UN: While pace of development in poor countries is fast, Africa and India’s population is sprinting

UN: While pace of development in poor countries is fast, Africa and India’s population is sprinting

An obstacle to development according to Amare is that many countries in Africa rely on exporting unprocessed natural resources, like mining oil and gas and agriculture rather than developing an economy which sends out higher value finished products.

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Caught between a rock and a hard place, Nigerians in northeast live perpetual in fear of Boko Haram insurgents, military

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Nigerians in northeast live perpetual in fear of Boko Haram insurgents, military

In more than 30 interviews in the northeastern town of Bama in late 2022, men and women described the depopulation of the countryside by military “clearance” operations that they said had torched their villages, destroyed food supplies and killed those unable to flee.

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Africa’s illiterate professors: It is difficult to use graduates of our universities as agents of uniting our countries

Africa’s illiterate professors: It is difficult to use graduates of our universities as agents of uniting our countries

For lack of commitment to true freedom and democracy, many rulers of Africa have facilitated re-penetration of their countries by their former colonial masters and the newer economic and political forces of USA, Russia and China. They have allowed their universities to continue as if they are still manifesting in the colonial times. To meaningfully and effectively achieve continental or regional unity or integration, there must be a cluster of universities structurally and functionally oriented towards integration.

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Chinese mining company opens a giant lithium – used in electric car batteries – plant in Zimbabwe

Chinese mining company opens a giant lithium – used in electric car batteries – plant in Zimbabwe

Lithium is a key component for electric vehicle batteries. To cash in on demand, Zimbabwe last year banned the export of raw lithium ore. In doing so, it joined countries like Indonesia and Chile that are trying to maximise their return on deposits of lithium, cobalt and nickel by requiring miners to invest locally in refining and processing before they can export.

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Donors in plan to build Libya’s food resilience against a backdrop of scarcity, political upheavals

Donors in plan to build Libya’s food resilience against a backdrop of scarcity, political upheavals

The African Development Bank has rolled out a $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility to boost food security and nutrition. Launched in May last year, the facility is helping Africa mitigate rising food prices and inflation, worsened by climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The bank also co-organised a food summit in January in Dakar, Senegal, which produced food compacts for African countries.

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Germany partners with ADB in nearly $11m Nepad infrastructure development plan in Africa

Germany partners with ADB in nearly $11m Nepad infrastructure development plan in Africa

N’Sele says: As economies in Africa navigate new challenges in the face of overlapping global crises, the support of partners such as Germany will enable the African Development Bank to deliver on its important development mission.

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Wagner in Africa: Its fighters can be deployed quickly, have sophisticated arms and are ruthless

Wagner in Africa: Its fighters can be deployed quickly, have sophisticated arms and are ruthless

Overall, Wagner has done nearly nothing to make life better for Africans: its activities have served to entrench dictators and undermine democracies; to extend and deepen civil conflicts; to murder innocent civilians; to exploit natural resources for Russia’s gain; and to vilify the only alternative that Africans have to China for investment.

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Honest tellings of history: ‘Black Was the Ink’ was banned because it unearths what’s often left out of American textbooks

Honest tellings of history: ‘Black Was the Ink’ was banned because it unearths what’s often left out of American textbooks

“Black Was the Ink” is told through the eyes of a modern African American teen named Malcolm who embarks on a miraculous journey to Reconstruction-era America with the help of a ghostly ancestor. While in the past, Malcolm witnesses the historic contributions of Black legislators, who worked alongside white allies to bring justice, education, and land ownership to America’s newest citizens, the 4.4 million African Americans emancipated from slavery at the end of the Civil War.

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Bombing of Fulani herders underlines pattern of deadly military assaults in Nigeria ‘overseen’ by US and Britain

Bombing of Fulani herders underlines pattern of deadly military assaults in Nigeria ‘overseen’ by US and Britain

Clashes between farmers and semi-nomadic herders have killed more than 3,600 people since 2016 in parts of Nigeria, according to a report published by London-based Amnesty International in December 2018. The violence is often painted as ethnic or religious in nature: chiefly Muslim Fulani herders clashing with mainly Christian farmers. But many experts say climate change and expanding agriculture are creating competition – and conflicts – over access to water and land, regardless of faith or ethnicity.

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Trap or collaboration? Fears rise globally about growing Chinese influence in Africa’s security sector

Trap or collaboration? Fears rise globally about growing Chinese influence in Africa’s security sector

Technical disciplines within the Chinese police system are taught within the larger context of China’s political system. The CCP’s definition of terrorism, for example, derives in part from weiwen. This includes curbing anti-government uprisings and what the CCP calls the “three evils” (san gu shili: terrorism, “splitism” or separatism and religious extremism. This approach, in turn, informs China’s international counterterrorism partnerships.

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