Africa

A Book Fair Blossoms in Mogadishu

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | MOGADISHU (IDN) — A Book Fair is flowering in Mogadishu, bringing the world of literature and other areas of learning to a region challenged by the coronavirus pandemic and political tension linked to disagreements over the ongoing parliamentary elections in the country.

The event had been suspended last year due to Corona-19.

This year’s event was limited in size but according to the founder of the fair, Mohamed Diini, organizers are already working to accommodate more people next year.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 December 2021

Kenya's Nomads Hit by Longest Dry Spell in Memory

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN) — Kenya’s crucial rainy season came up short this year with only a few showers, wiping out livestock and putting millions of people at risk.

Photographs from Wajir County, near the border with Somalia, show dying and dead cows in a desert dotted with thorn trees. The longest dry spell in memory is pushing pastoralists nearer to starvation. “If they die,” said one herder referring to his camels, “we all die.”

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 December 2021

Image: The Sahel region of Africa. CC BY-SA 3.0

Russia Extending its Sphere of Influence in Africa’s Sahel

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — With renewed and full-fledged interest to uproot French domination, Russia has ultimately begun making inroads into the Sahel region, an elongated landlocked territory located between North Africa (Maghreb) and West Africa, and also stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. While it remains largely underdeveloped and the greater part of the population impoverished, terrorist organizations including Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are operating and have contributed to the frequent violence, extremism and instability in this vast region.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 15 December 2021

Photo: Supporters of Reckya Madougou gathered outside the court in Porto-Novo when the trial began. Credit: AFP

Arrest of Popular Benin Leader Evokes Protests of Lawyers for Democratic Opposition

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Reckya Madougou, one of the strongest challengers to Benin’s autocratic leader, Patrice Talon, will be observing the next election from her cell in jail. The 47-year-old activist was found guilty of conspiring to assassinate political figures and sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

Madougou was the head of the party Les Démocrates and had been the face of “Don’t touch my constitution!”—a civil society campaign that rallied against leaders seeking to extend their reign under the guise of constitutional reform.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 14 December 2021

Photo: Internally displaced persons from northern Mozambique seek protection from the violent clashes between the military and armed groups in the port city of Pemba (December 11, 2020). © Estacio Valoi

Billion Dollar Gas Project Threatens Mozambique

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — An investment of $1.15 billion in a gas project in northern Mozambique is being challenged by Friends of the Earth which foresees a major increase in greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10 per cent by 2022.

That’s the equivalent of the combined annual emissions of all 27 EU member countries, according to FoE.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 13 December 2021

Photo: ECOTRUST works with farmers to create sustainable agroforestry systems in Uganda. Credit: ECOTRUST

Africa’s Land Restoration Movement Needs a Moon Shot

By Ibrahim Mayaki and Wanjira Mathai

Dr Mayaki is the CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, while Ms Mathai is the Vice President and Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute.

JOHANNESBURG; South Africa (IDN | Africa Renewal) — Six years ago, African leaders recognized that the degradation of 65 per cent of Africa’s agricultural land threatens economic and environmental ruin for millions of farmers.

: Africa Renewal; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 10 December 2021

Truth Commission Concludes Inquiry Into ‘Reign of Terror’ Under Gambia’s Former Head of State

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) in the West African nation of The Gambia has wrapped up a sweeping three-year public inquiry into the rule of former president Yahya Jammeh, an ex-military man who held the nation in his grip with torture, killings and lootings while holding office.

Some 500 victims and witnesses gave statements to the Commission of the “reign of terror” that characterized life under Jammeh’s despotic rule. In their final report, the Commission said it found that abuses resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Gambians and non-Gambians at the hands of the State or its agents.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 December 2021

South Africa Insists on Dutch Shell Drilling in Home of Migrating Whales

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A South African court has greenlighted plans by Royal Dutch Shell to do seismic oil exploration in a pristine coastal stretch in an area known as “Wild Coast” in Port Edward over the strenuous objections of local environmentalists.

Oceans Not Oil, which describes itself as the public’s voice against offshore oil and gas development, has been driving the campaign and is the organizer of the silent protest beach walk from Muizenberg beach to Kalk Bay harbour.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Oceans, seas and marine resources; 07 December 2021

US Accused of COVID-19 'Travel Apartheid'

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Harsh criticism continues to be heard from Africans and their leaders against UK and U.S. travel restrictions allegedly to control the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant—now showing up in several U.S. states.

"What is expected is a global approach, not selective," Sarafa Tunji Isola, Nigeria's high commissioner to the UK, told the BBC.

He also echoed comments made by the UN's chief, who described restrictions imposed on some southern African countries as "travel apartheid.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 06 December 2021

Photo: Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi. Source: New African

Dirty Coal to Replace Africa's 'Fancy Blue Diamond' As Part of a New Initiative

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | GABORONE (IDN) — There may be a lump of coal in Botswana’s Christmas stocking if the southern African country goes through with plans to wind down its famed diamond industry and replace it with unsustainable dirty coal.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi, at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, unveiled the country’s new direction acknowledging an abysmal year for the diamond market which hurt government revenue. It is “more imperative than ever”, he said, “to diversify into other commodities and curb the nation’s overdependence on precious stones".