The Sudan War, the “forgotten crisis” by the same media who have “forgotten to report on it”. Why?
More than two years later, the Sudan war has displaced 11 million people, and has a death toll suspected to be up to five times that of the battered Palestinian enclave. Yet, it has largely been forgotten by the international media, making headlines recently only because a rapper, Macklemore, is boycotting Dubai over the United Arab Emirate’s involvement in the conflict. Why the neglect? Partly, “It comes down to implicit biases and racism…People have a hard time believing that Africans deserve to live in peace. People think ‘this is just another normal day in Africa, African countries can’t rule themselves, poverty is normal’ – all things, which again people forget, are legacies of colonialism.” Read more
Source: Byline Times
The coup that shook the Sahel – and the West
The July 2023 military coup in Niger, shook both the Sahel and the West like the others in the region like Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea didn’t. That is because for decades, it had been allied with France and the US, and the pivot toward Russia was dramatically sharp. Read more
Source: New Lines Magazine
Leaving no comrades behind: Growing danger of terrorist jailbreaks in West Africa
Since 2016, there have been several attacks on prisons across West Africa – and increasingly in Central Africa – by armed terrorist groups. The pattern of targeting detention facilities, some of them heavily fortified, shows that insurgents are determined to break their members out of prison. It’s good politics, jailbreaks reassure prisoners that insurgents don’t abandon their members. Read more
Source: ISSAfrica
In Kenya, champion female athletes can’t outrun their killers
Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei’s horrific death after being doused with petrol and set on fire by her Kenyan boyfriend has again brought to the fore Kenya’s harrowing history of domestic violence against female athletes – and how track and field’s biggest crisis is going under the radar in one of the world’s long-distance racing powerhouses. Read more
Source: Sportskeeda
Africa is on the cusp of an innovation revolution
Africa is on the verge of an innovation revolution, says award-winning fintech prodigy, Salton Massally
Massally is a key figure in Sierra Leone’s fintech industry. He created the country’s first job board, Careers.sl, and founded Mikashboks, a digital social finance platform that simplifies and secures group saving and lending. his tech journey with Nneji Godwin Amako. Read more
Source: Africa Renewal
As China buys less oil from Africa, Angola struggles to repay debt
Angola’s long-running financial relationship with China has been built on a simple equation: Angola would repay its growing Chinese debt with oil, a strategy that became known as the Angola Model.
The strategy is faltering, however, as China has begun importing less oil from Angola and other African nations and more from Russia, the Persian Gulf and Asia. Read more
Source: Eurasiareview
Few cars have sparked interest in South Africa like the new $81,000 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado
Few cars have sparked the kind of interest the new Toyota Land Cruiser Prado has been able to do since its world debut a year ago. The new Prado stood out like a sore eye against all the other Toyotas previewed at the manufacturer’s State of the Motor Industry Address (SOMI) at Kyalami, the motor racing circuit located in Midrand, just north of Johannesburg, in January. And it broke the internet at the Nampo Harvest Day expo outside Bothaville in May. At South African rand1,448,900 (S$81,000) the new Toyota Land Cruiser Prado VX.R is out of reach of most buyers, yet it still seems like a bargain judged by how they first batch has been snapped up. Delayed several times due to stock challenges, Toyota sold almost a 1,000 new Prados in the first two months since its arrival in the country. Read more
Source: The Citizen (South Africa)
Namibian drought forces government to slaughter more than 700 wild animals to feed the poor
The Namibian drought, the worst in more than a decade, has forced the government to slaughter hundreds of wild animals in order to feed its starving citizens. This week, the government reported that it planned to cull at least 640 animals from five national parks, plus 83 elephants outside park boundaries where they come into contact with people. Read more
Source: IOL
Floods in West Africa kill 460, displace nearly 1 million people
Recent heavy rains and floods across Mali, Nigeria and Niger have killed at least 460 people, and forced nearly 950,000 from their homes. While this is normally the rainiest time of the year in West Africa, this year’s rains have been more severe than usual. Widespread flood have affected 29 of the Nigeria’s 36 states. The torrential rainfall has led to the overflowing of dams and rising water levels of the two largest rivers, the Niger and the Benue.
