South Sudan planning for elections against backdrop of crippling conflict that’s killing scores, displacing hundreds
South Sudan’s transitional government is due to wrap up in less than 10 months. Yet the country’s future looks as bleak as it did in 2018 when rival parties signed a deal to end a crippling civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people. The peace agreement was supposed to end...
Defeated in Middle East, Islamic States terror group turns Africa into its theatre of jihadist extremism
The Islamic State terrorist organisation has been decimated in Iraq and Syria in recent years and is now seeking to expand operations in Africa, taking aim at some of the continent’s most fragile regions. African countries now account for nearly half of all deaths at the hands of the Islamic...
How collaboration, clarity of scope and flexibility helps find to find balance between quality research and participant welfare
I started my PhD in February 2020, two weeks after the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Australia. One month later, Queensland, where I am based, was in lockdown, and we spent much of the next two years under pandemic restrictions. These were scheduled to lift in December 2021,...
As ‘super excited’ Rudiger waits to don Madrid shirt, Chelsea are fast-tracking signing of Frenchman Jules Kounde
German international defender Antonio Rudiger is jet-set to don Real Madrid colours after completing a transfer from Chelsea, who are said to be fast-tracking their pursuit of long term target Jules Kounde as his replacement. As soon as he put pen to paper, Rudiger, who spent six years at Stamford...
Molecular messengers sent out by brain’s immune cells during infections can initiate ‘sickness behaviours’
In 2021, Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroimmunologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and his colleagues reported that there is a local source of immune cells in the brain: the bone marrow of the skull. When they explored how the bone marrow mobilises these cells, Kipnis and his colleagues demonstrated...
Peace and security: AU should expedite African Standby Force, else it’ll remain subsidiary to regional blocs
The decision by seven East African Community (EAC) countries to agree in April to establish a regional military force to restore stability in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where violence by militia groups is ongoing, has once again raised questions about the capacity of the force to...
Brain immunity: For long a time scientists thought the brain is cut off from the chaos of the rest of the body
The brain is the body’s sovereign, and receives protection in keeping with its high status. Its cells are long-lived and shelter inside a fearsome fortification called the blood-brain barrier. For a long time, scientists thought that the brain was completely cut off from the chaos of the rest of the...
South African crime busters and a sangoma or witchdoctor arrested for stealing police ammunitions
South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) national head Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya has expressed disappointment at the involvement of officers from the directorate in criminal activities. This comes after two officers from the DPCI, known more by its code name, Hawks, Lt-Col and a captain working at supply chain...
Half of Somalia’s population is in grip of severe food need against backdrop of drought and insurgency
Somalia’s special envoy for humanitarian issues has said more than six million people in the east African nation are affected by a devastating drought the country experiencing at present. Addressing a news conference in Mogadishu on Monday, Abdurahman Abdishakur Warsameh said the number of people suffering is fast approaching half...
Rwanda and DRC trade accusations over cross-border rebel activities as AU boss calls for ‘calm and dialogue’
African Union chair Macky Sall has called for “calm and dialogue” between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda after both sides accused the other of supporting rebel groups operating along their shared border. “I am gravely concerned by the rising tension between Rwanda and the DRC,” Macky Sall...
