International News
Despite Risks, Residents Fight To Protect Russian National Park
After getting fined for her environmental protest against a road being built through a national park near Moscow, Irina Kuriseva is back to check on the construction.
“We only want to defend nature,” the 62-year-old told AFP at the Losiny Ostrov (Elk Island) park, a 129-square-kilometre nature reserve with hundreds of species of wildlife including endangered birds.
With dissident voices in Russia almost totally silenced and as the country presses on with its massive military offensive in Ukraine, environmental activism has become highly risky.
“The authorities have become completely indifferent” and laws have been “softened” in favour of polluters and property developers, said one activist, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In the outskirts of Moscow, the issue has become particularly acute as developers continue to build new homes and residents commuting to the capital find themselves stuck in traffic jams for hours.
In Korolyov, a town of 200,000 people, the authorities decided to build a highway that passes through the national park to ease congestion and give access to a new housing development.
In July, Kuriseva and five other activists blocked machinery spreading asphalt in the forest.
They were arrested by police and fined, after spending a night at the police station.
“We were interrogated like criminals who had killed someone,” said Kuriseva, a local resident.
Russian law prohibits construction in national parks but local authorities got around it by arguing that the project consisted of “repairs” to an existing road.
Dmitry Trunin, an environmental defence lawyer with more than 25 years of experience, said this argument amounted to “falsification and fraud”.
“There was never a road there,” he said, explaining that there had only been an unpaved track used by forest rangers which then became just a path through the forest.
Kuriseva said that “asphalt powder” was placed on the path in an attempt to classify it as a road.
The highway is due to be completed by March 2026 at a cost of 5.4 million euros ($6.3 million), according to the regional transport ministry.
‘Don’t Get The President Involved’
Mikhail Rogov, a 36-year-old engineer who also took part in the protest with Kuriseva, said the judge was “smiling” to the defendants in court.
“She told us: ‘If you don’t want any problems, sign these papers, pay your fines and you’re free’,” he said
The judge, Maria Loktionova, had in 2023 sentenced another environmental activist, Alexander Bakhtin, to six years in prison for three posts on social media criticising the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Despite the crackdown on dissent, activists opposed to the highway have sought to appeal to President Vladimir Putin to help their cause.
In June, around a thousand people queued outside the presidential administration building in Moscow to submit their complaints.
Putin visited the national park in 2010 and fed a baby elk with a bottle, telling reporters that nature was “a gift from God” that must be “protected”.
The tone from the Kremlin is very different in 2025.
“This is a question for the regional authorities. Don’t get the president involved,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in July when asked about the project by AFP.
Environmental protection “should not be a barrier to development and the comfort of the lives of citizens,” he said.
Trunin said it has become “harder and harder to defend the truth in court”.
“The power vertical takes decisions and law enforcement and monitoring bodies obey,” he said.
AFP
German authorities deported at least 137 Nigerian citizens across five chartered flights between February and June 2026, according to migration monitoring reports.
Data from the DERS Team and Refugees4refugees.org shows the deportations occurred in phases, with 27 Nigerians returned in February, 37 in March through a joint European Union operation, 24 in April, 23 in May, and 26 in June.
The February operation departed from Stuttgart and landed at Lagos Cargo Airport, with Baden-Württemberg listed as a primary participant. The March operation represented the largest single return of Nigerians recorded over three years and was executed in collaboration with Spain, Austria, and Belgium.
The reports indicate a growing reliance on multi-national chartered flights by European states to repatriate undocumented or non-resident individuals to Nigeria.
The United States has condemned the killing of members of the family of Plateau-based cleric, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, describing the attack as horrific and urging Nigerian authorities to ensure those responsible are brought to justice.
In a statement shared on X on Thursday, the US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs expressed condolences to the victims’ families and called for stronger measures to prevent further attacks on vulnerable communities across Nigeria’s Middle Belt.
“The United States strongly condemns the horrific killing of members of Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo’s family in Plateau State, Nigeria. The continued violence targeting Christian communities and other vulnerable populations in Nigeria’s Middle Belt is deeply alarming,” the bureau said
The US said it had already engaged Nigerian officials on the worsening security situation, stressing that urgent action was needed to curb recurring attacks and hold perpetrators accountable.
“As I discussed last week with Nigerian officials, we must do more to prevent violent acts. The perpetrators must be held accountable, and urgent action is needed to strengthen security and protect Christians and other vulnerable communities,” the statement added.
The bureau reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to working with the Nigerian government to combat terrorism and violent extremism, stressing that Christians and other Nigerians should be able to practise their faith without fear of violence.
The statement followed the July 12 attack on Kum community in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, where nine members of Rev. Dachomo’s extended family, including a two-month-old baby, were killed.
According to the cleric, the attackers, believed to be armed Fulani militias, asked for him by name before opening fire on his relatives.
Dachomo, who serves as Regional Chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, said his family had repeatedly been targeted because of his outspoken criticism of the violence in Plateau State.
He recalled that his grandmother and an uncle were also killed in previous attacks, adding that days after burying his relatives, he received a written death threat from the same group, warning that he would be their next target.
Saudi Arabia has updated its tourist eVisa programme for 2026, limiting eligibility in Africa to only three countries as part of its list of 66 nations whose citizens can apply through the Kingdom’s online visa platform.
The move leaves most African countries, including Nigeria, outside the simplified entry scheme.
The electronic visa allows eligible travellers to visit Saudi Arabia for tourism, leisure activities, family visits and Umrah, excluding the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Applications are completed online, eliminating the need for embassy visits and lengthy visa processing.
Saudi authorities said the eVisa forms part of ongoing efforts to expand tourism, attract international visitors and simplify travel procedures through a fully digital application system. The visa is available only to citizens of approved countries and territories listed on the Kingdom’s official tourism portal.
Below is the list of African countries eligible for Saudi Arabia’s eVisa.
1. Mauritius
2. Seychelles
3. South Africa
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