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WORLD BANK Photo by AFP/GETTY IMAGES Fourteen West African countries with 27 national electricity utilities are working to build an integrated regional power market. The West Africa Power Pool is completing the physical interconnections to send power across borders. About 7 percent of the region’s electricity is traded among the 10 already-connected countries. It is anticipated that by the early 2020s the most critical cross-border links will be in place, making it possible for electricity to flow throughout West Africa from countries with cheaper, cleaner and more abundant energy resources to those lacking them. Access to electricity in West Africa is…

The Rules of the Manden Charter Echo Today ADF STAFF Photo by REUTERS When the warrior Keita Sundiata learned that his home tribe had been conquered by a neighboring king, he went to war, using a borrowed army and forming a coalition of neighboring kingdoms in what is now Mali. He crushed his enemy’s forces, consolidating what came to be known as the Mali Empire. He was just getting started. About 1235, he gathered a group of wise men, including the king he had defeated. With them, he composed the Kurukan Fuga Charter, or Manden Charter, one of mankind’s first constitutions.…

CLUES This 19.5 hectare reserve is a palm forest that is mostly unchanged since prehistoric times. The area has the world’s largest number of coco de mer palm trees, which bear the largest seed in the plant kingdom. The area shows how the tropics looked before the evolution of more advanced plants. British Maj.-Gen. Charles George Gordon believed the area was the original Garden of Eden. ANSWER  Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve, Seychelles

Although piracy is not new to East Africa, the seeds of modern piracy were sown off the coast of Somalia after the collapse of the national government in 1991. With no navy to patrol the Gulf of Aden, Somali waters became vulnerable to international fishing vessels, which plundered fish stocks and were accused by locals of dumping toxic waste into the ocean. A 2009 Time magazine report indicated that piracy rose in response to indiscriminant foreign trawling, which took plentiful mackerel, sardines and tuna from the ocean at a pace that “would virtually empty the world’s oceanic stocks by 2050,”…

Piracy in Africa’s Gulf of Guinea ramped up later and took on a different character than piracy in East Africa. Pirates and maritime criminals in West Africa mainly sought to steal oil from tankers, a process called bunkering. However, there have been more instances of kidnapping for ransom in recent years that The Maritime Executive attributes to two causes: First, increased naval patrols in the gulf mean that thieves and pirates don’t always have the time to pull vessels alongside oil tankers and drain them of crude. Second, a dip in global oil prices makes bunkering less profitable. Kidnapping for…

U.S. Africa Command Staff Africa, a continent with 30,500 kilometers of coastline, sees its future and fortunes inextricably tied to the sea. With its wealth of life-sustaining fish and energy-producing resources, the ocean can support development and prosperity on land. The sea also is the source of many challenges. Although the number of incidents has dropped from its peak nearly a decade ago, Somali-based piracy still presents a danger in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. In fact, the number of incidents has increased steadily since 2016. In the Gulf of Guinea, West African nations still must contend…

We are making efforts to tackle piracy, sea robbery and all illegal activities within our maritime domain through the establishment of the Maritime Guard Command with the combined efforts of NIMASA [Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency], the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Police Force, and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps. We are championing the anti-piracy bill before the National Assembly to provide a legal framework for punishing piracy and other maritime crimes. When passed into law, it will ensure adequate sanctions against offenders and act as a deterrent to others. We have also achieved over 85 percent…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Bismark Owusu covers clothes and furniture with a sheet before mixing a mosquito-killing chemical with water. He then puts on safety gear, straps the spray pack to his back and methodically sprays walls, windows and corners of the room. Owusu’s visit to Domeabra, a community in central Ghana, is his latest stop in the country’s fight against malaria. The death of two of his friends from the disease spurs him on. “Why wouldn’t I help if others are dying?” he said. “I am here today helping to eradicate this deadly malaria.” There were 216 million cases of malaria…

THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION Growing up on Mount Boutmezguida in southwest Morocco, Khadija Ghouate never imagined that fog would change her life. Every day Ghouate and other women would walk 5 kilometers to fetch water from open wells. Overuse and drought made getting water more difficult. But a mathematician whose family came from the area had an idea: using fog to make water. Now Ghouate’s village is connected to the world’s largest fog collection project. “You always had to go to the wells — always be there, mornings, evenings,” Ghouate said. “But now water has arrived in our house. I like…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Joseph Kamonjo Kariuki, 37, known in his Kenyan village as “Joseph of the Donkeys,” thinks three of his animals were victims of a black market scheme that uses donkey skins as a key ingredient in a Chinese health fad. Animal rights groups say agents are seeking to feed China’s insatiable appetite for a gelatin they call ejiao (pronounced “uh-jee-ow”), which is made from stewed donkey skins and purports to provide health benefits. Shrinking donkey herds in China have driven ejiao producers to seek supplies from Africa, Australia and South America, activists say. Fourteen African governments have banned…