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Africa Renewal - Volume 28, Issue 1, 2014
Volume 28, Issue 1, 2014
The Africa Renewal magazine examines the many issues that confront the people of Africa, its leaders and its international partners: sustainable development goals, economic reform, debt, education, health, women's empowerment, conflict and civil strife, democratization, investment, trade, regional integration and many other topics. It tracks policy debates. It provides expert analysis and on-the-spot reporting to show how those policies affect people on the ground. And, it highlights the views of policy-makers, non-governmental leaders and others actively involved in efforts to transform Africa and improve its prospects in the world today. The magazine also reports on and examines the many different aspects of the United Nations’ involvement in Africa, especially within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
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Africa watch
Author: Pavithra RaoWith rising food prices and so many mouths to feed, Cameroon is grappling with a serious crisis. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports that prices of main food items have skyrocketed this year, some by up to 20% from last year. The price of sorghum, for example, rose by 4%, maize by 5% and rice by a whopping 22%, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
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As it plans its own future, Africa engages with the world
Author: Tim WallThis year’s summit of the African Union (AU), which turned 50 in 2013, followed an intensive round of planning for the next 50 years. The summit, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was just opening as Ms. Amina Mohammed, the UN Secretary-General’s point person on development, spoke with Africa Renewal at her office on the 37th floor of the UN Secretariat building in New York.
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The Special Court for Sierra Leone rests — for good
Author: Lansana GberieThe Special Court for Sierra Leone made its final major decision on 26 September 2013 when its Appeals Chamber upheld the 50-year sentence handed down to former Liberian President Charles Taylor. The court ruling in April 2012 found Mr. Taylor guilty of five counts of crimes against humanity, five counts of war crimes and one count of other serious violations of international humanitarian law perpetrated by Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who he supported.
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Mauritania: slow but steady walk to democracy
Author: Kaci RacelmaMauritania has been in the news lately over the hot-button issue of slavery. Last year the American satellite news channel CNN broadcast a documentary titled Mauritania, Slavery’s Last Stronghold, a searing indictment of the country’s weak efforts to end modern forms of slavery such as forced labour, child labour and human trafficking. Also last year, the Global Slavery Index, an organization that tracks the phenomenon, named Mauritania as having proportionally the highest prevalence of slaves in the world. With up to 140,000 persons said to be enslaved in the country, the UN Security Council established a tribunal last February to prosecute those responsible for the practice.
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Central African Republic: killings in the time of transition
Author: André-Michel EssoungouFor a few weeks earlier this year, no one needed an alarm clock to wake up in Bangui. The sound of gunfire, sometimes sustained and heavy, was a morning ritual in the Central African Republic’s capital city. To most people here, identifying where the shots came from was a survival skill.
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Rwanda: rising from the ashes
Author: Wadzanai MhuteFor the survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, it feels like only yesterday that machete-wielding Hutu militias embarked on a mission to annihilate Tutsis. Marie Claude Mukamabano, a Tutsi aged 15 at the time, was one of such targets. She remembers vividly how scarily close she was to losing her life when the militias grabbed her and threatened to cut off her head.
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Africa flies on a wing and a prayer
Author: Masimba TafirenyikaUntil recently, it was not uncommon for passengers flying between two African cities to transit through Europe. It was cheaper and faster, for instance, for passengers travelling to Ethiopia from Côte d’Ivoire to fly first to Paris with Air France and then catch a connecting flight to Addis Ababa. With no direct flights linking their capitals, most African countries had to rely on flights from their former colonial powers to connect to each other. It still happens today but on a smaller scale; flying in Africa is improving, albeit slowly.
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On bumpy roads and rails
Author: Nirit Ben-AriThe Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which sprawls over 905,000 square miles, is the second largest country in Africa. Fifty-four years after independence, the DRC has few roads connecting one end of the country to the other. In fact, the only way to travel between two distant points is by air and canoes. Many Congolese cannot afford air travel, and most feel as if their country is made up of different countries.
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Internet access is no longer a luxury
Author: Joel MachariaIt is early morning in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. The traffic jam along Ngong Road, one of the city’s main feeder roads, stretches for kilometres as matatus (taxis), buses and cars try to make their way into the central business district. At the top floor of Bishop Magua Centre complex, sitting just off Ngong Road, Antony Njoroge is already at work, typing away at his computer, a mug of freshly brewed coffee beside him. He is the founder of RevWeb, a local software development company.
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Light at the end of the tunnel
Author: Kingsley IghoborApapa is an industrial hub in Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital that’s home to some 17 million people. Daily, the air in Apapa reverberates with the humming sound of electricity generators. In Apapa, as in most places in Nigeria, electricity generators power big factory plants and air cooling systems, as temperatures often top 30 degrees Celsius.
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There is energy momentum in Africa - Interview: Kandeh Yumkella, UN Under-Secretary-General
Author: Kandeh YumkellaUnder-Secretary-General Kandeh Yumkella is the special representative of the UN secretary-general and chief executive for the Sustainable Energy for All initiative. His job is to mobilize global commitments and partnerships to, among others, promote clean energy economy and generate jobs. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Yumkella had served as director-general of the UN Industrial Development Organization. In an interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor, Mr. Yumkella discusses a range of issues on Africa’s energy challenges.
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No longer a curse?
Author: Kingsley IghoborThe Hollywood blockbuster movie, Blood Diamond, tells a gripping story of how diamonds fuelled Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war, which erupted in 1991. It depicts kidnappings, use of child soldiers, amputations, rape, killings and destruction of bridges and hospitals, among other atrocities.
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There’s no need for more oil wells in Nigeria - Interview: Nnimmo Bassey
Author: United NationsNnimmo Bassey, an award-winning environmentalist, is one of Africa’s leading campaigners, particularly for his work in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region. Mr. Bassey was a human rights advocate in the 1980s. He was imprisoned many times by late president Sani Abacha’s government in the 1990s. He is co-founder and chair of Friends of the Earth International and Environmental Rights Action. In 2009, Time magazine named him one of the Heroes of the Environment. In this interview with Yemisi Akinbobola for Africa Renewal, Mr. Bassey discusses the continuing protests by the Niger Delta people against oil pollution and makes the case for compensation.
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Hunting for Eurobonds
Author: Jocelyne SambiraAttracted by the prevailing low interest rates, cash-strapped African countries looking to borrow money on international private markets are increasingly turning to Eurobonds as the instrument of choice. In 2006, Seychelles became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa, other than South Africa, to issue bonds. A year later Ghana followed, raising $750 million in Eurobonds. Since then they have been joined by Gabon, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Namibia and Zambia.
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Africa wired
Author: André-Michel EssoungouFor some 300,000 people leaving in 202 villages in Tanzania, change is coming. The leading fixed network operator in the country, the Tanzania Telecommunications Company (TTCL), recently announced that it will invest over $6 million to upgrade telecom equipment in those villages.
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