A Texas jury has found a white former police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager last year guilty of murder.  

Roy Oliver shot into a car full of teenagers as they were leaving a party in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs in April 2017. 

Fifteen-year-old Jordan Edwards, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was struck and killed. 

“It’s been a hard year … I’m just really happy,” Edwards’s father, Odell, told reporters at the courthouse after the verdict on Tuesday. 

At the time of the shooting, Oliver claimed the vehicle was trying to run over his partner, but several witness accounts and body-cam footage showed the car was moving away from the officer.

Oliver was fired from the Balch Springs police force in May 2017 after police admitted the video of the shooting contradicted Oliver’s initial statement. 

Local reporters, who were present in the courtroom on Tuesday as the verdict was read, reported that there were hugs, claps and cheers from the family of Edwards. 

Oliver faces between five and 99 years in prison for the murder. His sentencing hearing began immediately after the trial. The former police officer was acquitted of manslaughter and aggravated assault. 

‘Not just about Jordan’

Daryl Washington, Edwards’s lawyer, said the verdict is not just about justice for the young teenager’s family but for the families of all unarmed black people killed by police. 

“This case is not just about Jordan,” Washington told reporters. “It’s about Tamir Rice, it’s about Walter Scott, it’s about Alton Sterling, it’s about every unarmed African American who has been killed and who has not got justice.” 

According to Washington Post Fatal Force database, more than 980 people were killed by police in 2017. 

The Guardian identified more than 1,090 police killings the previous year.

Nearly a quarter of those killed by police in 2016 were African Americans, although the group accounted for roughly 12 percent of the total US population.

According to watchdog group The Sentencing Project, African American men are six times more likely to be arrested than white men.

These disparities, particularly the killing of African Americans by police, has prompted the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, a popular civil rights movement aimed at ending police violence and dismantling structural racism.

‘Finally’

Online, many called Tuesday’s verdict a “small”, but “significant” step for justice for unarmed people killed by police. 

According to Phil Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University, only 91 police officers in the US have been charged with murder or manslaughter resulting from an on-duty shooting since 2005. Less than 40 have been convicted of a crime. 

“This is a big deal,” tweeted Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 

This is a big deal. #JordanEdwards. https://t.co/GGnixJVCZW

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) August 28, 2018

Twitter user, Ben Frank, wrote: “Finally, a cop was found guilty of murdering a black man. Hopefully this will be the new norm and [teach] these cops they just can’t murder us and get away with it.” 

Finally, a cop was found guilty of murdering a black man. Hopefully, this will be a new norm and theach these cops they just can’t murder us and get away with it. #JordanEdwards #Dallas

— $Ben Frank$ (@Let_Me_B_Frank) August 28, 2018

Angie Thomas, author of the book The Hate You Give, and others pointed out that the verdict came on the same day as the anniversary murder of Emmet Till, a 14-year-old African American who was kidnapped and brutally killed in 1955 in Mississippi. Although two white men confessed to the murder after they were acquitted by an all-white jury, experts say the confessions were part of a plan to help cover-up the involvement of others. The US Department of Justice recently announced it was reviving its investigation into the case, which became a focal point of the civil rights movement in the US. 

“It’s not lost on me that Jordan Edwards received justice on the anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder,” Thomas tweeted. “Trying to process this.” 

It’s not lost on me that Jordan Edwards received justice on the anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder. Trying to process this.

— T’ChAngie Thomas (@angiecthomas) August 28, 2018

63 years ago today a 14-year-old Black child named Emmett Till was murdered. His killers got away with it.

Today, a police officer was convicted of murdering a 15-year old Black child named Jordan Edwards.

— Daryle Lamont Jenkins (@DLamontJenkins) August 28, 2018

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to begin a tour of three West African countries, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria, with efforts to boost economic ties and limit irregular migration to Europe expected to dominate her agenda.

Analysts say the three-day visit beginning in Senegal on Wednesday marks Germany’s belated growing interest in parts of Africa and preoccupation with the flow of undocumented arrivals in the European Union.

“Africa has many conflicts and some people are fleeing very, very difficult conditions,” Merkel said in a video address published on the chancellery’s website on Sunday.

