Category: Africa

Last updated: 25 minutes ago Rob Greenfield is proudly wearing rubbish, as part of a project to show how much rubbish we mindlessly throw away each month. He walks the streets of Los Angeles and carries around 28 kilograms of rubbish generated by the drinks, snacks and meals he has consumed. It’s all packed into his clear plastic suit, with specially designed pockets on his arms, legs and back. Greenfield prides himself on living a minimalist life with no bank account and no driving licence, In 2019, he fed himself…

The UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa told the Security Council that terrorism and insecurity continue to spread in the Sahel, devastating the lives of millions of people. Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee said that “civilians are often the main victims of terrorist acts” and “the suffering and loss suffered by civilian populations at the hands of terrorist groups are indescribable.” According to the UN official, “future generations also pay the price.”“Now more than ever, Pobee said, countries in the region need to step up efforts to uphold and protect human rights.…

Health authorities in Mozambique declared a polio outbreak in the country. The declaration on Wednesday, May 18 follows the confirmation of a child in the country’s northeastern Tete province who got paralyzed by the disease, according to the World Health Organization WHO. The case in Mozambique is the second imported case of polio in southern Africa this year, following a case discovered in Malawi in mid-February. It is the first case of wild polio in Mozambique since 1992, although cases linked to a mutated virus from the oral vaccine were…

Around 15 assailants were killed during a “terrorist” attack last week in the north of Togo that also left eight soldiers dead, a minister said Wednesday. Togo’s troops are deployed in the north of the country to try and contain a jihadist threat pushing south from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger where militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group operate. In the early hours of May 11, about 60 gunmen on motorcycles launched a “violent terrorist attack” on a military post in Kpinkankandi — near the border with…

Turn a corner in Mozambique’s seaside capital Maputo, and the skyline vanishes. Colonial Portuguese buildings and mid-century modernist apartment blocks give way to a maze of rutted alleys crammed with tin-roofed shacks. This is Mafalala, Maputo’s most famous neighbourhood — a place enshrined in the guidebooks as the cradle of Mozambique’s post-independence culture. But as a rough district in one of the world’s poorest countries, residents struggle to capitalise on their community’s heritage. Three years ago, a group of students and professionals decided to change that by opening a museum…

On Wednesday, the verdict in trial of the Dakar Mayor, Bathelemy Dias was postponed. The 46-year-old who is one the main opposition figure hoped to learn his fate but the 3rd criminal court set its ruling date on September 21st. Dias is being tried on appeal for his alleged link to a 2011 shooting which took place in the city hall of Mermoz Sacré-Coeur where he was mayor. The armed clash resulted in the death of Senegalese wrestler Ndiaga Diouf. The now Dakar mayor, along with a dozen other defendants…

Niger’s President has said Mali’s withdrawal from the G5 Sahel, a multinational force created to fight Islamist militants, will mark the end of the alliance. President Mohamed Bayoum made the remarks in an interview with French daily La Croix. Bazoum said Mali’s isolation was undermining the fight against insurgents. Bamako this week announced that it was quitting the G5 Sahel, after being blocked from assuming the group’s rotating presidency.  It blamed ‘a state outside the region’ for trying to foment divisions among the member states. Created in 2014, the alliance…

Africa’s main Oil Producers and Exporters are meeting in Luanda, the Angolan capital. They are seeking solutions to increase investment in the oil sector and the energy transition. “A lot of things have been happening in the world today to make us believe that they are not serious about energy transition because when the national interest security, the energy security is threatened, they forget any transition and they come asking for more oil and gas and even coal,” said Omar Ibrahim, Secretary-General of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization.  The lack of…