By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS (IDN) — The United Nations has commended VODAN-AFRICA for their innovative approach to “data sharing and re-use under the present COVID-19 circumstances”. The Virus Outbreak Data Network is a system of sharing data on Coronavirus that ensures that the information remains in the country that generated it, rather than being exported […]
Keeping an Eye on The Situation in Tigray War
By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS (IDN) — The midnight of November 3-4, 2020 witnessed the unleashing of the armed conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. For nearly a fortnight there was a communication blackout until on November 17 the Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA) launched a daily situation report. […]
Attempts for Political Change in Senegal and in the Republic of Congo — Army Barracks Blast in Oil-Rich Equatorial Guinea
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Calm has abandoned Senegal, a country in West Africa. The young people are rising up against the “wealth hoarding” political class. In Central Africa, the Republic of Congo, the opposition is seething as the 77-year-old President seeks another term. In another Central African country, Equatorial […]
Brutal Gender-Based Violence in Tigray — A Personal Account
By EEPA BRUSSELS (IDN) — “A woman in her 40s was found dead on the road to her home. She was found with her hands tied, injured to her head and sexually assaulted. This was in Mekelle. I know her son.” This is what one of our reporters (A.G.), who herself is a young woman, […]
Humanitarian Situation Getting from Bad to Worse in the Horn
By S. Gianesello BRUSSELS (IDN | EEPA) — As the UN Security Council prepared to meet on March 4 to talk over the humanitarian situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the situation in the Horn of Africa was getting from bad to worse with reports of ethnic targeting and cleansing. The meeting was requested […]
Seven Years Since Chibok, Search on for Missing Schoolgirls in Latest Nigerian Kidnap
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Nail-biting negotiations are underway for the release of 317 schoolgirls kidnapped on February 26 in north-western Nigeria — a region beset by banditry that takes thousands of lives each year. Terms of a large ransom are reportedly being discussed but officially denied. Frightened parents who […]
U.S. President Biden Concerned About “Deteriorating Humanitarian Crisis” in the Horn
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — In what may be U.S. President Joe Biden’s first major test in Africa, a key U.S. ally stands accused of undertaking a campaign of ethnic cleansing, massacring hundreds of unarmed civilians and threatening the fragile stability of the region. President Biden, confronting the scenario linked […]
The Great Game of Vaccination Diplomacy Targets Africa
By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW (IDN) — Russia is committed to helping eradicate the rapidly increasing coronavirus infections in Africa amounting to approximately 3.8 million with its latest developed Sputnik V vaccine. Such a step will enable Russia to reassert its geopolitical influence that involves a keen competition with other foreign players on the continent. […]
Heavily US-Armed Niger Faces Electoral Violence
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The country that drew worldwide attention over a now-debunked U.S. theory linking Saddam Hussein with the purchase of “yellowcake” uranium powder is in the spotlight again. On February 21, unidentified attackers set off a landmine that exploded under a car full of election commissioners in […]
Tanzania President Acknowledges the Menace of COVID-19
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — For months, Tanzanian President John Magufuli stuck to a controversial stand that COVID-19 would only be defeated by prayer. This Sunday (February 21), the President amended his position. He urged citizens to wear masks — only locally made ones — and take other preventive measures […]