By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | MONROVIA (IDN) – Decades after Liberians agreed to close the chapter on years of disunity and nagging inequality between groups of African-American settlers and indigenous Liberians, efforts to solidify the nation’s fragile state of peace appear to have deadlocked. At a National Unification Day conference in […]
Africa Can Still Be on the Top
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Africa is suffering a double whammy after many years of success. The Coronavirus, while not taking down great numbers of people like in Europe, Asia and the Americas, has had a severe impact by curbing its exports in the face of the formers’ severe economic depression. For […]
On the Run Rwanda Genocide Suspect Nabbed in French Hideout
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Twenty-six years after financing the Rwandan genocide, wealthy businessman and most wanted fugitive, Felicien Kabuga, was nabbed in an upscale French hideout. It was a relief for prosecutors of the Rwandan Genocide tribunal who feared the 84-year-old Kabuga could die a free man. He stands […]
Massive Die-Off of Fish on Nigerian Coastline Linked to Toxic Discharge
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – An immense blanket of dead fish stretching across three states has sparked anger and frustration among communities along the Atlantic Ocean coastline in Nigeria. The area is known for oil spills that have polluted the waters and left fish and other wildlife inedible. The massive […]
Burundi Threatens to Deal a Severe Blow to UN Reputation
Viewpoint by Paula Donovan and Stephen Lewis Paula Donovan and Stephen Lewis are Co-Directors of AIDS-Free World and its Code Blue Campaign, which seeks to end impunity for sexual offences by UN personnel. NEW YORK (IDN) – It is a matter of extreme urgency that Burundi’s presidential, legislative, and local elections, scheduled for May 20, […]
Two ‘Unsung Heroes’ Helping Kenya’s Slum Dwellers Facing Coronavirus
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Journalists who step out of their high-floor offices or manage to escape from their coronavirus confinement sometimes find a great story right on the street below. Such was the story discovered by Kevin Phillips Momanyi, a reporter with Kenya’s Tuko news channel.
‘Flowers of Hope’ from Kenya As Major Markets Dry Up
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – It was inevitable during a lockdown that sales of Kenya’s flower exports would dry up as buyers make fewer impulse purchases of carnations, roses and other blossoms. According to data from the Kenya Flower Council, sales of cut flowers in overseas markets have fallen below […]
Africans Mourn the Passing of a Distinguished Thinker and two Outstanding Artists
By Lisa VIves, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – While the rate of fatalities in Africa is still much below that of developed countries, every life lost is a library gone, according to a saying. Here are three noted Africans who passed this year just as thousands of lives were tragically lost to the […]
Kenyans Are Innovative in Finding Ways to Fight COVID-19
By Justus Wanzala BUSIA, Kenya (IDN) – It is a hot afternoon at a bus station at Mungatsi market centre, Nambale Sub-County, in Busia County, Western Kenya. Many people, many travellers, are queuing to wash their hands. Each person is maintaining a distance from the other as they wash their hands and board public service […]
COVID-19: Should You Believe What ECA Is Saying About Africa?
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene * ABUJA, Nigeria (IDN) – In one of his bestsellers, The Zahir, Paulo Coelho said there are two major problems in life: knowing when to begin and knowing when to stop. If, for example, Nigeria had closed its borders early on and enforced quarantine for all returning Nigerians, whoever they are, […]