The 30-year-old DR Congo forward delivered a composed finish in the 23rd minute at the 30 June Stadium, latching onto a pass before firing a low drive beyond Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams to set Pyramids on their way to a maiden Champions League crown.
Mayele’s goal proved crucial in helping the Egyptian side overcome the South African giants, with Ahmed Samy adding a second before halftime.
Although Sundowns pulled one back through Iqraam Rayners, Pyramids held firm to claim a 3-2 aggregate victory after a 1-1 draw in the first leg.
Mayele’s nine goals came in the group stage and knockout rounds of the competition, with his additional three goals from the preliminary rounds not added to the tally.
His tally edged him ahead of Pyramids teammate Ibrahim Adel and Al Ahly midfielder Imam Ashour, who both ended the campaign with five goals and two assists apiece.
Mayele's goal against Sundowns not only handed Pyramids their first-ever continental title but also ensured he would stand alone at the summit of the goal-scoring chart.
The striker was a constant threat throughout the campaign, leading the line with a mixture of power, speed, and composure.
His performances have been central to Pyramids’ rise to the summit of African club football, and his final goal was a fitting conclusion to a standout season.
With this win, Pyramids became the fourth Egyptian club to win the Champions League, joining Al Ahly, Zamalek, and Ismaily in a select group.
Mayele now becomes only the second player from the Democratic Republic of Congo to finish as the top scorer in the CAF Champions League in the past decade, further enhancing his growing reputation on the continent.
The following are the top 5 scorers of the 2024/25 campaign:
The Congolese Observatory for Consumer Rights, on Monday in Brazzaville, deplored the lack of a legal framework for consumer protection, saying that the quality of products and services of everyday consumption in Congo remains worrying, according to the executive secretary of the Congolese Observatory for Consumer Rights, Mermans Babounga Ngondo
The World Bank has released the latest edition of the Guinea-Bissau Economic Update (EU), a report that examines recent economic trends and development issues in the country
The fight against corruption is a key element of the African initiatives to eradicate poverty and to put African countries on a path of sustainable growth and development, the South African government recently stated.
Various anti-corruption initiatives have been undertaken within regional economic communities or under the auspices of the African Union, or as initiatives of African development partners and donors or by civil society.
Many of these initiatives are intrinsically linked and underpinned by broader governance or economic reform programs and agendas.
Al Jazeera reported that it was President Trump’s first time hosting an African head of state since taking office in January. The state visit came on the heels of the U.S. granting refugee status to 59 Afrikaners (White South Africans), who were afforded “Priority 1” refugee status and arrived in America on May 12.
According to the U.S. State Department’s website, “Priority 1” is a designation within the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) that “allows consideration of refugee claims from persons of any nationality, usually with compelling protection needs, for whom resettlement appears to be the appropriate durable solution.”
As President Trump repeated false claims about White farmers being killed in South Africa at the hands of Black people, President Ramaphosa denied that it was occurring. Several news outlets have previously debunked the claims made by President Trump.
The New York Times took the president to task, writing, “Mr. Trump made debunked claims that White farmers are being killed in genocide.” According to many news outlets, including The Nation, “(They) are not being persecuted,” referring to White South African farmers.
Days before President Ramaphosa arrived in the U.S., in Bothaville, South Africa, “thousands of farmers gathered for a lively agricultural fair with everything from grains to guns on display, even some conservative White Afrikaner groups debunked the Trump administration’s ‘genocide’ and land seizure claims that led it to cut all financial aid to South Africa,” reported the Associated Press.
Though there are many news articles in Western corporate-run media outlets debunking President Trump’s latest deviations from the truth, these outlets often fail to consider—in the case of White South Africans—the historical, economic, and geographical context that is always relevant to Western countries’ colonial past on the African continent.
Whites make up 7-8 % of the population in South Africa, but in 2025, they represent more than 62 percent of corporate leadership positions in South Africa. According to the Nation magazine, roughly “two in every three Black South Africans are impoverished, while just one percent of White South Africans are.”
“The White minority still holds a staggering 75 percent of the country’s land, thanks to a 1913 law that drove Black farmers off 93 percent of the country’s lands…,” the magazine noted.
