Alone in Niger, the young man sits, filled with regrets. “I didn’t necessarily want to come this far,” he says with anguish. “Khartoum may have been OK.” What made him extend his flight to a destination unknown, he wonders. He survived a perilous journey across deserts and seas, but at a terrible cost. His brother, with whom he was so close, lost his life after leaving the Sudanese capital, where the two had briefly settled after fleeing Eritrea, the country of their birth, as a result of political instability.
In August 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May visited countries in Africa, sparking hope of increased foreign direct investments (FDI) in the continent.
Migration is at the heart of every discussion on sustainable development in Africa today. Experts paint a more complex picture than the too-common images of young African migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Who in Africa is migrating, how and where to? Africa Renewal’s Zipporah Musau sat down with Ashraf El Nour, the Director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office to the UN in New York to find out more. Here are some excerpts.
For years, boosting agricultural production was believed to be the solution to world hunger and malnourishment. But years of intensive farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides has done little to move the needle on food insecurity, health metrics or life expectancy.
What started as a struggle for equality and justice by citizens of southern Cameroon has spiraled into a fullblown crisis. Rebel groups seeking an end to what they consider domination of the anglophone south by the francophone north have taken up weapons against the government's security forces, causing hundreds to die while tens of thousands are forced from their homes.
Without a doubt, migration is a defining issue of this century. One billion people, one-seventh of the world’s population, are migrants. Some 258 million people are international migrants, 40 million are internally displaced and 24 million are refugees or asylum seekers. In 2018, there is no longer a single state that can claim to be untouched by human mobility.
At five years of age, Kenneth Habaalu, a Zambian, was paralysed by polio, a viral disease that attacks the nerves. Mr. Habaalu’s paralysis appeared to cut short any hopes of getting an education and finding a job later in life. But thanks to his brother who paid his tuition, he acquired a diploma in management.
The showroom in her Queens home in New York is bedecked with all the accoutrements of a young designer who has caught the eye of the high-flying New York fashion scene.
Sovereign African countries barely existed when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, three years after the end of World War II.
After flying into the city of Bol in the Republic of Chad, over the lush fields and receding lakes, we landed to a rapturous welcome from traditional rulers and local women. Their faces reflected a hope and dignity slipping away under the harsh reality of poverty and insecurity. The women, smiling at us as we disembarked, showed the same resilience I have seen in women in countless contexts: an ability to survive, even in the face of multiple forms of violence and insecurity at home, in public or from political conflict.
Zimbabwe’s famed beef industry, which collapsed in the 2000s following outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, is now rebounding.
Megacities, cities with a population of at least 10 million, are sprouting everywhere in Africa. Cairo in Egypt, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lagos in Nigeria are already megacities, while Luanda in Angola, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Johannesburg in South Africa will attain the status by 2030, according the United Nations.
Lucia Kula was only eight when war came to her doorstep and upended her life. A civil war had raged for years in her birthplace of Angola and her father was held political prisoner. To save her two daughters, Lucia’s mother picked up the family and fled for safer ground.
As ride-hailing apps proliferate the globe, the year-old An Nisa Taxi in Kenya is one of the standouts in Africa.
To experience a taste of African culture deep inside the Big Apple, visitors—including many Senegalese—turn to Le Petit Senegal (Little Senegal), a West African neighborhood in West Harlem, New York.
When in October 2018 Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist and specialist in reconstructive surgery, won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018, the world’s media celebrated the extraordinary life of a doctor often referred to as “the man who mends women.” The moniker is a recognition of the years he has spent fixing the bodies of sexually assaulted women and girls in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
He could give you his full attention for a few seconds and leave you with the feeling you mattered. This is a quality you will recognize in very few individuals. It is emotional and profound. That’s because people occupying powerful positions more commonly portray arrogance and impatience. It could be true such people are usually quite busy, which explains their limited time for kindness or small talk. That is the normal behaviour you sort of expect. And, then, there was the Kofi Annan way.
As thousands of desperate men, women and children flee conflicts and natural disasters in search of a place of refuge, some countries are debating whether to accept or reject asylum seekers. But Uganda has opened its doors to refugees in record numbers.
Edward Kallon is the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, a country that recently exited a painful economic recession. At the same time, insecurity stemming from the continuing terrorist activities of Boko Haram insurgents has not abated. Under these conditions, some 80 million Nigerians will go to the polls in February 2019 to elect a president, the governors of 29 of Nigeria’s 36 states and all federal and state legislators. On these and other pertinent issues, Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor interviewed Mr. Kallon. These are excerpts.
In the fight for gender equality, women around the world have advanced in small and large ways. Yet for women in Africa, progress is measured in micro steps, and the struggle has a long way to go.
