Africa

Photo: Captain Thomas Sankara and journalist Sennen Andriamirado in Paris in 1986. Pascal Maitre/Archives JA. Source: The African Report.

Alleged Killers of Pan-African Icon Thomas Sankara on Trial

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The trial of the accused killers of Thomas Sankara, revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso—including his former friend Blaise Compaore who succeeded him as president and went on to rule for 27 years— has now been adjourned to October 25 after defense lawyers asked for more time to prepare their case. It was to have opened on October 11 in the capital Ouagadougou.

Fourteen men are being tried over the assassination in 1987. Near the Thomas Sankara memorial site, many expressed the hope that the trial would shed light on his murder.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 13 October 2021

Photo: The pyre of light weapons being readied ahead of a ceremony in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire at which small arms and light weapons were set alight and destroyed in April 2013. Credit: The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS)

A Senior Kenyan Ambassador Stresses the Need to Tackle Illicit Weapons, Ammunition

By Franck Kuwonu, UN Information Officer

NEW YORK (IDN | Africa Renewal) — BMS7 took place in New York, in July. In this interview with Africa Renewal’s Franck Kuwonu, Ambassador Kimani, chair of the Seventh Biennial Meeting of States (BMS7) to consider the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA) and its international Tracing Instrument (ITI), talks about the proliferation of dangerous firearms in Africa, and welcomes efforts to trace ammunitions. These are excerpts from the interview.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 12 October 2021

Photo: Desmond Tutu. Source: cayman.loopnews.com

Nobel Peace Laureate Tutu Celebrates 90 With Global Leaders

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Celebratory messages of love and appreciation for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu poured in from across the world on the Nobel Peace laureate’s 90th birthday on October 7.

A week’s worth of events culminated on his birthday with the 11th Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture delivered this year by four global leaders.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 11 October 2021

Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah Ignites Debate in Zanzibar

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Out of 118 Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 2021, only six have gone to African writers with only two to Black Africans. So, there was a measure of celebration, excitement, and pride when this year’s prize was awarded to Zanzibar-born writer Abdulrazak Gurnah.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 11 October 2021

Rwandan Leader Included in 'Predators Gallery'

By Lisa Vives

Global Information Network

New YORK (IDN) — In the years he’s been president, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has never learned to love free speech on the internet. Long before the trial of prominent YouTube commentator and genocide survivor, Yvonne Idamange, the President issued a dire warning: “Those that you hear speak on the internet, whether they are in America, in South Africa, or in France, they think they are far.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 October 2021

Congolese Leader Condemns World Health Group’s Sexual Abuse of Local Women

By Lisa Vives

Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Facing a devastating report by the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledging sexual exploitation of Congolese women by WHO and local staff, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has called for a "frank" judicial collaboration between national and international authorities on the matter.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 October 2021

Photo: Kenyan President Kenyatta delivering statement on the terrorist attack at Dusit complex, Nairobi, in 2019. Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Pandora Papers Report on How Kenyan Leader and Relatives Stashed $30 Million Offshore

By Lisa Vives

Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The consortium of cross-border journalists that produced the massive investigation into corruption known as the Panama Papers has released a new work that digs into the proliferation of offshore accounts, the mechanisms used to hide money and the millionaires and billionaires quietly siphoning money into private accounts. The just-released Pandora Papers detail an opaque financial universe where the global elite shield riches from taxes, criminal probes and public accountability.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 October 2021

Photo: Paul Rusesabagina. Wikimedia Commons.

Film Hero from Movie Hotel Rwanda Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Hotel Rwanda hero Paul Rusesabagina has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on terror charges despite pleas from human rights watchdogs and other critics of Rwanda’s repressive government to lessen the judgement or cancel it.

Rusesabagina was credited with sheltering more than a thousand ethnic Tutsis during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and was a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. He boycotted the announcement of the verdict after calling the trial a “sham.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 01 October 2021

Photo. 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Literature Wole Soyinka during a lecture at Stockholm Public Library on October 4, 2018. CC BY-SA 4.0

Nobel Laureate Soyinka’s ‘Searing Political Satire’ Of Nigeria Today

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The first Black African laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature has a precious gift for his place of birth. It’s a new book, his first novel in 50 years, scheduled to land on the 60th anniversary of Nigerian independence.

“I wanted this to be my present to the nation,” the 87-year-old Wole Soyinka told a reporter in a recent interview. “To the people who live here: both the governed and those who govern, the exploiters and the exploited.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 01 October 2021

Photo: Mrs Baptista S. Gebu, Executive Director of ProHumane Afrique International.

Africa Needs to Do a Lot More to Combat Gender Discrimination and Violence

Interview with ProHumane Afrique International's Executive Director

MOSCOW (IDN) — Globally, violence against women and girls persists. Besides, there are all kinds of gender discrimination. Some governments are steadily making efforts to eradicate violence and discrimination using legislation, and supporting public platforms devoted to discussing these. In this interview with Kester Kenn Klomegah* of IDN-InDepthNews, Mrs. Baptista S. Gebu, Executive Director of ProHumane Afrique International, discusses the situation of women and girls in the Republic of Ghana in West Africa.