REUTERS | Photos by OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, RWANDA Rwanda’s Mara Group has launched two smartphones, describing them as the first “made in Africa” models and boosting the country’s ambitions to become a regional technology hub. The Mara X and Mara Z will use Google’s Android operating system and cost $190 and $130, respectively. They will compete with Samsung, whose cheapest branded smartphone costs $54, and nonbranded phones, which cost about $37. Mara Group CEO Ashish Thakkar said it was targeting customers willing to pay more for quality. “We are actually the first who are doing manufacturing,” Thakkar said. “We…
ADF
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE | photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES Thousands of African-American tourists have flocked to Ghana as part of the “Year of Return” commemorating the 400th anniversary of the slave trade. “This has been about understanding my history and my roots. Where I came from,” U.S. preacher Roxanne Caleb said. “I am very thankful I came here as part of the Year of Return.” Cape Coast Castle, 150 kilometers from the capital, Accra, is a major magnet for visitors. The white-washed fort lined with cannons was one of dozens of prisons studding the Atlantic coast in which slaves were held before…
ADF STAFF A joint rescue team from the Cameroonian Navy and its Rapid Intervention Battalion oil field protection group saved more than 100 people after a shipwreck. A storm caused a ferry, the Austerheim, to capsize near the island of Bakassi during the night of August 25, 2019. Although rescuers responded quickly, 17 people drowned. The ferry was en route from Calabar, Nigeria, to Tiko, Cameroon, and officials said it had about 130 people aboard. “According to the latest information, the boat was overloaded and hit a sandbar before turning around,” the Cameroonian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. …
VOICE OF AMERICA Gen. Odowaa Yusuf Rageh has been named commander of the Somali National Army (SNA). At 32, he is the youngest person to hold the title. He attended military training in Uganda and became an instructor to new recruits. He won accolades for bravery in 2019 when he personally led a charge to repel an al-Shabaab attack in Lower Shabelle. “His presence changed the morale of the Soldiers, changed the fight; they fought bravely because of the commander,” said SNA Gen. Dahir Aden Elmi. “He led the defense and the charge. They won with his operation plan.”…
ADF STAFF Nigeria is making progress in deradicalizing former Boko Haram fighters. The plan known as Operation Safe Corridor was unveiled in 2015 at a Nigerian National Security Council meeting when the government offered former Boko Haram members a chance at rehabilitation and reintegration. German news outlet Deutsche Welle (DW.com) visited the Bulumkutu Rehabilitation Centre in Maiduguri where 151 former Boko Haram fighters were being handed over to the state government in August 2019. Deradicalization includes psychotherapy, interaction with imams who discredit extremist preaching and other counseling. The coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor, Brig. Gen. Bamidele Mathew Shafa, told DW.com…
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Senior military officers from five African Great Lakes countries met to discuss strategies to respond to violence plaguing the region. Senior officers from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda gathered in the eastern town of Goma, in the DRC’s North Kivu province. DRC Armed Forces spokesman Gen. Leon-Richard Kasonga said the meeting was meant to compare strategy and discuss “sharing efforts” to promote peace. Eastern DRC and its borders have been an area of conflict for nearly a quarter century. The region is troubled by militia groups that evolved from the two…
VOICE OF AMERICA At a time when bad news seems inescapable, the aid group Save the Children has some good news: Across the globe, children are healthier and safer than ever before. This is particularly true in Africa. According to a report by the U.S.-based charity, the overall situation for children has improved in 173 of 176 countries since 2000. Among the highlights are 4.4 million fewer child deaths per year, 115 million more children in school and 11 million fewer married girls. To quantify the status of children, the group created an “End of Childhood” index and ranked countries…
BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS An invention by a South African engineer that dispenses pills has won a major engineering prize. Neo Hutiri invented the Pelebox, a locker patients can unlock with a one-time personal identification number sent to their phone. These lockers cut wait times down “from 3 ½ hours to under 36 seconds,” he told the BBC. South Africa runs the world’s largest HIV/AIDS treatment program, which has led to high numbers of patients with repeat prescriptions. Hutiri won the $32,000 2019 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation from the Royal Academy of Engineering. He said he came up with…
VOICE OF AMERICA Kenya is facing one of the worst stretches of drought in years, causing underdevelopment, fights over water and fears of starvation. However, a village in western Kenya is using a high-tech solution to water scarcity with “digital wells.” In Nakuru County’s Solai village, people have long been dependent on seasonal rivers and salty Lake Solai for their animals and irrigation. But drought has reduced the local river to a stream. Residents such as Anne Chesire said the drilling of so-called digital wells has been a lifesaver. Previously, she said, they would have to wake up early to…
VOICE OF AMERICA South Sudan is celebrating a technological advance with the launch of a nationwide system for mobile money transfers. The new service called M-Gurush — M for mobile and Gurush for money in Arabic — removes the need for a bank account, which most South Sudanese lack. Lado Kenyi of the National Communication Authority has high hopes for the new system. “The real success of mobile money is in targeting the people of low income and our rural population,” Kenyi said. “Those are the people we want to reach and include them into the financial system.” South Sudanese…