By Billy Ntaote This report is part of a series on Human Trafficking by MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism in Lesotho. MASERU (IDN) – For people living in the rural parts of the country, early child marriage doesn’t exist – but when a teenager is impregnated, families rush to organise a traditional wedding ceremony and […]
Trump’s Conservative Nominee For Post In Kenya Gets Grilling
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Democrats are challenging President Trump’s nominee from the Midwestern state of Illinois for the post of U.S. ambassador to Kenya. State Sen. Kyle McCarter’s conservative views run the gamut from opposition to gay rights, restrictions on immigration and locking up former Senator Hillary Clinton. A […]
South African Women March Against Gender-Based Violence
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) – Thousands of women and gender activists joined together on the first day of Women’s Month to protest the rising incidence of gender-based violence across the country. The movement’s Brenda Madumise said the marchers, under the banner #TheTotalShutdown, were taking control of their destiny. […]
Stakes High in Returning Nigerians’ Stolen Millions
By Kwame Buist LONDON (IDN) – Of the estimated 20-40 billion dollars stolen annually from developing countries and hidden abroad every year, a small proportion is sometimes successfully confiscated and returned to the country it came from. However, where institutions of accountability do not work well, this poses a complex problem: how to make sure […]
Tanzania’s Indigenous Communities Racing to Secure Land Eyed by Investors
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – Helena Magafu smiled as she held a piece of paper that recognizes her as the sole owner of a disputed farmland in her village was handed over to her, thus resolving a raging dispute with her neighbours. “I am very happy, I don’t think anyone with ever […]
Ethiopian PM Sparks Euphoria In A Whirlwind U.S. Trip
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – It’s been called ‘Abiy-mania’ – an impulse to reach out and hug the young new Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, who brought an end to his country’s two-decade-long war with Eritrea and other sweeping changes in the Horn of Africa. The 41-year old Ethiopian […]
African Experts Decry Information Gap on Climate Change
By Justus Wanzala NAIROBI (IDN) – Climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in Africa are being undermined by lack of information on climate issues among the public, policy-makers and leaders in Africa, leading to poor and delayed decision making as well as untimely undertaking of remedial actions. This emerged during a Regional Climate Change Dialogue […]
Rwanda President Launches VW’s Car Assembly Plant in Kigali
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | KIGALI (IDN) – You’ll see plenty of Volvos, Mercedes, Hondas, Toyotas and even a Ford Windstar tootling around the booming cities of Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg. But these foreign cars were no spring chickens when they arrived in Africa after years of use. Often they had […]
Stories Behind IFAD’s Focus on Africa
By Kwame Buist ROME (IDN) – In its recently released Annual Report 2017, the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – a specialised agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries – promises to leverage core resources of 1.2 billion dollars to fund a programme […]
Why Must President Biya Follow President Robert Mugabe?
By LIsa Vives | Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Cameroon’s President Paul Biya is seriously considering a re-election bid despite having served 36 years in the job and despite approaching 90 years of age. The President-for-Life syndrome is sadly alive and well. An editorial in the Liberian Daily Observer expressed on July 16 […]