Desperate East African governments are weighing their options as farmers beg for the most deadly agro-chemicals in a last ditch effort against swarms of desert locusts which have already begun to eat into thousands of acres of pasture and farmland. “This is the best time to kill them,” said Mehari Tesfayohannes Ghebre, Information and Forecasting…

Murder charges against the Prime Minister of Lesotho, Thomas Thabane, will be reconsidered in light of a novel appeal for immunity to be heard by the country’s High Court. If his appeal is rejected, Mr. Thabane would be the first African leader to face domestic murder charges while in office. Mr. Thabane, 80 years of…

Nigeria is rounding up journalists who investigate corruption – jailing them for indefinite periods of time and accusing them of treason. Agba Jalingo, publisher of Cross River Watch, was arrested and jailed last August 2019 until this month when a Cross River court granted bail. He faces trial over a report written by the newspaper…

Racism is rife in international soccer, with fans taking physical and verbal aim at players of the opposing team. After the routine apologies of the coaches and local officials, what has really been done to end the frequent racist outbursts, often accompanied by flying chairs or banana peels? This week, star striker Moussa Marega of…

Nikita Pearl Waligwa, who starred as the friend of chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi in the Disney film “The Queen of Katwe,” passed away this week after a valiant struggle with cancer. She was 15 years of age. The film, which starred David Oyelowo as the chess teacher, Lupita Nyong’o as Phiona’s mother, and Madina Nmwanta…

Following an exhaustive review of petitions submitted by the opposition, judges of the Malawian Constitutional Court ruled against Peter Mutharika whose presidential victory last May was attributed to massive fraud. Veteran diplomat Vernon Mwaanga of neighboring Zambia said the Court raised the bar for African countries where elections are plagued by irregularities. “The Malawi judicial…

A stirring call to action was delivered this week in the august hall of the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, spoken by the incoming AU president Cyril Ramaphosa to distinguished members of the continental body representing over 40 countries. In his presentation at the AU’s 33rd summit, the South African President wove history…

Vaccinations have been halted in a test of a new HIV vaccine after it proved no more effective than a placebo, researchers announced. In the “Uhambo” study – also called HVTN 702 – tested in South Africa – it was determined that 129 people who received the vaccine developed HIV while 123 who were given…

She’s your pediatrician. He’s your surgeon. She’s a civil engineer. He has a doctorate. She’s an Emmy Award winner. He was a Chicago Bear. They’re Nigerian-Americans who have set down roots in Dallas, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, Phoenix and Houston – the latter of which has the largest Nigerian population outside Brazil and Africa. They’re the…

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (known as “AGOA”) which aimed to assist the economies of sub-Saharan Africa and improve economic relations between the U.S. and the region is out of step with the new trade deals of the Trump administration. In other words, time’s up. A new economic plan is on the drawing board…