Ellen Johnson Sirleaf accepts prize for African leadership Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Pictured), the former President of Liberia, accepted the 2017 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership at a special leadership ceremony in Kigali, Rwanda on April 27. Speaking to guests from Rwanda and …
Read More »COMMENT: African leaders and democracy
Why it is not true that African presidents can do whatever they want, unencumbered by democratic constraints COMMENT | NIC CHEESEMAN | Africa is often imagined to be a place in which presidents can do whatever they want, unencumbered by constitutional or democratic constraints. A large body of literature has developed …
Read More »Africa struggles for weapons against armyworm curse
Kisumu, Kenya | AFP | On farms across Africa, a seemingly innocuous brown and beige caterpillar is waging a silent war, devastating rural incomes and posing a major threat to the continent’s food supply. In just two years, the so-called fall armyworm has colonised three-quarters of Africa, according to the …
Read More »COMMENT: Big changes to eliminate malaria
To win the fight against malaria, African malaria leaders need the freedom to respond fast, using local knowledge COMMENT | RICHARD KAMWI, KESETE ADMASU, HARALD NUSSER | African malaria experts fear that the World Health Organization’s 2030 malaria targets may not be achieved unless big changes occur in funding and delivery. …
Read More »Lake Victoria biodiversity being ‘decimated’
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Three quarters of freshwater species endemic to East Africa’s Lake Victoria basin face the threat of extinction, conservationists said Monday, warning the biodiversity there was being “decimated”. A fresh report backed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessed the extinction risk of …
Read More »Long battle to stop firms bribing Africa for contracts
Paris, France | AFP | A spectacular probe into French tycoon Vincent Bollore over suspected graft in Africa marks a rare exception among corporate titans doing business south of the Sahara. Bollore — charged on Wednesday over contracts to operate ports in Guinea and Togo — is by far the …
Read More »World Malaria Day: Can Africa get out of the disease trap?
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda and other African countries are being urged to raise local resources towards the fight against malaria. The call, contained in the African Development Bank’s report, comes as Africa joins the recent of the world to commemorate World Malaria Day 2018. The global Malaria day …
Read More »Africa football boss wants Europe to back Morocco World Cup bid
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | The head of African football, Ahmad Ahmad, has urged Europe to back Morocco’s drive to host the 2026 World Cup, in return for African support for a future European bid. In an exclusive interview with AFP, Ahmad Ahmad, the Confederation of African Football president, appealed …
Read More »World Bank: African Economic growth at 3.1% in 2018
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The World Bank projects Sub-Saharan Africa to garner an economic growth of 3.1 percent in 2018, and increase of over one percent from 2017. Recent data in the Africa Economic Update released Wednesday afternoon point to a moderate strengthening of economic growth in early 2018. …
Read More »Novartis to inject $100 mn into malaria drug research
Zurich, Switzerland | AFP | Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis on Tuesday announced $100 million of funding over the next five years for research into new treatments for malaria, a mosquito-borne disease with a devastating impact that killed 445,000 people in 2016. There were some 216 million cases of malaria worldwide in …
Read More »