Struggling French automaker Renault is set to cut 15,000 jobs around the world, according to labor leaders who met with company officials Thursday night to discuss the plans before a public announcement expected Friday. The cuts are part of a deal the company hopes will deliver €2 billion in savings…
By Arman Sidhu After suffering its first economic contraction in nearly 45 years, China finds itself facing a deluge of economic threats, many of which stem from criticism of Beijing’s handling and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. From alternative supply chains, to new policy measures designed to screen Chinese foreign…
The European Union has announced €105.5 million in aid to Horn of Africa nations facing not just the coronavirus pandemic but also ongoing conflict, severe flooding and a months-long locust infestation that has destroyed crops and threatened food security. Somalia and Ethiopia will share €90 million nearly equally, while Kenya…
By Olusegun Obasanjo and Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe Africa has so far escaped the worst health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the continent looks like it could be the worst hit from the economic fallout of the crisis: 80 million Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty if action is…
Leaders of four East African Community (EAC) member nations have agreed to new measures for truck drivers, spurred by the coronavirus pandemic and the frequent crossing of regional borders. The presidents of Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Kenya say they’re coordinating a plan to have drivers tested and certified at…
Ethiopia and Tunisia have been removed, but four African nations are now on a financial crimes watch list issued by the European Union. Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius and Zimbabwe are identified as high-risk countries for money laundering and the potential for funding terrorism, according to an EU statement. The additions are…
Funds from the World Bank’s Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF) will start going out to eligible low-income nations as early as next week, according to an announcement from the bank on Monday. The US$195.8 million is headed to 64 of the world’s poorest countries with confirmed cases of COVID-19, including…
Human rights advocates with Amnesty International warn that the COVID-19 pandemic is sparking oppressive government responses in southern African nations, just as national lockdowns affect millions of vulnerable people who are losing incomes and fighting off hunger. “With inequality and unemployment so high across Southern Africa, the majority of people…
Sub-Saharan Africa will see its 2020 economic growth so impacted by the coronavirus pandemic that the International Monetary Fund warns of the worst performance in 50 years. That’s according to IMF African director Abebe Aemro Selassie, who participated in a press briefing Wednesday at the IMF spring meetings, which are…
President Donald Trump of the United States escalated the controversy over his response to the global coronavirus pandemic with the announcement Tuesday night that the U.S. has frozen all funding to the World Health Organization, over what Trump claims were its management failures and its support for China in the…
The African Development Bank Group on Wednesday announced the creation of a US$10 billion COVID-19 response package to assist regional member countries in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The bank, based in Abidjan, says this is the latest measure to support the pandemic response and will be the institution’s primary channel…
There are now nearly 10,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in 51 African nations, with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reporting 442 fatalities as of Monday. Yet as the global pandemic continues to impact the continent, there’s growing concern over the economic impacts as well. A newly released report…
The G7 nations completed a conference call on Monday to discuss the global health and economic risk caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as the European Union issued its set of proposals to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. Some of the G7 nations are now among the hardest-hit on the planet,…
New swarms of locusts are coming from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its partners continue to fight back against crop destruction in a part of the world where it is least afforded. The FAO said Friday it was…
By NJ Ayuk, African Energy Chamber Sometimes it is easy to forget how interconnected human lives across the globe have become. Perhaps we no longer talk as much about globalization as we used to in the 1990s because it is no longer an issue to be discussed or protested against,…