By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | ABUJA (IDN) – Former President Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari, a devout Muslim, a former school teacher, son of a farmer, trader and herder, was remembered in December as a nice man, a gentle man but not a particularly strong man. Nice, gentle and amiable – good […]
Press Freedoms Return To Gambia Under New Government
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | BANJUL (IDN) – Following the end of the regime of former President Yahya Jammeh, journalists in The Gambia are beginning to enjoy press freedoms for the first time in 22 years. During the two decades of ex-President Jammeh’s rule, journalists were regularly abducted, tortured and killed. […]
UN Intervention In The Congo Appears To Be Successful
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The general election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has been postponed yet again – to December 30. Will this country, the largest and potentially the richest in Africa, ever escape from its continuous dictatorship, and its propensity to civil war? It’s not so […]
Swahili Speakers Stunned As Disney Claims Trademark For ‘Hakuna Matata’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – The once common phrase “Hakuna Matata” (No Problem!) is now off limits for African speakers of Swahili. Any commercial use of the two word expression is reserved for its new owner – the American company that produced Lion King. That’s right: Walt Disney! The California-based […]
Emeralds, Rubies Score Big Profits For Foreign Firms As African Countries Go Broke
The information presented here has been superseded and the corrected article can be found here https://indepthnews.colo.ba.be/index.php/the-world/africa/2476-emeralds-rubies-could-make-zambia-rich By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Foreign mining companies extract more than a quarter of the world’s production of rare emeralds in Zambia yet declare losses to make themselves tax exempt. So far, charges of […]
Africa Poverty Clock Launched on UNECA’s 60th Anniversary
By Devendra Kamarajan ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at its 60th anniversary celebrations in Addis Ababa has launched the Africa Poverty Clock, a customized version of the world poverty clock developed by World Data Lab, aimed at monitoring progress against extreme poverty, an aspiration of the United Nations’ […]
Migration Is a Great Opportunity to Africa and Host Countries
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN) – Contrary to the widespread view coloured by the too-common images of young African migrants crossing the Mediterranean, migration in Africa is dominated by Africans moving within Africa, says Ashraf El Nour, the director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office to the UN in New York. They […]
Africa’s Blue Economy Or a Global Ocean Grab by the Rich?
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Six counties in Kenya’s coastal region have been tagged for technical training in the blue economy – what some have called “the new frontier of the African Renaissance”. The goal is to enable young people to find jobs in the maritime industry. Kevit Desai, a […]
EU Urged to Evacuate Eritreans from Libyan ‘Death Camps’
By Ramesh Jaura BRUSSELS (IDN) – When the Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed in July a peace deal after two decades of war and ensuing violent border clashes, “a new era of peace and friendship” was felt to have begun in the Horn of Africa comprising Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, […]
East Africans Score Victory for Minneapolis’ Amazon Workers
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Somali women packers for the giant Amazon distribution center in Minneapolis are fired up and refusing to speed up the production line, becoming the first known group to defy Amazon management and bring them to the bargaining table. “Nobody would assume a Muslim worker with […]