Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey "Only the best is good enough for Africa."
Kwame Nkrumah "The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa."
TOMMY TRENCHARD Squinting against the dust kicked up by the helicopter’s rotor blades, dental therapist Senate Makhoali crouches low, loads up her equipment and jumps on board. Already this morning she’s endured a hair-raising, stormy flight in a tiny Cessna 206 airplane to land on a precarious mountain ridge. Now, she steels herself for a […]
US air strikes, rival military blocs and competing foreign backers are reshaping security in West Africa and pushing states closer to conflict. AYODELE S. OWOLABI After launching what he called “a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS [ISIL] terrorist scum” in northwest Nigeria on December 25, United States President Donald Trump promised “many more”, reaffirming […]
What happened in Tanzania during the unrest that followed the October election remains unclear. New evidence points to killings and grave human rights abuses by security forces in the second largest city, Mwanza. Gunfire echoed through — and then abruptly, the country went silent. Rumors of mass killings by security forces in Tanzania spread fast, […]
Pressure to deliver economic improvement for young people – and questions over his succession – will define the president’s seventh term if he wins as expected. FERGUS KELL Ugandans will go to the polls on 15 January. Two weeks after election day will mark the 40th anniversary since incumbent president Yoweri Museveni first took power […]
China is cementing its image as a lasting partner across Africa by gifting high-profile infrastructure, such as presidential palaces and parliament buildings. A key example is the new US$32 million Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) headquarters in Abuja. Funded by China and set for handover by the end of January, this centralized complex […]
GABRIELLE EMANUEL One of the crowning achievements in global health is at risk of coming undone. Between 2000 and 2020, the number of children who die before they hit their 5th birthday dropped by half — from nearly 10 million deaths a year to under 5 million deaths a year. What brought about this remarkable […]
“As Tanzanians, we are going to reclaim our country. Whoever wants to support us needs to know that.” GUILLAUME ANTIGNAC A young man stumbles along a street with a bullet hole in his cheek, as blood spills from his mouth and nose. In another, a man is lying against a wall, holding his bloodstained t-shirt […]
REBECCA CAIRNS One of the fastest ways to fly from Nairobi, Kenya, to Marrakech, Morocco, is via Paris, France. Despite being on the same continent, around 3,700 miles apart, the two destinations have no direct flights. It’s not just these two metropolises: many of the continent’s capitals and largest cities have no direct flights, or […]
Land restoration in Burkina Faso’s Centre-Ouest and Kadiogo regions is women’s work. Here, women have made fertilizer trees their indispensable allies in reviving farmland. Thanks to these nitrogen-fixing and shade-providing trees, they’re bringing degraded soils back to life. In Cassou and Bazoulé communes in Centre-Ouest, local women are breathing new life into […]
NAIMA SAWAYA For many countries in crisis, brain drain can feel like an unbreakable loop. Armed conflict, climate shocks and economic downturn drive out local experts who take with them the know-how that is essential to reversing the crisis. So, the crisis continues. And the brain drain intensifies. But what if there was a way to […]