“But we also know, on the other hand, that African countries could be a good market down the line. Other countries are already very active here.”

Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria face some high hurdles and have an important role to play in finding solutions to conflict in the region, said Merkel.

Economic ties

Robert Kappel, a development economist from the University of Leipzig in Germany, told Al Jazeera that Nigeria was an important oil exporter to Germany, but Ghana and Senegal had limited economic ties with it.

“German industry only ranks 11 of all investors on the African continent,” he said. “Trade with Austria is three times higher than with the whole African continent.”

Germany’s foreign trade with sub-Saharan Africa amounted to about $30bn last year, according to Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) – the country’s economic development agency.

However, imports from sub-Saharan Africa accounted for only 1.1 percent of total foreign trade in 2017, similar to the year before.

“Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to these three countries is a show that Germany is much more interested in the continent,” Kappel said.

Last year, during its G20 presidency, Germany launched two programmes for cooperation with the continent: compact with Africa, an initiative to promote private investment in infrastructure; and the Marshall Plan with Africa, a proposal to rewrite Germany’s aid relationship with Africa.

‘Questionable policy’

George Kibala Bauer, a Congolese-German contributing editor at Africa is a Country online publication, told Al Jazeera that Merkel’s recent interest in Africa was the result of a considerable political pressure against her, including from her own political allies, for her perceived open-migration policy.

“This is not only morally questionable but also practically misguided,” he said.

Merkel has found in Mahamadou Issoufou, Niger’s president who was re-elected in 2016 after winning a controversial runoff, a key partner in her efforts to curb irregular migration to Europe, pledging millions of dollars to his government.

She also supports the European Union’s proposal to build detention centres in North Africa, where migrants would be processed. The EU plan, details of which remain scant, has been condemned by international human rights groups and UN officials.

Bauer said the EU has increasingly empowered third countries, and effectively outsourced certain tasks to states in the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa.

“The Geneva Convention and German law grants every asylum seeker the right to a fair trial to determine his asylum status. As the outsourcing process becomes increasingly prevalent, this right will be put in jeopardy,” he said.

“From a human rights perspective, outsourcing has often meant that EU funds have effectively empowered state security services in countries such as Niger, Libya and Sudan, which have a track record of human rights violations.”

High on the agenda

On her tour, Merkel is expected to discuss migration prevention with the leaders of Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria, where a large portion of African migrants arriving in Germany originate from.

The chancellor hopes to find a way to prevent them from starting their journeys, including providing more development aid to their countries.

Bauer said: “It is surprising and disappointing to many that Europe spends such degree of energy and resources on deterring migration”.

“Many young people are also dismayed that many European leaders fail to recognise the contribution that migrants can make in their societies,” he added.

“Countries such as Senegal and Nigeria themselves host migrant communities from neighbouring countries. Many African countries host more migrants and asylum seekers as a proportion of their population than European countries currently do.”

Andreas Mehler, director of Germany’s Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg, told Al Jazeera that Merkel’s trip is likely to be more successful in Ghana and Senegal, describing both as “progressive countries with reliable, democratically elected leadership” who already receive German aid.

By contrast, Mehler added, democratic but “difficult and self-confident” Nigeria would not accept “chequebook diplomacy”. German money would not be able to make a difference for Nigeria’s large population anyway, he said.

“Nigeria, a giant on feet of clay, does not need or get German development assistance,” Mehler said.

Kappel said Merkel might try to offer military assistance instead in the form of Germany providing training for the Nigerian army as the country battles the Boko Haram armed group in the north.

“If Nigeria is more stable, then it contributes to stabilising the whole Sahel region and that will reduce the refugee problem for the European Union,” he said.

“I think Chancellor Merkel will try to convince the Nigerian government [to cooperate on the migration issue] not with money but perhaps with the training of the military and police, and perhaps better weapons.”

Follow Al Jazeera’s Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter: @tamila87v

Russia will hold its biggest war games in nearly four decades next month, a massive military exercise that will also involve the Chinese and Mongolian armies.

