ADF

A Kenyan Organization is Fighting Extremism by Empowering Youths PHYLLIS MUEMA/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KENYA COMMUNITY SUPPORT CENTRE If a battle against extremism is being waged in East Africa, coastal Kenya is on the front line. About 3.2 million people — approximately half of them Muslim and half Christian — live in the six counties that make up coastal Kenya. The region is about 600 square kilometers and stretches from Kenya’s southern border with Tanzania to its northeastern border with Somalia. The area, especially its largest port city Mombasa, has a history of tension with the national government. The coastal population believes…

The West African Epidemic Shines a Light on the Need for Water and Sanitation Infrastructure In late 2013, Ebola took root in West Africa, spreading like wildfire and throwing the region into chaos. By early March 2015, it had killed nearly 10,000, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. As Ebola raged, a quieter, more insidious killer took its toll all over the continent: a lack of clean water. London-based nongovernmental organization WaterAid estimates that dirty water killed 73,000 — more than seven times as many people as Ebola — in Nigeria alone in 2014. Nigeria is not unique in…

Nigeria looks to stem the flow of weapons to Boko Haram. In a blurry, 36-minute video shot somewhere in northeastern Nigeria, a man wearing a black cap and reading from a stack of papers stands beside a weapons cache. “We are now showing the world all the arms and ammunition that we got from the Nigeria Army barracks,” said Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, speaking first in Arabic and then in Hausa. “What we have in our armory now, plus all that we had before, is enough to execute a victorious war against the whole of Nigeria.” Shekau went on…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE For generations, Maasai warriors in Kenya proved their manhood by killing a lion, but a campaign led by Olympic champion David Rudisha is working to swap spearing for sport. As the numbers of big cats rapidly decline due to poaching and humans’ increasing encroachment on their territory, a special Maasai Olympics organized by conservationists aims to provide an alternative test of the warriors’ strength. Rudisha, the 800-meter gold medalist and world record-holder — and himself a Maasai — is patron of the games. In a Kenyan twist on classic athletics events, the warriors threw spears instead of javelins.…

Rwandan cyclist Valens Ndayisenga celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the Tour of Rwanda.   [TOUR OF RWANDA] BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Dubbed “the land of a thousand hills,” Rwanda can leave even the toughest cyclists gasping for air. Competitors on the eight-day Tour of Rwanda cross 934 kilometers, climbing 19,500 meters, with peaks rising to 2,500 meters. Cyclists pedal through coffee, tea and banana plantations. Cycling in Rwanda, as in the rest of Africa, is growing as a sport. And the latest Tour of Rwanda, staged in November 2014, is growing as well. “We started with five…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Yacine Brahimi was voted the BBC African Footballer of the Year 2014. The 24-year-old midfielder was the first Algerian to win the award, which is decided by football fans. “It’s a big honor for me to receive this wonderful trophy,” said Brahimi, a winger for the Portuguese club team F.C. Porto. “I owe it to my country, Algeria, and to all the people who voted for me. It’s also a trophy for the whole of Africa, because it rewards an African player. So, I am really very happy.” After fans in 207 FIFA-registered countries submitted a record number…

DEFENCEWEB South African farmers in the Limpopo province hope to harvest a first crop of energy-rich Solaris plants to be used as aviation fuel. The aviation giant Boeing and national carrier South African Airways (SAA) launched Project Solaris. The project is a collaborative effort to develop an aviation biofuel supply chain with the Solaris plant, a nicotine-free variant of tobacco. More than 300 varieties of the tobacco plant were crossed to create the Solaris variety. Oil from the plant’s seeds may be converted into bio-jet fuel as early as 2015, with a test flight by SAA as soon as feasible.…

The Brazilian Navy announced plans to establish a mission in São Tomé and Príncipe, the island nation in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Gabon. The mission is intended to improve defense cooperation between the two countries, said Julio Soares de Moura Neto, commander of the Brazilian Navy, in an interview with The New York Times. The two countries share a common language and cultural links since they were once Portuguese colonies. Brazil also has donated computers, rifles and two dinghies to the São Tomé Coast Guard. The dinghies will allow the Coast Guard to improve inspection capacity…

DEFENCEWEB The European Union Training Mission in Somalia plans to train 1,200 Somali National Army (SNA) noncommissioned officers, junior officers, specialists and military instructors in 2015. The effort is part of an internationally backed capacity-building program for Somali security forces. The security and stabilization mission trained 1,150 SNA Soldiers in 2014 and aims to continue producing graduate officers in the same numbers in 2015, according to media reports from Brussels. The mission was moved from Uganda to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in January 2014. It has held 11 training courses and graduated nearly 4,000 SNA officers and specialists since it…

The Nigerian Navy has announced plans to partner with the International Committee of the Red Cross to train Sailors on international arms laws and conflict resolution. Commodore Atiku Abdulkadir, the commandant of the Nigerian Navy College in Onne, made the announcement during a three-day training event in December 2014. “All officers and trainees must be adequately informed on what their responsibilities are when they find themselves in situations that they have to apply the import of this [international arms] law,” Abdulkadir told Nigeria’s Daily Independent. “The armed forces, particularly the navy, are always involved in resolution of one conflict or…