ADF

VOICE OF AMERICA An oral vaccine for cholera has proved to be highly effective and could change the way future outbreaks are controlled. The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says the vaccine was used during a 2012 outbreak in Guinea. The study of the oral cholera vaccine known as Shanchol was conducted by Epicentre, the research arm of Doctors Without Borders. Cholera is a water-borne disease causing severe diarrhea. It’s usually found in countries with poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water. The disease usually is treated with oral rehydration therapy. Epidemiologist Rebecca Grais said, “I think what’s interesting and…

THE EASTAFRICAN Rwanda’s Ministry of Natural Resources has unveiled a new monitoring system to cut greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation and environmental degradation. Adrie Mukashema, deputy director-general in charge of forests at the ministry, said the Greenhouse Gas Monitoring and Reporting Scheme was a reflection of Rwanda’s commitment to protecting its forests and encouraging sustainable development. “Even though we have little, we make sure that what we have is sustainably managed,” she said. The country has 700,000 hectares of forest, covering 28.8 percent of the total land area. Members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change developed…

UNITED NATIONS NEWS CENTRE The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that despite notable recent economic progress, Africa remains the world’s most food-insecure continent. It has called on all African agriculture ministers to focus investments and support efforts on smallholder farmers, including youth and women. At the March 2014 28th Regional Conference for Africa in Tunis, Tunisia, the U.N. applauded the continent’s continuous growth since 1999 and called for providing an enabling environment to end hunger in the region by 2025. With an average annual gross domestic product increase of 4.8 percent between 2000 and 2010 — up…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A surge in disposable income and the growth in Africa’s middle class has led to an upswing in the number of shopping centers across the continent, a June 2014 report said. With shoppers searching for new ways to spend their money, and investors keen to help them do it, 14 new shopping centers opened between 2012 and 2013, according to research by Sagaci, a market intelligence organization. Excluding South Africa, there were 242 shopping centers operating on the continent last year, the report said. “The middle class is developing. And the people in it want to spend their…

ADF STAFF One of Africa’s most acclaimed entrepreneurs, the founder of a shoe brand now selling in more than 55 countries globally, has announced the founding of a second company. In 2004, Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu started soleRebels in Ethiopia with an investment of $10,000 from her family. The company makes and sells footwear using traditional Ethiopian techniques and modern designs. Most of the shoes are redesigns and modern interpretations of a traditional recycled-tire-sole shoe long worn by Ethiopians. As of 2014, the company had 100 employees and more than $1 million in revenues. She expects sales to reach $20 million…

(Ludwick Marishane) VOICE OF AMERICA Unemployment remains stubbornly high in South Africa and is one of the greatest socio-economic problems facing the country’s youth. Job creation was a leading goal of government policy during the first decade of democracy in South Africa after the end of apartheid in 1994. However, little success has been achieved in the struggle to create sufficient jobs. South Africa’s unemployment rate stands at 25.2 percent, creeping up by 1.1 percent from 2013. As of the middle of 2014, more than 5 million people were without work. The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people who…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE African governments and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed on the urgent need to harness the continent’s rapid economic growth, as unrest and a plethora of challenges temper exuberance about the continent’s rise. At a May 30, 2014, meeting in the Mozambique capital of Maputo, the IMF, finance ministers and central bank governors said a deeper “structural transformation” was needed so that ordinary citizens can benefit from the boom. Although Sub-Saharan Africa is among the world’s fastest-growing regions, pervasive poverty and recent serious unrest in Nigeria, South Sudan, the Sahel region and possible recession in South Africa…

CLUES Rome conquered this ancient Punic trading post and converted it into a base for the conquest of the kingdoms of Mauritania. The site comprises Byzantine, paleo-Christian, Phoenician and Roman ruins alongside other indigenous monuments. This coastal city has one of the oldest and most extensive burial grounds of the Punic world — sixth to second century B.C. Vandals invaded in the 430s, and the Byzantines reconquered the city in 534. It fell into decline in the sixth century and never recovered. ANSWER: Tipasa archaeological site, 70 kilometers west of Algiers, Algeria

Léopold Sédar Senghor was an intellectual, a writer, a scholar, a statesman and the first president of Senegal. He wrote Senegal’s national anthem and said he considered himself first and foremost a poet. But his writings indicate that he was, above all other things, an African. Senghor was born in 1906 in the town of Joal in coastal Senegal. He moved to a boarding school when he was 8 and quickly established himself as a dedicated student and scholar. After secondary school, he won a partial scholarship to study in France. His trip to France began, as he put it,…

U.S. Africa Command Staff Security begins with cooperation. Whether it is efforts in West Africa to stem the influx of illegal drugs from South America or bringing security to the continent’s ever-growing presence in cyperspace, countries will have to combine their efforts to win and preserve peace. An example of this occurred recently in Niger, where nations from the Sahel region gathered in Niamey, Agadez, Tahoua and Diffa in February and March 2014 for Exercise Flintlock 14. Participants were taught methods for addressing the growing threat of terrorist and violent extremist organizations, such as those that have taken root in…