Harare, Zimbabwe | THE INDEPENDENT | Text of statement read out Wednesday by the Zimbabwe army. “Good morning Zimbabwe. Fellow Zimbabweans. Following the address we made on 13 November 2017, which we believe our main broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and the Herald were directed not to publicise, the situation in …
Read More »European, African ministers vow to better protect migrants
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Ministers from 13 European and African countries on Monday pledged steps to ease the migrant crisis around the Mediterranean, vowing especially to improve conditions for migrants held in Libya. Interior ministers and other representatives from countries impacted by the ongoing wave of migration up through Africa …
Read More »Kagame, Senegal’s Sall urge support for new African security doctrine
Dakar, Senegal | AFP | African leaders on Monday used a regional forum to call for extra support as the continent moves to assure its own security after years of Western interventions. The annual Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security this year brings together the presidents of Mali, Rwanda …
Read More »COMMENT: Being middle-class
Why the private sector’s hype about the consumer habits of the African middle class isn’t helpful COMMENT | HENNING MELBER | The African middle class is of huge interest to business. This was confirmed again recently by well attended seminars in South Africa’s big cities to discuss “African Lions: groundbreaking study on the …
Read More »UN begins evacuating refugees from Libya to Niger
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | A group of vulnerable refugees from several African countries, who had been stuck in war-ravaged Libya, have been evacuated to Niger, the UN said Sunday. The UN refugee agency said the evacuation of 25 “extremely vulnerable refugees” from Libya Saturday marked the first of its kind. …
Read More »Africa’s highway to nowhere
Why our continent’s faith in foreign direct investment as a solution to our poverty is a pipedream THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Many presidents in Africa believe the development of our nations will come from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). If a “foreign investor” – most especially a white man …
Read More »COMMENT: Transformative African youth
In 25 years, it will be part of the biggest workforce in the world, with more than 1.1 billion people COMMENT | Reeta Roy | A few years ago, during a conversation with young people from some of Senegal’s poorest communities, a pair of social entrepreneurs told me about projects …
Read More »LIVE: 2017 ACME lecture – Media and Politics in Africa
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Dr Willy Mutunga, the former Chief Justice of Kenya, has delivered the 4th ACME Annual Lecture. Theme is Media and Independence of the Judiciary. Mutunga is a lawyer, intellectual, reform activist, and has been the Commonwealth Special Envoy to the Maldives. According to the lecture organisers …
Read More »Study maps Sub-Saharan Africa’s dependency on China
Paris, France | AFP | Sub-Saharan Africa nations are growing more dependent on China as an export market, putting them at greater risk to shifts in the Chinese economy, a study published Tuesday said. “There is no doubt about a strong dependence on China for countries that produce oil and …
Read More »Deadly heat from climate change may hit slums hardest
Miami, United States | AFP | With sheet metal roofs, concrete floors, poor ventilation and spotty electricity, crowded urban slums in Africa can expect to get even hotter and deadlier due to global warming, US researchers said Monday. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University analyzed three informal settlements in Nairobi, including the …
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