NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 23, 2026

Q: Four journalists were detained last week as they interviewed migrants deported from the United States to a detention center in Cameroon. A lawyer for most of the 15 migrants, none of them Cameroonian citizens, was also detained. Where is Cameroon on the central Atlantic coast of Africa?

Circle the area on this map


Q: U.S. judges ruled that many of the migrants sent to Cameroon could not be sent to their home countries because they could face torture or death. Which historical event led many nations to begin granting asylum to refugees fleeing persecution?

A. American Revolution

B. Crimean War

C. Holocaust

D. World War I


C. Wars and revolutions create millions of refugees. However, it was the systematic murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust of World War II that triggered widespread laws after to protect people fleeing persecution. Earlier, the United States and most other nations had turned away thousands of Jews trying to escape Nazi terror.


Q: Besides refugees seeking asylum, deportees from nations that refuse to take them are being sent to third countries by the United States. What other African nation has taken third-party U.S. deportees?

A. Equatorial Guinea

B. Rwanda

C. South Sudan

D. All of the above


D. The United States has paid at least $32 million to some of the world’s most corrupt and authoritarian regimes to detain migrants. It paid more than $1 million each to send seven migrants to Rwanda, but Equatorial Guinea took 29 people for $7.5 million. The U.S. warns residents that South Sudan is too dangerous to visit, but it sent deportees from Asia and Latin America to that nation.


Q: U.S. and Cameroon officials declined to discuss their agreement on deportees. The 2025 Freedom in the World survey ranks Cameroon as “not free” and places it 15th worst in political and human rights. Which nation that has agreed to take U.S. deportees has the worst rights record?

A. El Salvador

B. Rwanda

C. South Sudan

D. Uganda


C. In less than 15 years of existence, South Sudan has been torn by civil war, ethnic violence, and rampant human rights abuse. It also ranks last on the United Nations’ Human Development Index. The Associated Press, whose journalists were arrested in Cameroon, reported the United States has made third-party deportation deals with at least 45 nations.


Q: The journalists and the lawyer in Cameroon were released after hours of questioning by government authorities who seized their cameras and laptops. Which nation imprisons the most journalists, according to the Reporters Without Borders press freedom organization?

A. Belarus

B. China

C. Myanmar

D. Russia


B. China has imprisoned 121 journalists, followed by Russia with 48 prisoners. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has jailed 47 journalists, and Belarus has 33 prisoners. There are 503 journalists imprisoned worldwide. Reporters Without Borders also said 67 journalists were killed for doing their jobs during the latest 12-month period.