ADF

ADF STAFF For the sixth consecutive time since 2003, Somaliland’s citizens participated in multiparty and largely peaceful elections. The voting was certified as free and fair by 60 international observers, and the results were accepted by all three parties who entered candidates. Just as notably, in a world first, the November 2017 elections employed pioneering iris-recognition technology to register and identify voters. Somaliland has 704,000 registered voters out of a population of about 3.5 million. Biometric iris recognition uses pattern recognition techniques based on high-resolution images of the irises of the eyes. Because of its low margin of error and…

REUTERS Checkered shirts for the American chain Gap. Slate leggings for Swedish store H&M. Twill shorts for Germany’s Tchibo. They are among a growing list of clothes being stitched together for big brands in Ethiopia. As labor, raw material and tax costs rise in China — the world’s dominant textiles producer — the Horn of Africa country is scrambling to offer an alternative and compete against established low-cost garment makers such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. Since the industry is still young, most of the clothing companies sourcing production in Ethiopia are testing the waters with small volumes. But the government…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Coffee is making a comeback in Ghana, both as a crop and as a popular beverage. Ghana is known mostly for cocoa, its biggest crop. It is the second-largest cocoa exporter in the world behind neighboring Côte d’Ivoire. Production of coffee, which was introduced to Ghana in the 18th century, trails in comparison. But it has rebounded in recent years, thanks to a growing overseas demand and a blossoming domestic market that is giving farmers hope of growing a major cash crop. A collapse in the price of coffee in the 1980s caused many Ghanaian farmers to abandon…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Burkina Faso is now home to West Africa’s biggest solar farm, a 33-megawatt plant in the town of Zaktubi, outside the capital, Ouagadougou. The 55-hectare farm, built at a cost of $56.7 million, is expected to power tens of thousands of households in the country. The solar plant is made up of 130,000 polycrystalline silicon panels. According to the energy website The Agility Effect, the region has plenty of sunshine and little rain. The Harmattan, a wind from the northeast that is often dry and dust-laden, will require the panels to be cleaned frequently, as opposed to once…

ADF STAFF The world recognizes Nelson Mandela as the father of post-apartheid South Africa, but he always acknowledged he had help. One of his key partners was Oliver Tambo. For nearly three decades, the two men led the fight against apartheid from distinct places — Mandela from a prison cell and Tambo from exile. Mandela described Tambo as “my partner, my comrade, my friend and my colleague.” Tambo was born in 1917 to peasant farmers. A good student, he attended mission schools and won a scholarship to Fort Hare University, which had become a center of political activism. Mandela, who…

CLUES The Portuguese built this structure from 1593 to 1596. It sits on the edge of a coral ridge. The structure marks Western civilization’s first successful attempt to rule Indian Ocean trade routes. Between 1631 and 1895, this structure was captured and recaptured nine times by warring states. ANSWER Fort Jesus, Mombasa, Kenya

ADF STAFF As Boko Haram saw its territorial gains recede in the face of military operations, the Islamic insurgent group began to turn to asymmetric tactics, namely suicide bombers. That, in itself, is not particularly unusual for terrorists. Using women and children is. Jason Warner and Hilary Matfess of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point wrote about this tactic in “Exploding Stereotypes: The Unexpected Operational and Demographic Characteristics of Boko Haram’s Suicide Bombers.” Their study shows that from April 11, 2011, to June 30, 2017, Boko Haram sent 434 bombers to 247 targets in 238 separate attacks. Of these…

U.S. Africa Command Staff While most of the world was not watching, Boko Haram grew to become the deadliest terror organization on earth. The group was responsible for 6,664 deaths and held sway over 30,000 square kilometers in northeast Nigeria in 2014. Its goal was to establish a caliphate that would last for centuries. Instead of waiting for intervention from outside, countries in the region joined forces to fight back. In 2014, the nations of the Lake Chad Basin activated the Multinational Joint Task Force, a 10,000-person military effort to defeat Boko Haram. The next year, Nigeria changed its national…

October 1 remains a special date for all Nigerians as this marks the day when we attained one of the most precious of human desires — freedom. Over the years the country has gone through trials and tribulations, but October 1 is always a day for celebrations. It is a day for thanksgiving, reflection and rededication. On security, Nigerians must be grateful to our gallant Armed Forces for rolling back the frontiers of Boko Haram’s terrorism, defeating them, and reducing them to cowardly attacks on soft and vulnerable targets. Nigeria is grateful to its neighbors and the international community for…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Malawi has successfully concluded a two-year project to move 520 sedated elephants to a reserve where the animals had been nearly wiped out by poaching. In one of the biggest-ever wildlife translocations, in August 2017 the elephants were transported 350 kilometers by truck from two southern parks to the Nkhotakota reserve in the center of the country. “We have taken extraordinary measures to secure a future for Malawi’s elephants and at the same time are helping people who live around these critically important wild areas,” said Brighton Kumchedwa of the National Parks Department. The elephant population in Nkhotakota…