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Ghana announces visa-free entry for African passport holders

Ghana announces visa-free entry for African passport holders
The Kotoka International Airport in Accra late August 13, 2021. (File/AFP)
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Updated 04 January 2025

Ghana announces visa-free entry for African passport holders

Ghana announces visa-free entry for African passport holders
  • Ghana joins Rwanda, Seychelles, Gambia and Benin in offering visa-free entry to African travelers

ACCRA: Ghana’s outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo Friday announced visa-free travel for all African passport holders from the start of this year, marking a step toward continental economic integration.
The announcement came during his final state of the nation address as he prepares to step down on January 6 after two terms in office.
“I am proud to have approved visa-free travel to Ghana for all African passport holders, with effect from the beginning of this year,” Akufo-Addo said in his speech to parliament.
“This is the logical next step to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the workings of the largest trading bloc in the world,” he said.
“All these are essential elements to the realization of the AU’s Agenda 2063, which envisages an integrated and connected Africa by 2063,” he added, referring to the African Union’s development blueprint for a 50-year period.
Ghana joins Rwanda, Seychelles, Gambia and Benin in offering visa-free entry to African travelers.
Ghana had previously allowed visa-free access to citizens of 26 African nations and visas on arrival for travelers from 25 others, while only two African countries — Eritrea and Morocco — required a visa before entry.
The visa-free policy builds on Ghana’s efforts to strengthen its international reputation, particularly through initiatives like the 2019 Year of Return, which celebrated the African diaspora and commemorated 400 years since the transatlantic slave trade.
The campaign attracted thousands of visitors, including celebrities, to Ghana and led to some receiving citizenship, bolstering the country’s global profile as a cultural and tourism hub.
Akufo-Addo also used his last address to trumpet economic progress under his leadership, citing an increase in Ghana’s gross international reserves to $8 billion, from $6.2 billion in 2017, and significant GDP growth in 2024.
“Economic growth has returned to the pre-Covid trajectory,” he said, projecting a 6.3-percent growth rate for 2025.
“I leave behind a Ghana that is thriving, one that has navigated significant global challenges with remarkable tenacity, whose economy is steadily rebounding, and whose institutions are operating effectively,” he said.
The oil-and-gold-rich West African nation is one of the most stable democracies in Africa.
Since 2022, it has been battling one of its worst economic crises in decades and is currently under a $3-billion International Monetary Fund relief program.
The outgoing president hands over power to John Mahama, who won the December elections.


South Africa’s ambassador to France found dead in Paris — Le Parisien

Updated 5 sec ago

South Africa’s ambassador to France found dead in Paris — Le Parisien

South Africa’s ambassador to France found dead in Paris — Le Parisien
A spokesperson for Paris Police declined to comment

PARIS: South Africa’s ambassador to France has been found dead at the foot of the Hyatt Hotel, a high-rise tower in Porte Maillot in the west of Paris, newspaper Le Parisien reported on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Paris Police declined to comment.
A call to the South African Embassy went unanswered.

Ukraine sends anti-drone team to Denmark for exercises

Ukraine sends anti-drone team to Denmark for exercises
Updated 4 min 32 sec ago

Ukraine sends anti-drone team to Denmark for exercises

Ukraine sends anti-drone team to Denmark for exercises
  • “Our group of specialists has begun deploying a mission in Denmark,” Zelensky said

KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Kyiv was dispatching a team of Ukrainian drone specialists to Denmark for exercises following a series of airspace violations in Europe blamed on Russia.


“Our group of specialists has begun deploying a mission in Denmark to share Ukraine’s experience in countering drones,” Zelensky said in a post on social media, adding the team would participate in joint exercises with allies.


The UN mission appeals to the Taliban to restore Internet access across Afghanistan

The UN mission appeals to the Taliban to restore Internet access across Afghanistan
Updated 22 min 30 sec ago

The UN mission appeals to the Taliban to restore Internet access across Afghanistan

The UN mission appeals to the Taliban to restore Internet access across Afghanistan
  • The outage, reported the previous day, was the first nationwide shutdown since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and was part of their professed crackdown on immorality

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations mission in Afghanistan urged the Taliban on Tuesday to restore Internet and telecommunications access across the country, saying the blackout imposed by the government in Kabul has left the nation almost entirely cut off from the outside world.
The outage, reported the previous day, was the first nationwide shutdown since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and was part of their professed crackdown on immorality. Earlier this month, several provinces lost their fiber-optic connections after Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree banning the service to prevent immorality.
The disruption threatened economic stability and deepened one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, said the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
It warned that the blackout is crippling banking and financial systems, isolating women and girls, limiting access to medical care and remittances, and disrupting aviation.
The UN said such restrictions further undermine freedom of expression and the right to information. It noted that telecommunications are also crucial during disasters — Afghanistan has recently suffered major earthquakes in the east and is struggling with mass forced returns from neighboring countries.
The UN mission said the Internet outage spread since it was first imposed by the Taliban on Sept. 16 and became nationwide on Sept. 29. The mission said it would continue to press Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to restore access “in support of the Afghan people.”


