By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A longstanding proposal for a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the politically and militarily volatile Middle East remains elusive. Since 1967, five nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ) have been established worldwide—in Latin America and the Caribbean, South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia. Speaking at the second “UN Conference on the […]
Solomon Islands: Geo-Political Battles Engulf the Pacific as Australia Sends Troops to Honiara
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — The first batch of Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrived in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara on November 26 to help quell rioting, after the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare requested Australia’s help under a security treaty the country signed with Canberra in 2017. Australian troops are back in the independent […]
US Secretary of State Blinken Finds ‘Vibrant Democracy’ In Violence-Stricken Nigeria
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A whiz-bang tour through Africa had some discordant notes for US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken who was treated to wide vistas of Chinese-built infrastructure as his motorcade zipped from airport to airport. In Nigeria, he zoomed past the China Chamber of Commerce in […]
Intra-African Trade Fair Aims to Strengthen the Continent’s Industrial Base
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW | DURBAN (IDN) — South Africa is hosting a weeklong Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2021), which provides a unique and valuable platform for businesses to access an integrated African market of over 1.2 billion people with a GDP of over US$2.5 trillion. Organized by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration […]
British Somali Novelist Breaks Barrier to Win Nomination for Booker Prize
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — “Fortune Men” is the third novel by acclaimed novelist Nadifa Mohamed and the first by a British Somali to be shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize. Her latest book tells the story of a notorious miscarriage of justice and the real-life wrongful conviction of British […]
Black Voters Stray from ANC In Recent National Polls
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The party that governed South Africa since the end of apartheid appears to have lost its grip on Black voters who turned away from the party of Nelson Mandela this month in large numbers. For the first time in the country’s post-apartheid democracy, the African […]
One Lone Voice for Peace at Govt. Pro-War Rally in Addis
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — At a large pro-war rally held recently in Meskel Square in the heart of the capital city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, surrounded by thousands of his supporters, made clear that the battle against Tigrayan rebel fighters would continue unabated, despite mounting fatalities […]
How Effective Communication Between Africans Can Help Boost Intra-African Trade
By Mosh Matsena The writer is the founder and CEO of a 100 per cent black female-owned company Africa Consulting, a South African-based strategic communications and business solutions agency. NEW YORK (IDN | Africa Renewal) — January 2021 marked a historic event for African economic development—the launching of free trading under the African Continental Free […]
Archbishop Of Canterbury Gravely Concerned About Ghana Crackdown on Gays
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A sweeping draft bill framed in the guise of “family values” has put a bullseye on Ghana’s LGBTQ community, proposing some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws on the African continent. The bill gives LGBTQ members 2 options: Jail time or conversion therapy—practice which aims to […]
Sudan Coup Leader Is Gambling with The Future – Say Africa Analysts
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Since the surprise coup by Sudan’s Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation’s international standing as a nascent democracy is endangered, essential debt relief and aid is threatened and peace with rebels in Darfur and the Nuba mountains has been jeopardized. Prominent civilian leaders including Prime […]