Tuesday 12, Aug 2025 {HMC} The African Development Bank will contribute $500 million towards the financing of a new airport in Ethiopia – which is expected to be Africa’s largest when completed in 2029 – it said on Monday.

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines has signed an agreement for the design of the four-runway airport near the town of Bishoftu, around 45 km (28 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa. The airline has said it will provide 20% of the funding for the $10 billion project and the rest will come from creditors.

“The bank has itself earmarked up to $500 million, subject to board approval, to anchor the funding of this transformational regional integration project,” the development bank said in a statement.

Last week, it said it was leading efforts to raise $7.8 billion for the project, which will have the capacity to handle 100 million passengers per year.

Tuesday 12, Aug 2025 {HMC} President Donald Trump said Monday he’s taking over Washington’s police department and activating 800 members of the National Guard in the hopes of reducing crime, even as city officials stressed crime is already falling in the nation’s capital.

The president, flanked by his attorney general, his defense secretary and the FBI director, said he was declaring a public safety emergency and his administration would be removing homeless encampments.

“We’re going to take our capital back,” Trump declared, adding he’d also be “getting rid of the slums.”

For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. The District of Columbia’s status as a congressionally established federal district gives him a unique opportunity to push his tough-on-crime agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of homelessness or crime.

Attorney General Pam Bondi will assume responsibility for Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, Trump said, as he also railed against potholes and graffiti in the city and called them “embarrassing.” The president did not provide a timeline for the control of the police department, but he’s limited to 30 days under statute unless he gets approval from Congress.

As Trump spoke, demonstrators gathered outside the White House to protest his moves. And local officials rejected the Republican president’s depiction of the district as crime-ridden and called his actions illegal.

“The administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said. “There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia.”

Schwalb, a Democrat, said violent crime in the district reached historic 30-year lows last year and is down an additional 26% this year.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would follow the law regarding the “so-called emergency” even as she indicated that Trump’s actions were a reason why the District of Columbia should be a state with legal protections from such actions.

“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” Bowser said.

Combating crime

The president dismissed the idea Washington needed to enlarge its 3,500-officer police force, even as he seeks to have more armed personnel going through the city with the goal of reducing crime.

“What you need is rules and regulations, and you need the right people to implement them,” he said.

Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in an executive order to declare a “crime emergency” so his administration could take over the city’s police force. He signed a directive for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to activate the National Guard.

While Trump has portrayed himself as a friend to law enforcement and enjoyed the political backing from many of their groups, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.

About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are contributing officers.

The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn’t immediately have a comment Monday morning.

The National Guard

Bowser, a Democrat, has previously questioned the effectiveness of using the National Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.

Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon.

“I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our Guard,” she said Sunday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” acknowledging it is “the president’s call about how to deploy the Guard.”

Bowser noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. She stressed during a Monday news conference that she believed Trump’s views of the city were shaped by the “challenging times” of the coronavirus pandemic, when he faced protests and crime spiked as the country began to recover from the outbreak.

Focusing on homelessness

Trump has emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go, and he did not give details at his news conference Monday.

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote Sunday in a social media post. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”

Jesse Rabinowitz, a advocate for homeless people, called Trump’s plan “fascist” and a “waste” of resources. He said the move wasn’t about safety.

“It is about power, and it is about fascism and authoritarianism,” said Rabinowitz, the campaign and communication director for the National Homelessness Law Center. “If Donald Trump wanted to keep D.C. safe, he would fund housing and support. Instead, the Republicans just gutted health care, and they’re passing through a budget that will make homelessness worse. They do not care about helping people.”

Crime statistics

Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago.

The president has criticized the district as full of “tents, squalor, filth, and Crime,” and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others.

“This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,” Trump said Wednesday.

He called Bowser “a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.”

Trump has repeatedly suggested the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining.

Bowser acknowledged the law allows the president to take more control over the city’s police, but only if certain conditions are met.

“None of those conditions exist in our city right now,” she said. “We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we’re watching our crime numbers go down.”

Tuesday 12, Aug 2025 {HMC} The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it will need to drastically cut rations to refugees in Kenya due to reductions in global aid, including major funding cuts from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Residents of the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps were beginning to feel the impact of food aid cuts on Monday as the WFP implemented a new assistance system there in which certain groups are prioritised over others.

The WFP said aid is being cut by 60 percent for the most vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and disabled people, and by 80 percent for refugees with some kind of income.

The two camps host nearly 800,000 people fleeing conflict and drought in Somalia and South Sudan, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“WFP’s operations supporting refugees in Kenya are under immense strain,” Baimankay Sankoh, WFP’s deputy country director in Kenya, said in May. “With available resources stretched to their limits, we have had to make the difficult decision to again reduce food assistance. This will have a serious impact on vulnerable refugees, increasing the risk of hunger and malnutrition.”

“There has been a lot of tension in the last couple of weeks or so,” Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi said, reporting from Kakuma.

“People were very angry about what WFP is calling the priority food distribution, where some people will not get food at all and others are going to get a small fraction of the food.”

