ADF

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Music superstars Johnny Clegg and Youssou N’Dour paid homage June 15, 2014, to late South African icon Nelson Mandela at the 20th edition of the World Festival of Sacred Music in Morocco. The show in Fez, the spiritual capital of the North African nation, began with a reading of English poet William Ernest Henley’s Invictus, often recited by Mandela while imprisoned by the apartheid government. Thousands of people then broke into dance as South Africa’s Clegg, a musician internationally renowned as the “White Zulu” for mixing English and Zulu lyrics and rhythms, took to the stage. “Thank you…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE On Cape Town’s waterfront at the southern tip of Africa, the world’s biggest museum of contemporary art from across the continent is being carved from a conglomeration of concrete tubes nine stories high. The $50 million project to transform the grim functionality of 42 unused colonial grain silos into an ultramodern tribute to African creativity is driven by an international team of art experts and architects. For Mark Coetzee, executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the project is the fulfilment of a pledge he made to himself a quarter century ago. “It has been…

The film Africa United was screened at the 2014 Rwanda Film Festival. It tells the story of three Rwandan children trying to get to the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup. THE EASTAFRICAN After the 1994 Rwandan genocide that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, some Rwandans began to tell their stories through film. The first man to do so was Eric Kabera who, in 2001, teamed up with British filmmaker Nick Hughes to make 100 Days. His film not only had a successful premiere in Kampala, Uganda, but it also went on to win the…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The social media giant Facebook has unveiled an app to allow people who have mobile phones but no Internet access to get online services for health, education and basic communications. The Internet.org app was released first in Zambia and is to be rolled out in other countries where Internet access is lacking or unaffordable, the company said. “Over 85 percent of the world’s population lives in areas with existing cellular coverage, yet only about 30 percent of the total population accesses the Internet,” Facebook’s Guy Rosen said in a blog post. “Affordability and awareness are significant barriers to…

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, left, and Jay Ireland, president and CEO of GE Africa, discuss expanding access to power sources across Africa.  [GETTY IMAGES] REUTERS U.S. and African companies and the World Bank on August 5, 2014, pledged more than $17 billion in investments in construction, energy and information technology projects in Africa. The previous day, General Electric announced $2 billion in new investments in Africa through 2018 as Washington kicked off the U.S.-Africa Summit, aimed at boosting commercial relations. GE told Agence France-Presse the new investments will include health training programs in several countries, including Ghana, Kenya and…

Lake Turkana Wind Power officials check a mast that measures wind direction and speed at a study site in Loiyangalani, near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, in 2012. [AFP/GETTY IMAGES] THE EASTAFRICAN The Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC) has approved a $250 million loan for a 300 megawatt power plant in northern Kenya. Funding agreements for the $870 million Lake Turkana Wind Power project (LTWP) were signed in March 2014. The board of OPIC, an agency of the U.S. government, approved the $250 million loan for development, construction, commissioning and operation of the wind farm in May 2014. Norway-based DNV…

DEFENCEWEB The Mauritanian Navy has unveiled a five-year development plan that includes the acquisition of two 60-meter offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) and an undisclosed number of midsize vessels to secure the country’s 754-kilometer Atlantic Ocean coastline. The government also wants to set up three new marine forces companies as the country tightens its maritime boundaries and conducts effective patrols within the 235,000-square-kilometer exclusive economic zone, according to IHS Jane’s. Unveiling the plan during a ceremony at the Nouadhibou naval base, Mauritanian Navy Commander Adm. Isselkou Ould Cheik el-Weli said the two OPVs were already under construction. He did not disclose…

[ACTION ON ARMED VIOLENCE] ADF STAFF Several nations in West Africa are making major strides in complying with the Economic Community of West African States Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons by marking and tracking all arms within their borders. In Ghana, the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons announced plans to engrave the ECOWAS logo on all arms in the country as international standards demand. The move is part of a wide range of measures to control movement of small arms in the country, commission Executive Secretary Jones Borteye Applerh announced in April 2014. “We are…

DEFENCEWEB The Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) is one step closer to becoming a reality. Ten nations have pledged to contribute a total of three motorized battalions, one mechanized battalion and one light infantry battalion of 850 men each. The EASF is set to become operational by December 2014 under the auspices of the African Union. A resolution to establish the long-delayed regional rapid reaction force was adopted by regional heads of state, defense ministers and military chiefs at a meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, in August 2014. Rwanda chairs the Council of Ministers of Defence and Security of Eastern Africa…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE African countries are clamping down on ivory smuggling, with large seizures for the first time exceeding those made in prime destination Asia, U.N. wildlife regulators said in June 2014. Until recently, seizures of half a metric ton or more of ivory were rarely, if ever, made before the illegal, precious material left Africa. That changed in 2013, according to research published by the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Since March 2013, for the first time, “more large-scale seizures were made in Africa than in Asia,” CITES said…