In his 1916 book, “Native Life in South Africa,” author Sol T. Plaatje chronicles events after the implementation of the 1913 Native Land Act in the country.
This act institutionalized the exploitation of South Africa’s native population, similar to the post slavery American system of exploitation called sharecropping. This system grew out of the need for former slave masters to exploit the labor of their recently freed slaves.
According to Plaatie, “There were two reasons for the introduction of the Natives’ Land Act: Black farmers were proving to be too competitively successful as against White farming and there was a demand for a flow of cheap labor to the gold mines.”
In 1912, Plaatie was chosen as the first Secretary-General of the South African Native National Congress, later to be renamed the African National Congress (ANC), the party of Nelson Mandela, the first president of South Africa in the post-apartheid era.
In South Africa, not only were Black farmers forced off the land of their ancestors, but if they stayed, they were required to labor exclusively for their new White masters.
Before the new law, Blacks paid 50 percent of their harvest for the right to live on the land. Afterward, they could no longer benefit from the cattle they owned since the law said livestock was now under the control of the White landowner.
South Africa, the continent’s most influential and developed nation-state, is America’s largest African trading partner. In addition, in 2024 the country assumed the G20 presidency, with President Ramaphosa scheduled to host a meeting of heads of state, later this year, November 22-25.
Prior to the May 21 meeting between President Ramaphosa and President Trump, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) posed the question, “How difficult will it be (during his U.S. visit) for Ramaphosa to reverse or suspend this downward spiral of (U.S., SA) relations?”
The downward spiral also includes South Africa’s International Court of Justice case, accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians. Ramaphosa is faced with a Trump administration, like the previous Biden administration, with a strong pro-Israel constituency.
The CSIS also noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that “South Africa is intentionally advancing an anti-American, globalist agenda by siding with Russia, China, and Iran.”
This may be another way for the Trump administration to express its chagrin at the growing developments and membership and influence of BRICS, chaired by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The true substance of the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting and how it unfolds, in a growing, unstable global climate, is anyone’s guess. After their White House meeting, President Ramaphosa stated that he was “rather pleased that there was a firm agreement and undertaking that we’re going to continue engaging so that there is no disengagement,” he said in part.
“But in practice the benefits may be limited. Many South African companies operate in Nigeria through non-South Africa entities, so it is not clear if they could be considered as beneficiaries of such an FTA.”
However, he did suggest that it would be a welcome move if it were to make it easier to trade between Nigeria and South Africa.
Jabu Mabuza, president of Business Unity South Africa, said that there is big potential for closer relations between the two countries, but said he would need more time to decide whether or not an FTA was the best approach.
“I personally welcome the coming together and reigniting of the relationship between our two nations.
“To the extent we can have mutual socially and politically-rewarding relations, we should do all that it takes.”
However, Dianna Games, the chief executive of Consultancy Africa @ Work, told IPS that she believes there is enough current and future trade between both nations to look at the issue of an FTA. However, she is concerned about the lack of non-oil trade from Nigeria to South Africa.
Ella Mazani is a mobile phone farmer. “My mobile phone is part of my farming. It supports my farming and my family’s welfare through the services I get via the phone,” the smallholder maize farmer from Shurugwi in central Zimbabwe quips.
Ms. Mazani grows maize and finger millet and keeps livestock. As a farmer she often waits for the next visit by an agriculture extensionist to her village so she can access advice on farming and what the next cropping season would be like. Extension officers are intermediaries between research and farmers, often providing them with advice on new farming methods and providing update on climatic changes etc.
That has changed. Ms. Mazani now buys inputs, sells her produce and maintains a funeral policy for her family, all with a tap on her mobile phone.
She subscribes to the EcoFarmer, a mobile platform developed by Econet Wireless, the largest telecommunication services company in Zimbabwe. The Eco- Farmer mobile platform provides innovative micro insurance for farmers to insure their inputs and crops against drought or excessive rain. They access these services via sms and voice-based messages on their mobile phones.
Econet Wireless have partnered with the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU)– which represents more than one million smallholder farmers–to offer the ZFU EcoFarmer Combo, a bundled information and financial service.
Members pay one dollar for a membership subscription. Through it they receive crop or livestock tips based on their farming area as well as weather-based indexed crop and funeral insurance.
