African delegates welcome long-awaited UN High Seas Treaty

African delegates welcome long-awaited UN High Seas Treaty

African leaders are celebrating news of successful negotiations for a High Seas Treaty, the long-awaited United Nations agreement to protect global oceans and ecosystems through international cooperation. The treaty, approved by delegates to the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), follows years of talks that…

Laureen is the editor of Africa Times

UNGA and African youth: ‘Climate change is real for us’

African heads of state aren’t the only ones heading to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Young climate activists from across the continent, along with their global peers, are again calling for action on climate change through various events aligned with UNGA. The Youth4Climate initiative, along with other…

Faure says financial help is needed for Seychelles, island nations

President Danny Faure of Seychelles underscored the challenges facing island nations as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic took center stage at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. Faure’s pre-recorded speech was among six such talks scheduled for African leaders, in a format that replaced in-person meetings for the…

Africa records at least 229 COVID cases in 23 nations

There are now at least 229 positive cases of the novel coronavirus on the African continent, according to health officials, with the first confirmed cases in Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Rwanda and Seychelles among them. The Department of Health on Seychelles said two of its citizens returned to the Indian Ocean…

Seychelles named to EU’s tax-haven ‘blacklist’

The European Union has placed the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles on its “taxation blacklist,” which it says is meant to encourage good governance and help countries reform their tax-haven policies. The EU list of “non-cooperative jurisdictions” now includes 12 nations listed because of concern that their policy environments…

UN court says UK must end governance in Chagos islands

The International Court of Justice, the principal court of the United Nations, announced Monday a decision that calls on the UK to end its control over the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth welcomed the decision as a “triumph for justice” and said he…

Seychelles initiative to address alarming heroin use rates

Officials in Seychelles are ramping up efforts to combat the island nation’s notorious heroin problem, which now effects more than 5 percent of the population age 15 or older. That’s according to survey results released earlier this month by the Agency for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation, which…