With over four million people living around it, Lake Kivu a potential deadly natural disaster
If Kivu were to experience a limnic eruption, says limnologist Sally MacIntyre, “it would be completely catastrophic.” And the spread of the lava from Mt Nyiragongo that erupted recently is testimony to the fears expressed by MacIntyre, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This isn’t just a...
Recent Mt Nyiragongo eruption has switched attention to the dangers lurking in Lake Kivu
Kivu is no ordinary lake, with dense depths packed with methane and carbon dioxide gas. Its features hold aquatic puzzles, explosive hazards and the capacity to provide valuable energy. The unique makeup of Africa’s Lake Kivu prevents the mixing typically seen in other deep lakes, leading to unusual stratification of...
Tech transfer: Ensuring food security with Zimbabwe’s first private research institute
I study the interactions between cell proteins and DNA. I want to understand how the gene-editing tool CRISPR makes unintended changes to organisms’ DNA. I have a faculty appointment at Leipzig University in Germany. But in March 2021, I took parental leave, which will probably become permanent leave and came...
Kenya president berates judiciary, warns he won’t relent on contentious constitutional order
Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta continued his onslaught on the judiciary during the country’s 58th Independence Day celebrations, terming the latter arm of government an impediment to economic development and national cohesion. President Kenyatta just fell short of accusing the judiciary of being the instigator of cycles of election violence, inter-ethnic...
Can grit, ambition that Francis Kadenge epitomised inspire tottering AFC Leopards Sports Club?
After AFC Leopards SC, one of Kenya’ most successful football clubs, was humiliated by a nondescript Bidco FC on May 30, the team’s supporters have expressed strong reservations about its current players and management’s commitment to success. “They fear success” is the refrain in every conversation. Given its history as...
UN peacekeepers exit leaves Darfur at the mercy of killer Janjaweed militias
The departure of the long-running UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur has created a security vacuum as hundreds of thousands flee fresh outbreaks of violence in a conflict that civil society groups and displaced Darfuris told The New Humanitarian is far from resolved. The joint UN-African Union mission, known by its...
Ndombe Opetum: DRC celebrates 9th anniversary of TPOK rumba ‘philosopher’
Nine years ago today, Kinshasa bade farewell to rumba legend Ndombe Opetum, the composer and songwriter whose song Nayebi Ndenge Bakolela Ngai had for nearly 30 years been the subject of intense discussion of what the composer intended to convey. It still is. As a result, there is still...
US slaps visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials over human rights abuses
The United States has announced visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials accused of fuelling the six-month-old war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, saying those involved had “taken no meaningful steps to end hostilities.” “People in Tigray continue to suffer human rights violations, abuses and atrocities and urgently needed humanitarian relief...
DR Congo government struggles to rescue citizens in Goma as Mt Nyiragongo volcano erupts
The government in the Democratic Republic of Congo has launched an urgent evacuation plan for the eastern city of Goma after a large volcano erupted. Fountains of high lava burst from the Mount Nyiragongo into the night sky forming a thick orange cloud over Goma, which has a population of...
Report: Sexual exploitation and abuse are endemic in UN humanitarian division
In September last year, during investigations by The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Beni – 60 kilometres northeast of Butembo – the 51 women said dozens of men, mostly foreigners, had coerced them into having sex in exchange for jobs. The majority of those claims were also...
