– NEWS –
Nigeria confirms abduction of 110 girls: Nigeria has deployed fighter jets, helicopters and surveillance planes to search for more than 100 girls who are missing after suspected Boko Haram militants attacked their school in the northeastern region of the country. The country’s Ministry for Information said Sunday that 110 girls remain unaccounted for after the raid last Monday on the Government Girls Science Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State. The Boko Haram militant group attained international notoriety after abducting more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.
reuters.com, cnn.com
Presidential election campaigns kick off in Egypt: Egypt’s presidential election campaign began on Saturday. Authorities have engineered the March 26-28 election as a guaranteed win for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who now faces only an obscure politician who supports him as an adversary. Human Rights Watch sharply criticized Egyptian authorities on Monday for a series of arbitrary arrests of Sissi’s political opponents. HRW urged for the release of Abdel-Monaem Abul Fetouh, a 2012 presidential candidate and prominent Islamist detained earlier this month along with several party leaders and placed on a terrorism list that bans them from travel and freezes their assets over alleged links to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
washingtonpost.com
Ramaphosa wants to redistribute land: South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa wants to address the issue of land redistribution. The question is shaping up to become a major policy issue of Ramaphosa’s early tenure. The ANC, the Republic of South Africa’s governing political party, took a decision in December to legislate and implement a policy of expropriation of land without compensation. Ramaphosa has reiterated this decision, but added caveats: it must not jeopardize food security or destabilize the agricultural or any other sector. Seeking to correct similar colonial and Apartheid-era injustices in his country, Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe initiated a land redistribution program in 1999-2000.
derstandard.at, reuters.com, businessinsider.com
Ethiopia declares state of emergency: Ethiopian officials have declared a state of emergency amid widespread anti-government protests that have persisted for more than two years and in which hundreds have been killed and several thousand detained, the majority of whom have since been released. It is the second state of emergency in two years and comes a day after the prime minister resigned. On Thursday Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced his surprise resignation saying he wanted to be part of a solution to the crisis and steadfast ongoing reforms. Demonstrators have called for the release of political prisoners and urged the government to carry out quick reforms. Rights groups claimed people were beaten and subjected to arbitrary detentions under the previous emergency rule.
washingtonpost.com
Morgan Tsvangirai mourned in Harare: Zimbabwe’s President Emerson Mnangagwa has called on all citizens to unite to mourn opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who died of colon cancer last week. A memorial service for Tsvangirai was held in a packed church in the capital Harare, while outside hundreds of supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) gathered. Mnangagwa visited Tsvangirai’s family to offer condolences ahead of the service. The new president, who took over following the military ousting of Robert Mugabe in November, called for fair, free and credible elections, which are due to take place this year.
bbc.com
EU doubles funds for G5 Sahel military anti-terror security force dw.com
New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition lost France’s financial support euractiv.com
At least two killed in crackdown on march against Congo’s Kabila reuters.com
– BACKGROUND –
Berlinale Africa Hub: For the second time, the „Berlinale Africa Hub“ presented African cinema and production possibilities at the Berlin International Film Festival. Diversity and creativity characterize the African film industry — despite the lack of funding opportunities. The Africa Hub offers African filmmakers a platform for their art. The World Cinema Fund (WCF), funded by the Federal Foreign Office and the German Federal Cultural Foundation, is trying to close a gap on the African continent, as there are very minimal funding opportunities available for young filmmakers. Many cinemas in Africa also have a hard time simply staying open: expensive film rights, high rent and pirated copies of movies have caused a movie-slump on the continent.
dw.com
Smartphones lost market share to feature phones in Africa: The market share of feature phones rose to 61 percent in 2017 from 55.4 percent in 2016, while market share for smartphones fell to 39 percent from 44.6 percent, according to data provided by IDC. The growth in feature phones could be partly explained by an expansion of mobile phone markets in large countries like Ethiopia and DR Congo where mobile phone penetration is still low compared with countries like South Africa and Nigeria where more users are upgrading to smartphones. The recovery of feature phone growth in Africa was largely dominated by Transsion, a China-based handset maker.
qz.com
– NUMBER –
2.6 million children across the world die before they reach their first full month of life. Eight out of ten countries with the highest infant mortality rates are in sub-Saharan Africa. Pregnant women there are often poorly cared for because of poverty, war and weak institutions.
taz.de
– QUOTE –
„There really must be development and not just support. I believe that all of Europe has a responsibility here. Basically, it is a task for the developed world.“
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the further development of Germany’s Africa policy.
nrz.de
– AT LAST –
Black Panther sells out African theaters: The Afro-futuristic superhero movie „Black Panther“ opened to rave reviews in Africa, with many welcoming its celebration of traditional cultures and imagining a better world. The movie by director Ryan Coogler is reportedly on track to sell the highest number of pre-sale tickets ever for a Marvel feature. The economic impact is already huge. The movie already generated 89.3 million dollars for the Georgia economy alone (where it was filmed.) And Fandango says that the film has outsold pre-sales of every other superhero movie, breaking records to be the top-selling superhero movie of all time.
npr.org, forbes.com