SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS - The African Mirror

Aug

17

2024

Sudan’s catastrophe: farmers could offer quick post-war recovery, if peace is found

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

MORE than a year of conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has weakened the country’s fragile economy. This is in addition to triggering a humanitarian crisis, loss of lives, property destruction and income disruptions. Even before the current conflict, Sudan ranked among the poorest countries in the world. The proportion of those without access to basic necessities such as education, healthcare and proper living conditions was estimated at 52.3% of the population. The economy heavily depends on agriculture. The sector’s productivity has been low because of traditional pastoral systems and limited mechanisation. The armed conflict has damaged infrastructure and disrupted agricultural services…

Aug

14

2024

By GETNET MEWA

Ethiopia’s deadly landslides are caused by both nature and man – a geophysicist explains

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

AS many as 300 people were killed in landslides triggered by higher than normal rainfall in south-western Ethiopia in July 2024. More than 15,000 were also forced to leave their homes. Another less deadly landslide that occurred two weeks later killed a dozen. Getnet Mewa, a geophysicist who studies landslides and associated landmass movements, explains where and how landslides occur in Ethiopia. Where do landslides occur in Ethiopia? Ethiopia is situated in a region dissected by the East African Rift System, which is one of the Earth’s geologically active rift systems. A rift valley is a lowland region that forms…

Aug

06

2024

By SAMUEL OJO OLORUNTOBA and ZAINAB MONISOLA OLAITAN

African communities have a lot of knowledge to share: researchers offer alternatives to Eurocentric ways of doing things

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE dominance of Western methodology in research conducted in Africa continues to preoccupy academics. The result, they argue, has been the silencing of Indigenous knowledge. Indigenous ways of knowing are not making the contribution they could to the knowledge ecosystem. Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba and Zainab Monisola Olaitan have researched the impact of this skewed approach on various topics. They answer questions aimed at unpacking the problem and explaining what’s at stake. What is knowledge generation? Knowledge generation is the process of using different methods to collect, synthesise and analyse data to produce information which is then processed, analysed, and interpreted…

Aug

06

2024

By ANNE TJØNNDAL

Women’s boxing in Olympic storm: who is Algeria’s Imane Khelif and what are the issues she’s facing?

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

IMANE Khelif from Algeria is one of two women boxers at the 2024 Paris Olympics making the news – as ugly issues of gender testing and testosterone levels once again raise their heads, as they did in the case of South African runner Caster Semenya. Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting failed a questionable gender test allegedly administered by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in 2023 but were declared fit for entry by the International Olympic Committee. Both are female and identify as such, yet one of Khelif’s opponents has fuelled a public outcry that she has an unfair advantage,…

Jul

27

2024

By DELPHIN R. NTANYOMA

DRC ceasefire for humanitarian aid is a small step forward – what must happen next for peace

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE United States has negotiated a truce so humanitarian assistance can be given to more than seven million people, including children, caught in the grip of the conflict in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The initial cessation of hostilities was for two weeks. It was extended by a further two weeks. Armed conflicts and other forms of violence have triggered wave after wave of internal refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). More recently, fighting between government troops and the M23 rebels has trapped millions in and around Goma, the main eastern city.…

Jul

23

2024

By TEMILADE SESAN

Nigeria’s chronic power shortages: mini-grids were going to crack the problem for rural people, but they haven’t. Here’s why

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ELECTRICITY is a scarce commodity in Nigeria. With just over 4,000 megawatts supplying nearly 220 million people, the electricity access deficit stands at about 40% nationwide. The picture looks even darker in rural areas. There, 73% of the population is off the power grid. Rural electrification is crucial to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7: “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” Enter mini-grids: community-scale electricity generation and distribution systems, typically under 100 kilowatts in size. Mini-grids have emerged in the last decade as a cost-effective solution for many rural parts of Africa. According to one estimate, the…

Jul

19

2024

By TRACY-LYNN FIELD

Wildfires in South Africa are set to increase: how legal action can help the country adapt better to climate change

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

AS climate change drives temperature increases and lower precipitation in southern Africa, research has found that there is likely to be an increase in the number of wildfires in regions that are already hot, dry and water-scarce. Massive wildfires broke out in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province on 12 and 13 July 2024, killing six firefighters who were trapped in a blaze and seven other people. The same fires killed 1,600 livestock animals and burnt 14,000 hectares of land. About 84% of all human settlements in South Africa are located in fire-dependent ecosystems – places in which natural fires can contribute…

Jul

17

2024

By JOB MWAURA

Kenya’s digital divide: pastoralists are key to the country’s economy, but they’re being left behind

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

INFORMATION and communication technologies (ICTs) hold great potential to expand African economies. They include mobile banking platforms, internet-enabled communication devices and e-government services. All of these can enhance financial inclusion and improve services for citizens. Kenya’s mobile money transfer platform, M-Pesa, for instance, has given millions of people access to banking services. And Rwanda’s e-government platform has streamlined public service delivery for its citizens. Mobile phones have given more people access to the internet. There were 63.94 million active cellular mobile connections in Kenya at the start of 2023, against a population of 50 million. But the digital divide continues…

Jul

16

2024

By TOM MOULTRIE and ROB DORRINGTON

South Africa’s 2022 census may not be accurate enough for official use: demographers explain what went wrong

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE 2022 South African census set an undesirable record: it is the census with the highest undercount among those where the undercount is measured and reported by the United Nations Population Division. The reported undercount of 31% is some 10 percentage points higher than the previous highest notified undercount (in Comoros in 2017). While the results from the 2022 South African census, released in October 2023, were adjusted for the undercount, it means the results are more estimates than counts, producing a number of anomalies in the census data. These call their usefulness into question. A census is, primarily, as…

Jul

11

2024

By ANDREI POPOVICIU and EMMET LIVINGSTONE

‘People started to point the finger’: How the M23 conflict endangers DR Congo’s Tutsi communities

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS, EDITORS CHOICE

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. By Andrei Popoviciu and Emmet Livingstone THE war between the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s military and the Tutsi-led M23 armed group is having a harmful impact on the country’s Rwandophone Tutsi communities, some of whom have been unfairly typecast as rebel collaborators. Interviews with nearly a dozen Tutsi civilians underscore the diverse ways their communities have been affected by the war, which began in late 2021 and has seen the M23 seize large chunks of eastern DRC with the military backing of neighbouring Rwanda. “People started to point the finger…