Three Malian regions in the west and Gao in the northeast have been hit. In neighbouring Niger, flooding has affected all 8 regions and floods beginning in May washed away houses and leaving behind a thread of destruction. Read more
Source: Africanews
There’s a rapid transition to EVs in Addis Ababa
Electric buses, smaller 15-seat minibuses, cars and motorbikes are popping up on the streets of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. There are around 100,000 electric vehicles (EVs) in Ethiopia so far. The Ethiopian government estimates that number will more than quadruple by 2032. That’s largely because the national government took the extraordinary step earlier this year of banning the import of all gas-powered passenger vehicles — becoming the first nation in the world to do so. It also effectively slashed the customs tax on imported cars: The tax on gas vehicles was up to 200% before they were banned, while the import tax for fully assembled EVs is just 15%, according to the country’s Finance ministry. Read more
Source: CNN
Lockheed to deliver two C-130Js tactical airlifters to Egyptian air force
The Egyptian Armed Forces announced that Lockheed Martin will deliver two C-130J-30 Super Hercules tactical airlifters to the Egyptian Air Force, officially becoming the 23rd nation to join the aircraft’s fleet.
Described as the most advanced and proven tactical airlifter in the world, the C-130J is a medium-sized tactical airlifter and tanker with a maximum allowable payload of 44,000 pounds, according to Lockheed. The company has delivered more than 545 C-130Js and the Super Hercules global fleet has surpassed more than 3 million flight hours.
According to Lockheed Martin, Egypt operates as one of the largest owners of the C-130H airlifter supporting military, peacekeeping, humanitarian and natural disaster response missions. The nation joins seven other operators in the Middle East North Africa region to choose the C-130J as a preferred medium-sized tactical airlifter. Read more
Source: Stars and Stripes
China pushes smaller, smarter loans to Africa to shield from risks
China’s years of splashing cash on big-ticket infrastructure projects in Africa may be over, analysts say, with Beijing seeking to shield itself from risky, indebted partners on the continent as it grapples with a slowing economy at home.
Beijing for years dished out billions in loans for trains, roads and bridges in Africa that saddled participating governments with debts they often struggled to pay back.
But experts say it is now opting for smaller loans to fund more modest development projects.
As African leaders gathered last week for Beijing’s biggest summit since the pandemic, President Xi Jinping committed more than $50 billion in financing over the next three years.
More than half of that would be in credit, Xi said, while the rest would come from unspecified “various types of assistance” and $10 billion through encouraging Chinese firms to invest. Xi gave no details on how those funds would be dished out. Read more
Source: iAfrica
In Senegal’s thriving hip-hop scene, beatmaker , Aminata Thiam insists women have a seat at the table
In a classroom at the House of Urban Culture, tucked away in the narrow streets of Dakar, Senegal, Aminata Thiam claps her hands in time with a beat she created on her computer.
“You just have to find the loop that you want. Cut it, duplicate the sample, and then add your effects,” she says.
She is teaching a beatmaking class to five young women, each working intently on beats of their own on the computers in front of them.
Thiam, 31, is a beatmaker, one of only a few women in Senegal who call themselves such. Their discipline is the art of “making beats, making rhythms,” Thiam says. She traces a line from American DJs like Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc, credited as among the founders of hip-hop, to beatmakers today.
Those DJs made beats in the 1970s and ‘80s using synthesizers or by isolating specific beats in a song and playing them on a loop by switching between two record players. “Now when we talk about beatmaking, we are talking about doing this with a computer,” Thiam says, crediting technology — including the advent of software — with democratizing the art.
The House of Urban Culture sees a rotating crew of anyone and everyone part of Senegal’s burgeoning hip-hop scene — rappers, slam poets, skaters and even the graffiti artists whose works adorn the walls. The centre that opened in 2018 hosts rap concerts and beatboxing festivals, and offers free training in everything from DJing to photography in an effort to transform young people’s interest in hip-hop into professions. Read more
Source: The Philadelphia Tribune
Despite crackdown, Zimbabwe’s gold-backed currency is crumbling too, just four months later
Zimbabwe in April replaced its dollar with the ZiG (short for Zimbabwe Gold) it said was backed by the country’s gold reserves and other minerals such as diamonds.
The currency, abbreviated as ZWG, has been sliding in value on the black market and faces public resistance despite the government unleashing police and the intelligence services on people rejecting the new money.
The official rate on Thursday was pegged at US$1 to ZWG13.8 – while on the black market it traded at around twice as much to the US dollar.
Retailers are forced to take payments in ZWG while some of their suppliers demand US dollars or South African rand.
It’s even worse for importers, without adequate foreign currency provision from the government.
Those who continue to take the ZWG have resorted to what is called “forward pricing” whereby they sell their products at black market rates. Read more
Source: New Zimbabwe
