ADF

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A southern white rhino that became pregnant through artificial insemination increases hopes that a nearly extinct close relative, the northern white rhino, can be saved. News that the female southern white rhino named Victoria was pregnant was seen as a breakthrough and a step toward saving the northern white rhino species. If Victoria is able to carry the calf to term, it will be born in mid-2019. The world’s last male northern white rhino, Sudan, died in March 2018 at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy, his home for 10 years after being transferred from a zoo in the…

VOICE OF AMERICA In Morocco, a giant solar power plant near the city of Ouarzazate soon will increase its capacity to 580 megawatts. Solar energy has been slower to arrive in West Africa than in some other parts of the continent, but growth is underway. West Africa’s largest solar power station officially opened in November 2017 in Zagtouli on the outskirts of Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. It cost $55 million to build with funding from France and the European Union. Zagtouli now delivers 30 megawatts to the national power grid. Before Zagtouli, West Africa’s largest solar station was in Bokhol,…

REUTERS In this arid stretch of Kajiado County, Kenya, where worsening heat and drought have been tough on livestock farmers, Arnold Ole Kapurua is experimenting with a hot new crop: chilis. Ole Kapurua, 29, a farmer and agronomist, now grows 2 acres of the fiery pods — and is training other farmers to do the same — as a way to protect their incomes in the face of harsher weather linked to climate change. “With time we realized that we weren’t making good money as our livestock income stagnated,” he said. “During drought we lost our herds to hunger and…

ADF STAFF Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier, has taken stakes in a number of other carriers across Africa and opened routes to new destinations. It’s also expanding its fleet with the acquisition of its 100th plane. The expansion is part of the state-owned airline’s 2025 Vision to become the dominant aviation group in Africa and increase the share of the market occupied by African airlines. It has the largest fleet of any African airline, and the aviation intelligence group FlightGlobal says it now also has the most passengers each year, passing EgyptAir, South African Airways and Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc.…

ADF STAFF I teach kings the history of their ancestors, so that the lives of the ancients might serve them as an example, for the world is old, but the future springs from the past. Those are the words of griot, or storyteller, Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté, in the opening part of a spoken history of Sundiata Keita, the first ruler of the Mali Empire. The spoken history, passed down by Mandinka griots for 800 years, is called Epic of Sundiata. No oral history is completely accurate, but the epic is supported in part by the writings of Muslim travelers who…

CLUES The national park that surrounds this formation includes Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. It is on the northern end of the Cape Fold Mountain range. It has a 3-kilometer plateau on top.  Legend says that the clouds blowing over the mountain are from a smoking contest between the devil and Dutch pirate Jan van Hunks. ANSWER  Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa

By LISA FERDINANDO, DOD NEWS More than two dozen participants from 11 African nations learned how to hold United Nations peacekeepers accountable for sexual misconduct and other crimes during a course for national investigative officers in Entebbe, Uganda, in January 2018. The course focused on how peacekeepers should address sexual exploitation and abuse allegations, said Mark Swayne, acting U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for stability and humanitarian affairs. Oversight will result in greater accountability for people and units responsible for abuses. “Ultimately, this should lead to a decrease in these incidents, which not only severely harm the people and…

U.S. Africa Command Staff Two oft-repeated Swahili proverbs state, “One finger alone cannot kill a louse,” and “One pole cannot support a house.” The meaning is clear: Tasks both small and large require cooperation. Security is no different. The threats facing the African continent are complex and interconnected. Terror groups hop across borders, internal disputes send refugees fleeing by the thousands and natural disasters can fan across a region. Combating these threats requires innovation. Multilateral interventions must take new forms and include a variety of partners. African security leaders are showing that they’re up to the challenge. One example is…

We are aware of the various collaborative initiatives and concerted efforts that have been put in place, not only to ensure a secure Africa, but to attain global security. These collaborative efforts justify the theme of the summit: Unity is Strength.  Drawing from the theme, I am aware that countries in Africa have independently, or in collaboration, made efforts to eliminate threats such as terrorism, insurgency, piracy, proliferation of small arms and economic crises. I hope that the deliberation during the summit has offered opportunities to learn from the shortcomings, successes and strategies employed to neutralize or defeat threats of…

Story and photos by THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION On a sunny afternoon in Western Kenya, Eunice Shigali filled a 10-liter jerry can with water, then unfolded it like a suitcase and placed it in the sun. After a few hours, a green smiley face appeared on the side of the black container, telling her the water was clean and hot and ready to cook ugali, a staple dish made of maize flour. “I used to light a fire to boil water for drinking, washing and cooking,” the 48-year-old mother of three told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Now I save time because…