These Nigerian Influencers Have Caught Hollywood’s Eye
A group of Nigerian kids are proving that when it comes to getting creative, less can sometimes be more. The Ikorodu Bois — brothers Muiz Sanni, 15, Malik Sanni, 10, and their 13-year-old cousin Fawas Aina — have become Instagram sensations by using everyday household items to recreate multimillion-dollar music videos and Hollywood movie trailers, […]
Zimbabwean Startup Launches “Knowledge Engine”
Query allows people to share niche knowledge with each other. Formed in July of last year, but only made available to the public last month, Query is competing with the likes of Google, Quora, Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange when it comes to giving people access to information. “Search engines are great at giving people […]
The Burkinabes Taking Justice into their Own Hands
Koglweogo is a vigilante group of around 40,000 men that has sprung up across the country’s arid savanna, especially in parts gradually falling away from government control. Translated from Mòoré, one of many local languages in Burkina Faso, Koglweogo means “guardian of the bush.” Like many other countries in the Sahel region, which skirts the […]
Kinshasa Dealt another Medical Blow
The Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded a second Ebola death in days following more than seven weeks without a new case. DRC had been due on Sunday to mark an end to the second-deadliest outbreak of the virus on record, until a case was confirmed on Friday in the eastern city of Beni. The […]
Cameroon’s Plan to Fight the Coronavirus Spread
Cameroon has required the wearing of face masks by all of its citizens and begun large scale production of Chloroquine to treat COVID-19. The country says its hospitals are already overwhelmed, with more than 850 confirmed cases within 6 weeks, yet it expects confirmed COVID cases to rise into the several thousands. Madeleine Tchuente, Cameroon’s […]
Turning Uganda’s Waste into Lifesaving Equipment
Peter Okwoko, a Ugandan environmental and community activist, and a Berkeley Ph.D. student Paige Balcom are the cofounders of Takataka Plastics, a social enterprise in Gulu, Uganda. It recycles plastic waste into affordable construction materials and, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, face shields for medical centers. It took three days to develop samples to […]
Libya’s Centre for COVID-19 Patients Up in Smoke
Armed fighters loyal to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar have attacked medical warehouses belonging to a hospital in the capital Tripoli that is treating coronavirus patients, the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) has said. The attack targeted depots of the Al-Khadra Hospital in al-Swani in the capital, Tripoli, with Grad missiles, according to a statement […]
The Team Charged with Negotiating a Lesser Debt for Africa
The African Union has appointed a team of special envoys to try to mobilise international support to help the continent respond to the coronavirus pandemic. AU chairman Cyril Ramaphosa insisted it was time to marshal resources to ensure the pandemic did not cause the collapse of the continent’s faltering economies. “These institutions need to support […]
Beijing Faces a Diplomatic Crisis in Africa
A senior Chinese official has acknowledged accusations of authorities discriminating against black people in the city of Guangzhou as “reasonable concerns”. Amid an increased focus on people with coronavirus arriving in mainland China from abroad, health authorities in Guangzhou have been accused of racially targeting Africans, including with forced evictions, repeated testing for Covid-19 without […]
Understanding the Number of COVID-19 Cases in Africa
When Africa’s first case of coronavirus was detected in Egypt in February, the rest of the continent prepared for the brunt of a pandemic that has engulfed Europe and spread to the United States, infecting more than 1.6 million worldwide. Health experts warned of the devastation the deadly virus could cause in Africa, where most […]
