Africa will have a record 10 representatives at the 2026 FIFA World Cup after the DR Congo national football team qualified.
The Leopards secured the continent’s final slot after defeating the Nigerian national football team in the African play-offs and going on to beat the Jamaican national football team 1-0 in the intercontinental play-offs on Tuesday night.
They now join nine other African nations that had already booked their places at the expanded tournament.
For Nigeria, the failure to qualify marks a second consecutive absence from the global showpiece.
The 2026 edition will be historic for the continent, as it will be the first time Africa sends 10 teams to the World Cup, highlighting its growing influence in global football.
Full List of African Teams:
DR Congo
Senegal
Morocco
Egypt
Ghana
Algeria
Tunisia
Côte d’Ivoire
Cape Verde
South Africa
US Lifts Sanctions On Venezuelan Interim Leader Delcy Rodriguez
The United States on Wednesday lifted sanctions against Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who took power after Washington ousted her predecessor Nicolas Maduro in a military operation in January.
Rodriguez’s name was deleted from the “Specially Designated Nationals List,” according to a post on the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website.
Rodriguez welcomed the decision, writing on X that it was part of the “normalization and strengthening” of bilateral relations.
“We trust that this progress will allow for the lifting of the sanctions currently in force against our country, and make it possible to build and guarantee an effective binational cooperation agenda for the benefit of our peoples,” she added.
Ties between Washington and Caracas have warmed since Maduro’s ouster, with Rodriguez complying with US President Donald Trump’s demands for Caracas to open up its energy industry to American companies.
Rodriguez served as Maduro’s deputy and was sanctioned by Washington for being a key official in his government, alongside officials including former defence minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and interior minister Diosdado Cabello.
Rodriguez fired Lopez in mid-March, but she has been walking a fine line between demands from Washington and those from her own backers since Maduro’s toppling.
Cabello, who remains in office, is seen as one of her key backers.
On Monday, the US Embassy in Caracas resumed operations after being closed for seven years, the State Department said.
The reopening came after the US military operation that seized Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from Caracas on January 3, taking them to New York to face drug trafficking charges that they deny.
The operation killed around 100 people in Venezuela, according to authorities there.
