this seems really cool
An African youth volunteer program just got launched in West Africa. The BBC reports that “The scheme would see youths spend time helping out in areas such as agriculture, health or education in a...
View Articlesad sad story
A while back I posted something on Sierra Leone’s shocking maternal mortality stats. This week TIME magazine has this sad piece on Mamma Sessay, an 18 year old Sierra Leonean woman who died during...
View Articlecrucial elections in west africa
The Ivorians have a runoff election tomorrow while the Guineans (Guinea-Conakry) get to find out who will be their president on December 2nd. The Ivory Coast is still trying to recover from the...
View Articleouattara won, but gbagbo determined to latch on to power
The Ivorian electoral commission declared Alassane Ouattara, the northern candidate, as the winner of the presidential runoff held on Sunday. Ouattara got 54.1% of the vote. Incumbent Laurent Gbagbo...
View Articlethe African Union and its problems
The just concluded AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia had two key problems to address: the political crisis in Ivory Coast and the legal battles involving six Kenyans who face charges at the ICC. So...
View Articlembeki’s take on the ivorian crisis
Ouattara’s victory over Gbagbo in Cote D’Ivoire is quickly generating winner’s remorse. The coalition of disparate rebel forces that united to oust Gbagbo is already breaking apart. Just this past week...
View ArticleAfrica’s budding narco-states?
UPDATE: The Kenyan Prime Minister just admitted to the presence of drug money in Kenyan politics. Huge. Also, check the UNODC’s drug trafficking patterns for East Africa. Also, does anyone out there...
View ArticleThe complex problem of slavery in Mauritania, a response
This is a guest post by Mauritania (and the broader Sahel) expert and friend of the blog Erin Pettigrew (PhD Candidate, Stanford University) A response to John D. Sutter over at CNN.com I’ve been...
View ArticleOn (the now shattered) Malian Democracy
Update: Mutineers in Mali have appeared on national television to announce the overthrow of the “incompetent” government of President Amadou Toumani Toure. More on this here. Also, I must hand it to...
View ArticleAtta Mills, President of Ghana, is dead
The BBC reports: Ghana’s President [John Atta Mills], who was suffering from throat cancer, has died in the capital, Accra. A statement from his office said the 68-year-old died a few hours after being...
View ArticleTyler Cowen Goes to Lagos
MR’s Tyler Cowen (also Professor of Economics at George Mason) recently spent six days in Lagos. Here is what he has to say about Africa’s biggest and most economically dynamic city: A trip is often...
View ArticleLome Port is now bigger than Lagos
Lomé in Togo has become West Africa’s major port, surpassing Lagos. A key development backing Lomé was the commissioning of Lomé Container Terminal. It handles close to 890,000 TEU annually, close to...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....