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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | ABUJA (IDN) — In a surprise development, Nigeria’s Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has exonerated the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, saying his extradition by force from Kenya and his subsequent arrest by Nigerian authorities had been illegal.
Kanu, leader of the banned Indigenous People’s group, was originally arrested in 2015 on various terrorism-related charges. He escaped to Kenya in 2017 while out on bail.
Viewpoint by Abebe Haile-Gabriel
The writer is the Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It was published in Horn Observer on October 13, ahead of World Food Day on October 16.
ACCRA (IDN) — More than a billion Africans cannot afford a healthy diet. Africa is moving backwards in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. This situation is not sustainable.
From Africa Renewal
By Economic Commission for Africa
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A new report reveals persistent barriers in the digital finance sector that limit women’s economic empowerment in Africa while recommending policy responses to overcome them.
Commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the latest edition of the biennial African Women’s Report was published on October 3. The report analyses the digital finance ecosystem in Africa to examine all its components and how they impact women’s economic prospects.
By Benjamin Anguandia, WFP
KINSHASA (IDN) — Kesereka, who prefers to go by Sadi, accepts a stack of cash from a World Food Programme (WFP) officer in a small room in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s northeastern town of Mabalako.
He counts it carefully, folding it neatly, so it fits in his small pocket.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Kenya has officially entered into the cultivation and use of Genetically Modified Organisms—known as GMOs—that have been banned in 26 countries.
This month, Kenyan authorities announced plans to lift the country’s ban on genetically modified crops, in part to deal with a record drought that is causing hunger across the Horn of Africa. The move is opposed by those concerned about potentially harmful effects on health, the environment and small farms.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — A recently organized party led by a millionaire diamond magnate looks set to win Lesotho's parliamentary election, having secured enough for a simple majority, according to preliminary results from the election commission.
By Sunday afternoon, results from the October 7 vote were in for 49 out of a total of 80 constituencies. The Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party, formed by Sam Matekane in March, had secured 41 seats, the minimum required to reach a simple majority.
By Farai Shawn Matiashe
MUTARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Ruth Rugeje, 38, monitors plants of cabbages, a pale green leafy vegetable, grown in empty two-litre bottles in the backyard of her home in Mutapa, a high-density suburb in the central Zimbabwean city of Gweru.
This innovative farmer picked these plastic bottles from the illegal dumping sites in her neighbourhood and reused them in hydroponics.
There is a greenhouse to help control temperatures in her garden.
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) — There is a fire in Ouagadougou. And who’s to say where it’s catching next? For the second time in eight months, the military in Burkina Faso struck in a palace coup that removed military leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
The coup leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, cited the same excuses Damiba gave for seizing power in January as reasons for his removal; namely, that the government has proved incompetent in containing the spread of Islamic insurgency, leading to increasing loss of lives among military and civilian populations.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — South Africa's ANC Youth League is facing sharp criticism for endorsing Russia’s referenda in occupied parts of Ukraine, which many countries have dismissed as unacceptable, in violation of the United Nations Charter and illegal under international law.
The referenda were designed to pave the way for Moscow to annex the territories.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — A Rwandan businessman and alleged genocidaire failed to appear in court, where he is being tried on charges of masterminding and financing the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Felicien Kabuga, 87, is accused of aiding and abetting hit squads who slaughtered ethnic Tutsis and with using a radio station known as Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines to incite hatred, according to the charges filed before a UN tribunal at The Hague.
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