Former United States President Barack Obama announced Friday on Facebook that he’s set to travel to Africa for the first time since leaving office more than a year ago. Obama will deliver the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture on Tuesday at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, in what is part of the…
Cambridge Analytica, the disgraced intelligence and data-driven communications firm at the center of the Facebook political data scandals and subsequent British and U.S. investigations, has re-emerged with an Egyptian as its sole investor and a focus on the Middle East and Africa. The new company, Auspex International, will keep former…
Nine people will face charges in Kenya following the tragic failure of a private dam that killed nearly four dozen people in May, according to the ODPP, the country’s national prosecuting authority. The Patel Dam was named for the private farm it served but is also known as the Milmet…
Wildlife experts at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya were thrilled to hear the news Wednesday that scientists, working to save the nearly extinct northern white rhino, found a breakthrough in their search to develop an embryo suitable for assisted reproduction. Scientists at Avantea announced that their technique for developing…
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has announced that Lake Turkana National Parks in Kenya has been added to the List of World Heritage in Danger, notably because of the impact of a dam on the site. “The Committee expressed concern about the changes affecting the hydrology of the Lake Turkana…
With all of the attention paid to United States President Donald Trump’s tirades on trade during the weekend G7 meeting in Canada, it might go unnoticed that a number of African heads of state were in Quebec too – and they were focused on environment and climate in a G7…
In South Africa, exiled South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar acknowledged meeting with former Kenyan presidential candidate Raila Odinga, but it remains to be seen if Machar will participate in direct peace negotiations with President Salva Kiir. “I have had a fruitful discussion with Hon. Raila Odinga in the quest…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced Thursday that it will integrate Islamic banking, which now has a presence in more than 60 countries, into its financial stability assessments in nations where Islamic finance commands at least 15 percent of the banking sector market. Beginning in 2019, they’ll use the Core…
Asfawossen Asrat is professor of geology, School of Earth Sciences at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Nelson Torto is executive director at The African Academy of Sciences in Nairobi, Kenya. What they have in common – along with 10 other scientists from the Global South – is a concern over…
The death toll has reached 45 in Kenya following a catastrophic dam failure near the village of Solai in the western part of the country, amid new fears that other dams may be at risk of breach. Authorities say another 40 people who were missing are accounted for, except for…
There’s a new strategy to combat the illegal wildlife trade in Africa, and it relies on local communities and their role in curbing elephant, rhino and other wildlife trafficking. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, in partnership with the International Institute for International Development (IIED), rolled out a toolkit…
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya delivered his State of the Nation address Wednesday with an emphasis on unity amid the lingering consequences of last year’s bitterly contested presidential election. To that end, he praised unsuccessful Nasa candidate Raila Odinga for seeking to heal their divisions and called on Kenyans to…
International NGO Human Rights Watch is calling on South Sudan to investigate the forced disappearances of Dong Samuel Luak and Aggrey Idri, who went missing from the streets of Nairobi in January 2017. Luak, left, a human rights lawyer and critic of President Salva Kiir’s government, held refugee status in…
The World Bank has approved USD$180 million in loan guarantees to boost Kenya Electricity Generation Company Limited (KenGen) and the country’s energy sector. The KenGen project, supported by private sector financing, will build on Kenya’s progress in diversifying its energy sources – including geothermal power – while bringing much needed…
The 2017 presidential elections in Kenya saw President Uhuru Kenyatta victorious, but not before protracted court battles that forced a do-over vote and the defiant refusal of Nasa coalition challenger Raila Odinga to accept the results. It’s still not over for the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the…