Researchers have discovered the existence of a critically endangered species of elephant, the forest elephant, in South Sudan. Camera traps placed in the country’s vast and largely unexplored Western Equatoria captured photos of the animal over the course six months, the first time the forest elephant has ever been documented in South Sudan.
The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, one of the largest and wildest conservation areas in Africa, may soon be the site of drilling rigs. The government of Botswana has reportedly sold rights to explore for natural gas in more than half of the 37,000 sq km park that straddles the border between Botswana and South Africa, according to a new documentary, The High Cost of Cheap Gas.
US Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson is trying a new tactic to boost his faltering campaign: claiming his African roots. The retired neurosurgeon announced that he will be visiting Kenya, as well as Nigeria and Zambia, later this month. “My ancestors are from the Kenya, Tanzania region… I’ve had all of that traced back,” he said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt radio show on Dec 7.
African states are launching an initiative to restore 100 million hectares, or about 386,000 square miles, of forest on the continent by 2030. Ten countries have pledged to replenish 31.7 million hectares of degraded or deforested woodlands as part of the African Restoration Initiative, launched at a climate change conference in Paris this weekend.
Beijing has long supported Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe despite claims of rampant corruption and repression committed by his government. Today (Dec. 4), Mugabe returned the favor.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has announced $60 billion for development projects in Africa over the next three years, calling for a “lift in China-Africa relations” to promote a mutually beneficial partnership. Xi was speaking at a China-Africa summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
A woman was killed and 30 people were injured at a university in Kenya after a simulated terrorist attack on the school caused students and staff to panic.
Nairobi, Kenya
As more signs of a slowing Chinese economy materialize, worries about how Africa will be affected have reached a new high. Chinese investment in Africa fell 40% in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year, ending up around $1.2 billion, according to Chinese officials on Tuesday (Nov. 17th). But other estimates have said the fall in Chinese investment is as much as 84%, to $568 million.
Prince’s semi-autobiographical rock opera, Purple Rain, is getting a West African remake. Akounak, follows the story of a self-taught guitarist from Agadez, a city in Niger “where guitars are king,” according to the trailer, as he journeys the Sahara desert with nothing but his guitar and a purple motorcycle.
As details about multiple attacks on Paris last week emerged, news about another attack began to circulate—147 students at a university in northeast Kenya, massacred by al-Shabaab militants while police took hours to get to the scene.
Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries and where less than 5% of the population has access to the internet, may soon be a pioneer in e-government. The government has launched a cloud networking project with France’s Alcatel-Lucent with the aim of offering digital public services in healthcare, education as well as connecting government departments and branches.
As recently as 5,000 years ago, one of the world’s driest and most uninhabitable places, the Western Sahara desert, was home to a vast river system that would rank as the world’s 12th largest drainage basin if it existed today. French researchers have identified an ancient river system that they believe formed during humid spells that overtook the desert over the past 245,000 years, according to a study published this week in the journal, Nature Communications.
Far from fighting al-Shabaab militants responsible for killing hundreds of Kenyans over the past four years, the Kenyan military is collaborating with them.
A new mobile app could make childbirth safer in Ethiopia, home to one of the highest rates of maternal deaths in the world.
African countries are ill-prepared for El Niño, and children may be hit the hardest, according to the United Nations. As the weather phenomenon takes hold in the region, at least 11 million children in east and southern Africa will be vulnerable to waterborne diseases, shortages of food and water, and developmental problems.
European leaders are expected to offer African countries billions of euros in exchange for repatriating migrants that have moved to Europe in search of work, not to escape war. At a migration summit in Valetta, Malta this week the European Commission is expected to announce a 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion) in development funds for African nations that agree to the plan .
Gai Nyok, one of 25,000 Sudanese orphaned by civil war—better known as the “lost boys”— has been sworn in as foreign service officer for the US Department of State.
A Kenyan government ministry has come under fire for spending $4,400 on 18 custom-made condom dispensers, over $2,000 on a Yamaha piano, almost $500 on one DVD player, and $1,700 on 20 ballpoint pens—a sign, according to some politicians, that corruption has tipped the country into a “national crisis.”
Dr. Ada Igonoh, a Nigerian doctor who survived Ebola last year, has given birth to a baby girl. Igonoh—now a public health advocate and motivational speaker—detailed contracting, living with, and eventually recovering from the disease, providing one of the first accounts of surviving Ebola. Her new girl weighing 9 pounds 1 ounce was born at the Greater El-Monte Community Hospital, California and was certified Ebola-free. The World Health Organization says Igonoh is the only female medical doctor to have survived the deadly disease.
South Africa’s highest court is considering whether to change Oscar Pistorius’ conviction of manslaughter for killing his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day almost three years ago. Arguments for convicting the amputee Olympian runner were broadcast live yesterday (Nov. 2).
Africans are becoming one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the United States. The number of foreign-born Africans moving to the US has nearly doubled every decade since 1970, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.
Africa’s middle class may not be as big as economists have led us to beleive. According to a recent report by Credit Suisse that considers broad measures of wealth, rather than just income alone, only 3.3% of Africans should be considered middle class, or about 19 million people. That’s a far cry from previous estimates from the African Development Bank, based on income, that put the figure closer to 300 million (pdf) in 2011.
China is scrapping a 36-year-old policy that restricted families from having more than one child. The communist party’s main decision-making body, the Central Committee, said today that it would allow all couples to have two children, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
