The Gambia

ADF STAFF Since early 2020, Mali has banned the export of rosewood, also known as kosso. Despite that, nearly 150,000 tons of the wood — equal to 220,000 trees — left the country over the last two years, all of it with a single…

ADF STAFF Governments around the world are loosening pandemic-related safety precautions as they report declining COVID-19 infections. But the World Health Organization is warning: Not so fast. The WHO is urging governments to remain…

ADF STAFF The sleepy forests and villages of the Foni Kansala district in The Gambia erupted January 24 as Soldiers chased a truck filled with timber. What followed was the latest spasm of violence in the Casamance region of Senegal,…

ADF STAFF Rampant overfishing, driven by the demands of the global fishmeal and fish oil industry, is leading to food insecurity in West Africa. Artisanal fishermen around the region have angrily denounced the presence of fish oil…

ADF STAFF In the Bamanga forest of northern Cameroon, the sound of axes biting into tree trunks has become a part of everyday life. The axes are often wielded by local poachers or by those crossing the border from Nigeria. Their target:…

ADF STAFF China’s inroads into Africa’s media environment began in 2006 when Xinhua, the Chinese national news agency, moved its regional headquarters from Paris to Nairobi, Kenya. “There seemed to have been a realization that Nairobi…

ADF STAFF Alagie Sarr remembers when fishermen in the coastal Gambian town of Gunjur could spend a few hours on the water and come back with a robust catch. Those days are over. Due to overfishing by foreign industrial vessels, a…

ADF STAFF The city of Nouadhibou, Mauritania, dangles from the mainland on a tiny peninsula. The city, the second largest in the nation, has nearly 120,000 residents and is a commercial center. Its harbor is the terminus of the…

Story by ADF STAFF | Photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES More than 20 African nations have started administering millions of free COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX, the global plan to equitably distribute the shots.  In the initial March 2021…