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Plusieurs ménages ont été victimes de pillages et de violences lors d’une incursion d’hommes armés non identifiés survenue dans la nuit de mardi à mercredi 29 avril dans le village de Kishonja, groupement Buabo, en territoire de Masisi (Nord-Kivu).

Selon des sources locales, les assaillants ont systématiquement pillé les habitations, tandis que certains habitants ont été soumis à des actes de torture.

Im Walliser Skiort Crans-Montana kam es in der Silvesternacht zu einem verheerenden Brand, der 41 Todesopfer forderte. Im Ticker halten wir dich über die neusten Entwicklungen auf dem Laufenden.

Die Linke will die Einbürgerung vereinfachen. Damit soll mehr Menschen die politische und gesellschaftliche Teilhabe ermöglicht werden. Von bürgerlicher Seite regt sich Widerstand. Blick berichtet live ab acht Uhr aus dem Bundeshaus.

Ein Mediziner und Langlebigkeits-Experte zeigt eine einfache Morgenroutine in fünf Schritten, die Körper und Geist aktiviert. In nur zehn Minuten sollen Fokus, Energie und langfristige Gesundheit gefördert werden.

Hamburg's authorities tell Noyb they can't reach the non-EU-based company so won't investigate

Pour sortir de notre dépendance au numérique états-unien, remplacer un Google par un équivalent européen est voué à l’échec. Il faut penser d’autres modèles non prédateurs, à l’image du logiciel libre, nous explique Magali Garnero, présidente de l’April (Association pour la promotion du logiciel libre) et membre de Framasoft.

A REDD+ project in the country's northeast aims to conserve forest and reduce carbon emissions, but many local residents say they know little about it and never gave their consent.

Drei Elfmeter-Entscheidungen beim 1:1 zwischen Atlético und Arsenal, doch Schiedsrichter Danny Makkelie kann es niemandem recht machen. Am härtesten haut der Schweizer Schiri-Experte Urs Meier drauf.

"It took decades to build stable societies, to develop local economies, and it took only several weeks of war to destroy that"

 

La motion de défiance visant le Vice-Premier ministre en charge de l’Intérieur et sécurité, Jacquemain Shabani, a été déclarée irrecevable ce mercredi 29 avril à l’Assemblée nationale. En cause : l’adoption d’une motion incidente dénonçant des irrégularités dans la procédure, notamment des signatures jugées non conformes.

Une plénière sous tension

Se dirige-t-on vers un apaisement des relations entre Paris et Antananarivo après la forte tension diplomatique des derniers jours ? La présidence malgache a annoncé ce mercredi soir, 29 avril, que le colonel Michaël Randrianirina et son homologue français, Emmanuel Macron, se sont entretenus au téléphone suite aux convocations mutuelles des chefs de missions diplomatiques dans les deux pays. La France et Madagascar « miseront sur la confiance mutuelle pour bâtir un partenariat durable », a écrit la présidence malgache dans son communiqué. 

Mali Actu - maliactu.net - Mali Actualités, Les Actus et Informations sur le Mali
Mali Actu
Migrations : Vers des récits plus précis

Les enjeux migratoires au Mali : un défi médiatique essentiel Dans un regard approfondi sur les enjeux migratoires, les échanges récents ont révélé l’importance cruciale du journalisme dans le traitement de ce sujet. En effet, lors d’un atelier de format

Migrations : Vers des récits plus précis
Mali Actu :
Migrations : Vers des récits plus précis

Mali Actu - maliactu.net - Mali Actualités, Les Actus et Informations sur le Mali
Mali Actu
Saison de la mangue : Entre délices et passion populaire

Dans les marchés animés et les rues ensoleillées, la mangue se démarque par sa présence irrésistible. Ce fruit, apprécié par une grande partie de la population, est devenu un incontournable de la gastronomie locale. Son goût sucré et sa texture juteuse séduise

Saison de la mangue : Entre délices et passion populaire
Mali Actu :
Saison de la mangue : Entre délices et passion populaire

The decision could pave the way for the 76-year-old's return to politics, but the future of his Pheu Thai Party is uncertain following a poor return at this year's general election.

Congés payés, unité, intervention populaire… ont marqué l’accession des socialistes, communistes et radicaux au pouvoir en 1936. Une source d’inspiration partagée encore aujourd’hui, malgré les divisions.

Face à un président états-unien qui peut couper tout service numérique et moyen de paiement à des individus, entreprises ou administrations par simple décret, dresser un état des lieux de nos dépendances et vulnérabilités se révèle plus que jamais urgent.

Kuriosum in Iowa: Alle Sprinter scheitern an Fehlstarts, nur Jordan Gross bleibt im Rennen. Von den besonderen Umständen lässt er sich nicht beirren und läuft sogar beinahe eine neue persönliche Bestzeit.

