ADF

VOICE OF AMERICA Confidence was just 14 when her aunt married her off to a 42-year-old man. The now-22-year-old Zimbabwean says the experience shattered her. Her husband was abusive, as were his other wives. “After two years of marriage, life was so difficult for me that I tried to kill myself by drinking rat poison,” she told Human Rights Watch researchers. The group, in highlighting the issue, released several girls’ accounts but omitted their last names. “Child marriage ruined my life,” Confidence said. “Now I do not work and cannot find a job because I stopped going to school.” It’s…

VOICE OF AMERICA Tanzanian President John Magufuli is going full throttle in the fight against waste and corruption. Tanzanians say they like his take-charge approach, though it is not new for him. Magufuli was nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for similar efforts during his 15 years as minister of works. On his first day in office in November 2015, Magufuli made a surprise visit to the Finance Ministry, where he castigated civil servants who were not at their desks. Magufuli has banned foreign travel for most government officials. He cut a bloated delegation for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta…

UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE Noting the significant impact climatic activities have on Africa, the World Bank Group announced a plan to increase climate resilience and low-carbon development. “The consequences of climate change for Africa are devastating and threaten to push millions of people into extreme poverty by 2030, largely due to lower crop yields and higher food prices, and negative health impacts,” said Benoit Bosquet of the World Bank in late November 2015. The new blueprint, “Accelerating Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Development: The Africa Climate Business Plan,” aims to bring attention to and help fund climate-resilience programs and low-carbon plans in…

Story and photo by AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A Ghanaian inventor and church leader who started out trying to make voice-controlled television sets is telling the world’s auto giants to move over. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka — nicknamed “Apostle” because he also runs a network of churches — has realized his dream of developing and marketing cars “Made in Ghana.” “It’s been in the pipeline since 1971,” said Kwado Safo Jr., one of the inventor’s sons. “It started with the old man, so it’s been a long time coming.” Kantanka’s electric sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks have got Ghanaians talking on social media,…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Somalia’s elegant colonial villas were left in ruins by two decades of street fighting among warlords, and the seaside capital Mogadishu was dubbed the most dangerous city in the world. But now new housing estates are being built amid an economic boom as Somalis return from abroad and newly wealthy businessmen capitalize on the relative peace in the city. Seven kilometers outside Mogadishu in a formerly rural area, new homes are springing up, with almost 50 houses now ready on an estate, builders say. Mohamed Abdullahi Ali of Salaam Somali Bank said it was a “great honor” to…

MEDIA CLUB SOUTH AFRICA She is already a scientist, biologist and president of Mauritius. Now Ameenah Gurib-Fakim can add another role to her list. She has been appointed vice chairman and trustee of the Planet Earth Institute (PEI), an international nongovernmental organization striving for the scientific independence of Africa. “Mauritius has a proud track record of investing in scientific excellence and developing research,” she said. “In the future, science, technology and innovation will be vital in creating jobs and prosperity for our citizens in Mauritius and across the mainland African continent.” In November 2014, PEI opened an office in Mauritius…

Jubo Jubogha started out as a slave and ended up a king in what is now southern Nigeria. Along the way, he became one of the richest men of his time. Today he is remembered as one of the master strategists of the 19th century. Jubo, later named Jaja, was born in 1821 in a village in what is now Nigeria’s Imo State. As a boy, he was sold into slavery and sent to Chief Madu of the Anna House, one of the two royal family houses in the Bonny coastal region. In the 19th century, the Niger River Delta…

CLUES This town is East Africa’s oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement. Buildings were constructed with traditional Swahili techniques using coral, lime and mangrove poles. This community has been continuously inhabited for more than 700 years. Seafront buildings are known for their arcades and open verandas. ANSWER: Lamu Old Town, Kenya

ADF STAFF Known as the “Black Decade,” the 1990s in Algeria were devastating. After a decision by the military to intervene and cancel elections in 1992, insurgents unleashed near-daily attacks against civilian and governmental targets that were met by violent crackdowns from security forces. An estimated 200,000 people died in the civil war. When President Abdelaziz Bouteflika took power in 1999, he pledged to restore peace and make reconciliation a cornerstone of his administration. Efforts by the Algerian government to deradicalize two groups, the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), illustrate the promise and the difficulty of…

U.S. Africa Command Staff Some problems don’t have simple solutions. The confounding decision by a young man or woman to leave home and join a terror group such as ISIS, al-Shabaab or Boko Haram is one of those problems. An estimated 5,600 people have left Africa to fight in Iraq and Syria. ISIS and other terror groups with similarly twisted ideologies have successfully recruited on the continent and as far away as Western Europe and North America. These recruiters inhabit cyberspace, schools and places of worship. They promise all sorts of things, including a thrilling adventure and eternal salvation. A…