Togo commits to African cybersecurity hub in Lomé

Togo commits to African cybersecurity hub in Lomé

The West African nation of Togo is set to become the home of a new African Center for Coordination and Research in Cybersecurity. The central hub, to be located in Lomé, will serve to collect cybersecurity information and intelligence for the region, in an effort to support a “true African…

China pushes back at U.S. over Huawei-Africa comments

The Chinese government has pushed back over remarks about telecom firm Huawei and its presence on the African continent, made by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman of the United States. Sherman made her comments during a just-concluded diplomatic swing through South Africa, Angola and Gabon. In Angola, she visited…

Central African Republic adopts Bitcoin as official currency

The Central African Republic has become the first nation in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as an official currency, saying the move will put the C.A.R. “on the map of the most courageous and visionary countries in the world.” President Faustin-Archange Touadéra announced the decision in a statement, welcoming the news…

Kéré’s prize-winning architecture seen across Africa

Architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, a native of Burkina Faso, was awarded this years top prize in architecture for his climate-focused work, much of it in West Africa and in Kenya, Sudan and other parts of the continent. Kéré was named this year’s recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize for pioneering…

Google CEO speaks at UNECA forum on transport, tourism

Google CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted African innovation during a brief address Monday to the Business Forum of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) held in Addis Ababa. The business forum was held on the margins of the annual African Union Summit. It focused on transportation as part of…

Outage knocks Amazon Web Services users offline

A massive outage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday left people across the globe waiting for services they depend on to come back online. AWS said it was aware of the problem but an hours-long outage was expected to continue until the service was fixed. Many digital services, including…

Apple sues Israeli firm scrutinized over Pegasus spyware tools

Apple announced on Tuesday it has filed suit against an Israeli company that’s been closely monitored for its role in supplying spyware to foreign governments—a number of them on the African continent—and placed on a U.S. entity list for its development of Pegasus surveillance tools. “NSO Group creates sophisticated, state-sponsored…

U.S. puts Israeli firm behind Pegasus tech on blacklist

An Israeli company scrutinized for its role in supplying spyware to foreign governments, a number of them on the African continent, has been placed under new restrictions by the United States government. NSO Group, which develops and supplies Pegasus software, is now on the Entity List at the US. Department…

Facebook services reported out across the globe

Users of Facebook and its related services, Instagram and Whatsapp, reported global outages of the social media platforms on Monday. The services went down shortly before 7 p.m. in Kenya. South Africans and Egyptians said they were unable to access Facebook, even as users from India, Canada, the United States…