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Why does most of Africa stay poor while other parts of the world prosper? People blame things like climate, the history of colonialism, racism, etc. But I say Senegalese businesswoman Magatte Wade gives the right explanation: too many rules. “Once you hire someone, good luck getting rid of them for any reason,” Wade complains. Her government must approve every firing. “Then the tax code is so complicated… worth at least two or three truckloads of paper.” Wade started a lip balm company. Some of her ingredients are not made in Senegal, so she imports them. To “protect” Senegalese manufacturers, the...

Hundreds of African migrants are finding themselves trapped in Mexico’s southern border region after new immigration rules no longer allow them safe passage to the U.S. The rule changes now say they must naturalize in Mexico or exit through its southern border.

The race to find a Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump is under way. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are contenders in a ring with a little more than 20 contenders. The US Presidential elections are more than a year away and Africa will be looking keenly at who is inaugurated in 2021. The emergence of Donald Trump raised fundamental questions about likely changes in America’s role in the world, including Africa. Fears over Republican Trump were heightened by his silence throughout the campaign on matters relating to the continent, focusing heavily on China and Russia. Policy...

Despite putting Africa at the bottom of his foreign policy priorities, US President Donald Trump remains widely popular on the continent Every year, a leader of public opinion polls, Gallup Poll asks the world to judge America’s foreign policy. In 135 countries, they ask, “Do you agree or disagree with the way the United States is exercising its leadership?” Most reacted poorly to US President Donald Trump taking over the 76 square metre Oval Office. The global approval rating for US foreign policy stands at 31% — 3% points below China, and on a par with Russia. This has never...

The British Museum tries to counter an ugly truth long captured in Western art. ... Objectively speaking, the “Slave Market” painting in question portrays a reality that has played out countless times over the centuries: African and Middle Eastern Muslims have long targeted European women—so much so as to have enslaved millions of them over the centuries. The Muslim demand for, in the words of one historian, “white-complexioned blondes, with straight hair and blue eyes,” traces back to the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, who enticed his followers to wage jihad against neighboring Byzantium by citing its blonde (“yellow”) women awaiting...

Kampala (Agenzia Fides) - "Africa’s problems are by choice. This is by choosing leaders who are not good", said His Exc. Mgr. Gilbert Justice Yaw Anokye, Archbishop of Kumasi (Ghana) and President of Caritas Africa, during the 18th Plenary Assembly of SECAM (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar), held in Kampala (see Fides, 30/7/2019). "We have voted corrupt leaders into power by tribal lines; by fear or favour. We have chosen leaders who have not helped Africa up to date since independence. We have had good leaders who have been booted out of power by coup d’etat, supported...

A new report from The Wall Street Journal could be another damning piece of evidence for a company already under a good deal of international scrutiny. The paper is reporting that technicians working for Huawei helped members of government in Uganda and Zambia spy on political opponents. The report cites unnamed senior surveillance officers. The paper adds that an investigation didn’t confirm a direct tie between the Chinese government or Huawei executives. It did, however, appear to confirm that employees for the tech giant played a part in intercepting communications. The list includes encrypted messages, the use of apps...

Ebola may soon be a "preventable and treatable" disease after a trial of two drugs showed significantly improved survival rates, scientists have said. Four drugs were trialled on patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is a major outbreak of the virus. More than 90% of infected people can survive if treated early with the most effective drugs, the research showed. The drugs will now be used to treat all patients with the disease in DR Congo, according to health officials. On Tuesday, two people cured of Ebola using the experimental drugs were released from a treatment centre...

In his book, “The Reason for God,” Tim Keller argues that Christianity is the only truly global religion. Indeed, within a few generations of Christ, the Christian faith had spread across much of the known world—from India to North Africa to furthest reaches of the Roman Empire and into the barbarian lands of Northern Europe. Yet up until a hundred years or so ago, for all kinds of historical and sociological reasons, Christianity became a predominantly Western religion. The missionary efforts of the last hundred years began to change that, and now Pew Research predicts that Africa will be the...

Almost the entire population of Italy, it seems, spent the last week of June watching a boat arrive from across the Mediterranean. It was the Sea-Watch 3, a Netherlands-registered ship funded by progressive philanthropists and captained by Carola Rackete, a 31-year-old German climate-change activist. Rackete radioed that she was carrying 42 African refugees rescued at sea who were in desperate health. Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini holds that such ships rendezvous with traffickers just off the Libyan coast, and are really less interested in rescuing sailors than in transporting illegal immigrants to Europe en masse. “Taxis,” he has called them....

