The global human rights community was in mourning Sunday after hearing the news that Gaëtan Mootoo, a well-respected French Mauritanian researcher for Amnesty International in West Africa, has died. The 65-year-old Mootoo died at the weekend in Paris, according to Amnesty International Benin. His cause of death was not immediately…
The launch of a new investigative journalism series has all eyes on West Africa, where the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has partnered with reporters in 11 countries to, among other things, track down money in offshore tax havens and expose the elite clientele connected to the funds. “Leaked…
Protesters are marching for change in Togo, where President Faure Gnassingbé has held office since 2005 after following a father who had been in office since 1967. Human trafficking in Libya has shocked the conscience of the world, while Islamic extremists across the Sahel remain a grave security concern. Last…
Scientists say they now consider the Atlantic humpback dolphin, a little-known mammal that lives only on the ocean coasts of Western Africa, to be among the continent’s most endangered alongside gorillas, African wild dogs and black rhinos. An assessment released this week by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the International Union…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Maps of the migration routes from places like Somalia or The Gambia into Libya and other North African states illustrate some of the continent’s most pressing economic and security challenges – but there are other illicit flows often associated with them. The new World Drug Report 2017, released on Thursday,…
A week-long campaign to help end polio is wrapping up in 13 African countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. More than 116 million children are receiving vaccinations in what WHO describes as one of the largest synchronized and simultaneous campaigns ever achieved on the African continent. More than 190,000…
Guinea Bissau President José Mário Vaz stepped aboard the ship Esperanza on Tuesday to hear reports from his nation’s Fisheries Surveillance Department (FISCAP) on their joint illegal fishing patrols with the Greenpeace vessel. Guinea Bissau authorities working with the international environmental organization told the president that just in the past…
From 2013 to 2016, the deadly Ebola virus swept across West Africa in an unprecedented outbreak. Studies of patients treated in Europe and the United States have suggested that Ebola might cause lung damage by replicating itself in lung tissue. However, no direct evidence for that conclusion yet exists. Scientists…
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has released a “red list” for West Africa that highlights the cultural objects and artifacts most at risk of being looted, stolen, or illegally exported and trafficked. The Red List of West African Cultural Objects at Risk is similar to ICOM lists issued for…
A November update on 2016 migration statistics from the Italian Ministry of Interior finds the number of Nigerian migrants has nearly doubled on the Mediterranean crossing route since October 2015. Of the 168,542 migrants arriving in Italy – a 17 percent increase over last year – the largest number came…
“Paris is over. Now comes the hard part,” announced every obvious headline from the New York Times to the Bangkok Post, and most places in between. Heading back on the flight home, one wonders what the final signing of a climate change agreement really meant to delegates like Gabon, Democratic…
Thierry Durans is an environmental development consultant based in Paris with 5 years of experience of working in West Africa.
A hurricane has hit Cape Verde, producing winds of up to 135 kilometres per hour. The storm, named, Tropical Storm Fred, I now over 400 kilometers away from Islands, the Weather Channel reported. It is the first hurricane to hit the islands since 1892. Cape Verde is made up of…
Faith-based organisations should be more often utilised in spreading healthcare throughout West Africa. Thomson Reuters Foundation quoted a statement made by Edward Mills, the author of the study and a senior epidemiologist at Global Evaluative Sciences in Canada saying that “religious groups are major players in the delivery of healthcare,…
The United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) has been severely criticised for their response to West Africa’s deadly Ebola outbreak, which has been deemed inadequate in a report released Tuesday July 7, 2015. The Report of the Ebola Interim Assessment Panel, which was created by the UN-appointed independent panel of…