These tensions boiled over, triggering protests last week, which left one person dead and several others injured, said Soi, adding that WFP officials she spoke with said the aid cuts from organisations like USAID meant they have had to make “very difficult decisions about who gets to eat and who doesn’t”.

WFP worker Thomas Chica explained to Soi that the new system was rolled out after assessments were conducted by WFP and its partners.

Refugees are now assessed based on their needs, rather than their status, said Chica. “We need to look at them separately and differently and see how best we can channel the system so that it provides.”

The impact of these cuts is severe amid concerns over malnutrition. The Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate among refugee children and pregnant or breastfeeding women in Kenya is above 13 percent. A GAM rate over 10 percent is classed as a nutrition emergency.

“Already the food that is being issued is quite low, 40 percent of the recommended ration, and this is being shared by a bigger chunk of the population,” Chica said, adding that stocks will therefore not last as long as hoped.

This reduction took effect in February and is based on a daily recommended intake of 2,100kcal.

With its current resources dating from last year, WFP will only be able to provide assistance until December or January, said Chica.

WFP said in May that $44m was required to provide full rations and restore cash assistance for all refugees just through August.

Tuesday 12, Aug 2025 {HMC} Kenya has invited international development lenders to finance a $2 billion expansion of its main airport in Nairobi nine months after it cancelled a deal with India’s Adani Group after its founder was indicted in the United States.

The East African nation, which is seeking new ways to finance infrastructure projects due to sharply rising debt, will also issue a securitised bond for 175 billion shillings ($1.36 billion) locally and abroad next month for road construction, Transport Minister Davis Chirchir told reporters on Monday.

Chirchir said the government had “written” to development agencies “to basically tell them there’s an opportunity to build the airport through the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, borrowing on its balance sheet.”

The Japan International Cooperation Agency, China Exim, KFW, the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank had been contacted, Chirchir said.

The airport expansion includes a second runway at the airport and a new terminal building. Chirchir said once the funds were secured, the government would then look for a contractor to carry out the work.

“Instead of bringing concessioning to build the airport, we build the airport that we can concession later,” he said, referring to the difference with the previous plan which would have seen Adani carry out the expansion and then handed a 30-year lease to operate the airport.

That plan was scrapped last year when U.S. authorities indicted Gautam Adani and several executives, alleging they paid bribes to secure Indian power contracts and misled U.S. investors.

The Adani Group has rejected the allegations as “baseless” and said it was cooperating with legal processes.

On the bond issue for road construction, Chirchir said the government would securitise a portion of the fuel levy it charges motorists, adding the bond would be split into two halves for both a local and an offshore listing.

It was too early to say in which foreign market the bond would be sold, Chirchir said.

($1 = 128.9000 Kenyan shillings)

Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Marc Jones and Rachna Uppal.

By Duncan Miriri

Tuesday 12, Aug 2025 {HMC} The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Monday evening moved to address escalating security breaches witnessed during Harambee Stars’ African Nations Championship (CHAN) matches, following fresh violations of match-day protocols on Sunday.

During Sunday’s game at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, fans overran police barricades, forcefully gaining entry into the stadium—some without tickets. The situation was no better after the final whistle.

This was the second such incident, the first having occurred during Harambee Stars’ 2–1 victory over DR Congo in the home team’s opening fixture.

On Monday in Nairobi, after lengthy deliberations and behind-the-scenes interventions, CAF announced in a statement that Kasarani Stadium will now only admit two-thirds of its capacity—equivalent to 60 percent.

This comes as a major blow to Harambee Stars, who have been riding on raucous home support throughout the tournament.

“Following repeated and serious security lapses during Kenya’s home matches at Kasarani Stadium, CAF has undertaken the decision to impose immediate measures for upcoming fixtures in Kasarani involving the host nation.

As a result: capacity restriction—maximum 60% of stadium capacity (27,000 tickets). Ticketing is now strictly limited to electronic ticket holders; thermal tickets are prohibited.”

CAF, also detailed numerous breaches, including the overrunning of stadium gates by ticketless fans and holders of physical tickets distributed by the government, breaches of the perimeter fence, and loss of control at exit points.

There were also reports of initial crowd control failure at the Ngomongo roundabout, leading to uncontrolled access through multiple gates. Security forces were accused of using tear gas and flash grenades that caused panic, while reports emerged of live ammunition being fired near spectators and staff.

CAF warned that it expects full and immediate compliance with these directives. Failure to do so, it added, may result in more serious sanctions, including the consideration of alternative venues for future Harambee Stars matches.

The directive comes as ticket sales for Kenya’s final group match against Zambia, scheduled for August 17, 2025, at 8 PM EAT, were abruptly frozen on the ticketing website, fuelling speculation that logistical changes are being made to comply with CAF’s requirements.

CAF Tournament and Events Director Samson Adamu emphasized that these measures are critical for protecting fans, preserving the integrity of the tournament, and maintaining confidence in Kenya’s ability to host high-profile football events.