ADF

Twenty-six African countries have launched a framework to create a free trade area by integrating three trade blocs to boost regional trade and investment. The tripartite area announced in June 2015 will include the East African Community, the Southern African Development Community, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. It will boast a combined gross domestic product of more than $1 trillion. Some of Africa’s largest economies, including South Africa and Kenya, are among the 26 nations. Official negotiations have also begun for the establishment of a free trade area to embrace the entire continent of 54 countries,…

Samori Touré was a great warrior, a natural leader and an empire builder. But he is perhaps best remembered, and honored, for his role in his later years — defiant to the end to his would-be conquerors. Almost 60 years after his death, his grandson was equally defiant. Touré was born in about 1830 in what is now Guinea. Like his father, he became a merchant. That ended when he was 20 and his mother was kidnapped in a slave raid. The young but already-skilled merchant-negotiator bargained with her captor, offering to serve in his army in exchange for his…

CLUES This attraction is part of Africa’s largest conservation area. The name of this area translates literally as “dead-end marsh.” A nearby river fills the large salt-and-clay pan during exceptional rainy seasons. Surrounding dunes can be up to 400 meters tall, making them some of the highest in the world. ANSWER: The salt desert of Sossusvlei, in Namibia’s Namib-Naukluft National Park

As Africa enjoys unprecedented economic growth, it is looking for ways to protect and expand this prosperity for years to come. During its 50th anniversary celebrations, African Union leaders pointed to the continent’s “blue economy,” the trade and industry linked to the sea, as vital to sustaining that growth in the coming decades. “Africa being a big island, there is a need to have a better understanding of all activities in its adjoining oceans and seas, and think seriously how to maximize the limitless opportunities laying therein,” said Erastus Mwencha, deputy chairman of the African Union Commission. Protecting the blue…

From a small, white building on the campus of Regional Maritime University near Tema, Ghana, a handful of people keep watch on a maritime area that stretches from the northern border of Mauritania to the southern border of Angola. The Maritime Trade and Information Sharing Centre (MTISC) for the Gulf of Guinea is a free service funded by private and public interests, including the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Interpol, Oil Companies International Marine Forum and nations from the G7 Friends of the Gulf of Guinea Group. Watch keepers, who work two or three at a time, typically are drawn from…

As Africa enjoys unprecedented economic growth, coastal countries hope to reap the rewards of what is being called the “blue economy.” Gulf of Guinea countries are benefiting from increased port traffic, tourism and underwater oil drilling. Several Gulf ports have expansion projects underway to accommodate larger ships from around the world. But this growth is not guaranteed. It must be protected from threats that seek to blow it off course. The Gulf is now the world’s leader in piracy with nearly an attack per week recorded in 2014, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Oil theft is draining the region’s…

Maritime security has taken the center stage in recent times in the Gulf of Guinea region. Crimes at sea have assumed alarming proportions and are posing a huge threat to global commerce.  About 90 percent of the world’s trade is undertaken via sea. With resources such as oil and gas, we serve the energy needs of many nations. The economies of many nations depend heavily on the maritime domain and the growing concerns of the security of the domain. International collaboration is, therefore, the best way forward. However, international collaboration is not the only measure required to deal with the…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The Namib Desert on Africa’s southwest coast is one of a number of remote “International Dark Sky Reserves” drawing stargazers in search of a celestial safari. Many lodges have bought research-grade telescopes and hired live-in astronomers to try to lure tourists. “Most people come here for the other activities, visiting the dunes or the nature reserve where you see all the wildlife. This is kind of a bonus,” said Misha Vickas, formerly a guide at a public observatory in Sydney, Australia, but now a resident at the &Beyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge. During the day, the Namib’s copper, red…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Three African leaders have signed an initial deal to end a long-running dispute over the sharing of Nile waters and the building of Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam in Ethiopia. The leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan signed the agreement in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. Egypt has opposed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, saying it would worsen its water shortages. Ethiopia says the dam will give it a fairer share of Nile waters. In 2013, Ethiopia’s Parliament ratified a controversial treaty to replace colonial-era agreements that gave Egypt and Sudan the biggest share of the Nile’s water. Egypt’s then-President Mohamed…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Sierra Leone began a campaign in December 2014 to protect almost half the population from malaria, reducing the burden on clinics from people who wrongly fear they have Ebola. The early symptoms of the diseases — fever, headaches and aching joints — are so similar that malaria can easily be misdiagnosed, causing unnecessary referrals to Ebola treatment units. More than 9,300 trained community health workers went door to door in districts where the risk of Ebola is highest to administer anti-malarial tablets to 2.5 million people over three days. “Malaria is the number one killer in Sierra Leone,…