The September 11-15 manoeuvres will involve almost 300,000 troops, more than 1,000 military aircraft, two of Russia’s naval fleets and all its airborne units, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a statement on Tuesday.

Shoigu said the drills “are on an unprecedented scale both in terms of the area covered and in terms of the numbers” of military forces. 

“Imagine 36,000 pieces of military equipment moving together at the same time – tanks, armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles. And all of this, of course, in conditions as close to combat as possible,” he said.

The exercises in central and eastern Russia, dubbed Vostok-2018, will take place at a time of heightened tensions between the West and Russia, which is concerned about what it says is an unjustified build-up of forces by the NATO alliance on its western flank.

NATO says it has beefed up its forces in Eastern Europe to deter potential Russian military action after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and backed a pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine.

The war games are also likely to displease Japan, which has complained about what it says is a Russian military build-up in the Asia-Pacific.

China’s state Xinhua news agency has reported Beijing plans to send 3,200 troops and about 900 weapons units for the exercises.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will attend a forum in Vladivostok over the same period. A foreign ministry official said on Tuesday that Tokyo always pays attention to shifts in Russian-Chinese military cooperation.

When asked if the cost of holding such a massive military exercise was justified at a time when Russia is faced with higher social spending demands, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such war games were essential.

“The country’s ability to defend itself in the current international situation, which is often aggressive and unfriendly towards our country, means [it] is justified,” Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

‘More assertive Russia’

When asked if China’s involvement meant Moscow and Beijing were moving towards an alliance, Peskov said it showed the two were cooperating in all areas. China and Russia have taken part in joint military drills before, but not on such a large scale.

NATO spokesman Dylan White said Russia had briefed the alliance on the planned exercise in May and NATO planned to monitor it.

Russia invited military attaches from NATO countries based in Moscow to observe the war games, an offer he said was under consideration.

“All nations have the right to exercise their armed forces, but it is essential that this is done in a transparent and predictable manner,” White said.

“Vostok demonstrates Russia’s focus on exercising large-scale conflict. It fits into a pattern we have seen over some time: a more assertive Russia, significantly increasing its defence budget and its military presence.”

Image: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said his country’s support for the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition fight in Yemen was not unconditional, but suggested the United States would continue to support the alliance as it works to reduce fallout on civilians.

His comments on Tuesday came the same day as a new UN report outlining possible war crimes by all sides in the conflict. 

Mattis told reporters that the US has been working with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to improve airstrike targeting and recognises that tragedies have occurred.

“We recognise every mistake like this is tragic in every way, but we have not seen any callous disregard by the people we’re working with,” Mattis said. “So we will continue to work with them.”

He said the US is constantly reviewing its support for the coalition, adding it will continue to do all it can to limit civilian deaths.

“Our conduct there is to try to keep the human cost of innocents being killed accidentally to the absolute minimum […] Our goal is to reduce this tragedy and to get it to the UN brokered table as quickly as possible,” Mattis said. 

The military alliance led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been at war with Houthi rebels since March 2015. At least 10,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict, according to the UN. Analysts, however, say the death toll may be much higher. 

Suspected war crimes committed by all sides

The secretary’s comments came just hours after the UN released a report, saying that all sides in Yemen’s conflict may have committed war crimes involving deadly air strikes, rampant sexual violence and the recruitment of children soldiers.  

The report said that air attacks by the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led military coalition had cause the most direct civilian casualties in the war, and a blockade of Yemeni ports and airspace may have violated international humanitarian law. 

A spokesman for the Saudi military said the UN report was referred to a legal team for review and will announce its conclusions after it is completed.

UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said in a tweet that the “coalition is fulfilling its role in reclaiming the Yemeni state and securing the future of the region from Iranian interference”. He added that his country should “review and respond” to the UN report. 

While not directly involved in any of the fighting, the US and the UK have sold more than $12bn worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia alone – including some of the warplanes and the payloads they drop.

An airstrike by the Saudi-UAE coalition earlier this month hit a bus in a busy market in northern Yemen, killing dozens, including children. The US is pressing the Saudi government to complete an investigation of what went wrong.