The UK Home Office has been accused of attempting to deport unaccompanied 16-year-olds to Rwanda in the first wave of asylum seekers to be sent to east Africa later this month. Charities have identified what they describe as a “worrying pattern” of children being classed as adults by Home Office age assessments, raising fears they could be among those deported 4,500 miles to Rwanda.

Safety parents – charged with the temporary care of children in emergency cases – have called on the government for much-needed financial support.  The Department of Social Development said as many as 1 300 children had been placed in the care of safety parents in the province.

An April 7 court ruling by Justice Joel Ngugi of the Nakuru law courts said fathers can be granted custody of young children.

More than 6000 people have left their homes as renewed violence in the Casamance region spills into the Gambia

Child labour can’t be abolished through force. To address it, we must attend to why children work in the first place.

The war in Ukraine is set to tip more families in the Horn of Africa over the edge. The region has become increasingly dependent on imported grains from Russia and Ukraine. Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia import 67 percent, 89 percent and 92 percent of their wheat respectively from the two countries. Russia and Ukraine also account for 53 percent of the global trade of sunflower oil and seed. However, supply lines are blocked and, in areas of Ukraine, agricultural production is in danger. The prices of cooking oil, bread and wheat flour are already reaching new records in local markets in the Horn of Africa. A dire nutrition crisis is expected to escalate.

A drive to vaccinate more than 9 million children against polio has been launched this week in four countries in southern and eastern Africa after an outbreak was confirmed in Malawi.

The Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana (YHFG), a youth development organisation in Ghana, has called on the Government to take steps to reconcile the laws on consent to sex and law on marriage to help address sexual and reproductive health challenges of adolescents.

Agencies in charge of fighting human trafficking have expressed concern over the increase of the vice in the country saying children are the most affected. According to Agnes Igoye, the Deputy National Coordinator Prevention of Trafficking in Persons at the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control, in 2021 they received 421 incidents that had 1,000 victims involved. Out of the cases reported, 30 were successfully investigated and culprits were charged and convicted under the Prevention of Trafficking Act.

The Child Support Grant (CSG) should be increased so that children have enough to eat, according to a recent research report commissioned by Black Sash. The report on children, social assistance and food security found that at current levels the grant is not enough.