Genealogical records confirmed her great-grandmother on her mother’s side was born in what is now Benin and, at the height of transatlantic slavery, was trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean

International News via Reuters:

Isaline Attelly, a native of the Caribbean island of Martinique, had been living in Benin for nearly a year before she learned that her family’s connection to the West African country went back much further.

Genealogical records confirmed her great-grandmother on her mother’s side was born in what is now Benin and, at the height of transatlantic slavery, was trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean.

The discovery last year prompted Attelly, a 28-year-old content creator, to enrol in a new programme offering Beninese citizenship to people of African descent.

The “My Afro Origins” programme is an important piece of President Patrice Talon’s plan to raise his country’s profile, including among prospective tourists, by highlighting its prominent role in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people. 

“For me, it’s a source of pride. It feels like my journey has come full circle,” Attelly told Reuters after her naturalisation ceremony. “I am proud and very happy to be able to represent my ancestors.”

PROJECTS HIGHLIGHT BENIN’S ROLE IN SLAVERY

The first naturalisation ceremonies have coincided with the unveiling of projects intended to bring that history to life, including a new “Door of No Return” in Ouidah, a common departure point for transatlantic trafficking, and a replica of an 18th-century ship that transported enslaved people with sculptures inside representing nearly 300 captives. Both are still under construction.

The government also plans to open this year a new International Museum of Memory and Slavery at the former residence of Francisco Felix de Souza, a prominent trafficker of enslaved people in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Talon, who survived a coup attempt last month and is expected to end his 10-year tenure after a presidential election in April, has recruited star power to publicise his vision.Filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife Tonya Lee Lewis were last year named ambassadors for the programme to the African-American community.

“Our brothers and sisters in Benin are telling us: come home, welcome us home, come back to the motherland. Come back (to) where your roots are,” Lee told France 24 last year.

In July 2025 American R&B star Ciara became one of the first beneficiaries of Beninese citizenship. She performed last week at a concert in Ouidah as part of an annual festival devoted to voodoo, playing hits such as “Level Up” during a set that ran until 3 a.m.

Her husband, American football quarterback Russell Wilson, attended and said he was hoping to become a citizen himself “real soon”.

PUSH FOR ‘RIGHT OF RETURN’ 

Around 50 people have received Beninese citizenship since the “My Afro Origins” programme launched last year, according to the Justice Ministry, which is sorting through thousands of applications and receives about 100 more each day.

To qualify, applicants need to be 18 years old and produce documents or a DNA test proving their ties to the continent, and they cannot be citizens of another African country, Foreign Minister Olushegun Adjadi Bakari told Reuters.

At the naturalisation ceremony on December 27 in Cotonou, Benin’s biggest city and economic capital, Attelly and nine others received their citizenship certificates and posed for pictures next to the Beninese flag.

Benin’s programme is similar to an initiative in Ghana that, since 2016, has granted citizenship to 684 members of the African diaspora, according to Kofi Okyere Darko, presidential adviser on diaspora affairs.

CARICOM, the regional bloc of the Caribbean, has endorsed a “right of return” for descendants of enslaved people, as part of a reparations plan adopted in 2014.

Resettlement should be funded by “those states that are responsible for the forced movement and enslavement” of millions of people, CARICOM says, meaning European states and governments.

Though no significant progress has been made towards such a comprehensive effort, Benin’s government hopes the programme can nevertheless strengthen ties between Africans and the diaspora while showcasing the country’s history, said Bakari, the foreign minister.

“We believe that Africa cannot develop without a strong involvement of its diaspora,” he said.

“What we are looking for is people who will definitely recognise themselves as African, having the proof that they are part of this continent.”

Reporting by Pulcherie Adjoha and Robbie Corey-Boulet in Ouidah; Additional reporting by Emmanuel Bruce in Accra; Editing by Alison Williams

The accident took place on Wednesday morning in the Sikhio district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, 230 km (143 miles) northeast of Bangkok, on a train from the capital bound for Ubon Ratchathani province

International News via Reuters:

A train derailed in northeastern Thailand on Wednesday after a construction crane fell on three of its carriages, killing at least 25 people and injuring about 80, police said.

The accident took place on Wednesday morning in the Sikhio district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, 230 km (143 miles) northeast of Bangkok, on a train from the capital bound for Ubon Ratchathani province. 

“The death toll has now reached 25. The search for more bodies is ongoing,” Police Colonel Thatchapon Chinnawong told Reuters by phone.

Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said in a statement that there were 195 people on board, adding that he had ordered a thorough investigation to be carried out. 

Those killed were in two of the three carriages hit by the crane, he said. 

The crane was working on a high-speed rail project when it collapsed and hit the passing train, causing it to derail and briefly catch fire.