“I used to struggle with marketing of my crop but through EcoFarmer Combo, I receive money after selling my produce through my phone,” Ms. Mazani tells IPS.
“As a farmer I always want to receive money in cash so I can count it. I thought selling through the mobile phone would cheat me of my money but now I consider this gadget a helper. I dial *144 and get current information on the weather which allows me to plan my farming. I know when to apply fertilizer and when it will rain. I even get notifications of diseases like the fall army worm and [information on] how to treat it.”
Falling yields and rising technologies
As agriculture yields fall, digital services are providing smart solutions that are increasing smallholder farmers’ productivity, profits and resilience to climate change–a threat to agriculture.
“Climate change has necessitated changes in how farmers cultivate their land to be able to provide food and secure incomes in a sustainable manner; and climate smart agriculture has proven solutions which have to be scaled out to farmers,” Mariam Kadzamira, a climate change officer with Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), tells IPS on the side-lines of a recent meeting held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The meeting reviewed a CTA regional project where farmers from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are receiving weather information via mobile phones.
The project, which aims to reach 200,000 smallholder farmers by end of 2019, is promoting the use of droughttolerant seeds and weather-based index insurance to farmers as part of the climate smart agriculture interventions that are accessed by farmers through digital platforms.
Digitalization doing it for farmers
A new study titled The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report 2018- 2019, published in June, found that an untapped market worth more than two billion dollars for digital services could support farmers improve their productivity and income.
The study tracked and analyzed digital solutions such as farmer advisory services, which provided weather or planting information via SMS or smartphone applications, and financial services, including loans and insurance for farmers.
Nearly 400 different digital agriculture solutions with 33 million registered farmers across sub-Saharan Africa were identified in the study by Dalberg Advisors and the CTA. However, the current digitalization for agriculture (D4Ag) market is a tip of the iceberg with just a six percent penetration, the report authors say.
In 2018, the digitalization for agriculture market recorded an estimated turnover of $143 million out of a total potential market worth over $2.6 billion, the study said.
The study found an annual growth of more than 40 percent for the number of registered farmers and digital solutions, suggesting the D4Ag market in Africa is likely to reach the majority of the region’s farmers by 2030.
“Digitalization can be a game-changer in modernizing and transforming Africa’s agriculture, attracting young people to farming and allowing farmers to optimize production while also making them more resilient to climate change,” said Michael Hailu, director of CTA, as he urged private sector investment in increasing the adoption of this model to help farmers increase yields.
By using digital solutions, farmers saw improvements in yields ranging from 23 to 73 percent, and increases of up to 37 percent in incomes, the report found.
Michael Tsan, partner at Dalberg Advisors and co-leader of the firm’s global Digital and Data Practice, said digitalization for agriculture has the potential to sustainably and inclusively support agricultural transformation for 250 million smallholder farmers and pastoralists in Africa.
“Sound digital infrastructure that provides basic connectivity and affordable internet is a prerequisite for smallholder farmers to fully harness the opportunities of digitalization in agriculture,” Debisi Araba, a member of the Malabo Montpellier Panel and Regional Director for Africa at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), tells IPS via e-mail. “To bridge the digital divide, rural communities need to be better connected to electricity reliable telecommunications and internet connections households, schools and workplaces.
The Malabo Montpellier Panel is a group of 17 African and international experts in agriculture, ecology, nutrition and food security. The panel guides policy choices by African governments towards food security and improved nutrition on the African continent.
“Africa now has the opportunity to leapfrog and leverage the potential benefits of digital innovation in the food system, while using targeted regulation to avoid the risks that digitalization can pose,” Mr. Araba says.
A report launched by the Malabo Montpellier Panel at its annual forum in Rwanda last June highlights promising digital tools and technologies emerging in the agricultural value chain across Africa. The report, Byte by Byte: Policy Innovation for Transforming Africa’s Food System with Digital Technologies analyzed the experiences of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal who are at the forefront of applying digital technologies through policy and institutional innovation.
“Africa’s digital transformation is already underway, and the continent now has the opportunity to leverage the potential benefits of digitalization and new technologies for agriculture, as well as to avoid the pitfalls that digitalization can pose,” says Mr. Araba.
