ADF

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Having won Senegal’s top prize two years ago, jockey Fallou Diop, 19, hopes to realize his dream of racing on an international stage. Often used for agriculture and transport, horses, donkeys and mules are an integral part of daily life in Senegal. And racing has rapidly grown into a national pastime. “The elders taught us everything since we were young,” Diop says. “And that’s how I became passionate about horses. Since my grandfather, we’ve supported horses, then my father after him.” Diop was 12 when he decided to leave a tailoring apprenticeship and pursue horse racing.…

ADF STAFF How do you pronounce “Gqeberha,” the new name for the South African city of Port Elizabeth? In an effort to rid itself of the last vestiges of colonialism and apartheid, South Africa is renaming some of its towns, cities and airports in the Eastern Cape province. Gqeberha is the Xhosa name for the Baakens River, which flows through the city. Xhosa is one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. It’s also one of the few languages in the world that has a “click” sound, which can be difficult for non-Xhosa speakers to learn, including many South Africans. According…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Three female referees made history at the African Nations Championship quarterfinals in Limbe, Cameroon. Ethiopian referee Lidya Tafesse and her assistants, Malawian Bernadettar Kwimbira and Nigerian Mimisen Iyorhe, became the first women to control a match at a men’s senior Confederation of African Football tournament. The breakthrough came two years after women handled matches at the African under-23 and under-17 Cup of Nations tournaments. Tafesse, a former professional basketball player, tolerated no foul play as she yellow-carded three Tanzanians within 10 minutes during the second half. Male footballers often dispute decisions against them, but most accepted without hesitation…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE U.S. military personnel will spend two months training Soldiers in Mozambique to help the country fight an extremist insurgency in the northeast. Insurgents have launched regular attacks in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province since 2017, leaving at least 2,600 people dead and displacing at least 670,000.  In addition to the training, the U.S. plans to provide medical and communications equipment, the U.S. Embassy in Maputo said.  Mozambique has turned to private military companies to contain the attacks but has faced criticism from groups who accused mercenaries and government forces of harming civilians. The U.S. Embassy said the training…

REUTERS Uganda launched a rapid COVID-19 antibody test that developers hope can help doctors track the virus more widely across Africa. The test, which requires a finger prick to draw blood, was developed by a team at Makerere, Uganda’s oldest public university, with partial funding from the French Embassy. Ugandan scientists draw their diagnostic expertise from long experience with infectious diseases such as HIV and Ebola. “This is a point-of-care test that can be used within equatorial Africa village settings, remote areas where there’s no laboratory, there’s no electricity, there’s no expert,” said Misaki Wayengera, a researcher at Makerere’s Department…

ADF STAFF There was a thunderous blast, flames shot into the sky and a dark cloud of smoke formed over a tree line near a military base in Equatorial Guinea. Then came another explosion. And another. More than 100 people were killed, including children, and at least 600 more injured by the explosions at Nkoantoma Military Base in Bata on March 7, 2021. Responders blamed the explosions on negligent handling of dynamite. Military depots holding explosives ignited when neighbors at nearby farms lit fires, Deutsche Welle reported. The military camp was built in a forest far from the city, but…

STORY AND PHOTO BY SENIOR AIRMAN TAYLOR DAVIS/U.S. AIR FORCE Modern security partnerships rely on the ability to collect, store and share information safely. Improving information security and interoperability was the goal of a four-day conference in February 2021 in Djibouti. U.S. Soldiers assigned to the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) worked with Soldiers from French Forces Djibouti and the Armed Forces of Djibouti (FAD) in the cyber defense and interoperability engagement. “In 21st century international defense, just as with diplomacy, economics and culture, information is a very powerful currency,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Lapthe Flora, CJTF-HOA commander.…

ADF STAFF For several years, Uganda has offered to help its neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), fight a bloodthirsty band of Islamist militants based in its restive northeast region. The group, known as the Allied Democratic Forces, has terrorized the DRC’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces for decades but recently turned its attention to Uganda with a spate of bombings. The most brazen attack in Uganda saw three suicide bombers trigger large explosions in downtown Kampala on November 16, killing at least four people and injuring dozens. But the shockwaves of that attack could lead to the…

ADF STAFF Ghana has implemented a co-management strategy among fisheries stakeholders to protect the livelihoods of artisanal fishermen, conserve fish stocks and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The policy aims to give small-scale fishermen a greater voice in fisheries management decisions and promote voluntary compliance with the country’s regulations. Ghana’s Parliament approved it in September 2020. Daniel Yaw Owusu, coordinating secretary of the National Fisheries Association of Ghana, said all stakeholders need to adhere to the policy’s principles for it to work. “This document can succeed if only the managers and the regulators turn away from top-management attitude,”…

ADF STAFF The year 2021 in Africa will be remembered like 2020 was — the year of COVID-19. But there were other big stories in 2021 in Africa, the world’s fastest-growing continent. MILITARY COUPS — Over the past two decades, Africa has seen major declines in the frequency of coups. In 2021, however, that trend was reversed. Chad, Guinea, Mali and Sudan had military coups, adding up to more in 2021 than in the previous five years combined in Africa. The Sudan coup was the second in that country in two years. The Sudanese army overthrew President Omar al-Bashir in…