Belgian teenage volunteers forced to flee Morocco after teacher threatens to cut off their heads for wearing shorts AUGUST 10, 2019 BY BARENAKEDISLAM A group Belgian teenage girls are returning home from volunteer work for a charity in Morocco after a local school teacher allegedly threatened to behead them, for wearing shorts. Images of the girls at a construction site in Morocco appeared on social media and prompted the beheading threat and criticism from a Moroccan politician. What kind of parents would allow their teenage daughters to do volunteer work in a dangerous Muslim country? The incident comes less than...

Blessing was only six years old when her mother arranged for her to become an unpaid housemaid for a family in the Nigerian city of Abuja, on the promise they would put her through school. In her home town in southwest Nigeria, her mother had trouble making enough money to feed her three children. But when Blessing arrived in Abuja, instead of going to school, the family worked her round-the-clock, beat her with an electrical wire if she forgot one of her chores and fed her rotten leftovers.

Stella Nyanzi, the Makerere University academic, was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison. She was convicted under the country’s cybercrime laws of “harassing” Yoweri Museveni, after the publication of her poem that attacked the president’s record in office in the most vulgar terms possible

The Islamic State terror group continues to pose a real and present danger, according to the latest United Nations six-month report on jihadist activities. Islamic State (ISIS) leadership “aims to adapt, survive and consolidate in the core area and to establish sleeper cells at the local level in preparation for eventual resurgence, while using propaganda to maintain the group’s reputation as the leading global terrorist brand – the ‘virtual caliphate,’” the report declares. “When it has the time and space to reinvest in an external operations capability, ISIL will direct and facilitate international attacks in addition to the ISIL-inspired attacks...

United States carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the power sector and the broader economy have declined 61 percent between 2006 and 2014, mainly from "switching from coal-to-gas-powered generation," according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Second Installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review, January 2017.  These environmentally sound numbers from higher use of natural gas can also be translated globally to help with pollution in countries such as China, India, and the entire continent of Africa. The U.S. now uses natural gas converted to liquid natural gas (LNG) from shale deposits in states such as Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania to...

Rep. Ilhan Omar and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set aside the squabble between The Squad and House leadership — to take a shot at President Trump. “They said ‘send her back’ but Speaker @SpeakerPelosi didn’t just make arrangements to send me back, she went back with me,” Omar tweeted along with a photo of herself and Pelosi smiling hand-in-hand in Ghana, referring to Trump’s controversial tweet that Omar and other progressive lawmakers of color should “go back” to their countries. “So grateful for the honor to return to Mother Africa with the @TheBlackCaucus and commemorate The Year of Return! #Doorofreturn...

18:31 30.07.2019 The number of violent incidents involving Islamist militants has reportedly jumped ten-fold between 2009 and 2018, and Somali jihadists from al-Shabaab appear to be the most active group. Terror-related violence in Africa has spiked massively over the past decade, despite increasing US military presence on the continent, a recent Pentagon analysis has shown. According to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, an affiliate of the US Department of Defence, there were over 3000 violent incidents reported in Africa last year, as against roughly 1,400 in 2012. This represents a 4.2 percent spike in violence since 2017 and a...

Death, anguish and flickers of hope: 10 years of Boko Haram A decade later, one of the world's most dangerous armed groups is still wreaking havoc in the region it sprouted from. by Eromo Egbejule Despite the armed group losing much of its territory, analysts say the war against Boko Haram is far from over [EPA] Mobile money: Abuja central bank gives MTN Nigeria green light today Nigeria: Toll in suspected Boko Haram funeral attack rises to 65 today Nigeria bans Shia group after deadly clashes yesterday Boko Haram kills 23 mourners after Nigeria funeral 2 days ago Lagos, Nigeria...

Newly discovered archaeological sites in southern and northern India have revealed how people lived before and after the colossal Toba volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago... The seven-year project examines the environment that humans lived in, their stone tools, as well as the plants and animal bones of the time. The team has concluded that many forms of life survived the super-eruption, contrary to other research which has suggested significant animal extinctions and genetic bottlenecks. According to the team, a potentially ground-breaking implication of the new work is that the species responsible for making the stone tools in India was Homo...