Abdoulaye Thiam, a journalist with Le Soleil in Senegal, will lead an organization of African journalists devoted to reporting on climate change until the new media group meets for its first general assembly in 2017.

Thiam is among more than 70 journalists from 40 African countries who are represented in RAJCA, the acronym for African Network of Vanguard Climate Journalists. The network seeks to monitor climate and environmental issues across the continent, and to ensure that decisions made at the action-oriented and Africa-centered COP22 meeting in Morocco earlier this month are promises kept.

The interim RAJCA executive team also consists of journalists from Niger, Togo, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Cameroon.

“Among the missions of the African Network of climate-pioneering journalists, there is the commitment to disseminate and promote all the useful information for the promises to be met,” explained Thiam’s own news outlet.

That includes articles and reporting on policy, but RAJCA will also highlight a range of initiatives that fall within the framework of sustainable development. The group plans more focus on climate adaptation, mitigation, food security and water issues, and mobilizing citizens in the climate fight, to name a few.

The pan-African organization also seeks to engage African journalists, whether they attended COP22 in Marrakech or not, to cover climate issues and the ways they intersect with other news disciplines and developments.

Image: COP22