ADF

ADF STAFF When COVID-19 hit Uganda in March 2020, teacher Ocwee Irene Trends knew she had to take drastic action. The country entered a strict lockdown and closed all schools. The teacher had a feeling it would be a long time before her students returned.  As director of Hilder Primary School, in a poor neighborhood in Gulu, north Uganda, she knew her oldest pupils, who were between the ages of 13 and 17, were at great risk of dropping out. She brought 30 boys and girls to live in her family home, where she home-schooled them for free. “The past…

ADF STAFF Community health worker Mariam Traoré spends her days going door to door in Yirimadio, just outside Bamako, Mali, treating her neighbors for everything from malaria to diarrhea and even providing immunizations. On days when she can’t visit, some patients come to her. Traoré belongs to the network of community health care workers serving on the frontlines of Africa’s health care system. Like her fellow community health care workers, Traoré is overstretched and needs support. The World Health Organization estimates Africa needs 2 million community health workers to meet the demands of its rapidly growing population. A shortage of…

ADF STAFF Nigeria has unveiled what have been described as the “world’s largest rice pyramids,” made with a million bags of rice, in the capital, Abuja. The temporary pyramids were aimed at showcasing the country’s efforts to boost rice production and to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food.  It was one of the main promises that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari made when he took office in 2015. Nigerian officials said the initiative has sharply reduced Nigeria’s annual rice import bill, from $1 billion in 2015 to $18.5 million in 2021. The price of rice, a staple food in Nigeria, began to…

ADF STAFF Governments are developing modern high-speed railway infrastructure to replace outdated diesel-powered locomotives with electric trains. Trains arrived in Africa in the 1850s, with the first railway built in Egypt. Over the years, railways sprouted up across the continent, but mostly for industry, not passengers.  Now, with interregional trade becoming more common, railways are seen as a way to move people and goods at a large scale. These are some of the new railway developments on the continent: Al Boraq, Morocco: Morocco debuted its first high-speed train in November 2018. The continent’s first bullet train has a top speed…

ADF STAFF Great Zimbabwe is mostly deserted now, but in its time it was a wondrous place. Historians believe that members of what is now the Shona tribe began work on the city-state Great Zimbabwe in the ninth century, with its heyday from about 1200 to 1300. It covered 720 hectares and was home to an estimated 10,000 people at its peak.  Its centerpiece is a structure called the Great Enclosure. Craftsmen built it, stacking more than a million stones, with no mortar, with a precision that is evident to this day. It is the largest ancient structure in all…

CLUES This fortified village is made up of a group of earthen dwellings. Some structures date to the 17th century. The site was one of many trading posts along the route leading to ancient Sudan. Community areas include a public square, mosque, grain-threshing floor and two cemeteries — one Jewish and one Muslim. ANSWER  Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou, Ouarzazate province, southern Morocco

ADF STAFF In late October, hackers invaded the systems of Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda Limited, a popular mobile money-transfer system, and made off with more than $2 million. Hackers infiltrated Airtel Mobile through one of its clients. From there, they swiped cash from banks and microfinance companies across the country. The case is under investigation by the Cyber and Counter Electronic Measures Desk at Uganda’s Criminal Investigations Directorate. The Airtel Mobile attack, like thousands of others across the continent every day, is a reminder that Africa’s rush to join the internet has left millions of users open to online scams.…

ADF STAFF A year after Benin, Ghana and Togo reaffirmed their willingness to work together to reduce illegal fishing, some fishermen in the region say its badly depleted fish stocks show signs of improvement. Besides at-sea patrols, the countries share information from the Regional Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Centre in Ghana, formed in 2021 by the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC). But those most at risk insist there is still work to do. Many people in the region are still going hungry as foreign fishing vessels plunder their waters. Geoffroy Gbedevi, a fisherman in Benin,…

ADF STAFF To help Benin combat piracy and other maritime crimes in the Gulf of Guinea, the U.S. government delivered a new patrol vessel to the country in December. The U.S. also helped build a new boathouse, maintenance shop and launch ramp to accommodate the vessel. Training was provided to the Beninese Special River and Maritime Police Unit, or USPFM, through U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM. “The Gulf of Guinea has some of the highest incidents of maritime piracy in the world and prior to receiving the vessel and other aspects of the program, the maritime police had little…

ADF STAFF New reporting is showing how Russia uses its Wagner Group mercenaries to extract diamonds from the Central African Republic (CAR). Research published in December 2022 by Belgian newspaper De Standaard, the media network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), and the All Eyes on Wagner project concluded that “in exchange for military support to the government in the CAR, the Russian Wagner Group gets access to precious raw materials.” Since it established a base in CAR, the Wagner Group moved quickly to seize and control numerous mines. “Wherever there are mines and diggers, these people [linked to Wagner] are there,…