2015

ADAM BEMMA/IPS Along the fertile banks of the White Nile, a war veteran’s co-op is planting for a food-secure future in South Sudan, a country potentially facing famine. Wilson Abisai Lodingareng, 65, is a farmer and founder of…

Story and photo by JOAN ERAKIT/IPS Dry, hot and often plagued with sandstorms, Niger has a population of more than 17.2 million. Insecurity, drought and cross-border crime contribute to this West African nation’s fragility, in which only…

Students Create Nigeria’s Online Jobs Giant BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Three students had time on their hands in the summer of 2009 when university lecturers in Nigeria went on strike. Instead of slacking off, Ayodeji Adewunmi,…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Zimbabwe’s telecommunications giant Econet has launched an international debit card with MasterCard in a move expected to cut reliance on banknotes in the cash-strapped country. Econet said it expects to issue at…

ADF STAFF Abebe Bikila’s run to international fame started by accident. Abebe had wanted to run the marathon for Ethiopia in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. But his reported personal best time in the marathon was faster than the world…

Clues This complex served as the home of the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Imerina in the 17th and 18th centuries. The number of structures rose to about 20 during the late 18th-century reign of King Andrianampoinimerina. By the late…

West of the town of Upington, South Africa, is mostly desert. But nearby a tower looms on the horizon. It stands 5 kilometers down a bumpy dirt road, a 200-meter cylinder stretching to the sky, surrounded by more than 4,000 large,…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Sam Brown Jr. grins and flashes a thumbs-up as he snaps onto his longboard, taming the monstrous wave rearing up behind him. The 21-year-old Liberian has joined a growing number of surfers in the West African nation,…

Population-Centric Security Looks at Defense from a New Perspective ADF STAFF Construction of Ghana’s Weija Dam has been one of the most successful public works projects in recent decades. Just west of the capital, Accra, the dam captures…

Over the past two decades, security sector reform (SSR) has emerged as a principal means for promoting peace and stability in Africa. Now a newer concept known as population-centric security sector transformation (SST) seeks to advance the…