Governments and the private sector should consider emerging technologies to leapfrog more traditional infrastructure approaches; he says urging that the use of handsets and mobile internet should be affordable and accessible for all agriculture value chain actors.
High prices have a significant impact on the uptake and use of internet and mobile services among smallholder farmers. Although the price for mobile internet in Africa has dropped by 30 percent since 2015, the continent still has some of the highest prices for internet use globally, Araba laments.
Despite immense opportunities offered by digitization, there are challenges that need to be resolved to maximize its impact in the future. For example, there is low update of digital services among women despite accounting for more than 40 percent of the agricultural labor force.
In 2017, women in sub-Saharan Africa were on average 14 percent less likely to own a mobile phone than men and 25 percent less likely to have internet access, according to the World Bank.
It has been almost three years since the 24 February 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has killed thousands of civilians and destroyed vital infrastructure, putting the economy under enormous strain.
The UN has recorded more than 28,000 civilian casualties and over 10,000 deaths, but acknowledges that the actual toll is very likely to be higher.
As the frontline shifts and hostilities increase, more than 14 million Ukrainians are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance. The conflict is responsible for the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War. Over 6.3 million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries and 3.7 million people are internally displaced.
That means nearly one-third of the population has been forced to flee their homes, including more than half of all Ukrainian children. Some 30 per cent of the jobs that existed before the invasion have been erased, and the population has faced tax hikes and funding shortages, not to mention frequent power outages resulting from attacks on energy infrastructure.
Throughout the conflict, the UN has been at the core of relief operations, working closely with Ukrainian authorities, local partner organizations and volunteers to make sure that assistance reaches those who need it, particularly in frontline communities.
In every part of the country, emergency assistance is mobilized in the wake of attacks. UN agencies are helping to demine, remove debris, provide basic services, find shelter for displaced people and provide healthcare, including mental health and psycho-social support. Last year alone, the World Food Programme (WFP) supported 1.6 million Ukrainians each month by providing food and cash assistance, demining agricultural land and supporting feeding programmes in schools and other institutions, whilst the UN humanitarian office reached 2.6 million people with health-related assistance over the course of 2024.
Despite the ongoing bombardments, Ukraine is rebuilding. . Dozens of projects are in the pipeline, focusing on the construction and repair of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, social housing, heating and water systems, and other social infrastructure.
Efforts to rebuild damaged energy infrastructure are not deterred by the continuing attacks. UN agencies and partners are providing over 500 MW of critical power generation and solar capacity, to ensure access to electricity, heating, and water.
There has been a decisive focus on decentralization to ensure that every region, including small towns and villages, is less reliant on electricity supplies from large, centralized power stations, reducing vulnerability to blackouts in the case of an airstrike.
Whilst the destruction of a large power plant could paralyse a wide area and cut off tens of thousands of people from the grid, a decentralized system with a large number of small, renewable plants is better able to resist an attack: solar panels hit in a bombardment can be replaced within a single day. The UN Development Programme is fostering this new approach, assisting with everything from contract negotiations to training in solar panel installation.
Despite the large numbers who have left the country, many of those who have stayed are content to remain, according to senior UN officials. For Matthias Schmale, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, the willingness of the population to endure and even thrive throughout the conflict is a remarkable sign of their resilience.
Speaking to UN News, Mr. Schmale expressed his hope that the UN’s commitment to support Ukrainians for as long as needed would give them hope for a more dignified future. “I see that people start rebuilding as soon as possible, whether it’s businesses, homes or lives. The future starts as soon as sirens stop. People don’t want to leave.”
The strength of the population is also praised by Kenan Madi, Chief of Field Operations at the Ukraine UNICEF (UN children's agency) office. “Despite the challenges, despite everything they are going through, they all want to stay in their area, in their villages. They don't want to leave,” he told UN News in a recent interview. No one is dreaming about leaving. It's the opposite. Everyone is dreaming about staying. It gives me the assurance that hopefully when this war stops, the Ukrainian population is ready to immediately start rebuilding in a better way and build back better”.
The characterization of Ukrainians as a resilient people goes beyond the anecdotal: a large scale UN-backed 2024 study, based on in-depth interviews with over 7,000 respondents in all of the territories under government control, showed that Ukrainians continue to demonstrate a strong sense of national identity and belonging to their homeland. The findings highlight the strength of Ukraine’s national identity as an important unifying force in the face of the ongoing war.