Idylle sucht man um 5 Uhr morgens kurz vor Sonnenaufgang auf dem Mount Tain in China vergebens. Auf den Felsen drängen sich Hunderte Touristen und haben das Handy fürs perfekte Foto bereits gezückt. Dann bricht ein Streit zwischen mehreren Männern aus.

Plus de trois quarts des ménages en RDC vivent en insécurité alimentaire. C’est ce que révèle le rapport d’évaluation conjointe publié mercredi 29 avril par l’Institut national de la statistique (INS), avec l’appui du Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM).

By CIVICUS
Apr 30 2026 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses Bulgaria’s Gen Z-led protests with Aleksandar Tanev, founder of Students Against the Mafia, an informal student organisation that took part in mass protests against corruption and state capture.

Aleksandar Tanev

Bulgaria has been gripped by political instability, holding eight general elections in five years, with the latest held on 19 April. In late 2024, the government proposed a budget featuring tax increases and no institutional reforms, triggering the largest street protests since the 1990s. What began as opposition to the budget quickly became a broader movement against the corrupt governance model that has dominated Bulgarian politics for over a decade.

What brought you to activism and these protests?

I am a Russian-Bulgarian citizen, because my father is Bulgarian and my mother is Russian. I lived in Bulgaria until I was about five years old and then moved to Russia, where I lived until a few years ago. From around the age of 12 I became interested in politics and started asking questions. I took part in my first protest in Russia at age 17 and participated in campaigns for independent parliamentary candidates. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, my life changed drastically. On the first day I took part in a protest that turned out to be my last. I immediately started receiving threats, and on the same day I received a draft notice from the military registration office. I decided to leave.

Bulgaria was one of the first countries to suspend flights from Russia. But my brother, who was doing an internship at the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told me a humanitarian flight was being organised to evacuate Bulgarian citizens. I managed to sign up and flew to Sofia. I started a new life in Bulgaria, remembering the language and meeting new people.

When I arrived, I found so many people had been exposed to Russian propaganda. I had to explain over and over what the real situation in Russia was. For two and a half years I worked at the Bulgarian Red Cross helping Ukrainian refugees. I enrolled at Sofia University and gradually reintegrated into my home country.

When the protests broke out, I was in Germany and saw the photos and videos of young people taking to the streets. I thought the time had finally come to do something. What triggered the protests was a government budget that included tax increases but no institutional reforms. People may struggle to understand complex political issues, but when the government takes money from them, they understand. Very quickly, the protest went beyond the trigger issue and turned into a protest not just against the government, but against a whole system of corrupt governance and state capture.

At that moment, I realised students were the driving force, and started an informal group called Students Against the Mafia. We told major media about it and began preparing our first action. We attached a three-by-four metre banner reading ‘Students Against the Mafia’ to the balcony of Sofia University’s rector’s office while an international conference was being held inside. We held a student march and joined the big protest.

What’s the current level of trust in institutions?

Bulgarians, including young people, are very disappointed by the actions of those in power. Bulgaria is a parliamentary democracy and people had a lot of expectations when it joined the European Union (EU) but have since become increasingly disappointed. Trust in state institutions is overall very low, and so is trust in civil society organisations and other parts of society. This is dangerous, because it may mean a loss of trust in democracy.

People don’t really understand the difference between government and civil society. They think NGOs are organisations created by the government to control society or financed by foreign states to lobby for their own interests. There is very little critical thinking. People don’t fact-check information and instead absorb propaganda and dangerous narratives.

My personal goal is to try to bring back trust in civil society, showing that civil society groups are instruments of people power. That’s why we show our faces, our goals and our actions.

Who took part in the protests?

Very different parts of Bulgarian society protested, and with very different ideas. There were pro-European people, Eurosceptics and people who had never been interested in politics before. What united them was that they were tired of the injustice of a system in which you can’t change anything for the better because power is captured by a small elite.

Politics is a revolving door: Boyko Borissov, the prime minister at the time, was prime minister three times, and his party was in power for over a decade. Delyan Peevski, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, was sanctioned under the US Magnitsky Act for corruption in a controversial scandal, representing a merger between political power, media influence, institutional dependence and impunity. The same group of politicians captured the government, parliament and the most important institution, the courts. This meant that change wasn’t going to come from institutions.

While protesters had many different complaints and demands, they all shared the hope for normal governance and the feeling that this couldn’t go on.

How were protests organised, and what role did social media play?

The first big protest was half organised, half spontaneous: the call came from a political party, but it echoed well beyond party supporters, so the turnout was much bigger than anybody expected. It was a broad national protest.