Ukrainian diver wanted over Nord Stream explosions detained in Poland

Ukrainian diver wanted over Nord Stream explosions detained in Poland
Updated 24 min 39 sec ago

Ukrainian diver wanted over Nord Stream explosions detained in Poland

Ukrainian diver wanted over Nord Stream explosions detained in Poland
  • The Nord Stream explosions in 2022 largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe
  • Private broadcaster RMF FM said Volodymyr Z. was detained in Pruszkow, west of Warsaw

WARSAW: Volodymyr Z., a Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany over his alleged involvement in the Nord Stream explosions, has been detained in Poland, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, the explosions in 2022 largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, marking a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent.
No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role.
“This morning, he was detained in a town near Warsaw,” Volodymyr Z.’s lawyer Tymoteusz Paprocki said.
Private broadcaster RMF FM first reported the arrest. It said Volodymyr Z. was detained in Pruszkow, west of the capital.
Suspect to fight transfer to Germany
Paprocki said that Volodymyr Z.’s defense would fight against his transfer to Germany, arguing that the execution of the European arrest warrant against him was inadmissible given Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The attack on Nord Stream infrastructure concerns one of the pipeline’s owners, Gazprom, which directly finances the military operations in Ukraine,” he said.
Gazprom is Russia’s state gas giant.
The German justice ministry and the federal prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Polish prosecutors had no immediate comment.
In August, Italian police arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the attacks.
The man, identified only as Serhii K., plans to take his fight against extradition to Italy’s highest court after a lower court ordered his transfer to Germany.
Polish prosecutors said in August that they received a European arrest warrant issued by Berlin in connection with the attack on Nord Stream pipelines, but the suspect had already left Poland.
Gas pipelines
German investigators believe Volodymyr Z. was part of a team that planted the explosives, the SZ and Die Zeit newspapers reported in August alongside the ARD broadcaster, citing unnamed sources.
The blasts wrecked three out of four Nord Stream pipelines, which had become a controversial symbol of German reliance on Russian gas in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia blamed the US, Britain and Ukraine for the blasts, which largely cut Russian gas off from the lucrative European market. Those countries have denied involvement.
Germany, Denmark, and Sweden all opened investigations into the incident, and the Swedes found traces of explosives on several objects recovered from the explosion site, confirming the blasts were deliberate acts.
The Swedish and Danish investigations were closed in February without identifying any suspect.


Spain to probe firms tied to occupied Palestinian territories

Spain to probe firms tied to occupied Palestinian territories
Updated 30 September 2025

Spain to probe firms tied to occupied Palestinian territories

Spain to probe firms tied to occupied Palestinian territories
  • The UN has released an update of its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories
  • Spain is one of the most vocal critics in Europe of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza

MADRID: Spain’s leftist government said Tuesday it will investigate companies that advertise products or services in the country that originate in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
The measure follows the approval of a decree last week that bans the promotion of such goods and services in Spain to prevent firms from benefiting from the occupation, the consumer ministry said in a statement.
The decree is part of a package of measures that includes an arms embargo on Israel aimed at halting what Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called “the genocide in Gaza.”
Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinduy said earlier this year his office would use “all necessary resources” to ensure no company operating in Spain profits from the occupation.
“No firm should have its balance sheet stained with the blood of the Palestinian people,” the statement quoted him as saying at an event in July.
The United Nations on Friday released an update of its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, listing 158 firms from 11 nations.
But one of the Spanish firms cited, builder ACS, swiftly requested to be removed from the list, saying it had in 2021 sold its subsidiary, SEMI, that operates in Israel.
“ACS does not carry out any activity in Israel or in the Israeli settlements,” the company, led by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, said in a statement.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, although most are considered legal by Israel.
Some so-called “outposts” are illegal, but often tolerated and sometimes later legalized.
Spain is one of the most vocal critics in Europe of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, which was launched in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.