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REUTERS The 2013 winner of the Tour de France, Chris Froome, says Kenya has a rich pool of endurance athletes and that the next great cyclist is out there somewhere. Kenyan-born Froome said his country’s success in middle- and long-distance running shows that the East African nation is awash with gifted athletes capable of competing in the world’s toughest endurance races. “It seems that there is so much talent here,” Froome told reporters in Nairobi as he sat next to Kenyan rider David Kinjah, who was his childhood mentor. “You just have to look at the natural ability of runners…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A long-awaited film on the life of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela premiered in his native South Africa on November 3, 2013, stirring emotional memories of the country’s turbulent history. The film opened a month before Mandela died at age 95. The movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, largely based on his autobiography of the same title, traces the life of the revered leader from his childhood in the rural Eastern Cape to his election as the country’s first black president in 1994. After spending 27 years in prison for activism against the racist regime, he preached equality and…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Togo’s first competitor at the Winter Olympics, cross-country skier Mathilde-Amivi Petitjean, did not expect to win a medal at the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia. Instead, she hoped to inspire African athletes to compete in winter sports. “I think all the people in all [African] countries are happy for me,” said Petitjean, who turned 20 a week after the race. “It’s good for African countries that they see it’s possible to participate in the Winter Olympic Games.” Petitjean crossed the line in the women’s 10-kilometer classical race February 13, 2014, in 68th place, less than 10 minutes…

REUTERS The European Union has signed a development grant with Ethiopia worth $287.26 million to help finance road construction and projects targeting maternal health and drought resilience. As of 2014, Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most-populous country after Nigeria, was midway through a five-year economic plan that foresees almost tripling the country’s road network and beginning the building of 5,000 kilometers of new railway lines. Addis Ababa’s big infrastructure push is aimed at connecting remote regions and has propelled the economy to double-digit growth for much of the past decade. Once run by communists, Ethiopia’s economy is now Sub-Saharan Africa’s fifth-biggest, leap-frogging Kenya…

REUTERS At Cape Town’s Elswood Secondary School, even the metal grills welded into its walls did not deter burglars from ripping out the copper cables that delivered Internet service to the students. But Elswood’s pupils were saved by alternative technology — free wireless connection via unused parts of the TV spectrum known as white space. It’s being provided by a consortium led by Google as part of a wider trial. Africa is the world’s last major untapped market for Internet access. Only 16 percent of its billion people use the Internet — half the penetration rate of Asia, according to…

REUTERS Tanzania, famed for its safari parks beneath snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, estimated that it attracted 40 percent more tourists in 2013 than in 2012. The country estimated it hosted 1.5 million visitors as it broke into new Asian markets. In the year ending in September 2013, tourism earned more hard currency than gold exports for the first time in years. Tourism raked in $1.8 billion in the 12 months ending in September 2013, up from $1.61 billion a year earlier. The country is intensifying efforts to tackle poaching of elephant ivory and rhino horns. Poaching has surged across Sub-Saharan Africa,…

MAGHAREBIA.COM In a move described as the largest border mobilization in recent history, Algeria announced in October 2013 that it would send thousands of troops to secure the eastern and southern frontiers to halt the infiltration of terrorists. “Algeria is making a considerable contribution in the fight against terrorism and organized crime,” Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said at a news conference. “The Army and security forces are working to strengthen national security and are aiming for the country to become a source of stability for neighboring and sisterly countries.” The Algerian Army also tightened security measures on its eastern…

ADF STAFF The Nigerian Navy announced plans to build commercial warships that can be exported to other African countries. Vice Adm. Dele Ezeoba, Nigeria’s chief of Naval Staff, made the announcement in November 2013 while inspecting the second patrol ship under construction for the Nigerian Navy at the Naval Dockyard on Victoria Island, Lagos. Ezeoba said the country’s shipbuilders are now skilled enough to build patrol ships between 10 meters and 38 meters long, according to the newspaper Punch. “The Nigerian Navy will no longer buy a ship of between 10 and 12 meters in size, because we have the…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The U.S. Department of Defense announced plans to train 5,000 to 8,000 Libyan Soldiers in a continuing effort to bolster security in the North African nation. Defense spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the Army will train the troops in Bulgaria on basic, general-purpose skills. The 24-week training program is part of a larger U.S. and international effort to shore up security in the country and region in the aftermath of the 2011 fall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Militia violence increased in the final months of 2013 in sections of the country where the Army and police…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE In November 2013, Ghanaian authorities impounded a South American ship carrying 400 kilograms of cocaine and arrested its five-member crew, according to the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Ghana’s anti-narcotics agency. The ship was registered in Guyana, and the street value of the drug was estimated at $50 million, authorities said. U.N. estimates place the drug value at approximately half that amount. “The vessel had been monitored at the high seas, and when she got into the Ghanaian waters, the Ghana Navy and NACOB officers arrested and escorted her to the Sekondi Naval Base,” authorities said in a statement.…