French President Emmanuel Macron starts his first tour of Africa on Monday. He is to visit Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana in an effort to revitalise France’s image on the continent. Macron’s advisers say he hopes to modernise France’s relations with Africa by emphasising business links, education and sport rather than development aid. Although Macron has pledged to…
The president of Ghana talks to Al Jazeera about his country’s democratic success and his hopes for the continent. Typically associated in international media with political instability, disease, poverty, corruption, dictatorships and a lack of human rights and democracy, African countries struggle to deconstruct the stereotypes. One of the few exceptions seems to be the Republic of Ghana. Ghana today…
In a deal similar to the one that turned the tide against AIDS, manufacturers and charities will make chemotherapy drugs available in six poor countries at steep discounts. In a remarkable initiative modeled on the campaign against AIDS in Africa, two major pharmaceutical companies, working with the American Cancer Society, will steeply discount the prices of cancer medicines in…
Insect to cause $3bn damage to maize in next 12 months and serious food shortages An invasion of fall armyworms from the Americas has ravaged crops across more than 20 African countries, putting hundreds of millions of people at risk of hunger. Experts warned this week that the continent will struggle to contain the threat posed by the 3.4cm…
Languages Grew From a Seed in Africa, a Study Says A researcher analyzing the sounds in languages spoken around the world has detected an ancient signal that points to southern Africa as the place where modern human language originated. The finding fits well with the evidence from fossil skulls and DNA that modern humans originated in Africa. It also…
Armscor will participate in what is being billed as the biggest aerospace and aviation exhibition in Africa this year. Come October, the South African government’s defence and security acquisition agency, will be at Kotoka International Airport in Accra for the first African Airshow as part of its mandate to provide marketing support to the South African defence industry. “This…
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has called on the new United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Mr António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, to spearhead the democratic reforms of the UN Security Council. Such reforms, he said, should include the full representation of Africa on the Security Council, as proposed by the African Union (AU) in Swaziland in 2005. Addressing a…
It was a fashion show that stopped traffic. On one of the largest cable bridges in southern Africa, hundreds of the fashion elite had gathered around midnight to watch David Tlale’s highly anticipated fall 2011 show. To commemorate the occasion, Mr. Tlale shut down the Nelson Mandela Bridge, turning the busy roadway into a runway. Ninety-two models, one for…
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump’s views of Africa have, until now, been a mystery. But a series of questions from the Trump transition team to the State Department indicate an overall skepticism about the value of foreign aid, and even about American security interests, on the world’s second-largest continent. A four-page list of Africa-related questions from the transition…
Britain’s credit export agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), signed its first direct loan deal in Africa on Monday, providing $310 million to GE Oil & Gas to supply equipment for an oil and gas project in Ghana. UKEF’s loan and credit facility is part of a wider $1.35 billion financing for the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) project, developed…
