Africa

Photo: People living along the Kenya-Uganda border are amongst the poorest in the region. Credit: WFP.

Kenya and Uganda Partner With the UN to Achieve SDGs

By Siddharth Chatterjee and Rosa Malango

UN Resident Coordinators in Kenya and Uganda, Siddharth Chatterjee and Rosa Malango respectively report in a blog how the two East African neighbours have kick-started a Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by partnering with the UN to address challenges that transcend country borders. The UN Resident Coordinator (RC) is the highest-ranking representative of the UN development system at the country level. In this first of occasional series, UN News is inviting RCs to blog on issues important to the United Nations and the country where they serve. UN News carried this blog on 1 January 2020.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 January 2020

Photo: Renowned Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o reads excerpts from his recent work in both Gikuyu and English during a presentation in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 9, 2019. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress.

Eminent Kenyan Writer Urges Africa ‘To Do Things for Itself’

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Over the last 100 years, Africa has been the eternal donor to the West but has been represented as always reliant on aid from the Western community.

“We must find a way of reversing this by becoming makers of our own raw materials,” asserts Kenyan author and academic Ngugi wa Thiong’o who picked up a distinguished German Peace Prize named for Erich Maria Remarque this year.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 31 December 2019

Photo: Bisi Silva, Nigerian contemporary art curator based in Lagos (2012) CC BY-SA 2.0

‘Season Africa 2020’ Recalls Much Loved Nigerian Curator

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – One of the more ambitious exhibits of African art to showcase French-speaking, English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking Africa, including North Africa, is scheduled to open June 2020 and run for six months.

The occasion will also mark the passing this year of Bisi Silva, an adventurous curator who, with her own money, founded a nonprofit art gallery and education center in Lagos, Nigeria, that has nurtured the growth and recognition of contemporary African artists. Silva died on February 12 in a hospital there. She was 56.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 30 December 2019

Photo: Conakry, the capital of Guinea. CC BY-SA 3.0

African Leaders Face Citizens’ Insistence on Term Limits

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | CONAKRY (IDN) – African leaders are facing an upsurge of citizen opposed to questionable re-election schemes, including tampering with the constitution, that leave countries in the hands of one or two families for decades.

The latest upsurge is in Guinea where the political opposition has accused the president, Alpha Condé, of staging a “constitutional coup” by attempting to rewrite the constitution and pursue a third term, once his second term ends in 2020.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 24 December 2019

Photo: Child labor in the mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Credit: UNICEF

Five Tech Giants Linked To ‘Cruel and Brutal Use of Children’ In Congo Mines

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Do kids work in coal mines?

In 1910, an estimated 2 million American children under the age of 15 were working in factories and mines for low wages and long shifts. Photographs by Lewis Hine of New York revealed the depraved exploitation of children, some as young as 8 years of age, in fields and in mines. Child labor was finally outlawed in 1938.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 17 December 2019

Photo Mary Mubaiwa Off To Remand. Credit: zimtrending.co.zw

Multiple Charges Against Ex-Wife of Zimbabwe's Vice President

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Marry Mubaiwa, estranged wife of Zimbabwe’s Vice President, faces a battery of charges – from fraud, money laundering to attempted murder – in a case that has startled even the most battle-hardened citizens.

Ms. Mubaiwa, 38, is accused of unlawfully transferring $919,000 to South Africa under the guise of importing goods, according to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) which, they believe, may have involved buying a home in the neighboring country.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 17 December 2019

South African Leader Sees End to Racism and Bigotry

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – President Cyril Ramaphosa struck a note of optimism in his message on December 16 – the Day of Reconciliation and the anniversary of two major historical events, now celebrated as a public holiday.

Since the nation attained democracy, he said, citizens have showed the capacity to look beyond their differences “in the quest to achieve true nationhood”.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 17 December 2019

Photo: African Island States. Credit: AfDB.

Helping Island States Build Resilience to Extreme Weather

By Ronald Joshua

JOHANNESEBURG | MADRID (IDN) – Fewer lives were being lost as a result of natural disasters, because of advanced early warning systems. However, many cash-strapped African countries – including the small island states, bearing the brunt of climate change – are not benefiting from new technologies to develop early warning systems, said the climate expert John Harding at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 December 2019

How to Search a 1000 km2 Area to Look for Evidence of Nuclear Testing?

: Admin; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 14 December 2019

Photo: African Group of Negotiators at COP 25. Credit: UNFCC Facebook.

African Negotiators Criticize ‘Limited Progress’ at COP25

By Fabíola Ortiz

MADRID (IDN) – As the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 moved toward an end, the African Group of Negotiators criticized the “very limited progress” of the climate talks and said “no deal is better than bad deal”.

“We are very very very worried about the balance of the outcome. We are concerned that what we are seeing now is regressing on implementing all the commitments we have under the Paris Agreement,” announced Ambassador Mohamed Nasr, Head of Environmental Affairs at Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs who led the African Group of Negotiators (AGN).