As the Chinese celebrate the government’s 70th anniversary, a new paper on Beijing’s relationships with African nations explores how Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects are actually being implemented – and it offers a few surprising conclusions. The paper from the Brookings Institution in the United States is part of…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
There was a moment during United States President Donald Trump’s press conference on Wednesday afternoon when – in addition to more defensive rambling than usual – the president almost sounded wistful about a time when he felt the world still loved him. “I used to be the king of getting…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
By Dominic Rohner and Alessandro Saia According to the United Nations Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, 2018 year was the worst on record in terms of children trapped in armed conflict regions, with nearly 250,000 students impacted by the closure of several hundred schools in Mali alone. These…
Robert Mugabe has died, and Zimbabwe is planning a historic funeral to mark the passing of the man both honored and loathed by his nation. World leaders – from Nigeria and Kenya, Venezuela and the United States and China – responded to the news with their condolences. His Zanu PF…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Another 200 migrants were rescued on the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, this time as they attempted to make the crossing from Morocco into Spain. These migrants from sub-Saharan countries, traveling in three boats, are the latest in the all-too-familiar story of Africans who travel through Libya and other nations, desperately…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
By Piotr Arak AT Contributor The process of increasing international trade in Africa and decreasing barriers that can foster growth resembles the goals and policies introduced successfully in Europe. This year Africa will take a big step towards tackling entrenched economic problems including a dearth of intra-regional trade as the…
In Zimbabwe, crisis is in the air again. Two years after the country’s long-time ruler Robert Mugabe was ousted in a military coup, a crippling energy crisis forces people to live by candlelight as the economy is lurching back towards hyper-inflationary territory. After years of turmoil under Robert Mugabe, the…
Arnaud is a French freelance writer with an African heart who has lived in 10 different Sub-Saharan countries in the past decade. He is currently based in Paris.
It’s been a year since Russian journalists Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal were killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) while working on an investigative project for Russian exile and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The three seasoned journalists were launching a probe into the activities of alleged Russian…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The juxtaposition of the headlines was jarring, in a way that seemed newly unbearable despite all we’ve learned in recent years about African migrants seeking a pathway to Europe, the horrific realities they encounter in transit and in Libya – and the complicity of European governments in their suffering. The…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
This week, Senegal’s justice ministry ordered an inquiry into the management of the country’s energy contracts after a BBC report alleged that the brother of President Macky Sall profited illegally from the award of two lucrative oil and gas concessions. Sall, who like his brother vehemently denies any wrongdoing, has…
Arnaud is a French freelance writer with an African heart who has lived in 10 different Sub-Saharan countries in the past decade. He is currently based in Paris.
More than 100 African thought leaders have appealed to the Eritrean president to allow a delegation to visit the isolated Horn of Africa nation, meet with its leaders and citizens, and open a dialogue with a view toward democratic reforms. The letter to President Isaias Afwerki was created on May…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
It was February 2017 when longtime Congolese opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi died in Brussels, amid the turmoil of former president Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step aside after two terms leading the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, the body of the late Tshisekedi will return to Kinshasa at last. His repatriation,…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo has reached a new milestone, as the number of fatalities reached 1,008 people, according to the Congolese Ministry of Health on Friday. The death toll rose by a sobering 108 victims in a single week. “The frequent armed attacks disrupt our operations,” explained WHO…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Just over a month since areas of the country were laid waste by Cyclone Idai—the deadliest cyclone to hit southern Africa in more than a century— a new natural disaster has struck Mozambique. Cyclone Kenneth made landfall with wind speeds of 220km per hour, killing hundreds and devastating infrastructure, buildings…
Monica is a freelance journalist based in Kenya
In Khartoum, an attack on a meeting of the People’s Congress Party (PCP) on Saturday left 64 people injured, according to Sudan’s state news agency. Idriss Sulaiman, the political secretary for the party, said a group of youths were responsible for the vandalism and violence at Cordoba Hall. Members of…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times