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💬 THE BIG STORY
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Private sector workers are getting legal cover for flooding days |
Roads flooding, boss expecting you in: what are your rights? For private sector workers in Mauritius, the honest answer has been not much. This week, parliament started to change that. |
Minister Ashok Subron told parliament the Workers Rights Act will be amended to give private sector workers the same emergency protections public employees already have during torrential rain events. The reform, developed with Labour Minister Reza Uteem, is already at an advanced stage. Cyclone Belal in January 2024 brought the gap into focus, when workers across the island had no clear legal standing as roads flooded. |
On the support side, 156 evacuation centres are ready to activate, with an allowance of Rs 250 per person per night for evacuees and a matching payment for food losses. The ministry has set up a dedicated climate unit, and a Climate Victims Plan covering a range of disaster protection measures is in preparation. |
Belal was the stress test this legal gap needed. |
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🇲🇺 IN MAURITIUS
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A fifth person dies of leptospirosis as chikungunya spreads west |
A 60-year-old man from Facq died Thursday, the fifth leptospirosis fatality in Mauritius this year. Two others remain hospitalised: a 64-year-old man at Candos and a 28-year-old woman at Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital. Mauritius has recorded 20 leptospirosis cases since January. |
Chikungunya is at 168 active cases. Down from 200+. It's spreading further, though. The acting Director of Health, Dr Fazil Khodabocus, warned the outbreak is expanding into new areas. Fresh clusters have emerged in Tamarin, La Gaulette, La Preneuse and Bambous, spreading beyond the Rose-Hill and Quatre-Bornes heartland where it first took hold. Two confirmed mpox cases remain under medical supervision. |
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26 human trafficking cases logged in two years, PM tells parliament |
26 human trafficking cases in Mauritius between January 2024 and April 2026, PM Ramgoolam told parliament in response to a question from MP Rubna Daureeawoo. Four cases have gone to court: three await judgment and one has resulted in a conviction. |
Since January 2026 alone, authorities have arrested 2,138 people for illegal residence. PM Ramgoolam acknowledged the growing foreign worker population as a driver of trafficking risk. The National Action Plan 2022-26 for combating human trafficking is being revised with the International Organisation for Migration, and there are also plan to tighten the Combatting of Trafficking in Persons Act with heavier penalties and expanded police investigation powers. |
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A national consultation on cannabis reform is now underway |
The National Agency for Drug Control, NADC, has launched a technical committee to review cannabis policy options in Mauritius. CEO Kunal Naik announced the consultation process at a press conference Thursday. The review covers potential decriminalisation, medical use and enforcement approaches. |
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Skills and jobs: Mauritius is not training for the economy it's becoming |
Mauritius must urgently align its workforce with future economic demands or risk falling behind, Areff Salauroo, CEO of La Sentinelle group and president of the Human Resource Professionals of Mauritius, warned on Labour Day. Without targeted investment in skills, the country face losing competitiveness as technology reshapes the labour market. |
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🗞️ SHORTS
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CEB tariff up 15% from yesterday – 15% more on your electricity bill from May 1, adding Rs 60 to Rs 450 monthly for most households. |
Fisherman missing off Albion since Thursday – Mike Bagan, 50, missing since Thursday after jumping from a fishing boat in the Albion lagoon. |
2,506 fishermen get digital bad-weather pay – Fishermen's bad-weather allowances are now digital, covering 2,506 registered fishers across 14 posts. |
Octogenarian hotel owner: I was robbed of Rs 18M – Rs 18M stripped from a hotel, an 80-year-old Baie-du-Tombeau owner claims. |
El Capo's jewels are now a money laundering case – 'El Capo' faces money laundering after Rs 1.6M in jewels surface in his drug trafficking probe. |
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🌍 IN OUR BACKYARD
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Uganda sentences kindergarten killer to death |
Christopher Okello Onyum, a Ugandan-American man who stabbed four toddlers to death at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Centre in Kampala last month, was sentenced to death on Thursday. The victims were aged between 15 months and two and a half years. The judge rejected an insanity plea, finding the precise and pre-planned nature of the killings left no question of mental incapacity, and noted that Onyum had shown no remorse. The court cheered. |
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Sahel alliance strikes back in Mali as rebels seize another military base |
The Alliance of Sahel States (Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali) confirmed joint airstrikes after a jihadist and Tuareg separatist offensive killed Mali's defence minister and seized the northern city of Kidal. Niger called the response an intense air campaign in the hours after the attacks. |
Now the Tessalit military base near the Algerian border has also fallen, with Malian troops and their Russian allies evacuating without a fight. The strategic base held an airstrip and significant military equipment. Russia says it will stay in Mali to fight extremism despite the setbacks. |
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Amnesty calls for inquiry into 150 Fulani deaths at a Nigerian army camp |
Amnesty International is calling on Nigerian authorities to investigate the reported deaths of 150 members of the Fulani ethnic group inside a military-run camp. The rights group says the deaths demand a independent inquiry, and no official explanation of what happened has emerged. |
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🗺️ AROUND THE WORLD
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Trump declares the Iran war over to avoid a Congress vote |
With the War Powers Act's 60-day deadline arriving May 1, President Trump told congressional leaders that hostilities with Iran are over and he no longer needs legislative approval to continue military operations. The White House argues a ceasefire ordered April 7 paused or ended the conflict. Tehran disagrees. |
Iran sent a new proposal through Pakistani intermediaries, dropping its demand for an immediate end to the US naval blockade. President Trump said he is not satisfied, describing Iran's leadership as fractured and disjointed. The naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues. So does the war, by any practical measure. |
Declaring a war over while continuing a naval blockade is a creative definition of peace. |
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5,000 US troops are leaving Germany as Trump feuds with Berlin |
The United States is pulling roughly 5,000 troops from Germany amid disagreements over Iran war strategy and a personal feud between President Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The withdrawal deepens anxiety among European NATO members about Washington's commitment to collective defence. |
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US court blocks abortion pill deliveries by mail |
A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the mailing of mifepristone, the most widely used abortion pill in the United States, ruling it must only be dispensed in person at clinics. The decision sharply limits access in states where reaching a clinic is already difficult or legally fraught. |
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🧠 THE DEEP END
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The man who has spent 25 years living among snakes on a deserted island |
Rouben Mootoocurpen has spent a quarter century as a reptile biologist with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, passing weeks at a time on Ile Ronde, an uninhabited islet off the northern coast, to protect the endemic Round Island boa. One of the rarest snakes in the world. He's one of a handful of people who has ever held one. |
No roads, no shops, no neighbours. Just the boa and the ocean. |
Not all conservation work gets a nature documentary. |
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