Zimbabwe billionaire among six killed in aircraft crash

HARARE, Zimbabwe 

Prominent Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo has died today, September 30, 2026, in a helicopter crash with his wife Lucy “Lulu” Muteke and four others.

According to a statement issued by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, quoting family member Herbert Chivayo who said that the accident occurred in rural Marondera Province.

So far, the country's police through its spokesperson, Paul Nyathi, has confirmed the occurrence of the accident, which did not have any survivors but the deaths of six people including the two pilots.

Zimbabwean government confirmed the crash but did not name the victims.

"The government wishes to confirm that a helicopter crash has occurred, involving one high-profile businessman, three other passengers, and two pilots," Nick Mangwana, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, said in a statement.

"Current information indicates that there were no survivors in this crash." 

Last UK and US troops leave Iraq as anti-Islamic State mission ends

WASHINGTON, United States 

The exit of the remaining UK military personnel - around 100 - from Irbil, in the northern Kurdistan region, was co-ordinated over recent weeks with US forces, who also departed on Wednesday.

It follows an agreement between the US and the Iraqi government, signed two years ago, to withdraw foreign troops by the end of this month.

British and US forces have been present in Iraq since 2014, as part of the international coalition to help defeat the extremist Islamic State (IS) group. Their departure brings the mission, known as Operation Inherent Resolve, to an end.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said the end of the coalition's mission marked "Iraq's transition to a phase in which it assumes full responsibility for its security and stability".

Iraq is set to hold four "Sovereignty Days" as a national holiday to mark the withdrawal.

"Following more than a decade of operations, training and capacity building, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and the Kurdish Peshmerga have secured the enduring territorial defeat of Daesh in Iraq and are now well placed to take primary responsibility for the country's security," the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a statement, referring to IS by an Arabic acronym.

"With these objectives achieved, Iraq and its international partners can begin a new chapter focused on enduring security co-operation under Iraqi leadership."

US President Donald Trump celebrated the withdrawal, calling it a "victory for the United States, a victory for Iraq, and a decisive victory over ISIS".

Writing in a Truth Social post, the president added: "It has been a long time, with very bad decision-making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place, but soon, that will be part of History."

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also said the coalition's departure from Irbil marked "the successful conclusion of the military mission that defeated [IS] in Iraq".

He added: "The primary responsibility for addressing Iraq's remaining security challenges, including [IS] remnants and Iran-aligned militias that undermine Iraqi sovereignty and regional stability, now rests with the government of Iraq."

The Iraqi government declared the military defeat of IS in 2017, but coalition forces remained to help prevent the group's resurgence.

A recent UN report assessed that sustained counter-terrorism pressure by Iraqi security forces had left IS with several hundred fighters who were "able to carry out unsophisticated operations only".

The Iraqi government also faces the challenge of Iranian-backed militias in the country.

Zaidi, who took office in May, has vowed to disarm them and bring all weapons under state control following the coalition's exit.

But several powerful factions have resisted his plans and could now see their influence grow without the US presence.

Since the start of the US and Israel's war with Iran earlier this year, militias have been targeting the remaining US and UK forces stationed at Irbil air base.

Hundreds of Nato troops stationed in Baghdad left the country in March as tensions rose.

Flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv lands 'safely' in Saudi Arabia after 'brawl between pilots'

TABUK, Saudi Arabia 

A flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv has landed safely after an incident during the journey, the airline has said.

The Israel-bound Flydubai flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia after a brawl between pilots, an Israeli official told the Reuters news agency.

At one stage it was feared that a hijacking had occurred on board after ‌an emergency signal was transmitted that indicated a possible unlawful interference, Reuters reported, based on information from tracking website Flightradar24.

Israeli authorities said that, at one point, jets were scrambled.

It is not clear what had caused the fight, officials said.

The Boeing 737 plane is said to have transmitted a second general emergency signal before landing ​at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

Flydubai, an Emirati government-owned airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said the plane had "experienced an incident while en route" and had landed safely in Tabuk.

It added that further updates will be issued as details become available.

The office of the Israeli prime minister said the incident ⁠was not believed to have been a hijacking.

An Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told our reporter‌ that the pilots had transmitted the emergency signals after getting into a physical altercation with each other.

