ADF

VOICE OF AMERICA Nigerian Environment Minister Amina Mohammed has been named deputy secretary-general of the United Nations. The appointment made by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was part of his pledge to reach gender parity among senior leadership within his five-year term. He also appointed Brazilian diplomat Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti as chef de cabinet and Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea to a newly created position as special advisor on policy. “We must empower youth to participate in and shape the political and economic lives of their countries and communities, to be the agents of peace and development,” Mohammed said in…

Story and photo by EMBASSY OF FRANCE, CAMEROON To bolster the battle against extremism, France donated 10 tactical vehicles and five transport trucks to the Cameroonian Armed Forces. The vehicles, including an all-equipped sanitary unit, were handed over to Cameroonian Minister of Defence Joseph Beti Assomo by French Ambassador Gilles Thibault in November 2016. The vehicles are equipped with weapons and transmission equipment, and are accompanied with precision rifles, helmets and bulletproof vests. They are valued at $705,000 and are destined for the Cameroonian Army special units. It marked the second transfer of 2016 and was part of the bilateral…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Qatar and France promised more than $1 billion in financial support for Tunisia at an investment conference aimed at reviving the country’s struggling economy.Nearly six years after its Arab Spring revolution, Tunisia is confronting high unemployment, low growth and a tourism sector hammered by jihadist attacks. The two-day Tunisia 2020 conference in November 2016 aimed to put the North African nation “back on the investment map of the Mediterranean,” officials said. Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani pledged $1.25 billion in financial support at the opening session. He said the money would “support the Tunisian economy…

VOICE OF AMERICA The border between Nigeria and Cameroon has been fully reopened for the first time in three years. Officials from the two countries met in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, in December 2016 to review security issues and said the reopening was a clear sign of progress in the fight against Boko Haram. “Only a secured environment can provide [an] avenue for meaningful trade and commercial activities as well as unimpeded exchange of goods and services,” said Gen. Abba Mohammad Dikko, head of the Nigerian delegation. “The unflinching cooperation and support of Cameroon has indeed curtailed the menace of…

REUTERS Kenya set fire to 5,250 illegal firearms as part of a national effort to fight crimes such as cattle rustling, carjacking and terrorism. The fire destroyed weapons that had been confiscated by law enforcement officials or voluntarily surrendered to agents who were collecting illegal small arms and light weapons. “Here in Kenya, small arms are implicated in many deaths, in acts of armed violence, among them intercommunity conflicts, cattle rustling, violent crimes and poaching,” Deputy President William Ruto said in a speech before the weapons were set ablaze in November 2016. “Their presence has also intensified the threats posed…

REUTERS Tunisian security forces dismantled 160 terror cells in the first 10 months of 2016, about 45 percent more than during all of 2015, the Interior Ministry announced. A ministry statement said the country arrested 850 terrorism suspects between January and October 2016, compared with 547 for all of 2015. Security forces stepped up efforts to track down militants after Tunisia suffered three deadly attacks, including two targeting foreign tourists. In March 2016, security forces repelled the Islamic State’s attempt to take over the town of Ben Guerdan near the border with Libya. Tunisia has been the only country to…

ADF STAFF A long-serving officer of the Uganda People’s Defence Force has been named the country’s first female major general. President Yoweri Museveni announced in mid-January 2017 that Proscovia Nalweyiso, 62, was promoted to the new rank as part of sweeping changes in the military. She is also the first woman to hold such a rank in all of East Africa. Maj. Gen. Nalweyiso came to national prominence in the 1986 Bush War, also known as the Ugandan Civil War, which led to Museveni becoming president. The general, one of 20 children, became active in politics about 1979 while working…

VOICE OF AMERCA In western Kenya, children often travel great distances to attend school. Now, a program offering bikes to girls is helping them stay in school longer and avoid other issues such as early pregnancies. Loise Luseno, a 16-year-old girl from Kakamega, Kenya, used to walk about 10 kilometers to reach school. In 2015, she dropped out temporarily because of the distance. Members of her family work as subsistence farmers and earn about $30 a month — not nearly enough for food, school costs and transportation. In mid-2016, Luseno went back to school — this time on a bicycle.…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has inaugurated the first turbine of a hydroelectric plant destroyed during the nation’s civil war. “Thank all of you for being a part of this historic day — the day when big lights in a small way replaced small lights of yesterday,” Sirleaf said during a ceremony at the Mount Coffee hydroplant in mid-December 2016. The plant, built in 1967, served the Liberian capital, Monrovia, and other areas until it was destroyed in 1990. Since the end of the country’s devastating 14-year civil war in 2003, the generation of electricity has been the…

MEDIA CLUB SOUTH AFRICA A new app called Pocket Reporter is aimed at citizen journalists, community journalists for independent publishers and those who want to share their stories with the wider world. Touted as a “news editor in your pocket,” it was launched in South Africa in October 2016. Raymond Joseph, a journalist at Code for South Africa (Code4SA), says developers created Pocket Reporter because many journalists, especially freelancers, do not have access to a news editor. Pocket Reporter was developed by Code4SA in partnership with the Association of Independent Publishers. Joseph says the partners conducted market research before building…