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THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION Photo by THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION Halima Sheikh Ali is the proud owner of one of the few ATMs in Wajir town in northeast Kenya. But rather than doling out shilling notes, it dispenses something tastier: fresh camel milk. “For 100 Kenyan shillings [$1], you get a liter of the freshest milk in Wajir County,” she said, opening a vending machine advertising “fresh, hygienic and affordable camel milk” to check the liquid’s temperature. East Africa, one of the world’s biggest camel producers, also produces much of the world’s camel milk, almost all of it consumed domestically. “Camel milk…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Photo by AFP/GETTY IMAGES Rwanda has begun producing locally built cars at Volkswagen’s new factory in the capital, Kigali. The Polo is the first model being made at the site, and the German automaker plans to reach annual production of 5,000 cars in the first phase by also building its Passat, Tiguan, Amarok and Teramont models. Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, has invested $20 million in Rwanda and is expected to create up to 1,000 jobs. The company plans to sell vehicles and use them in an Uber-like car-sharing system that will let people book rides using smartphones.…

VOICE OF AMERICA Photo by REUTERS East African leaders have agreed to build a railroad and highway network to improve regional travel, trade and security. In their 14th meeting on the plan in mid-2018, representatives of eight countries gave Kenya the go-ahead to continue building its standard-gauge railways to the Uganda border. Kenya is finishing the second phase of the rail line between Nairobi and Naivasha. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told his counterparts that plans are underway to extend the line. Uganda and Rwanda also are planning to extend railway connections to the countries after Kenya completes its part. The meeting…

REUTERS Photo by REUTERS Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has arranged more than $4.5 billion in financing for his Nigerian oil refinery project and aims to start production in early 2020. Dangote, who built his fortune in cement, is constructing the world’s largest single oil refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day to help reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imported petroleum. Despite being a crude oil exporter, Nigeria imports the bulk of its petroleum because of a lack of domestic refining capacity. Lenders will commit $3.15 billion, with the World Bank’s private sector arm providing $150 million, Dangote said. He…

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…