Foreign News
Nigeria to seek compensation for property abandoned by citizens fleeing South Africa
Nigeria says it will seek compensation from South Africa for its citizens who have left the country following recent protests targeting undocumented migrants.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa told the BBC that the issue would be discussed between the two governments “at the highest levels”.
Acting High Commissioner to South Africa Alexander Ajayi said on local television on Tuesday that the government had begun documenting businesses and properties left behind by Nigerians.
One Nigerian trader waiting to be repatriated told the BBC he had lived in South Africa for nearly a decade and had abandoned his business and home because he feared for his safety.
Oghodero Erejor Wilson, 32, said he was losing “everything because of fear”.
“I left everything in my house including clothes.”
He is among hundreds of Nigerians still waiting to be evacuated from South Africa. More than 600 Nigerians have already been repatriated in recent weeks.
The South African authorities say those who have been flown home were in the country illegally – though this is disputed by Nigeria.
About 25,000 nationals of other African countries have left South Africa following a wave of protests in recent weeks by groups demanding that the government does more to curb illegal migration.
Some anti-migrant groups had given undocumented foreigners a deadline of 30 June to leave the country and organised marches attended by thousands of people on Tuesday. These were largely peaceful but there were isolated incidents of violence against foreigners.
The South African police say that about 900 people were arrested, mostly for immigration-related offences and looting.
The BBC has asked South Africa’s government for comment on Nigeria’s compensation demand.
Nigeria’s acting high commissioner said he had asked all of those who had left South Africa “to document very accurately those things they were leaving behind in terms of businesses, in terms of even cars, movable and immovable properties”.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Ebienfa told the BBC that all claims would be verified before any formal request was made
“We have not severed ties with South Africa, we are still engaging them at the highest level, we will sort those details using our usual diplomatic channels,” he said.
Wilson, the trader, said he had run a clothing business in the South African city of Centurion in Gauteng province for several years.
But he said he had now closed his shop and fled to stay near the Nigeria High Commission in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.
Scheduled to leave on the next repatriation flight to Nigeria on Friday, he estimates the goods left in his shop are worth more than 16,000 rand ($975; £735).
Wilson said his residency documents had expired in 2021 and he had been unable to renew them.
He said he was not very hopeful about the prospect of getting compensation.
“If South Africa government can compensate it, it will be nice, but I know they won’t,” he said.
(BBC)
US President Donald Trump made more than $1bn (£750m) last year from business dealings in cryptocurrency, according to his mandatory financial report for 2025.
In a 927-page disclosure, he reported $635m in royalties from a Trump meme coin that has plunged in value since he launched it days before taking office.
He also reported over $500m in income from World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm founded by his own sons and the children of his special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
He earned millions more from real estate and Trump-themed items. But the White House denied he was profiting from the presidency.
The earnings from his latest financial disclosure far outpace the previous ones for 2024, when Trump disclosed over $600m in income.
But the White House, which has repeatedly emphasised that Trump has placed his business in a trust managed by his sons, again denied any conflict of interest.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said the president had proudly made the US “the crypto capital of the world”.
“Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged – or will ever engage – in conflicts of interest,” she said in a statement.
She added: “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people – and any so-called ‘reporters’ pushing otherwise are recycling the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade.”
The president himself has also highlighted that he is not subject to federal conflict of interest laws.
Trump once criticised cryptocurrency, famously calling Bitcoin a “scam” and a “disaster waiting to happen”.
But Tuesday’s disclosure shows his crypto earnings far overshadow income from his real estate business, which first catapulted him to fame.
He earned around $77m from his Mar-a-Lago club and $122m from his golf club in Doral, Florida.
He also earned more than $30m each from golf clubs in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Jupiter, Florida, and Turnberry, Scotland.
Trump also earned millions from other business ventures, according to the financial disclosure.
These included $4.7m in royalties from Trump-branded watches, along with Trump-branded Bibles, trainers, fragrances and guitars.
First Lady Melania Trump also listed her income from 2025 in the disclosure. She made $10.7m from a “license agreement” related to the documentary about her that was released last year.
Another $6m in income is listed for her from the sale of NFTs, which are digital images sold online.
The president listed millions of dollars, too, in settlements from various legal actions.
These included $16m from a lawsuit against ABC, $16m from CBS Broadcasting and CBS Interactive, $24.5m from Meta, $22m from YouTube and $8m from X.
But the White House has said most of that money went towards Trump’s future presidential library or a nonprofit dedicated to the upkeep of park sites in the Washington DC area.
According to a list of the world’s richest people compiled by Forbes magazine, Trump has an estimated fortune of $6bn – up from $2.3bn in 2024. Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index puts the president’s net worth at $7.6bn.
After his return to the White House, Trump adopted a friendly approach to the crypto industry, even as companies linked to his family issued digital tokens.
The Trump-appointed head of financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is also seen as an ally of the crypto industry.
Since taking office in April 2025, Paul Atkins has shifted the agency away from the strict, regulation-by-enforcement approach of his predecessor.