Three Israeli security officials earlier said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been informed.

Mr Netanyahu's office said the incident is under control and all measures were being taken to return Israeli passengers to Israel.

Six Heads of State to attend groundbreaking of Lamu oil refinery

By Moses Kinyanjui, NAIROBI Kenya 

Six Heads of State are set to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kenya's Lamu Oil refinery, which is set to cost over Ksh.2 trillion to build.

President William Ruto will be joined by his fellow leaders Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Abiy Ahmed (Ethiopia) and Évariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi).

Others are Romuald Wadagni (Benin), Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové (Togo), and others yet to be confirmed.

The Dangote East Africa Refinery is expected to take up to three years to complete. 

It will supply refined petroleum products to Kenya and neighbouring countries, helping reduce East Africa's reliance on imported fuels.

The refinery aims to supply refined petroleum products to Kenya and neighbouring East African countries, including Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and the DRC.

Dangote Group Chairman and Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has said the refinery is designed to refine 700,000 barrels per day.

It is projected to produce more than 100 million litres of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel daily.

The project is expected to become Dangote Group's biggest refining investment outside Nigeria and comes as the company pursues further expansion of its energy business across Africa.

“What this investment (Lamu refinery) will do for the Kenyans, it's not only the refinery; the refinery is like the gate. Once you open and have the refinery, you'll be shocked at how many people will know to come and invest in Kenya,” Dangote said during an interview in Lagos.

The Port of Lamu has received 2,930 metric tonnes of construction equipment loaded on the MV Da Yang.

The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) said that the vessel docked at the port on September 26 ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony.

President William Ruto, while touring the Dangote Refinery in Lekki, Lagos State, Nigeria on September 25, said the project is expected to improve fuel reliability and security while supporting industrialisation and creating about 60,000 jobs.

He said the refinery has also been connected to crude oil supplies through 120 kilometres of sea cables used to transport crude from ships to the facility. 

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 30/9/2026

 

Burundi will accept migrant deportees from the United States but details are vague

NGOZI, Burundi 

Burundi has agreed to accept people deported by the United States who have no previous connection to the East African country, a spokesperson for the country’s president said Tuesday.

Nancy Ninette Mutoni said Burundi would accept only people who were not facing prosecution and had no links to terrorism. She spoke during an event attended by government officials in Ngozi.

Mutoni did not say when the deportees would arrive or how many people Burundi had agreed to receive. She said preparations were underway to provide accommodations and help the deportees live in local communities.

“Receiving them requires serious planning — where they will stay, what they will eat and how they will live alongside the local population,” Mutoni said.

The Trump administration has expanded third-country deportations as part of its immigration crackdown, sending people to countries where they are not citizens and may never have lived. The United States has sent deportees to several African countries, including Eswatini and South Sudan.

A U.S. appeals court ruling last week threw the program into question. Lawyers for immigrants said a flight carrying about 70 people had been scheduled to travel from Louisiana to Burundi, Rwanda and the Central African Republic but was canceled.

The ruling did not prohibit third-country deportations but required that people facing removal have a meaningful opportunity to raise concerns about possible persecution or torture. The Trump administration has defended the policy as necessary when deportees’ home countries refuse to accept them.

FIFA accuses UEFA of harassing Infantino ahead of presidential election

FLORIDA, United States 

FIFA lawyers claimed UEFA is harassing Gianni Infantino, in a court filing urging a Florida judge to deny the European soccer body’s request for evidence discovery about a World Cup private investor plan that has rocked the sport.

The 21-page filing to the court in the Southern District of Florida late Monday, and seen by The Associated Press, said UEFA was wrong to suggest the FIFA president sought to profit personally from the project that provoked a furor in July and was dropped within days.

UEFA later asked for authorization of discovery with three courts — including in Manhattan, against Josh Kushner’s New York-based investment firm, and Miami, where FIFA has an office base — aiming to help prepare a criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland for financial mismanagement.

“UEFA’s conduct demonstrates that its (court filing) was made in bad faith and for the purpose of harassment,” lawyers for FIFA argue in the document.

The filing also notes the Nov. 18 deadline for potential candidates to enter the FIFA presidential election contest next March in Morocco, where Infantino plans to seek a fourth and final term in office through 2031.

