NDNU African Studies 2019

Kinshasa part of the Democratic Republic of Congo a boat sank in an eastern lake of DRC causing 150 people to go missing.  President Felix Tshisekedi said on Twitter on Tuesday, a day after the vessel went down.  The boat sailed off Monday from the village of Kituku, near the city of Goma on Lake Kivu’s northern shore, and sank in South Kivu Province near the territory of Kalehe, the causing of the boat sinking is still unknown. Only 33 people have been rescued and 3 bodies have been found, during the trip, they were reported harsh and violent winds.  Because of a lack of public infrastructure in Congo, some private operators use boats to speed transport between regions. Many of the boats do not meet safety requirements, however, and shipwrecks in Congo are often caused by overloading and a lack of signs and alerts regarding lake conditions. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8069/8238084030_35ee766004_z.jpg

Kruger National Park were a very misfortunate poacher met his faith.  The man’s accomplices in the illegal poaching told his relatives that they had been in the park to poach rhinos on Tuesday night when he was killed by an elephant, the four accomplices were arrested after their testimony for illegal poaching and trespassing . A search party was sent, this included vehicles, airplanes and even rangers on foot, they were unable t o find the body as night was approaching. On Thursday morning the search body found remains.  Glenn Phillips gave his condolences to the dead man's family and informed that his corpse was eaten by lions, he stated that "e ntering Kruger National Park illegally and on foo t is not wise, i t holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that. Kruger National Park is two million hectares and is home to animals such as lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards, and African buffaloes.  Rhino horn is worth about $9,000 per pound in ...

Kampala Uganda is one of the most popular safari destinations, despite its beautiful vegetation and ecos ystem  Kimberly Sue Endicott, and the guide is Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo were kidnapped. A group of gunmen stopped the tourist vehicle and seized the guide and women, they later took Kimberly's phone and contacted the police wanting $500,000 dollars in ransom. This is not the first time this has happened, in 1999 eight tourists were kidnapped and four Ugandan park employees were kidnapped and later killed in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The kidnappers are believed to be part of Hutu militia that took part in the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/world/africa/american-kidnap-safari-uganda.html

Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, nations that are devastated by Cyclone Idai, considered to be a category four storm. The storm brought weeks of rain which resulted in floods and strong winds which damage infrastructure. Mozambique of all nations suffered the most deaths from the storm, a total of 450 people died compared to Zimbabwe with 260 deaths and Malawi with 55 deaths. An estimate of three million people are affected by the storm,  Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations considers this storm to be one of the worst weather-related catastrophes in African h istory.  The first cases of cholera have been reported by local health officials in Beira, the World Health Organization is also expecting a spike in malaria cases. Aid efforts are affected by flooded roads and bridges. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/world/africa/cyclone-idai-africa-mozambique-zimbabwe.html

US military airstrikes in Somalia have killed and wounded nearly two dozen civilians reported by an international human rights group, but US Africa Command officials deny the allegation stating that their military has investigated 18 cases of possible civilian casualties since 2017 and found that none were credible. US defense officials state that casualty allegations in Somalia are questionable because al-Shabaab militants make false claims and force local citizens to do the same.  The rate of US airstrikes in Somalia has escalated with the Trump administration, from a total of 47 airstrikes in 2018 to 28 already this year, more than 230 militants have been killed in 2019, compared to a total of 338 killed of 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/19/somalia-us-airstrikes-civilian-deaths-amnesty-international

Africa's history is laced with decades of colonial exploitation, but they have since the early 2000's china has shown a lot of strategic interest. China is after resources such as oil, gas, and metalsin order to meet their quota of energy imports and construction deamnds in order to sustain their manufacturing industry. Many African leaders embrace and promote economic engagemtn with China, it does offer some benefit such as improving the continesnt infrastructure deficite. The problem is many African nations such as  Zambia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti are in debt to China forcing many of them to hand over assets or resources since many loans have a form of collateral in the terms of agreement.  In the DRC, in return for the US$9 billion loan to upgrade road and rail systems that connect routes to extractive industries, China gained rights to extract up to 10 million tons of copper and 420 000...

