August 24, 2022 THE planned return of 72 Benin Bronzes by a British museum to Nigeria should not go ahead because the move will benefit descendants of Africans who sold slaves during the Transatlantic slave trade, an African American group fighting for “slavery justice” has said. Earlier this month, the Charity Commission in the UK […]
African countries increased defence expenditure to $40bn in 2021 April 26, 2022 MILITARY expenditure by African countries increased overall by 1.2 per cent in 2021 to an estimated $39.7 billion, according to new data on global military spending published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on April 25. It said this total was […]
November 23, 2020 THE UK government has honoured 100 Zimbabwean deminers who have cleared the Falkland Islands of around 25,000 lethal mines that were laid by Argentinian forces that occupied the self-governing British Overseas Territory in 1982 for 74 days. Argentina invaded what it called Islas Malvinas to assert its territorial claims but Britain sent […]
‘COVID-19 emergency powers create human rights challenges’ May 3, 2020 WHILE governments around the world moved swiftly to counter the coronavirus, the emergency powers that were handed over to the various security forces are being seen as a threat to human rights. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has published a report on the need to make […]
COVID-19 ‘immunity passport’ won’t work for now -WHO April 27, 2020 THE World Health Organisation has said that there is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies would be protected from a second infection. A WHO guidance said: “Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the […]
ECOWAS plans for economic fallout from COVID-19 April 26, 2020 LEADERS of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have come up with plans for economic recovery after the global COVID-19 pandemic has subsided. During their video conference last week, they agreed to issue long-term treasury bills and bonds “to finance critical […]
Fact-checkers battle spread of coronavirus misinformation April 13, 2020 COVID–19 misinformation is spreading worldwide, but fact-checkers are fighting hard to put things right. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford in the UK has just published a new piece of research on how misinformation about the pandemic is spreading […]
Climate change conference postponed due to COVID-19 April 13, 2020 THE 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set to take place in Glasgow in November has been postponed due to COVID-19. This decision has been taken by representatives of the COP Bureau of the UN, with […]
Coronavirus halts Gambian Truth Commission April 8, 2020 AFTER reaching the halfway mark of its two-year mandate, the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) in The Gambia has halted proceedings and outreach programmes because of the coronavirus. With the TRRC’s planned Ramadan break in April, the Commission says it is expecting public hearings to resume […]
Democracy in much of Africa is constrained from delivering on its development potential for three reasons. Scholars and practitioners have summed this up in the lack of governance capacity, and malpractices that undermine electoral democracy. But does this mean the future of democracy is bleak? In this Talking Africa Program, Desmond Davis engages Professor. Karuti […]
Emerging powers such as China are shifting global trade relationships. For example, trade between Africa and China has grown from 10 to 20 percent annually in recent years. Most of China’s imports from Africa have been natural resources. These exports have increased by about 46% from 38 billion dollars to 46 billion dollars over the […]
Leadership is an essential feature of all government and governance. Leadership scholars suggest that weak leadership contributes to government failures, and strong leadership is indispensable if a government is to succeed. But does that mean young people contribute to government failure because they are young and lack the so called leadership skills? In Africa, for […]
Despite being one of Africa’s resource-rich region in Africa, Central Africa Region continues to numerous challenges of autocratic rule, political instability, conflict, poverty and multifaceted humanitarian crisis. In this programme we talk to Prof. Abdoulaye Bathily former United Nation’s Special Representative for Central Africa Regional Office to discuss what is at underpins these challenges.
March 2, 2026 AFRIXCANS are increasingly online, but awareness and practice of digital safety remain low, an Afrobarometer telephone survey across seven African countries has found. Most adults in these countries access the internet frequently, but many remain unfamiliar with digital security measures and practice them inconsistently if at all, the survey shows. On average […]
February 17, 2026 LAW ministers from Commonwealth countries have agreed to focus on new measures aimed at strengthening legal protections for people amid growing democratic, economic and climate pressures. The commitments, set out in an outcome statement issued last weekend, followed three days of discussions in Fiji among ministers, with input from diverse stakeholders, including […]
January 27, 2026 AS Africa’s climate ambitions collide with tightening fiscal realities, attention is shifting from commitments to delivery. While governments across the continent have adopted climate and development strategies, turning these plans into bankable, investable projects remains a critical challenge. According to the Africa Climate Finance Tracking Report 2025, current climate finance flows meet […]
January 27, 2026 EDUCATION ranks third among the most important problems that Africans think require urgent government attention, up from sixth place in 2021/2023, the latest Afrobarometer Pan-Africa Profile reveals. The new report, based on 50,961 interviews conducted during Afrobarometer’s Round 10 surveys across 38 African countries in 2024/2025, shows that only half of citizens […]
December 9, 2025 VODACOM Tanzania has launched a sweeping expansion of its mobile money service, introducing M-Pesa Global Payment, a platform that allows Tanzanians to make seamless digital payments to merchants across the world. The service, unveiled in partnership with other mobile money companies, enables users to tap and pay globally using a tokenised M-Pesa […]
December 9, 2025 THE Africa Investment Forum (AIF) convened its first-ever “Mission 300 Day”, bringing together African governments, investors and development partners to accelerate plans to connect 300 million people to electricity by 2030. The event, held on the sidelines of the AIF 2025 Market Days this week, was co-hosted by the World Bank Group […]
August 22, 2005 THE International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) have strongly condemned new sanctions imposed by the US on four senior ICC officials, calling the move a direct attack on international justice and judicial independence. On August 20, the US State Department announced sanctions against two ICC judges — […]
August 13, 2025 YOUNG Africans lag behind their elders when it comes to political and civic participation, except for protest, according to a new Afrobarometer flagship report. Based on 53,444 face-to-face interviews, the largest generational disparity is in voting, where the youth (aged 18-35) trail their elders by a striking 18 percentage points. Youth are […]
August 13, 2025 THE African Development Bank (AfDB) is supporting Artificial Intelligence training to help speed up the implementation of the continent-wide development blueprint, Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. The training is part of broader efforts to enhance institutional and human capacity across the continent. Through its Joint Secretariat Support Office, the AfDB provided […]
June 20, 2025 THE Trump administration is to vet the social media accounts of applicants who apply for visas to study at institutions of higher learning, receive vocational training or take part in exchange programmes in America as US embassies around the world resume issuing such visas. The diplomatic missions will ask student visa applicants […]