Nevertheless, the challenges facing the country are enormous, and extremely costly. The full cost of reconstruction and recovery is now estimated to be around $468 billion, according to a joint assessment by the Ukrainian government, World Bank, European Commission and the UN.
With winter temperatures dropping well below freezing, the UN’s humanitarian winter response plan aims to address emergency needs, including providing solid fuel, cash assistance, and water system repairs. Some $500 million is required to fully implement these efforts by March 2025.
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| Families arriving at a reception centre in Ar-Raqqa city, Syria, on 4 December 2024 Albert Arhó |
But this also comes with a lot of expectations. This is the time to rebuild everything that was destroyed, including rebuilding the dignity of all Syrians. We need to ensure that there is a seat for everybody, in terms of a fair representation of women and men of all Syrians, regardless of their religious, ethnic, cultural or geographic background.
Under the previous regime, communities were pitted against each other, so we are looking forward to a real social cohesion, whereby every Syrian is a full citizen, enjoying full rights and enjoying the same freedoms.
The de facto authorities have shown, through their statements, a real willingness to take the country from where it was to something much better that meets the demands and aspirations of all Syrians.
One expression that we hear in every meeting is that it is time to move from the darkness to the light. In that regard, we really welcome the decision to organize a national dialogue. It's very important that this dialogue factors in the voices of all Syrians, who have paid a very, very high price to get where they are today.
Najat Rochdi: We need to meet with groups from every part of Syria. including feminists, religious leaders, and community leaders, to better understand their priorities, concerns and needs. This is the best way for us to support and accompany the political transition.
We already have a clear idea of the priorities. The first one is to establish the whereabouts and the fate of the missing. It’s heartbreaking to meet the families.
After the fall of Assad, they initially had a lot of hope that their loved ones are still alive. This hope is fading, but they at least want to know where their bodies are. As long as they don't have a clear answer, they will never be able to mourn and to heal.
The survivors and families need to see accountability in action, but there should not be any revenge or retaliation. We know that hearts are broken, that they have fire inside them because this suffering is so high. But at the same time, the best way to really move on is through a process of real justice.
UN News: What are the other main challenges facing Syria right now?
Najat Rochdi: I think the biggest challenge today is to make sure that the political transition is done in a way that makes all Syrians feel safe, that they are all a part of it, and that it is an inclusive process.
The first test will definitely be the national dialogue, making sure that it lays the groundwork for political decisions which create a stable, prosperous, inclusive Syria for all Syrians.
The second challenge is to make sure that those in charge of revising the constitution or writing the new constitution emanate from all parts and components of the Syrian society, because this constitution must be the guarantor for human rights and for freedom for all.
The third one is to make sure that the transitional government is not going to get into any kind of quotas. Inclusivity does not mean that you get a quota for this sect and quota for that sect.
On the contrary, a transitional government has to speak, protect and serve everybody the same way. Women’s voices need to be heard, not only because this is fair, but because Syria needs every single citizen to contribute to its reconstruction.
Ultimately, the challenge will be to make sure that decisions made by the transitional government ultimately leads to fair, free and transparent elections.
Another set of huge challenges is related to the acute humanitarian situation. Funding is very low, and there are serious shortages in terms of access to basic services and infrastructure.
UN News: You have extensive involvement with the Syrian civil society and women organizations. What can they contribute to the political transition?
Najat Rochdi: Over the past decades, they have courageously stood up for their rights. They want equal rights and freedom for everybody. They want the international community and United Nations to advocate for equal rights for all. And they want a seat at the table, whether in the transitional government, the writing of a new constitution or preparing elections.
The Women’s Advisory Board [a group set up by the Office of the Special Envoy in 2016 to ensure diverse women’s perspectives in the political process] had a very important role in the past and still has a role.
We have encouraged them to connect with other women’s groups because now is the time for all Syrians to join forces and work together, during the upcoming transition period.
At the UN, we look forward to more engagement with the authorities, but also with all components of society, whether civil society or political parties or community leaders – because this is their revolution, this is their victory, this is their country. And our role is to support and accompany them whenever we are needed.
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