As part of World Mental Health Day, the Human Rights Watch organization is shining a spotlight on countries where the practice of shackling those with real or perceived mental health conditions continues, including Ghana. Officials there promised last year to end the cruelty and said it was illegal to put…
First Lady Melania Trump of the United States begins her four-nation tour of Africa with events in Ghana Tuesday. She is expected to meet with Rebecca Akufo Addo, wife of Ghanaian President Nana Akufo Addo, to help promote initiatives for children’s education, and maternal and child health. Trump, the wife…
Funeral services for Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, are set to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday in the auditorium of the Accra International Conference Center, where visitors have gathered for two days to pay their final respects. The 80-year-old Annan died on August 18 in Switzerland following…
All eyes have been on British Prime Minister Theresa May during her visit to Johannesburg, where she signed a joint statement on trade with South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini – but on Wednesday, it’s German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s turn to visit the continent. Merkel begins a three-nation tour…
Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations and the first black African to lead the UN, has died in Switzerland. The Kofi Annan Foundation announced the 80-year-old Ghanaian died on Saturday after a short illness, with his wife, Nane, and three children by his side. “Kofi Annan…
The United States has issued a new warning to Ghana over its lack of compliance with removing citizens who are under deportation orders. Two years ago, the U.S. began cracking down on countries – several African nations among them – after conservative lawmakers in Washington called for the application of…
This week Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid will be awarded the 2018 UNESCO-Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize during World Press Freedom Day, hosted this year by Ghana. As with the many recipients before him, he won’t see the conference sessions or attend the gala dinner in Accra. The Egyptian, known…
Remember the Ghanaian teacher whose social media post went viral after people saw he was teaching IT classes without a computer – and drawing the entire Microsoft Word interface in chalk every day? Richard Appiah Akoto, the teacher at the Betenase M/A Junior High School in Sekyedomase, is now in…
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo Addo will meet Wednesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany, where he is finishing up a 10-day tour that also took him to Togo and the United States. The two are expected to discuss bilateral relations with an emphasis on economic partnership. Ghana is one of…
Emmanuel Mensah, a Ghanaian immigrant living in the United States, is being hailed as a hero for saving the lives of four neighbors before he couldn’t escape from what is now New York City’s worst fatal fire since 1990. Twelve people died in Thursday’s blaze, among them the 28-year-old member…
The value of copper and other recoverable materials in the e-waste generated around the world in 2016 was an estimated USD$55 billion, according to the new Global E-Waste Monitor 2017 report. That’s more than the GDP of most countries in the world, the authors said. Yet most of the 44.7 million…
Most Africans want to pay their taxes, according to a new paper from the Ghana-based Afrobarometer research network, but good governance is the key to seeing those citizen dollars go into the public coffers for much-needed revenue. Overall, 63 percent of respondents said taxes are necessary for development, while 72…
President of Ghana Nana Akufo Addo welcomed France’s Emmanuel Macron to Accra on Thursday, fresh from an African Union-European Union summit in Abidjan that was laser-focused on the crisis in Libya but, according to critics, at the expense of real diplomatic advances on pressing issues. Akufo Addo has been outspoken…
Two months ago, officials in Ghana noticed refugees from Togo showing up at border crossings, fleeing from the escalating political tensions and the first reports of fatal violence next door. Now there are more than 500 Togolese who have been registered by Ghanaian authorities, and Benin and Burkina Faso are…
Earlier this year, some of the world’s biggest names in chocolate – The Hershey Company, Mars and Nestlé among them – pledged to clean up their supply chains and end the deforestation damage that’s been part of doing business in West Africa. At least 12 companies met in London with…