Author: King Jaja

Issued on: 23/09/2021 – 12:42Modified: 23/09/2021 – 12:52 Conservationists are releasing a thousand critically-endangered radiated tortoises into drought-hit southern Madagascar, the first step in releasing thousands more rescued from poachers and promoting forest health. The animals — named after the yellow lines that spread out from spots on their shells — have been moved from a rescue centre in Tsihombe, southern Madagascar, to a six-hectare patch of forest whose location is being kept a secret for their safety.It’s thought the tortoises are crucial to the ecology of the region’s unique spiny forests, already under threat from charcoal-makers and slash-and-burn agriculture,…

APiF: Please introduce yourself. Moulaye Taboure: I am Moulaye one of the co-founders of Afrikrea. I am a young Malian and grew up in Bamako. I studied and worked in Paris for 10 years, and now I am back living on the African continent – currently in Abidjan.   APiF: What is your cultural heritage and how does that inspire you?   Moulaye: I am lucky to have grown up amidst my culture, but even luckier to have realized afterwards just how much it was appreciated outside of Africa. That propelled me to show all the diversity born from our…

23rd September 2021 A Russian partner expresses concern at government plans to buy into oil licence Lukoil, a Russian energy company, has written to Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Ghana’s Minister of Energy, to express concern about the government’s plans to buy into Deepwater Tano/Cape Three Points, an oil licence in which Lukoil has a 38% stake. Ivan Romanovsky, Lukoil’s Vice-President for the Americas, Western Africa and Europe, wrote to Prempeh on 9 August, complaining that he had not been informed over the proposed transaction, which ‘may introduce significant risks’ for the project execution and schedule. End of preview…

England’s Covid travel rules and refusal to recognise vaccines administered across huge swaths of the world have sparked outrage and bewilderment across Latin America, Africa and south Asia, with critics denouncing what they called an illogical and discriminatory policy.The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, described England’s rules, unveiled last Friday, as “a new simplified system for international travel”. “The purpose is to make it easier for people to travel,” Shapps said.But in many parts of the world there is anger and frustration at the government’s decision to recognise only vaccinations given in a select group of countries.Under the new rules, travellers…

Kenyan environmental activist and whistleblower Phyllis Omido discovered in 2009 that the smelting plant where she worked was poisoning the community with lead – including her infant son. She spearheaded an effort to get the plant shut down and won the community an unprecedented $12 million settlement. But state agencies are appealing the case and more than a decade after the poisoning was discovered, the victims have still received no compensation. Many in Mombasa’s poor Owino Uhuru neighbourhood are suffering from long-term effects like kidney and liver failure, with no money to pay for medical care. Omido joined us for Perspective. Source…

Pansy shells and pumpkin shells are such exciting finds. Actually, pansy shells are really rare to find in the sandy stretches of the beach, which makes them even more of a treasure.In fact, they are almost extinct, but this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t keep your eyes peeled for them in the sands of the Plettenberg Bay beaches, because they certainly can be found.Pumpkin shells are more common and can be found in rock pools and on beaches around South Africa. But, both are a real gift of nature, especially when you manage to find them intact.More about Pansy ShellsThis…

Food systems are often a point of focus and expression for crises and popular resistance in North Africa. When subsidies are lifted and the prices of essential foods spike, social uprisings follow—and they are nearly always severely suppressed. Uprisings followed the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) interventions after the debt crisis in the 1970s and 1980s. Policies from that era endured into the 21st century, with agro-food systems across the region geared towards the expansion of large-scale, commercial agriculture, attracting foreign investment and big agribusiness, export-orientation, and a reliance on imports for domestic food needs and production inputs. This came at…

Wole Soyinka is vexed by the state of Nigeria. Barely a day goes by these days without a kidnapping of one sort or another — a politician and his retinue in Niger state; two nurses and a one-year-old baby, among others, from a hospital in Zaria; 140 students at a rural school in northwestern Kaduna state. Bandits — as the disparate gangs of armed men roving the country are colloquially known — have abducted at least 1,200 students since December, with around 200 still missing.Meanwhile, the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency continues into its 11th year in the north-east and separatist…

Athlete Francine Niyonsaba shows off her Diamond League trophy on her return to BurundiHundreds of Burundians turned up at Bujumbura airport on Wednesday to welcome home Francine Niyonsaba after her recent successes overseas.The Burundian athlete won the 5,000 metres Diamond League title in Zurich on 8 September before setting a new 2,000m world record six days later at a meeting in Croatia.Earlier this year, Niyonsaba, a world and Olympic 800m silver medallist, switched away from her preferred distance after being banned from competing between 400m and 1500m because of naturally high levels of testosterone.”I did the extraordinary, and I now…

Assets confiscated include luxury vehicles and a pair of $275,000 jewel-encrusted gloves belonging to Michael Jackson.The decision comes after a 2014 forfeiture agreement between the US and Obiang, who is accused of acquiring assets in the country with ill-gotten gains. Mangue has disputed the claims.The United Nations will receive $19.25 million to buy and distribute the vaccines in the Central African country, while $6.35 million will be handed over to a US-based charity “for the purchase and distribution of medicines and medical supplies throughout Equatorial Guinea,” the justice department stated.According to the settlement agreement between Obiang and the US government,…