Cape – the birthplace of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela – has been worst-affected by the icy conditions, along with KwaZulu-Natal province.

The bad weather has forced the closure of some major roads in the two provinces to avoid further casualties.

Floods sink fully loaded school bus, bodies of pupils found

‘Struggling to be alive’: Kenyan activist speaks of ‘sexual torture’ in Tanzania

A Kenyan activist has told the BBC that he is “struggling to be alive” after allegedly being sexually tortured in detention in Tanzania last month.

Boniface Mwangi said he had decided to speak despite the “shame and guilt of being sodomised with all manner of things”.

Mwangi said he was held in Tanzania after going to the country to show solidarity with detained opposition politician Tundu Lissu.

At a press conference in Kenya’s capital, Mwangi tearfully claimed that he was stripped naked, hung upside down, beaten on his feet and sexually assaulted while detained.

The police chief in Tanzania’s main city of Dar es Salaam disputed Mwangi’s account and told the BBC they were “opinions” and “hearsay” coming from activists.

“If they were here, I would engage them, I would ask them what are they saying, what do they mean… In law, those things are called hearsay or hearsay evidence,” Jumanne Muliro told the BBC.

He said Mwangi should make a report to the authorities for investigation.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government has been accused by rights groups of becoming increasingly repressive in the run-up to October’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

Regional rights groups have called for an investigation, and Amnesty International said Tanzanian authorities should hold to account those responsible for the “inhuman” treatment.

Mwangi said he was held by Tanzanian authorities for several days along with Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, who had earlier also spoken of being raped in detention.

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She attended the press conference in Nairobi on Monday, where Mwangi described his sexual assault in graphic detail.

He said his torturers would sexually assault him and tell him to say “asante” (thank you in the Swahili language) to their president.

Mwangi added that the officers told him they were filming everything and would leak the footage if he spoke about what he had gone through.

Mwangi told the BBC Newsday programme that the torture had left him in mental anguish.

“You have a lot of nightmares, you have a lot of thoughts, and you’re alone in the dark, and you’re thinking you’re going to get killed. So that entire mental anguish lives with you,” he said.

Mwangi said he wanted his medical records be made public so that “what happened to me should never happen to anyone else”.

“I have wounds all over my body, I have wounds on my private parts, I have wounds on my feet, I have two broken toes, I have fractures… So I’m still struggling”.

Mwangi and Atuhaire were among several activists who travelled to Tanzania two weeks ago in solidarity with Lissu who was appearing in court on treason charges that he denies.

He has been demanding sweeping changes, saying current laws do not allow for free and fair polls, which the government denies.

Lissu was arrested on 9 April following his rallying call of “no reforms, no election”.

Mwangi told the BBC that their visit to Tanzania was to highlight Lissu’s “sham case”, adding that this “wasn’t taken lightly” by the authorities.

President Hassan warned at the time that she would not allow activists from neighbouring countries to “meddle” in Tanzania’s affairs.

The whereabouts of Mwangi and Atuhaire were unknown while they were being held, sparking widespread condemnation.

Mwangi said his “abduction” was shocking in how brazen it was as he had been “picked from a very prominent hotel”.

“So having been abducted during broad daylight and never knowing where I was, and I was still tortured, means that the Tanzanian government doesn’t care about what people think about it,” he told the BBC.

Earlier, Atuhaire said that despite Uganda being “very dictatorial”, she did not imagine she “would find a worse foreign country, a worse government”.

Mwangi said their experience showed “how broken” countries in East Africa were.

“So it makes me more of a pan-African in this fight,” he told the BBC.

The US Department of State’s Bureau of Africa Affairs previously said it was deeply concerned by the reports of the two activists’ mistreatment, noting that Atuhaire had been recognised by the department “in 2024 as an International Women of Courage Awardee”.

Other activists, including Kenya’s former Justice Minister Martha Karua and former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga were blocked from entering and were deported from the international airport in Dar es Salaam.

Additional reporting by Munira Hussein in Dar es Salaam.

‘Struggling to be alive’: Kenyan activist speaks of ‘sexual torture’ in Tanzania

BBC