Africa

Photo: The Arch 22 monument commemorating the 1994 coup which saw the then 29-year-old Yahya Jammeh seize power in a bloodless coup, ousting Dawda Jawara, who had been President of the Gambia since 1970. CC BY-SA 3.0

Press Freedoms Return To Gambia Under New Government

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | BANJUL (IDN) – Following the end of the regime of former President Yahya Jammeh, journalists in The Gambia are beginning to enjoy press freedoms for the first time in 22 years.

During the two decades of ex-President Jammeh's rule, journalists were regularly abducted, tortured and killed. The new government has pledged to respect the media.

Outdated sedition laws are still on the books, however, and the public is urged to bring any complaints about journalists to the new Media Council of The Gambia instead of to the courts.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 01 January 2019

Photo: President Joseph Kabila Kabange of the Democratic Republic of the Congo addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2018. UN Photo/Cia Pak

UN Intervention In The Congo Appears To Be Successful

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The general election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has been postponed yet again – to December 30. Will this country, the largest and potentially the richest in Africa, ever escape from its continuous dictatorship, and its propensity to civil war? It’s not so long ago that Susan Rice, then the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, was talking about the Congo as the site of “Africa’s First World War”.

Has the UN at long last really pacified this country that has been continuously in a state of unrest since the Belgian colonisers, after effectively looting the country, fled in 1960, turning the country over to a hastily improvised African government?

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 December 2018

Swahili Speakers Stunned As Disney Claims Trademark For ‘Hakuna Matata’

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The once common phrase “Hakuna Matata” (No Problem!) is now off limits for African speakers of Swahili. Any commercial use of the two word expression is reserved for its new owner – the American company that produced Lion King. That’s right: Walt Disney!

The California-based company is preparing to release its remake of The Lion King next year and just to keep an enterprising African from capitalizing on the film’s success, the company registered the phrase in the U.S.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 December 2018

Photo: Gemfields announced record results of the most recent auction of Mozambican rough rubies held in Singapore from June 5-9, 2018.

Emeralds, Rubies Score Big Profits For Foreign Firms As African Countries Go Broke

The information presented here has been superseded and the corrected article can be found here https://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/the-world/africa/2476-emeralds-rubies-could-make-zambia-rich

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Foreign mining companies extract more than a quarter of the world’s production of rare emeralds in Zambia yet declare losses to make themselves tax exempt.

So far, charges of tax evasion filed against Kagem mine, a subsidiary of the London-listed gemstone miner Gemfields, have been unsuccessful – dismissed by the Zambian Revenue Authority.

Gemfields owns 75 percent of the world’s largest emerald mine in Kagem, northern Zambia. Auctions of 30 Zambian emeralds and 11 Mozambican rubies have brought the company over $1 billion of combined auction revenue, according to the Creamer Media Mining Weekly.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 December 2018

Photo credit: UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Africa Poverty Clock Launched on UNECA's 60th Anniversary

By Devendra Kamarajan

ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at its 60th anniversary celebrations in Addis Ababa has launched the Africa Poverty Clock, a customized version of the world poverty clock developed by World Data Lab, aimed at monitoring progress against extreme poverty, an aspiration of the United Nations' first Sustainable Development Goal – SDG1. The Clock provides real-time poverty estimates till 2030 for the majority of countries around the world.

Speaking at the launch, the ECA Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe said that many African countries have achieved remarkable progress over the last six decades.

: Devendra Kamarajan; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 December 2018

Photo: Ashraf El Nour, Director of IOM Office to UN New York addressing the UN Security Council Meeting on the "Maintenance of international peace and security: Trafficking of persons in conflict situations" on 21 November 2017.

Migration Is a Great Opportunity to Africa and Host Countries

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – Contrary to the widespread view coloured by the too-common images of young African migrants crossing the Mediterranean, migration in Africa is dominated by Africans moving within Africa, says Ashraf El Nour, the director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office to the UN in New York.

They migrate mostly to neighbouring countries, or within the same region. Africa's share of global migration, which on the whole stood at 258 million in 2017, are 36 million people of which 19 million moved within the continent and 17 million outside Africa, El Nour told Africa Renewal's Zipporah Musau.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 December 2018

Photo: Home and boats on the water. © Curt Carnemark/World Bank

Africa's Blue Economy Or a Global Ocean Grab by the Rich?

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Six counties in Kenya’s coastal region have been tagged for technical training in the blue economy – what some have called "the new frontier of the African Renaissance". The goal is to enable young people to find jobs in the maritime industry.

Kevit Desai, a Kenyan vocational training principal, says institutions of higher learning must begin to focus on developing skills, nurturing innovations and enterprise creation for this "overlooked opportunity". He suggested a post-Blue Economy Conference workshop to create awareness and enhance community participation in this vision for the future.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 December 2018

Photo: Graça Machel at the World Economic Forum on Africa 2010. CC BY-SA 2.0

Africa – Realising The Promise of the Demographic Dividend

Viewpoint by Graça Machel

The author, who writes this piece following the recent publication of the Africa Report on Child Wellbeing and the African Child-Friendliness Index, is the widow of Nelson Mandela and former First Lady of both South Africa and Mozambique. She is Chair of the International Board of Trustees of the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF).

ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Nelson Mandela famously said “History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children.”

Africa’s rapidly increasing child and youth population is predicted to reach 750 million by 2030 and one billion by 2050, providing a unique window to overcome the challenges that plague Africa or leave us in complete disarray – a choice between a demographic dividend or a burden.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 14 December 2018

Photo: Chief Fortune Charumbira. Credit: Brigitte Meuwissen

EU Should Speak Against the Ill-Treatment of Eritreans

Viewpoint by Chief Fortune Charumbira

The author is from Vice President of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), and President of the Chief Council in his home country Zimbabwe He gave an opening speech to the Conference titled 'We the People: Peace in the Horn & the Safety and Future of the Eritrean People' 12-14 December 2018. He noted that the success of the conference has "the potential to transform" the lives of millions of Eritreans "who have been suffering for several years". The EU that preaches the respect for human rights as enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "must be louder in calling for the end of ill treatment of migrants". The following are extensive excerpts from his address.

: Robert Johnson; OPINION; 14 December 2018

Photo: A glimpse of Brussels conference participants. Credit: Eritrea Press

EU Urged to Evacuate Eritreans from Libyan 'Death Camps'

By Ramesh Jaura

BRUSSELS (IDN) – When the Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed in July a peace deal after two decades of war and ensuing violent border clashes, "a new era of peace and friendship" was felt to have begun in the Horn of Africa comprising Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

Six months on, African leaders and close observers of the situation in the region, attending the Eritrean diaspora conference in Brussels, have expressed grave concern that "peace and friendship" have yet to dawn on relations between the government in Asmara and Eritreans.