A small clinic in the heart of Bangui located in the Central African Republic is changing lives by providing many amputees with prosthetics. Due to the rise of conflict in CAR, many civilians had been in the crossfire of the conflict resulting in the need for prosthetics. The clinic in Bangui is the only place where prosthetics are available in CAR. In the past six years, the demand for prosthetic has risen,  the UN reported that more than six in 10 people in CAR require urgent humanitarian assistance.  Last year 353 patients received an artificial limb, a fraction of the number of amputees who are still waiting for treatment.  Anrac is planning to build new premises this year, which is set to be 15 times as big and will include dormitories for those who travel from long distances, which will be supported by the ICRC and the government. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/19/prosthetics-hope-central-african-republic

Panthers an endangered species but recently has been spotted in Kenya after many reported sightings from locals of these animals in Africa, but, until now, only one had been confirmed, in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, in 1909. From February to April 2018, the research team has recorded footage of a young female black leopard. The recordings showed the female black panther alone in nighttime drinking water from artificial water sources that been set up by the search team or carrying remains of her prey but in the only daytime, she was following an adult female leopard. The reason this is such a surprise because only 11% of panthers are black coated, they are not native to Africa they are native to Southeast Asia but yet they are rare, making them really rare in Africa.  Philipp Henschel leader of the research team stated “I think the biggest threat to the leopard on a global scale is that it’s been just under the radar,” but it not certain just simply because their popu...

On January 7, a group of young military officers in Libreville, Gabon, tried to overthrow the gover nment of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, in order to end the Bongo family dynasty.  Africa has had many coups, many of them dating b ack to the immediate post-independence period, to date there has been a total of 204 coups which at some point it was the most common practice in order to have a change of power.  Young people have been responsible for leading some of Africa’s most memorable coups, triggered mostly by dissatisfaction with political governance. Throughout the years it has noted that coups are becoming less common of practice this could be because of  coup leaders, they often become dictatorship who rule with an iron fist and are more brutal than the government before. After noting this a cycle of coups they try changing the power  through their backing of democratic norms and reforms https://issafrica.org/iss-today/do-africas-youth-prefer-the-ballot-to...

 Cocaine is one of the most smuggled drugs in the world. On May 2018, 701 kilograms of cocaine were seized in customs in port Oran in frozen meat containers. They traced the shipment all the way back to Brazil, the initial start point heading to Spain where it was seized in Orien. Official say that the narcotics were not intended for local consumption due to the size of the shipment, but rather for it to spread all around Algeria all the way to Europe and the Middle East being its final destination.   The Oran cocaine bust in Algeria shows a similar seizure in Morocco, where 2.4 metric tons of cocaine were confiscated near Rabat in October 2017 and in February 2018, Moroccan authorities confiscated 541 kg of cocaine in a cargo ship coming from Brazil and directed to Casablanca. Is it possible that Algeria and all coastal states are becoming the cocaine coast? https://issafrica.org/iss-today/has-algeria-joined-africas-new-cocaine-coast

Casamance is a region which all forest it covers 30,000 hectares but in recent years this forest is rapidly disappearing. This region is known for its rich vegetation and because rare trees grow there, for example, rosewood is high demanded lumber from China. The forest has lost more than 10,000 hectares to this date, that is nearly 1 million trees being destroyed. The deforestation of Casamance is happening through illegal logging which includes armed groups of Senegalese and Gambian businessmen even locals who are trying to get quick cash. It estimated by Senegalese ecologist and former minister of environment  Haidar el Ali that ‘within two years, there will be no more forests in Casamance’ he stated this in late 2017. Action has been taken in order to reduce the deforestation such as not giving many permits for log cutting but is not monitored at all, also some corruption happens were Senegalese and Gambian officials allowing illegal loggers to continue without any worry....