ADF

BRAND SOUTH AFRICA A group of students from South Africa’s University of the Western Cape (UWC) is the first African research team to lead an experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. Better known as the home of the Large Hadron Collider, CERN is one of the most prestigious science research facilities in the world. Colliders are used in particle physics research, in which particles are accelerated and hit other particles. CERN has the largest collider in the world, and it also is described as the largest machine in the world. The team of postgraduate students fired…

VOICE OF AMERICA A farmers’ group in South Sudan’s Imotong State says it has found a way to combat the dreaded fall armyworm, which has devastated crops across the continent. Robert Lokang, leader of the Bidaya Farm Association, regularly sprays his crops with a concoction of neem tree leaves, ash, powdered soap and water. The all-natural formula is designed to kill the armyworms while not harming the plants. It’s not a new invention. Lokang said he learned it decades ago as a child, when his father used the same concoction to ward off pests. He said that in 2016 the…

JEFFREY MOYO/INTER PRESS SERVICE Sixty-seven-year-old Hloniphani Sidingo smiles broadly while popping out through the gate of a clinic in her village, as she heads home clutching containers of anti-retroviral (ARV) pills. The first Bantu people to dwell in present-day Zimbabwe, the Khoisan, also known as the Bushmen or Basagwa, populate remote areas of southern Africa, particularly Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Here, the Khoisan community is found in Matabeleland North’s Tsholotsho district, where many like Sidingo live. An estimated 1.2 million people in Zimbabwe are living with HIV/AIDS. This includes nearly one in three Khoisan people. Now,…

FRIDAY PHIRI/INTER PRESS SERVICE Frequent extreme weather and climate shifts challenge already vulnerable groups such as smallholder farmers. Between 2004 and 2014, farmers are said to have endured the brunt of the $100 billion cost of extreme weather. With traditional insurance proving costly, the alternative approach — weather index-based insurance, which links payouts to events triggered by extreme weather — is becoming popular. In Zambia, the World Food Programme has been testing such an intervention since 2015 in the Pemba district of Southern province. The insurance product targets farmers who have engaged in climate-smart agricultural practices, also known as conservation…

WORLD BANK On a typical morning in elementary schools across Uganda, children can be heard chanting letters of the English alphabet, each letter assigned to a common item found around the home, followed by its vernacular word to help with association and memory. “Axe, banana, cup, drum,” they sing, working their way down the chart. This is the way generations of Ugandans have learned. “That is learning English as a language,” says Caroline Kavuma, an early-grade reading specialist with Uganda’s Ministry of Education. Although it may be easy for children to learn English, she adds, it is more difficult for…

NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA The largest manufacturing conglomerate in West Africa wants to create 15,000 jobs by launching a sugar industry in Nigeria’s Niger State. The Dangote Group, headed by billionaire Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has signed a $450 million memorandum of understanding to develop an integrated sugar industry in the central Nigerian town of Lavun. The 16,000-hectare plantation would produce 12,000 tons of sugar cane per day. “Dangote Group is a firm believer in the vast economic potential of Nigeria,” Dangote said. “We have decided to invest in local sugar production in Niger because of the vast arable land available…

ADF STAFF In 1827, Russia’s greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin, began his first work of prose, a historical novel titled The Moor of Peter the Great. It was based on the life of his African-born great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who went from being a slave to becoming a Soldier, engineer and scholar. Pushkin never finished the book — and perhaps that was for the best. The life of his great-grandfather was so remarkable, a single book could not have done it justice. Gannibal was born in what is now Cameroon in 1696. His birth name was Abram, and he was the…

If erected as intended, this structure would have stood 137 feet tall and weighed 1,168 tons. Quarrymen are thought to have abandoned this project 3,500 years ago when cracks were found in its sides. The granite quarry has a canal that may have connected to the Nile and allowed the structure to float to its final destination. The object offers clues about the stoneworking techniques of ancient people. ANSWER: The Unfinished Obelisk at Aswan, Egypt

Tommy Victor Udoh | Nigerian Defense Space Agency Since 2009, the extremist group Boko Haram has killed 20,000 people in Nigeria and displaced 2.3 million more. The group, which has pledged its support to ISIS, has used social media to recruit Nigerians to its cause. Nigeria has taken positive steps to undermine the group and its use of social media: Financial intelligence gathering: The Bank Verification Number (BVN) program strengthens the security of banking transactions and improves national financial intelligence collection. This government initiative improves the detection of laundered money and shares information on emerging risks. Unique BVNs in Nigeria…

UNITED NATIONS SUPPORT OFFICE IN SOMALIA In a unique event, 39 female military and signals personnel from 17 countries took a two-week course on information and communications technology. The course was held at the United Nations Signals Academy at the U.N. Regional Service Centre Entebbe, Uganda, in November 2016. Skills taught at the course will allow female military and police personnel to play a greater role in peacekeeping operations. Several of the women who participated were serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia. Samuel Leal, U.N. Signals Academy Programme manager, expressed the academy’s dedication to promoting gender equality and…