Africa

Photo: Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto (Front) speaks after receiving a certificate to confirm his victory in the presidential election at a tallying centre in Nairobi, Kenya, on Aug. 15, 2022. Credit: Joy Nabukewa/Xinhua

Kenyans Select Presidential Winner but Not All Agree

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — What began as a quiet voting exercise with a low voter turnout ended with an upset victory for Kenya's Deputy President, William Amolo Ruto, who becomes the nation's fifth president. The race had taken a worrying turn since polls were shut down several times after complaints by supporters of the leading candidates.

On August 15, Kenya's elections chief declared Deputy President William Amolo Ruto. Still, four other senior election officials said the week-long count was too opaque amid chaotic scenes and disowned the result.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 15 August 2022

Photo: Hungry kids in South Sudan. Credit: Siegfried_Modola | The Star

Humanitarian Food Grain on way to Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A UN-chartered vessel has been loaded with humanitarian food grain for Africa, in a first step toward releasing much needed food aid that had been trapped in the Ukraine.

The vessel will carry 23,000 tons of grain for Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya as part of a UN-backed plan to move the grain trapped by Russia's war on Ukraine and help relieve a global food crisis.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 15 August 2022

Photo: Screenshot of "The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara". Source: BBC Eye Investigations.

A Film Explores Fulani-Hausa Conflict in Nigeria's Zamfara State

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — In a deeply disturbing new documentary, Nigerian journalist Yusuf Anka presents a devastating portrait of his country's worst security crisis. In the north-western state of Zamfara, heavily armed bandit gangs raid villages, attack drivers, abduct children and kill anyone who resists.

As seen through this hour-long video, we hear the voices of Fulani-dominated bandits, as they are popularly called in Nigeria, and Hausa-dominated vigilantes, including the men who abducted almost 300 secondary schoolgirls in February 2021.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 10 August 2022

Photo credit: Leicester Museum Art Gallery

Asians Recall Expulsion from Uganda 50 Years Ago

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LEICESTER (IDN) — It remains a bitter memory for Asians, some life-long and others more recent residents of Uganda, of their sudden, unexpected expulsion from the African country they called home 50 years ago this month.

They had just 90 days to pack up and leave, then President Idi Amin declared in a televised speech. For now, he was "giving Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans".

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 August 2022

Photo (from left to right): Achieng Oneko (1920–2007) was a Kenyan freedom fighter; Jomo Kenyatta, an anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978; Kenyan trade unionist, Makhan Sign, born in India's Punjab; Oginga Odinga in 1961. Wikimedia Commons.

Evidence of How British Dirty Tricks Smeared Kenya's First Vice-President

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — As election fever was cresting in the East African nation of Kenya, declassified documents were published exposing the spread of fake news by the UK's propaganda arm against the country's first vice president, Oginga Odinga (October 1911-20 January 1994), for his leftist views.

Provisional results of the current elections suggest a tight presidential race in Kenya between Deputy President William Ruto and Raila Odinga, Oginga Odinga's son and a former prime minister.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 August 2022

Photo: Demonstrators are stopped by police as they try to march towards the border with Rwanda, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 15, 2022. Source: France 24

New Jersey Senator Seeks Review of Aid to Rwanda For Rights Abuses in DR Congo

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Rwandan government's human rights record is under a harsh spotlight over its role in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sen. Robert Menendez, chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would place a hold on U.S. security assistance to Rwanda in Congress over concerns about the Rwandan government's human rights record.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Senator Menendez called for a comprehensive review of U.S. policy towards Rwanda.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 August 2022

Image: Oil exploration continues. Source: Euractiv

Congo Oil Auction Plans in ‘Last Refuge of Biodiversity’ Shocks Environmentalists

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — As massive floods and endless droughts, unleashed by global climate change, take lives and leave homes a twisted pile of sticks, the Democratic Republic of Congo will take a dangerous step backwards—opening up the Congo Basin to fossil fuel development.

Sections of a renowned tropical forest could soon carry the pounding of oil rigs, including in Virunga National Park, the world’s largest wetland. Created in 1925 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park is also a sanctuary for endangered mountain gorillas and other endangered species.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 02 August 2022

Image: Desertification and drought. Credit: UNCCD

Study Supports Reparations in Climate-Damaged African Nations

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The African continent of 1.2 billion people, which represents 17% of the world's population, contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions but suffers from extreme weather events, which scientists have warned will become more frequent due to climate change.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 August 2022

Photo: Veterans at the annual meeting in Abomey in 1908. Wikimedia Commons.

New Film Highlights World’s Only Female Army in the Kingdom of Dahomey

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The only documented female army in modern history was that of the Kingdom of Dahomey—now southern Benin—which, by the 1800s, had thousands of female troops.

In September, a film version that portrays the lives of these warrior women will be seen in cinemas around the country. In the meantime, a trailer of the film can be seen on YouTube. It features Viola Davis and Hero Fiennes.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 August 2022

Photo: Charline (left), 11, fled her village because of recent armed clashes in North Kivu province, DR Congo. She has taken refuge with her family in a camp for displaced people called Kiwandja in Rutshuru territory. ©UNICEF/Jean-Claude Wenga

The Congo, its Minerals and its Tribalism

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — When the United Nations pulled its troops out of the Congo, a country the size of western Europe, in June 1964, Secretary General U Thant reported, "The UN cannot permanently protect the Congo from internal tensions and disturbances created by its own organic growth towards unity and nationhood".