Monthly Archives: January 2017

Uganda wins continental award for malaria control

Uganda is one of the eight countries on the continent awarded at the ongoing 28th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for outstanding commitment and innovation in the fight against disease. According to a press statement released yesterday, the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) award for Excellence recognizes Uganda alongside Botswana, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and… Read more »

Zambia passes new law allowing women one day off a month

A ZAMBIAN law that entitles women to take one day off work a month when they have their period is stirring increasingly fierce debate in a country reluctant to discuss sexual health. Discreetly called Mother’s Day, the law enables women to be absent from work without notice or a doctor’s note to help them cope with menstrual bleeding, pain and… Read more »

Five anti-voodoo cult members die from suffocation in Benin

Five people died from asphyxiation in Benin this weekend and several more were hospitalized after a religious cult told followers to seal themselves into prayer rooms and burn incense and charcoal, residents and a survivor told Reuters. The group, whose name in French translates as the “Very Holy Church of Jesus Christ of Baname”, has thousands of adherents across the… Read more »

Kenya extradites four men to U.S. on suspicion of heroin smuggling

Four men charged with directing a major heroin trafficking ring have been extradited to the United States from Kenya, a law enforcement official and an investigator told Reuters on Tuesday, in what officials say is a major blow to East Africa’s cartels. Baktash Akasha and his brother Ibrahim were arrested two years ago in Kenya along with two other men,… Read more »

Fresh clashes near South Sudan’s oil hub of Malakal

Fresh clashes broke out around South Sudan’s second-largest city of Malakal on Tuesday, a rebel spokesman and a government official said, the latest turn in the struggle for the capital of the oil-producing Upper Nile region. The United Nations said Malakal, on the banks of the White Nile near the country’s northern border with Sudan, was largely deserted after civilians… Read more »

African Union Re-Admits Morocco After 33-Year Absence

The AU has re-admitted Morocco despite the kingdom refusing to cede its claim to occupied Western Sahara. Officials from the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic hope to push Morocco into allowing an independence referendum. Morocco was on Monday readmitted into the African Union after a 33-year absence, despite resistance from several member states over the status of Western Sahara. 

Analysis Post

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As important as the Middle East has been to the U.S., there is another, far larger area that will continue to grow in importance — Africa.  The continent is rich in physical resources: oil, diamonds, gold, silver, and uranium to name a few, and maintains a 54-nation membership in the United Nations.  The global say and economic potential of Africa… Read more »

Can sovereign wealth fund help us avoid resource curse?

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s move not to assent to the 2015 Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Bill, due to contentious issues on revenue sharing between the national and county governments and the communities, should be of concern in the policy discourse for the extractives industry. Kenya has ambitious plans to begin commercial production of oil and gas by June 2017 even… Read more »