NDNU African Studies 2019

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....