ADF

Story and photo by REUTERS Desire Koffi often walks through Koumassi, a working class district of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to buy old mobile phones from people for 500 CFA francs ($0.87) a pair. Back home, the 24-year-old artist smashes the phones with a hammer and pulls out the screens and keypads. He uses them for his paintings, which can take three to five days to complete. Koffi grew up in Koumassi and says he was drawn to recycling and incorporating e-waste into his art after seeing how it affected his environment. “My number one goal is to try, in my…

With Africa’s Internet Growth Comes More Risks and More Opportunity ADF STAFF  The prospects for crippling cyber attacks are no longer the stuff of science fiction and blockbuster movies. The tools of cyber warfare have been tested on large and small scales all over the globe.  In short, cyber attacks are here to stay. Perhaps Ukraine offers the most effective and well-known example. It was there, in December 2016, that the lights went out. Hundreds of thousands of residents were plunged into darkness for hours until workers could manually re-engage the electricity grid. A similar attack had occurred a year…

As the continent improves its communications infrastructure, it becomes a bigger target for cyber criminals ADF STAFF Separated by cultures, religions, languages and 8,458 kilometers, Morocco and India appear to have little in common. And yet, in late 2018, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together on several fronts. One of the problems the two countries share is cyber crime. According to India’s Policy Commission, India ranks third in the world in terms of internet users, after the United States and China. India’s internet use grew sixfold between 2012 and 2017, with an annual growth rate of…

OSMA Shows that Athletic Competition Among Soldiers Can Have a Broad Impact ADF STAFF • Photos by OSMA The Organization of Military Sports in Africa (OSMA) was created with a simple goal in mind: Build bridges of friendship through sports. Organizers believe athletic competition among Soldiers from across the continent can accomplish things that hours of drills, conferences and other military training cannot.  “It contributes to the broader effort of peace and develops the ideals of fraternity, hospitality, integration and mutual understanding that characterizes the African armed forces,” Col. David Kadré of Burkina Faso, president of OSMA, told journaldebrazza.com. “These ideals…

Simple, Low-Cost Measures Can Put Militaries on Road to Cyber Security ADF STAFF An employee, spending one of countless days in front of a computer screen, opened an email and clicked on a link. That began the invasion. The worker, a computer technician at Saudi Aramco, a major Saudi Arabian oil company, presumably was well-schooled in the ways of careful computer use. But not, apparently, on August 15, 2012, during the holy month of Ramadan. The clicked link was all that hackers — calling themselves the “Cutting Sword of Justice” — needed to infiltrate one of the richest companies in…

Stopping online propaganda by extremists takes more than just shutting down the messenger ADF STAFF For years, the blueprint for countering extremist propaganda was straightforward: Insist to followers that their beliefs are wrong and that they are suffering as a result. Tell them to abandon their cause and that they will have better lives if they change sides. Repeat the countermessages as often as necessary. The only problem with countermessaging is that it rarely works. Dr. Cristina Archetti, author of “Terrorism, Communication and New Media: Explaining Radicalization in the Digital Age,” says that developers of anti-extremist messaging need to abandon…

REUTERS The“Nigerian Mona Lisa,” a painting lost for more than 40 years and found in a London apartment in 2018, has been exhibited in Nigeria for the first time since it disappeared. Tutu, a painting by Nigeria’s best-known modern artist, Ben Enwonwu, was painted in 1974. It appeared at an art show in Lagos the next year, but its whereabouts after that were unknown, until it resurfaced in north London. The owners, who wished to remain anonymous, had called in an expert in modern and contemporary African art to identify their painting. He recognized Enwonwu’s portrait. The owners put the…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Angola won the 2018 Amputee Football World Cup in Mexico, beating Turkey 5-4 in a penalty shootout. The match ended 0-0 after normal time, and the deadlock could not be broken in extra time. The deciding shootout proved just as tense, with both teams scoring from their first four penalties. Amputee football is played with seven competitors on each team — six outfielders and one goalkeeper. Outfielders each have one leg amputation, and goalkeepers have an arm amputation. Outfielders use forearm crutches and play without artificial limbs. Angola, which finished as runner-up at the last World…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Nigeria’s Davido won the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) trophy for artist of the year, leading a strong showing for West Africa’s Afrobeats stars. Musicians from across the continent traveled to the Accra International Conference Centre in Ghana’s capital in November 2018 to walk the red carpet and celebrate a year of big hits. Betty G from Ethiopia took home album of the year, and best African DJ went to Afrotronix, who has roots in Chad. Nigerian rapper Falz won the award for best rapper after courting controversy this year when he released This is Nigeria, which skewered…

REUTERS Egypt and Sudan, two countries facing cross-border threats from militias operating in Libya, have agreed to set up joint military patrols along their border. The patrols eventually may lead to joint forces in the border region to “combat terrorism, cross-border crimes, control the border and combat all manifestations of evasion,” Sudanese Chief of Staff Kamal Abdul Maarouf told reporters. He said the two militaries would form a strategic partnership in all fields, especially intelligence and operational cooperation and training. The countries also agreed to joint investments, Abdul Maarouf said, and allowing Egypt to establish agricultural and animal production projects…