By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 5 February 2024 (IDN) — Namibian President Hage Gottfried Geingob, a veteran of the country’s independence struggle, has died after a brief battle with cancer in Windhoek, the country’s capital, and a short stay at a U.S. hospital. President Geingob was diagnosed with cancer following his […]
UNDP’s New $1 Billion Fund Could Boost Africa’s Tech Startups Globally
By Damilola Banjo* This article was originally published by Passblue. LAGOS, Nigeria | 4 February 2024 (IDN) — Venture capital funding is shrinking globally, but experts are optimistic that a new $1 billion investment fund created by the United Nations Development Program for the tech ecosystem in Africa could protect startups there from declining investments. […]
Laying Foundation for Digital Revolution in Africa’s Food Systems
By Douglas Okwatch This report is a slightly modified version of the original published in the January 2024 issue of Africa Renewal. NAIROBI | 3 February 2024 (IDN) — Digital technologies will be key in addressing the three persistent problems in Africa’s agricultural industry—inefficiency, exclusivity, and unsustainability, according to the 2023 Africa Agriculture Status Report, […]
ECOWAS: Behind the Surprise Exit of Three Countries
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA | 1 February 2024 (IDN) — Mali and Burkina Faso obviously have a lot more in common than squaring off in a game of football like they just did in the Round of 16 knockout stage of the […]
Auction of Mandela’s Belongings Slated for February
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 29 January 2024 (IDN) — Some 70 treasured belongings of former South Africa president Nelson Mandela are slated to travel to New York next month for an auction sale that sparked a firestorm between his eldest daughter Makaziwe Mandela-Amuah, his son and South Africa’s Heritage and […]
Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Quits, Blames Election Fraud
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 29 January 2024 (IDN) — Zimbabwe’s popular opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, has resigned from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), saying his party had been “contaminated” and “hijacked” by an imposter who fraudulently removed dozens of his party members and councilors without the party’s consent. “I […]
Start-Ups Powering Up Africa’s Solar Energy Ecosystem
By Finbarr Toesland This report was published in Africa Renewal. LONDON | 27 January 2024 (IDN) — Often referred to as the “Sun continent,” Africa receives more hours of bright sunlight than any other continent. But even with 60 per cent of the world’s solar resources, Africa has only one per cent of solar generation […]
A Crisis-Stricken Africa Described as “Epicentre” of Terrorism
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 27 January 2024 (IDN) — The African continent, comprising 55 states with a total population of over 1.4 billion people, continues to undergo a rash of political, economic and humanitarian crises—including food shortages, poverty, a breakdown in the health care systems, along with droughts and floods triggered by climate […]
French Police Found Guilty of Racist Brutality, but Sentence is Light
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 22 January 2024 (IDN) — Three officers who received suspended jail sentences over their violent assault of a French Black man are symbols of out-of-control racist police violence tolerated by the government in France. The officers were convicted on 19 January of “voluntary violence” towards the […]
Ghana Blocks Student Confab of the ‘Nkrumahs of Africa’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | ACCRA | 22 January 2024 (IDN) — Ghana’s political leaders are facing heat for their last-minute cancellation of a conference of students and populist leaders, one activist called “the Nkrumahs of Africa.” After receiving news of the last-minute cancellation, hundreds of student leaders, locked out of […]