Crystal Skye, a luxury Boeing 777, will take its maiden flight from Hong Kong to Kenya at the end of September. Passengers on the 10-day trip, a so-called “air cruise,” will be waited on by butlers and served Michelin-star quality food.
Kenya launched its first high speed railway last month, a rail link connecting Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa, that cost about 327 billion Kenyan shillings or about $7.7 million a kilometer. Critics in Kenya say the rail line, the country’s largest infrastructure project in more than 20 years, is too expensive and has saddled the country with years of debt. Now, Uganda is working on building its own standard gauge railway—and it’s likely to cost more.
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, known for making cathedrals and concert halls out of paper, is designing 20,000 new homes for refugees in northwest Kenya. Ban, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2014, will be working with the UN Habitat to build homes in the Kalobeyei refugee settlement in Kenya’s Turkana region.
A high school robotics team from Burundi has gone missing after an international competition in Washington. The six teenagers appear to have left on their own accord. Their dorm keys were left in their coach’s bag and clothes were taken from their rooms.
On his first trip to Africa, Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, spoke in Nairobi on Thursday (July 20) about the value of constant learning, the power of the internet, and how the combination of the two can be utilized to solve the day-to-day challenges facing the continent. Ma also spoke about the process of failure, and how that can be a catalyst for innovation and progress.
Over the course of five months, Manyara, a 26-year-old elephant in Tanzania, traveled 695 kilometers with her herd of elephants. They stayed close to a river, but occasionally strayed into areas close to human settlements and once crossed a highway in search of more acacia trees. A lone wildebeest named Neatoo in Kenya traversed more than 3,000 kilometers in one month in search of fresh grass. Two lions, a pair of sisters looking after six teenage cubs, traveled entirely at night, staying close to each other 90% of the time.
China is moving beyond building Africa’s roads, railways and ports to investing in the continent’s transportation and aviation industries as a whole.
A French prosecutor has asked a court to sentence the vice president of Equatorial Guinea to three years in prison for embezzling $115 million from his country to buy luxury cars, real estate, and other assets in France.
Kigali, Rwanda
Kigali, Rwanda
On Monday, the United States Supreme Court said it would allow the government to implement parts of its suspended travel ban against citizens from six Muslim-majority countries with one major caveat. The ban cannot apply to those with “a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
A $10 million Chinese-built bridge in western Kenya, personally commissioned by president Uhuru Kenyatta, has collapsed. At least 27 workers were injured when the bridge broke on Monday (June 26). The government has halted construction and sent a team of engineers to investigate.
South Sudan, riven by conflict and famine, has again canceled celebrations for its independence day on July 9. Last year, the government also canceled celebrations because of a lack of funds.
Muhanga, Rwanda
Kenya’s president has promised to give all school girls free sanitary napkins. Less than two months before Kenyans go to the polls, president Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Basic Education Amendment Act which compels the government to provide “free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels to every girl child registered and enrolled in a public basic education institution.”
The world’s most popular coffee bean, arabica, is under threat in the country where it was first found.
The residents of Harlaa, a small town in eastern Ethiopia, have always suspected there was something special about their city. For years farmers have been unearthing Chinese coins, old pottery, and building stones so massive that local lore has said that only giants could have moved them.
The making of traditional Chinese furniture is an art form whose craftsmanship dates back as far as 1,000 BC. The furniture is made from hongmu, or “red wood,” a dense, fragrant, and most importantly, hardy wood that allows Chinese artisans to use joinery and doweling instead of glue and nails. Sometimes the word is carved into elaborate patterns or landscapes. Other times its fashioned into sleek seating arrangements that recall imperial China.
Chinese and Ugandan diplomats found themselves in an awkward position this week. Ordering an investigation, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni personally accused local officials and two Chinese diplomats of smuggling 1.3 metric tons (about 2,900 pounds) of ivory out of the country in 2014. Chinese authorities quickly denied the accusation and pointed out that the diplomats named by the president were not stationed in Uganda. Days later, Uganda’s foreign ministry issued an apology.
A child in Angola is 20 times more likely to die before the age of 5 than one in the United States. Children in parts of sub-Saharan Africa are among the worst off in the world, according to a report from the international NGO, Save the Children, which ranks 172 countries based on where childhood is the most protected and where it’s been eroded the most.
In 1986, fishermen and villagers in northwest Cameroon experienced one of the world’s strangest natural disasters. Lake Nyos, a crater lake near a chain of volcanoes, exploded. A massive cloud of carbon dioxide released into the air suffocated people and livestock as far as 16 miles away within minutes. More than 1,700 people died.
Kenya has the world’s 14th-fastest mobile internet speed, according to a report from the content delivery network Akamai, which collects data from more 130 countries.
Zambian authorities have detained 31 Chinese citizens on suspicion of illegal copper mining, according to Chinese officials who have formally complained about the arrest.
African countries contribute little to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but they still bear the brunt of global warming. Seven out of the world’s 10 countries considered the most threatened by climate change are in Africa.
