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By J C Suresh
TORONTO (IDN) – Stretching from the Gulf of Guinea in the west to the Rift Valley in the east, the Congo basin is the beating heart of African biodiversity. Spanning 530 million hectares across six countries – Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo – the basin contains some 70 per cent of the continent’s forest cover and is home to one of every five species on our planet.
By Lisa Vives and Sean Buchanan
NEW YORK | LONDON (IDN) – An estimated 1.7 million people in Mozambique were in the path of Tropical Cyclone Idai when it hit southern Africa on March 15, with upwards of 900,000 people affected in Malawi and thousands more in Zimbabwe.
With the World Food Programme (WFP) reporting that the scene of devastation is one of “inland oceans extending for miles and miles”, the major challenge now facing the region is how to get aid to those most affected.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – There were smiles all around in Kenya as French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta shook hands over a series of infrastructure deals worth $3.3 billion.
It was the third stop on the French president's East African charm offensive – and the first-ever visit to Kenya by a French head of state.
France wants trade and commercial relationships that are "fair and profitable for the Kenyan people," Macron said. Alluding to Africa’s many relationships with China often freighted with debt, French investments would be respectful of the receiving country's sovereignty and sustainable, he pledged.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Joseph Kabila, ex-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, may have gone once too often to the cookie jar, taking back one by one all of the powers and rights earned by his successor from a recent election, Felix Tshisekedi.
President Tshisekedi may have had enough.
After a disputed vote that gave the former president’s allies an overwhelming majority in the upper house of parliament, 80 out of 100 seats, while the actual president’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress party (UDPS) gained only three, the newly-named senators were blocked from taking office in a surprise move by President Tshisekedi.
By Jaya Ramachandran
BERLIN | STOCKHOLM (IDN) – Global arms trade is on the upswing with the United States increasing dominance in the group of five largest exporters including Russia, France, Germany and China, which together account for 75 per cent of the total volume of weapons exports in 2014-2018. While the Middle East imports almost doubled in the past five years, Saudi Arabia became the world’s largest arms importer.
According to new data on arms transfers published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the volume of international transfers of major arms in 2014-2018 was 7.8 per cent higher than in the previous five years and 23 per cent higher than in 2004-2008.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Fifty three minutes. That was the length of time approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) for pilot training on the upgraded Boeing 737 Max 8 jet that crashed March 10 in Ethiopia killing all aboard, according to a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.
Nor was the 53 minutes for face to face training. It was “computer assisted” over a laptop with slides and imagery. Some of the pilots felt shortchanged.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – An estimated 30,000 refugees have been uprooted by officials in Cameroon and Nigeria this month and sent to known hotbeds of insurgents including Boko Haram on the Nigerian side of the border.
Humanitarian groups including Action against Hunger are questioning the wisdom of forcing refugees to move to the city of Rann in Borno state, the epicentre of the decade-long insurgency that has killed more than 27,000.
By Brenda Wawa
This article first appeared on Africa Renewal, December 2018-March 2019 issue.
NAIROBI (IDN | INPS) – For years, boosting agricultural production was believed to be the solution to world hunger and malnourishment. But years of intensive farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides has done little to move the needle on food insecurity, health metrics or life expectancy.
Today, experts have identified a new kind of hunger – one caused not by lack of food but by food that lacks essential micronutrients necessary for growth and development.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | OUAGADOUGOU (IDN) – Africa’s major film event 'FESPACO' – on the scale of the Oscars – celebrated its 50th year February 23 to March 2, 2019 with more films, more visitors and a disappointing showing of women selected to compete for any major prize.
And women are not having it. "Can it be that in 50 years, there hasn't been a single woman capable of telling a great story to win the Fespaco?" said South African filmmaker/actress Xolile Tshabalala, who features in “Miraculous Weapons”, directed by Jean-Pierre Bekolo, a Cameroonian.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah*, Eurasia Review
China has offered $60 billion, Japan $32 billion, and India $25 billion, while large investment funds have also come from the United States and European Union, all towards realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa. Russia has not pledged any funds. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to establish a committee that will be in charge of preparing for and holding the Russia-Africa Summit in October 2019 in Sochi on the Black Sea. This is the first in a series of articles on Russia’s decision to join the new “Scramble for Africa” nearly 28 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. – The Editor