Last July, the president signed the GENIUS Act into law, to make “make America the undisputed leader in digital assets”.
(BBC)
Guo Wengui, who was once believed to be one of China’s richest businessmen, has been sentenced to 30 years in jail in the US for running a billion dollar scam.
The former property tycoon fled China to the US in 2017, where he reinvented himself as a Communist Party critic and built a loyal online following.
But Guo was later convicted on charges of racketeering, fraud and money laundering.
New York court judge Analisa Torres said Guo had “preyed on those seeking to bring democracy to China”, taking their money to fund his lavish lifestyle.
The BBC has contacted Guo’s representatives for comment.
Guo – who goes by several names, including Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok – was sentenced in a courtroom packed with his supporters.
US attorney Sean S Buckley told the BBC: “Rather than being satisfied with the many legitimate opportunities afforded to him, Guo exploited the trust that thousands had placed in him for his own greed.”
“Today’s sentence shows that fame and wealth do not place you above the law, and that fraudsters who victimise families to enrich themselves will be met with significant consequences,” Buckley said.
Before fleeing China, Guo built a fortune as a property developer and had good ties with the country’s government.
But he sought asylum in the US after being accused by top Chinese officials of corruption.
Guo became a critic of China’s Communist regime and cultivated a wide online following among the Chinese community in the US.
Prosecutors said Guo raised more than $1bn (£760m) from online followers, who joined him in investment and cryptocurrency schemes between 2018 and 2023.
The money he raised was used to fund Guo’s lavish lifestyle which included a 50,000 square foot mansion, a $1m Lamborghini and a $37m yacht, they said.
Guo denied the allegations, saying the funds were used for his political activism.
He had built ties with other China critics, including Steve Bannon, a former adviser to US President Donald Trump.
Bannon and Guo often appeared in online videos and, in 2020, launched a campaign called the New Federal State of China, with the goal of overthrowing the Chinese Communist Party.
Later that year, Bannon was arrested on Guo’s yacht in Connecticut. Bannon was charged in an unrelated case with fraud in an alleged scheme to defraud people who funded a not-for-profit company to build a US-Mexico border wall.
Bannon entered a guilty plea in a Manhattan court to a first degree scheme to defraud charge and received a sentence of conditional discharge for three years.
He also faced federal charges over the wall campaign after he was indicted by a federal grand jury, but the prosecution came to a halt after Trump pardoned him 8n the final hours of his first White House term.
(BBC)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has met a top official from the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), which backs the government in eastern Libya and is competing for power with the internationally recognised authorities in the capital, Tripoli.
The talks between Rubio and Deputy Commander Saddam Haftar on Monday come amid Washington’s deepening involvement in attempting to resolve the political crisis in the North African country.
The US State Department, in a statement, said Rubio and Haftar “discussed ongoing Libyan-led efforts to unify the country’s military, economic, and political institutions” and the “possible avenues for cooperation to advance unity and peace in Libya”. “The Secretary expressed appreciation for the efforts of Libyan leaders to overcome divisions and move toward unity,” the statement added.
“The United States will remain at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to support Libyan unity and create the conditions for a democratically elected government able to lead Libya forward.”
In April, the US helped broker an agreement for unified spending between the two competing governments in Libya. The deal covered wages for public sector employees and the National Oil Corporation.
The US is also pushing to establish military cooperation between the governments in eastern and western Libya. Last year, forces loyal to both governments participated in joint drills with the US military in the central coastal city of Sirte.
Libya descended into chaos and civil strife after a NATO-backed armed uprising toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The current fractured governance traces back to 2014, when Libyans elected a new legislative body, dubbed the House of Representatives, with a low turnout amid clashes between armed groups.
A top court in Tripoli declared the House of Representatives, which had moved to eastern Libya after armed groups took over Tripoli, invalid.
But the legislative body did not dissolve. Instead, it backed a rival government in the east, which was then supported by the LNA, formed by Khalifa Haftar, Saddam’s father.
The older Haftar had served as a senior officer in the Libyan army under Gaddafi, but he defected and moved to the US in 1990 after he was captured by Chadian forces during fighting between Chad and Libya.
He has been the de facto ruler of eastern Libya since his LNA consolidated power in the region after 2016.
In 2019, the LNA mounted a campaign to capture Tripoli. It reached the capital, but its gains were quickly rolled back by forces loyal to the internationally recognised government.
A ceasefire between the two sides was reached in 2020, but the country remained divided between the two governments and clashes continued to regularly break out across Libya.
Saddam Haftar, who is the heir apparent to lead the LNA after his father, has been meeting with top officials across the region and the world in recent weeks, including Egypt’s defence minister and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has deepened Washington’s diplomatic efforts in the oil-rich North African country, with White House adviser Massad Boulos leading an initiative to unify the two competing governments.
Boulos told Al Hadath TV on Friday that the Libyan sides would be invited to Washington, DC, to sign a final agreement in the presence of Trump, should one be reached.
“The United States will continue its efforts to support the Libyan people, who have suffered 15 years of war and division,” Boulos said in a social media post.
[Aljazeera]
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