By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Bulldozers have begun demolishing homes built in the shantytowns of Abidjan, the commercial capital of the Ivory Coast, leaving thousands without shelter as authorities carry out plans to build a buffer zone around an international airport. This comes as large numbers of Ivorians are leaving […]
Emergency World Bank Meeting on Tanzania Focuses on Women’s Rights
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) –The World Bank’s executive board cancelled expected action on a $500 million loan to Tanzania where teenage girls can be expelled from school because they are pregnant. The Bank had been under pressure from rights activists and held a last-minute emergency meeting on January 27 with […]
New Currency Stemmed as Six West African Countries Object
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – French-speaking countries will have to put the cork back in the champagne bottle after six member countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) comprising Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, have rejected the adoption of ‘Eco’ as the name of the proposed […]
Morocco Fails to Mobilize Rural Communities to Advance SDGs
Viewpoint by Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir The writer is a sociologist and president of the High Atlas Foundation, a Moroccan-U.S. not-for-profit organization dedicated to sustainable development in Morocco. MARRAKECH (IDN) – In recent years, Morocco has put in place the right frameworks for mobilizing rural communities to advance the nation’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs), yet it […]
Tanzania Passes Law on HIV Self-Test to Tame the Deadly Virus
15-Year Old Children Can Self-Test Without Parental Consent By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (IDN) – Perched on a plastic chair at his shop in the bustling Sinza suburb in Dar es Salaam, Abdul* is anxiously looking at a small kit containing liquid and a stick. “I want to know my HIV status,” says […]
Militant Youth Pin Hopes on Uganda’s ‘New Nightmare’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – He’s elusive. He escapes, he hides. Police keep chasing him like a video game character or a superhero in a movie. But despite their best efforts, authorities have been unable to stop Robert Kyagulanyi – a member of parliament and a popular reggae singer who […]
Ghana’s Year of Return Brings Call to Broaden Scope
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – When Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo pronounced 2019 as the Year of Return, his words resounded with warmth and joy to all people of African descent. So began a year-long calendar of events including concerts, art shows, visits to heritage sites, fashion shows, movie premieres and […]
Passing of Acclaimed Nigerian Novelist Grieved
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike, novelist extraordinaire, passed this month into eternity, writes Nigerian author Okey Ndibe. Born April 28, 1931, he had a rich life as an academic, bureaucrat, father to an only son, Osita Ike (who preceded him in death), husband (to Adebimpe Olurinsola Ike, […]
Liberians Rejoice Over A Promised Path to U.S. Citizenship
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – As the Trump administration turns down an ever-growing number of applications for asylum, it surprised many that some 5,000 Liberians in the United States have been granted a path to citizenship. In fact, it was the product of decades of effort by the Liberian community […]
Bank Accounts of Angola’s Pampered Rich Frozen
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Some called her Princess. Others labeled her the beautiful face of the dictatorship – always beaming from the pages of Fortune, Forbes and other high-finance magazines which flattered her as Africa’s “First Woman Billionaire”. Today, the daughter of Angola’s ex-president is in a messy fight […]