Mathew Otieno writes from Nairobi, Kenya.
But now the Lobito corridor is stirring back to life. It has recently become the target of the largest-ever investment into infrastructure in Africa by the United States, and the stage from which it hopes to start diluting China's influence on the continent. It has been primarily through large and ambitious infrastructure projects, after all, that the Asian giant has cultivated friendships with African countries.
Date posted: 2024-03-09
Sometime in February 2023, less than two months before India overtook China to become the world's most populous country, Africa preceded it, zipping briskly past the East Asian giant. By the end of the year, Africa's population was grazing 1.48 billion; India was panting in the dust, at 1.43 billion, and China was fading into the distance.
Date posted: 2024-01-25
When Lucy (not her real name) found out she was pregnant, she was already five months along. At the time, she was only seventeen years old. Soon after, out of embarrassment, she stopped going to school. Her boyfriend, an older man, denied responsibility and stopped talking to her.
Date posted: 2023-12-16
The October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, and the subsequent retaliation by Israel, have transfixed global attention. And although there's no shortage of extreme positions, the bulk of that attention has rightly taken the form of horror at the suffering and death of civilians, especially children, caught in the crossfire. But the world shouldn't keep its focus there to the exclusion of everything else.
Date posted: 2023-12-08
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently published its first policy on inclusive development, which seems set to condition aid on compliance with an LGBTQI+ agenda.
Date posted: 2023-09-01
Since 2019, the population of internally displaced people in Burkina Faso has increased by more than 5,000 percent, to over two million, according to government figures published in May. The primary cause of their displacement is an ongoing insurgency by jihadist militant groups, which now control nearly half of the landlocked West African country.
Date posted: 2023-07-13
Over the past weekend, a delegation of African leaders met presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in St Petersburg. Their mission was an effort to explore the possibility of a negotiated end to the ongoing war between the two countries.
Date posted: 2023-07-01
On May 26, just in time for LGBT+ Pride month, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni signed one of the strictest anti-homosexuality bills in the world into law. The Ugandan parliament passed the bill with an overwhelming majority at the beginning of the month, with only two MPs voting against it.
Date posted: 2023-06-17
How an American YouTuber and his family helped a community in rural Kenya.
Date posted: 2023-06-08
The outbreak of civil war in Sudan has been a disaster. The world is gazing with horror at the mounting civilian death toll and the flight of refugees. However, the conflict has also punched an ugly hole into Africa's already tattered image.
Date posted: 2023-05-19
With just over 100,000 people, Seychelles is Africa's smallest country by population. It is an archipelagic state of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, 1500 kilometres from East Africa. It also has the world's worst heroin epidemic.
Date posted: 2023-05-02
The answer is simple: lack of capital and lack of education.
Date posted: 2023-03-08
Journalists claim that the military forced 10,000 women to abort the children of Boko Haram terrorists.
Date posted: 2022-12-14
Kenya can see the good side of its colonial legacy. Why can't the West?
Date posted: 2022-10-28
A combination of arrogance and indifference is proving fatal to Western interests
Date posted: 2022-09-13
Government incompetence is no match for religious fanaticism.
Date posted: 2022-08-01
The appalling human cost of the Nigerian Civil War foreshadowed the conflict in Ukraine.
Date posted: 2022-08-01
Africans are outraged by coverage of an outbreak of an exotic disease.
Date posted: 2022-06-22
Another opportunity for virtue-signalling by people who have failed to deliver solutions.
Date posted: 2022-06-06
Early last week, South African scientists announced their discovery of a dramatically mutated variant of the virus that causes Covid-19. By the end of the week, the World Health Organization had designated it as a variant of concern and christened it Omicron, the latest stop on the virus's march through the Greek alphabet.
Date posted: 2021-12-12
COP 26 is a cop-out for the half a billion Africans who have no electricity.
Date posted: 2021-11-22
Why has France supported an unconstitutional coup?
Date posted: 2021-06-04
Marie Stopes Kenya is suing a leading pro-life campaigner for defamation.
Date posted: 2021-06-04
Before April 2018, few people outside Ethiopia had heard about Abiy Ahmed. Then he became the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, removed most of the political restrictions that had weighed down Ethiopians for years, brought a lingering war with Eritrea to a peaceful end, won a Nobel Peace Prize, and led his countrymen in planting a record 350 million tree seedlings in one day.
Date posted: 2021-03-09
Combating the coronavirus outbreak calls for humble innovations.
Date posted: 2020-04-15
When it became clear that the novel coronavirus coming out of China was destined to be a pandemic, international concern quickly zeroed in on how countries with weak health systems, most of which are in Africa, would be affected. It was feared that they would be quickly overwhelmed by the virus and left reeling.
Date posted: 2020-03-20
A three-judge bench at the Kenyan High Court in Nairobi recently upheld sections of the country's penal code that criminalise homosexual intercourse. A suit to repeal these parts had been brought to the court by a coalition of LGBT advocacy groups, which claimed that they contravened the Constitution's provisions on privacy and freedom from discrimination.
Date posted: 2019-06-15
We are a quarrelsome lot, but we know how to rise above it.
Date posted: 2019-01-19
Marie Stopes International has been called to account, but decisive action should follow.
Date posted: 2018-12-26
The continent ranks ahead of the world in some good things too. It has been a long time coming, but more and more African countries and cities are starting to feature prominently on worldwide rankings, and for good reasons.
Date posted: 2017-04-01
The Dutch went ahead with their conference on "reproductive and sexual health" and raised $250 million for abortions in Africa, which nobody needs. If ever there was a list of grossly misplaced priorities, I would be greatly puzzled if this case didn't make the top of it.
Date posted: 2017-03-21
There is a Kenyan joke that goes somewhat like this: Police in Kiambu, Kenya, were overwhelmed by the amount of crime in the county. So they outsourced a machine from the Germans to help them apprehend thieves. It didn't help. The machine itself was stolen. In Kenya the problem has a tribal aspect too.
Date posted: 2016-08-02
Much has been written about the growing population of Africa and its youthfulness. According to the UN's latest projections, Africa will have 4.4 billion people by 2100, accounting for 39 percent of the world's population and almost half of its young people below 14.
Date posted: 2016-03-20