– NEWS –
Donors fall short of targets on funding pledges for DRC: An international conference to raise funds for a humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo that was boycotted by its government yielded less than a third of the money needed to help millions of people. The United Nations said the conference in Geneva drew about $530 million in pledges, below an estimated $1.7 billion needed to help more than 10 million people in the central African nation this year. President Joseph Kabila’s government refused to participate in the conference, claiming the UN and humanitarian organizations have overstated the crisis in the Congo and damaged the country’s international image.
bloomberg.com, devex.com
Fighting in Central African Republic: Christian militias stormed a UN base in southern Central Africa Republic early on Monday, killing one peacekeeper and wounding 11, the United Nations said. Later in the morning, peacekeepers discovered 21 dead civilians, including four children, near a church in Tagbara. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for those deaths. A 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission has struggled to restore order to the countryside where attacks on civilians are frequent. The UN Security Council approved an extra 900 peacekeepers in November to help to protect civilians. The mission has become a deadly one: more than a dozen UN peacekeepers were killed there last year.
uk.reuters.com
US takes Chad off travel ban list: The White House has said that citizens of Chad would be able to receive visas to the United States again because the African nation has been removed from the administration’s travel ban list. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump had signed a proclamation announcing Chad had improved its identity-management and information sharing practices enough to be taken off the list. Chad was put on the list last September because of an office supply glitch that prevented it from supplying homeland security officials with recent samples of its passports.
washingtonpost.com
Gunmen kidnap German in Nigeria: Five armed men kidnapped a German national and killed a policeman in northern Nigeria, police said on Monday. Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a vehicle carrying workers to a construction site run by construction company Dantata & Sawoe in Kano city, abducting the German national working for the firm and killing a police escort, said police spokesman Magaji Musa Majia. Kidnapping for ransom is common in Nigeria and has increasingly spread to the north, where cattle rustlers have turned to the practice after a government crackdown on livestock theft.
dw.com
Shell threatened with legal action over climate change contributions: The global flurry of legal campaigns against big oil has widened, with Royal Dutch Shell being threatened with legal action unless it steps up efforts to comply with the Paris climate agreement. Friends of the Earth Netherlands on Wednesday demanded the Anglo-Dutch company revise plans to invest only 5% in sustainable energy and 95% in greenhouse-gas emitting oil and gas. The environmental group said this business strategy would increase the impact of climate change, especially on the world’s poorest people and those most prone to flooding. It has given Shell eight weeks to shift to a cleaner tack, after which it says it is prepared to invoke international obligations, human rights treaties and laws on hazardous negligence.
theguardian.com
In South Africa, Crowds Gather To Honor Winnie Mandela npr.org
German government extends foreign military mission in Mali for another year dw.com
Egypt extends its state of emergency for 3 months washingtonpost.com
– BACKGROUND –
Nigeria’s youth ‚ready to run‘ for political office: Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will seek re-election in the country’s 2019 elections, the president’s spokesman has said. Buhari will seek a second term as a candidate for the All Progressives Congress party. The 75-year-old was away from the country for more than three months on a ‚medical vacation‘ in London last year after battling an unspecified illness. The other candidates for the highest state office are not exactly young either. Nigeria’s present law says that only people over the age of 40 can run for the presidency, while the office of governors or senators can be held from the age of 35. The new Age Reduction Bill has lowered the age limit to 35 and 30 respectively. Nigeria’s lower and upper house of parliament, the Senate and House of Representatives, already passed the bill in July 2017. But Buhari hasn’t signed it into law. The #NotTooYoungToRun initiative by 50 plus youth organizations from all over the country has been quite successful. In terms of demographics, the young people have the numbers on their side. More than 62 percent of Nigerians are below the age of 25.
cnn.com, dw.com
Saving endangered animals with software for the stars: The Royal Astronomical Society has teamed up with ecologists at Liverpool John Moores University to conduct trials using drones which are fitted with infrared cameras capable of automatically detecting the thermal signatures of creatures in the dark. The collaboration between astrophysicists and ecologists is helping to monitor rare and endangered species and stop poaching. Astrophysical software and techniques are applied to thermal infrared imagery captured by drones to automatically detect and identify animals – even at night, when most poaching activity occurs. This newly developed system uses machine learning and detection tools used in astronomy and was built on the open-source Astropy Project. As a result of this combination of seemingly unrelated technologies, the research team’s new system can detect and identify various types of animals in disparate landscapes and environments, which will allow its users to more efficiently monitor wildlife at night.
sciencedaily.com, telegraph.co.uk, thedrive.com
– WORKSHOP –
Afropean Bridges in Venice: The workshop „Afropean Bridges – Identity, Representation, Opportunities“ will take place in Venice on the 20th and 21st of April. The workshop aims to open a discussion about the achievements of the Africa-EU partnership and to address social and cultural issues related to the post-colonial relationship between European and African countries. It is organized by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, in the framework of the activities of its International Center for the Humanities and Social Change, in partnership with the think tank Progressi and in support of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent.
afropeanbridges.org
– NUMBER –
Nearly one billion people will be vaccinated against yellow fever in 27 high-risk African countries by 2026 with support from WHO, Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF and more than 50 health partners.
who.int
– QUOTE –
„To give perspectives to the youth of Africa is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. A power is developing here, for better or for worse. I deliberately say ‚power‘ – because I believe that is the correct strategic way to look at this global challenge – just as we understand the rise of China or digitization as new power factors in world politics.“
The United Nations Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Kohler has called for a more realistic view of Africa by Europe.
handelsblatt.com
– AT LAST –
Rich men, poor continent: The richest families in the world are discovering the world’s poorest continent. They operate huge reserves and luxurious lodges. The „Tswalu“, owned by the diamond dynasty Oppenheimer, used to be one of the largest hunting grounds in the Kalahari. Most of these lodges are located in South Africa. But even the Congo features camps for the rich. „Serra Cafema“ is the most remote camp on the border with Angola. The Himba nomads live here side by side with crocodiles, something that impressed Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen. But some of these projects have positive sides: Millions of dollars flow into environmental projects and infrastructure.
manager-magazin.de