African peace conference draws from Holy Qur’an
Highlights from the keynote address of Ambassador-at-Large Rashad Hussain at the Africa Peace Conference on January 17. Photo: mr.usembassy.gov “O you who believe, enter into complete peace. …” —Holy Qu’ran, Surah 2, Verse 108 The 3rd annual African Peace Conference 2023 at the Al-Mourabitoune Congress Palace in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and hosted by President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El-Ghazouani...
‘Great steps’ taken to consolidate ties as Iran FM visits South Africa
The top Iranian and South African diplomats have exchanged views on important bilateral and international issues on the sidelines of the 15th Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation. The meeting took place between Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor in Pretoria on August 10. The joint commission was being held after a...
Colonial-era currency limits economic freedom of African countries
“Playing neocolonial games with African money” is how the African Executive, a weekly Nairobi-based opinion and business magazine, framed a 2020 article on the CFA franc penned by this writer. CFA is short for Communauté Financière Africaine or African Financial Community. The article chronicled French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2019 joint press conference with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara announcing the “end” of...
Zambia continues to reject genetically modified maize
LUSAKA, Zambia (PANA)–Zambia’s Agriculture Minister Mundia Sikatana recently reiterated his government’s rejection of genetically modified (GM) maize due to the existing scientific uncertainty surrounding such foods. Mr. Sikatana told journalists here that the government had agreed with a recommendation by local scientists who recently returned from a study mission abroad that GM maize should not be accepted. For the...
African leaders appeal for Darfur, Sudan peace deal
Ex-rebel women are peacemakers in Darfur talks (FCN, 01-10-2006)Sudan needs help, not sanctions - A report from Darfur (TWF, 09-23-2004)Sudan, Oil, and the Darfur Crisis (FCN, 07-07-2004) Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - African leaders attending the African Union's special summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Abuja on Thursday took turns to appeal to the parties at the Darfur peace...
Uncertainty in Ivory Coast, optimism in Sudan
According to published reports, ECOWAS has threatened to remove Laurent Gbagdo, Ivory Coast's incumbent president, through the use of “legitimate force,” after being unable to “coax him into conceding defeat in elections. The West African Organization of States has called for a two-day meeting of its “defense chiefs (on) January 17 to plan future steps” if Gbagdo does...
Mandela’s Legacy: Much more than goal of a non-racial society
(FinalCall.com) - The 94-year-old Nelson Mandela has received much press of late. His hospital stays have garnered much headlines, and his mortality much discussion. Talk is of his legacy and what South Africa's first post-apartheid Black president will represent to the country going forward. His legacy, as it is being shaped, appears headed toward a similar image assigned to...
The Motherlands powerful influence on Islam
An important collection of historical accounts about the spread of Islam in the Motherland is captured in “Africa’s Islamic Experience: History, Culture and Politics” edited by among others A. Ali Mazrui, a famed Kenyan-born political scientist and one of Africa’s leading public intellectuals. The book was published in 2011 and Dr. Mazrui is now deceased. But the work gives...
Africa should dictate terms of its relationships with U.S.
U.S. President Joe Biden has dispatched Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) to Ethiopia to meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to express the administration’s “grave concerns” about the humanitarian crisis in the country’s Tigray region. Sudan and Egypt, because of their water dependence on the Nile River, asked the Biden administration, the UN and the African Union to intervene...
Is the Biden administration, U.S. corporate media under-mining integrity of the Ethiopian government?
KHARTOUM, Sudan—Is the West deliberately trying to destroy the reputation of the 2019 Noble Peace Prize winner, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed? The 45-year-old Ahmad won the award for his “efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation.” Ethiopia is becoming a regional power with its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Damn (GERD), designed to supply electricity to much of Africa. The...