ADF

Wamkele Mene, secretary-general of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, spoke on January 1, 2021, at the AfCFTA Start of Trading Ceremony Webinar. His comments have been edited to fit this format. Truly today is a historic day, a day in which we start officially trading under the preferences of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Today is a day we take Africa a step closer to a vision of an integrated market on the African continent. This AfCFTA should not just be a trade agreement; it should actually be an instrument for Africa’s development. In this…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The round black pellets easily could be mistaken for animal dung. But they contain acacia seeds that help regrow Kenya’s depleted forests. Mara Elephant Project rangers have scattered 22,000 “seedballs” around an illegally cleared corner of the Nyakweri forest bordering the Masai Mara wildlife preserve to give nature a chance to regenerate. The forests have been chipped away for pasture, crops and charcoal. Nyakweri has lost more than 50% of its forest cover in the past two decades, according to Marc Goss, director of the project. Goss and his team have been spreading seedballs for three years. Forests…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Night has just fallen in central Côte d’Ivoire, and the hour has come for two men, venturing forth in protective suits, veils and gloves, to collect honey from their bees. The art of beekeeping has spread swiftly in Assounvoue, in the heart of the world’s top cocoa-producing country. Farmers started taking up honey-making to supplement their income. They soon realized that their primary crops did better when pollinated by the bees. Word of the twin benefits spread fast. “In West Africa, you have to harvest the honey at night,” said beekeeper Sebastien Gavini, co-director of Le Bon Miel…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A South African company wants to help solve the logistical challenge of keeping COVID-19 vaccinations at the extremely low temperatures necessary as they are shipped across the continent. Johannesburg-based natural gas producer Renergen is developing an ultra-cold biologic transport freezer for the task as African countries continue to roll out comprehensive vaccination programs. Vaccines developed jointly by United States pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, a far cry from what much of rural Africa can support. Some nations have capitalized on vast storage and distribution infrastructure to amass stockpiles of shots…

ADF STAFF In Frederick Forsyth’s 1974 novel, “The Dogs of War,” a band of mercenaries slips into a small, fictional African nation at the direction of a Western tycoon bent on deposing the nation’s dictator to exploit valuable platinum. The novel, and the 1980 movie based upon it, tells a violent tale that paints a stereotypical picture of mercenaries: cynical, amoral, highly trained, heavily armed, single-minded and beholden to those who pay them. In Forsyth’s story, the small band of hired guns are veterans of other clandestine battles, operating through shadowy deals, selling their services to questionable benefactors. The modern…

In Russia’s frenzied attempt to flex its muscles, get access to natural resources and increase its geopolitical relevance, it relies heavily on private military companies (PMCs). This strategy produces a small foreign footprint and offers the Kremlin plausible deniability while enriching a small circle of people. President Vladimir Putin’s Russia favors the use of PMCs such as the Wagner Group when forging training and security deals with African nations while positioning itself to access mines and other rich resource repositories. “They act as force multipliers, arms merchants, trainers of local military and security personnel, and political consultants,” according to the…

ADF STAFF Operation Shujaa, which means hero in Swahili, is making gains that offer hope it can live up to its name. After years of terrorism by hundreds of armed groups that live in the dense forests near their shared border, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) joined forces in early November to hunt for the Islamist insurgents known as the Allied Democratic Forces. Within two weeks, Operation Shujaa — combining the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) and the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) — coordinated military efforts and had the rebels on the run. After…

ADF STAFF To prevent further decline of fish stocks in the Gulf of Guinea, Ghana recently urged neighboring countries to implement coordinated closed fishing seasons. Paul Odartei Bannerman, deputy executive director of Ghana’s Fisheries Commission, made the plea during the Conference of Ministers of the Fisheries Committee for West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) in mid-December. Representatives from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo attended the conference. Bannerman said he believed the impact to fish stocks in the region would be insignificant if only Ghana observed a closed season, according to a report by Ghanaian newspaper Daily Graphic. Bannerman…

ADF STAFF To improve the political stability of African nations, the African Union recently launched its Centre for Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD). The new agency is based in Egypt and mandated to provide countries recovering from conflicts with specialized technical support. It will work closely with the African Union Commission to help keep countries from falling back into conflict based on a framework adopted in Banjul, The Gambia, in 2006. PCRD aims to address the needs of countries emerging from conflict with strategies to prevent disputes from escalating, avoiding relapses into violence, determining the root causes of conflict and…

ADF STAFF The outbreak of COVID-19 has led China to supercharge its nearly 14-year propaganda effort in Africa, increasing pro-China themes in the continent’s media while attempting to deflect blame for the pandemic, researchers have found. Across Africa, China is using its social media channels, television and newspaper ownership, and diplomatic connections to spread disinformation about the disease, amplify pro-China stories and suppress negative coverage. A survey of journalist unions in 50 countries by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) found that more than half said news coverage of China in their national media grew more positive during the pandemic,…