Chinese engineers pose after welding the first seamless rails for the China-Laos railway in Vientiane, Laos, June 18, 2020.
Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua via Getty Images
Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has become the world’s largest country-to-country lender. A new study shows that more than half of its loans threaten sensitive lands or Indigenous people.
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Eurobonds are costly for governments. But they are also attractive because investors buy them without preconditions.
A flock of birds flies near Lake Manyara, Tanzania.
Luc Janssens de Bisthoven
Biosphere reserves are the living labs in which people and nature learn how to live and thrive together. Four pilot sites in Africa show the programme’s promise.
The doum palm is an indigenous tree in Kenya which produces edible fruit.
Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images
Africa’s key to future food-nutrition security may depend on the untapped potential of indigenous fruit trees.
Women who had a secondary or higher level of education were more likely to test for HIV than women who had no formal education.
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Local and national governments in west and central African countries must prioritise investment in providing access to HIV testing for all pregnant women.
Agricultural mechanisation can reduce work burden, increase prosperity and enhance diets.
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Agricultural mechanisation can be accompanied with appropriate policies that help to harness its potentials while minimising potential negative effects.
African leaders blunt the transformative power of smartphones through censorship and internet shutdowns.
EFE-EPA/John Hrusha
The full benefits of digital democracy are being thwarted by digital exclusion that is driven by the high cost of data.
Restoring the mosque of Djenné in Mali.
MICHELE CATTANI/AFP via Getty Images
The next ten years will be a critical period in which research agendas can be developed.
CFA franc countries will no longer have to keep 50% of their foreign exchange reserves at the French Treasury.
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The decision by eight Francophone states to delink their common currency from France won’t be without challenges.
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Navies, and other security agencies, won’t be able to improve maritime security as long as root causes on land are not addressed.
Cross-border smuggling is a persistent issue in Nigeria
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Stricter policing at the border does not address the root causes of Nigeria’s smuggling issue.
Ivorian sailors participate in an anti-piracy hostage rescue scenario with the Ghanaian Navy during Exercise Obangame Express.
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Feeding a simple narrative of piracy without a broader look at other maritime security challenges hinders progress in dealing with it.
Nigeria ordered its land borders closed on August 21, 2019.
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Nigeria’s border closure is a panicked reaction which violates ECOWAS protocol.
African countries have an opportunity to reduce poverty with new policies.
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If trends continue, 87% of the world’s poorest people will live in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.
The border closure has affected goods from other West African countries.
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Efforts to increase trade within the continent are being undermined from the start
Newspapers in Swahili and in English in Dar es Salaam. The media is increasingly not trusted in Tanzania.
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In a surprising change in trends, citizens in many African countries increasingly support government restrictions of press freedom.
Senegalese women cast their ballots in the presidential elections in February.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
Africa’s democracies have grown stronger during a period in which the world is backsliding on democracy.
A merchant gives change of an old 500 CFA Franc note (approximately 76 Euro cents) and a new 500 CFA Franc coin.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Why leave a stable monetary zone that enables sustained economic growth of around 7%, at a time when Africa’s overall growth rate is at a 25-year low of 1.6%?
Egypt’s Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring a goal during the Afcon qualifying match between Egypt and Tunisia, 16 November 2018.
Khaled Elfiqi/EPA
Here is a run-down on everything you need to know ahead of the championships.
US National Security Advisor John Bolton sees China as a threat to Washington in Africa.
EPA-EFE/Shawn Thew
The US needs to review whether a security agenda based on US priorities will solve problems in sub-Saharan Africa.