Images shared by the ministry showed carriages overturned next to shrubland and firefighters extinguishing a blaze as smoke billowed out.

Footage of the crash site verified by Reuters shows rescue workers trying to extract casualties from one of the buckled carriages, with some badly injured passengers already being loaded into ambulances.

The elevated high-speed rail project, one of several under construction in Thailand, was being built above the existing rail line. Part of the collapsed crane is still propped up by the stanchions built to support the new rail link.  

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing that the Chinese government attached great importance to the safety of projects and personnel and was looking into the situation.

“At present, it seems that the relevant section was under construction by a Thai enterprise. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.”

The high-speed rail project will connect to China through Laos. The government said last year that more than a third of construction had been completed in the segment connecting Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, and the whole line to Nong Khai at the border with Laos would be ready by 2030.

Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um, Additional reporting by Ethan Wang in Beijing; Editing by Martin Petty and David Stanway

CSG’s roots were in retooling Cold War-era military gear

International News via Reuters:

Czech defence group Czechoslovak Group (CSG) is looking to expand globally, including moves into new areas like jet engines used for drones or missiles, as it prepares for what could be one of Europe’s biggest IPOs this year.

CSG’s roots were in retooling Cold War-era military gear. Its manufacturing of ammunition, military trucks, armoured vehicles and rocket launchers has made it one of Europe’s fastest-growing defence firms after tapping into aggressive military spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“When the war in Ukraine started, we were the first to start investing heavily,” CSG’s owner and CEO Michal Strnad told Reuters. “I took the risk and we got going.”

Strnad, 33, took over the business his father Jaroslav started in the 1990s buying Soviet-era military equipment for scrapping. He is now steering CSG towards an IPO as investors funnel billions of dollars towards defence.

Sources have told Reuters that a listing on Euronext Amsterdam could raise over $3 billion and that the IPO process could start as early as this week.

The company, which sealed a $2.2 billion deal for U.S.-based small-calibre ammunition maker Kinetic Group in 2024, is also on the lookout for more acquisitions as it seeks to become more integrated to compete with larger rivals and help control its margins.

“We will definitely be making some acquisitions,” Strnad told Reuters at CSG’s headquarters in Prague, saying the company wants to become “completely, fully vertically integrated” across its range of products.

“I don’t want to be pushed into a corner by suppliers. We don’t want to be hostages, we want to have everything under our own roof, we want to manage it, we want to be responsible for it, and of course we want to keep the margin at home.”

STRONG DEMAND, BUT CHALLENGES AHEAD

CSG faces challenges. Any peace deal for Ukraine – the source of a third of CSG’s 2024 revenue – could take away a key driver of growth, while bigger European rivals like Germany’s Rheinmetall often dominate regional defence contracts. Defence is also shifting toward drones and hypersonic missiles.

“If warfare shifts more in that direction, there’s a risk we see a peak in revenues and valuations across the sector not just for CSG,” said Jens-Peter Rieck, aerospace and defence analyst at consultancy mwb research.

Adrien Rabier at Bernstein, however, said that defence demand was “far outstripping supply at the moment” and would remain so in the years ahead.

CSG plans to conclude talks in the next few months to expand cooperation with the U.S. government to produce jet engines as part of the so-called Golden Dome Project aimed at creating an integrated air and missile defence system, Strnad said.

“We definitely want to grow here, and today we want to localise production,” Strnad said, adding the firm was looking at sites in North Carolina and Wisconsin.

CSG for now relies heavily on large-calibre ammunition and military vehicles to drive revenue. Large-calibre ammo made up nearly half of pro-forma revenue of 5.2 billion euros in 2024.

The 2024 sales revenue marked a nearly nine-fold increase from 2021, the year before the Ukraine invasion, when revenue hit 592 million euros. CSG forecasts revenue of 7.4 billion-7.6 billion euros this year and boasts an order backlog of 14 billion euros.

MAKING CSG ‘TRULY GLOBAL’

Deals have been central to CSG’s rapid growth, with investments including large-calibre ammunition in Spain, a nitrocellulose company in Germany, and a joint venture for ammunition and TNT production in Greece.

The group, which employs some 14,000 people, signed a framework deal with Slovakia’s defence ministry in December that it hopes to turn into multi-billion euro pipeline for ammunition supplies to European governments.

Strnad said he sees big potential with military customers in the small ammunition segment, with NATO states likely to restock small-calibre ammo due to empty warehouses after an ongoing restock of medium and large-calibre ammunition.

CSG has a $630 million contract in the U.S. to build a large-calibre ammo loading facility in Iowa, a $1 billion truck contract with an unnamed Asian customer and a strategic partnership with Franco-German defence group KNDS for the production of hulls for Leopard battle tanks.

“I want CSG to be truly global,” Strnad said.

Writing by Michael Kahn and Jan Lopatka; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Susan Fenton