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Story by ADF STAFF | Photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES More than 20 African nations have started administering millions of free COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX, the global plan to equitably distribute the shots.  In the initial March 2021 rollout, prominent politicians, security personnel and front-line health care workers were among the first vaccine recipients. The United States has pledged $4 billion to support COVAX. In Ghana, President Nana Akufo-Addo and first lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo received two of the first shots. “It is important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being the first to have it so…

ADF STAFF  |  Photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES The former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau has been dogged by unrest and instability since its independence in 1974. The government was overthrown about six years later, and its history has been stained by coups, attempted coups and governmental chaos ever since. Add to that infamy the epithet “narco-state,” meant to sum up a criminal enterprise that for years has allowed — in fact, enabled — the free flow of narcotics into national ports on a transnational journey greased by official collusion. The International Monetary Fund defines a narco-state as a nation in which…

ADF STAFF During the four centuries of its rule, the Mali Empire was known around the world for its fabulous wealth in gold. Nearly 700 years later, areas of the former empire are still rich with deposits of the precious metal. Now much of the small-scale gold mining in Mali and Burkina Faso — known as artisanal mining — is marked by dangerous and exploitative child labor, inhumane working conditions, pollution, health hazards and the scourge of human trafficking. All this is happening in a region plagued by violent extremist organizations (VEOs) that see the unregulated mines as ripe for…

ADF STAFF Twelve years ago, Dr. Andrew Rhyne, a marine biologist and expert on wildlife trafficking, was trying to figure out a better way to track the aquarium fish being imported into the United States. The system could not keep up with the trade volume. About 130 Fish and Wildlife Service officers had to inspect hundreds of thousands of shipments of all types of animals. Much of it required manually cross-referencing information on a shipping document with people or businesses on blacklists for previous offenses. There also was the matter of making sure that the fish in the shipment matched…

ADF STAFF Wildlife ranger work traditionally has been a men’s-only club in Southern Africa. So when the nonprofit International Anti-Poaching Foundation created the all-female Akashinga ranger team in Zimbabwe in 2017, it was greeted with skepticism.  The foundation manages Zimbabwe’s Phundundu Wildlife Area, a 30,000-hectare range once used for trophy hunting. It is part of the Zambezi Valley ecosystem, which has lost thousands of elephants to poachers over the past 20 years. Zimbabwe is home to about 85,000 elephants. The Akashinga, or “brave ones” in Shona, patrol Phundundu, which borders 29 communities, according to National Geographic.  Hiring female rangers was…

Story by ADF STAFF | Photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES The global pandemic did not lock down wildlife traffickers. Authorities in Zimbabwe caught four smugglers trying to ship 26 great apes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to South Africa. In Zambia, the slaughter of animals for bushmeat skyrocketed. In Botswana, lawmakers debated whether to arm park rangers to defend themselves from poachers. In Uganda, a poacher desperate for food stumbled upon an endangered 400-pound silverback gorilla and in a panic stabbed it with a spear, leaving it to die, the media group Ensia reported. COVID-19 has affected almost every…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE There are few museums in the world with as wide a scope as the National Museum of Niger. It has displays covering art, history, dinosaurs, nuclear energy, craftwork and music as well as live animals, for it also is a zoo. The cultural gem of the country, the 24-hectare museum survives on a budget that is just a fraction of those of its wealthy counterparts. Yet it charges a rock-bottom entrance fee — about 10 cents — so that even the most impoverished can walk in and see exceptional things, including wild animals. “It’s Niger’s mirror, its social…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE After the 2019 revolution, Sudanese filmmakers suddenly enjoyed greater openness and have won multiple international awards. But the artists have yet to receive the same recognition at home.  Cinema languished in Sudan through three decades of authoritarian rule by Omar al-Bashir. But Sudanese took to the streets to demand freedom, peace and social justice, and Bashir’s rule came to an end in April 2019. “We started realizing how much our society needs our dreams,” said director Amjad Abu Alala. His 2019 film You Will Die at Twenty was Sudan’s first Oscar entry and the first Sudanese film broadcast…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Libya is playing league football for the first time since April 2019 when civil war ended the season prematurely. The new season kicked off in 2021 without issues, but security is precarious. A cease-fire is in place in the country.  “Libyan football has suffered greatly in the absence of the league, and its return will be a positive for the Libyan national team ahead of our upcoming matches,” said Abdul Nasser Ahmed, secretary-general of the Libyan Football Federation. “This has been a joint effort by all the stakeholders who have encouraged this move and have been…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Nigerian animator Ridwan Moshood was so determined to learn how to make cartoons, he spent hours in internet cafes in Lagos, watching YouTube lessons and taking notes. “I would go to a cyber cafe, watch video tutorials and write down whatever I’d learnt,” he says. Today, the 26-year-old is a rising star in Africa’s blossoming animation scene. In 2018, he was recognized by the Cartoon Network Africa Creative Lab for his animation Garbage Boy and Trash Can. He has since formed a production company, and he now hopes to have his latest idea, a cartoon set in…