“This court should reject any attempt to influence FIFA’s presidential election based on these grounds,” FIFA lawyers wrote in the filing Monday.

UEFA led a global backlash to the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan and is preparing an election challenge to Infantino, who had seemed set to win unopposed until creating the biggest crisis of his near 11-year presidency.

Infantino’s plan was to create the FFE subsidiary and sell at least 20% of nonprofit FIFA’s future commercial rights for $4.2 billion to investors led by Josh Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

UEFA’s court filings one month ago claimed the value was a “fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit,” amid speculation he eyed a CEO-like role at the subsidiary on a higher salary than his current $6 million presidential pay package.

FIFA lawyers claimed UEFA “falsely asserts that Mr. Infantino sought to have a personal financial interest in the FFE project.”

The secretive plan was revealed July 28 by media reports and led FIFA’s now-ousted chief operating officer Kevin Lamour to criticize Infantino’s leadership. The FIFA boss’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs partner, also resigned in protest at the deal he said was bad for soccer.

Infantino later apologized for errors in how the sell-off plan was handled, and has since offered to open an independent external review of the soccer body’s governance.

FIFA has consistently said the commercial spinoff was intended to accelerate development of soccer worldwide, outside the wealthy power base of Europe.

Traoré marks four years in power, following Sankara’s legacy

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso 

Captain Ibrahim Traoré has now led Burkina Faso for four years, the same length of time Thomas Sankara was in power. Both came to power as young, red-beret-wearing army captains, promising national sovereignty, Pan-Africanism and greater economic independence.

Sankara, who seized power in 1983, launched what he called a “democratic and popular revolution,” promoting education, women’s empowerment, self-reliance and local production.

He was assassinated in 1987. 

Nearly four decades later, Traoré says he is carrying Sankara’s torch forward but under very different conditions.

His government has nationalised gold mines, promoted local industries and launched Faso Mebo, a major infrastructure programme aimed at building roads and developing cities using local resources.

But the biggest difference is security. Burkina Faso remains under pressure from jihadist groups, with large parts of the country affected by violence and some towns facing blockades.

Traoré has also taken a harder line politically. Journalists, magistrates and civil society figures have been forcibly recruited and sent to the front lines, while political opposition has been restricted.

On the international stage, Traoré has moved away from former colonial power France, strengthened ties with Russia and joined Mali and Niger in a new regional confederation.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 29/9/2026

 

Two mass shootings in South Africa leave 28 dead

By Thuthuka Zondi, JOHANNESBURG South Africa 

Twenty-eight people have been killed in two mass shootings hours apart in South Africa, the latest gun violence to hit the country.

Eighteen people were killed when eight gunmen stormed a bar close to Johannesburg on Saturday evening, with 14 more injured.

In a separate shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning, 10 people were killed outside an entertainment venue in a township near Cape Town and a further 11 were injured.

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world and has struggled to contain gang-related gun violence in recent years. Police have not given a definitive motive for either of the latest attacks.

In Johannesburg, gunmen opened fire on customers outside the bar before continuing the attack inside and torching two vehicles before fleeing.

Police said only four of those killed have been identified so far.

Gauteng Police Commissioner Lt Gen Tommy Mthombeni said people from Ethiopia and Lesotho were among those caught up in the shooting, but that the vast majority were South African.

He also said police believed the motive behind the shooting was robbery, as personal belongings had been taken, but that they could not rule out turf wars between illegal mining groups.

Mining without permission in abandoned shafts or dump sites is a persistent problem in South Africa, causing numerous deaths from unsafe conditions. 

Authorities say the miners are typically undocumented migrants recruited by organised crime gangs.

Earlier, deputy provincial police commissioner Maj Gen Fred Kekana said the attack may have been a retaliation for an incident last month, in which one person was killed and another wounded.

He said at the scene that police had clear pictures and in some cases names for the suspects.

In Cape Town, five victims died at the scene and a further five people died in hospital.

No arrests had been made in either case on Sunday morning.

The two mass shootings came days after 11 people were killed in the city of Durban when gunmen stormed a house in the KwaMakhutha township.

Illegal weapons are prevalent in South Africa and gun violence has been a persistent problem for decades, with about 60 murders recorded every day in the country of 62 million.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 28/9/2026