The organiser was the pro-European, anti-corruption coalition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria. After the party made the announcement, people started sharing it on social media and in personal conversations, and soon there was this protest energy in the air. Everyone was talking about it.

In between protests, people waited for the signal from this political party to come back out. We didn’t think to organise our own protests. Instead, we prepared actions and performances to stage at the next protests the party organised. And each time, more and more people came, because those who had previously protested shared the call within their own small networks.

Social media helped us enormously, because traditional media in Bulgaria is captured too. Corrupt politicians have a strong influence over traditional television channels but they don’t control social media. So Facebook, Instagram and other platforms filled the space of independent media. On social media, we can share and talk freely. To Gen Z protesters, the protests became an extension of this space: they came to the protests to speak their minds.

One problem was that during the protests, the internet was very slow. We thought the authorities caused this deliberately, but it’s also possible mobile operators simply couldn’t handle so many people in one place. Either way, social media was key to the success of the protests.

Do you agree with the label that these were Gen Z protests?

I do. In fact, to one of the protests we brought a five-metre banner that read ‘Gen Z is coming’. It was shown by the Daily Mail, Reuters and other international media.

While I think the label is correct, we shouldn’t interpret it literally. Many different age groups took part in the protests. What made them Gen Z protests was the participation of so many young people who gave them a face of hope. But it was only because all Bulgarian society joined in that we succeeded in bringing down the government.

What risks did protesters face?

Honestly, compared to Russia, the risk wasn’t very high. But that doesn’t mean everything was okay. For instance, some students faced pressure from their universities not to go to protests. Students who helped me spread the word about Students Against the Mafia at their university got warnings from the administration not to do it again. That’s not acceptable. Students have the right to express their opinions freely, including through protest.

Provocateurs showed up towards the end of each protest. They covered their faces and brought some kind of explosives, and police started beating protesters. Because of this, most regular people left after a couple of hours. We think these provocateurs may have been sent by the parties in power to discredit protests.

Some people were unnecessarily scared. I protested very actively and nothing happened to me, though I should be honest that when you become visible, that gives you a degree of protection, and this may not be true of everyone.

What did the protests achieve, and what comes next?

The government fell. That’s a big achievement. And Bulgarian society woke up. A lot of people who previously thought politics was something dirty, something separate from their personal lives, understood they had a responsibility.

But there’s still a long way to go. All this protest energy needs to be transformed into electoral energy. Power is built not only in the streets but also within institutions. If we don’t turn this energy into votes, all the effort will have been useless. Voter turnout in the last election prior to the protests was under 40 per cent. This is not representative democracy; it is a disaster. We cannot expect change to happen when only 40 per cent of voters actually turn out.

Diaspora voting rights are also under threat. The opposition Revival party proposed limiting polling stations outside the EU to just 20 locations, far too few for the large Bulgarian communities in the UK, the USA and elsewhere. The proposal was backed by most governing parties; only Peevski opposed it. Revival’s stated aim was to limit votes from Turkey, which tend to go to Peevski’s party. But the measure would hit all diaspora communities: over 60,000 voter applications were submitted for the 19 April election, over twice the figure from the previous election. Unlike voters in Turkey, who can travel to Bulgaria to vote in person, those in the UK and USA cannot. This was a deliberate attempt to suppress the votes of people who have left and who tend to vote for change.

Following the main protests, we also started organising actions against the chief prosecutor, Borislav Sarafov, the one who ultimately decides whether a corruption case will be investigated. According to Bulgarian law, a temporary chief prosecutor can only hold the post for up to six months. But now they say that this law doesn’t apply to him because he was already in the role when the law was passed. So this temporary prosecutor can now potentially stay in this position for life. We have held four or five protests against him, but so far we have not succeeded.

What keeps me going is the desire to live in a fair society where the state is at the service of the people, and not the other way around. But in a democracy, you have to change things yourself. You can’t wait for someone to do it for you. Living in Russia, I understood that if you don’t fight for justice and truth, there is always a danger that power will take over everything. There’s this phrase I keep coming back to: if you are not interested in politics, politics will start to take an interest in you. That’s my motivation.

CIVICUS interviews a wide range of civil society activists, experts and leaders to gather diverse perspectives on civil society action and current issues for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and do not necessarily reflect those of CIVICUS. Publication does not imply endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they represent.

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SEE ALSO
Gen Z protests: new resistance rises CIVICUS | State of Civil Society Report 2026
‘People reacted to a system of governance shaped by informal powers and personal interests’ CIVICUS | Interview with Zahari Iankov 18.Dec.2025
Bulgaria: stuck in a loop? CIVICUS Lens 24.Oct.2022

 

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