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Ghanaians voted in an election seen as a close fight between President Nana Akufo-Addo and his longtime rival John Mahama, in a country long viewed a beacon of stability in a troubled region.
Announcement of the death of former President Rawlings pic.twitter.com/7ext0fp4sd
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) November 12, 2020
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Slightly larger than Colorado, Burkina Faso, formerly known as Upper Volta, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Its neighbors are Côte dIvoire, Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, and Ghana. The country consists of extensive plains, low hills, high savannas, and a desert area in the north.
Parliamentary.
Burkina Faso was originally inhabited by the Bobo, Lobi, and Gurunsi peoples, with the Mossi and Gurma peoples immigrating to the region in the 14th century. The lands of the Mossi empire became a French protectorate in 1897, and by 1903 France had subjugated the other ethnic groups. Called Upper Volta by the French, it became a separate colony in 1919, was partitioned among Niger, the Sudan, and Côte dIvoire in 1932, and was reconstituted in 1947. An autonomous republic within the French Community, Upper Volta became independent on Aug. 5, 1960.
President Maurice Yameogo was deposed on Jan. 3, 1966, by a military coup led by Col. Sangoulé Lamizana, who dissolved the national assembly and suspended the constitution. Constitutional rule returned in 1978 with the election of an assembly and a presidential vote in June in which Gen. Lamizana won by a narrow margin over three other candidates.
On Nov. 25, 1980, Col. Sayé Zerbo led a bloodless coup that toppled Lamizana. In turn, Maj. Jean-Baptist Ouedraogo ousted Zerbo on Nov. 7, 1982. But the real revolutionary change occurred the following year when a 33-year-old flight commander, Thomas Sankara, took control. A Marxist-Leninist, he challenged the traditional Mossi chiefs, advocated womens liberation, and allied the country with North Korea, Libya, and Cuba. To sever ties to the colonial past, Sankara changed the name of the country in 1984 to Burkina Faso, which combines two of the nations languages and means “the land of upright men.”
While Sankaras investments in schools, food production, and clinics brought some improvement in living standards, foreign investment declined, many businesses left the country, and unhappy labor unions began strikes. On Oct. 15,
The motorcade for President Donald Trump arrives at Trump National Golf Club, Saturday, May 23, 2020, in Sterling, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
STERLING, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump played golf Saturday for the first time since he declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency more than two months ago, leading to the shutdown of much of American society.
The White House had no comment on the president’s activities at the club, but said he and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had discussed the pandemic’s effect on the global economy on Saturday.
The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic on March 11, and Trump followed with the national emergency declaration two days later.
READ MORE: Former White House butler who served 11 presidents dies of coronavirus
Trump has ordered U.S. flags on federal buildings and national monuments to half-staff through Sunday in memory of Americans lost to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
American flags fly at half-staff, following orders from President Donald Trump to honor COVID-19 victims, near the Washington Monument on the National Mall, May 22, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Trump levied frequent criticism of Barack Obama’s regular golf outings when he was president.
Ghana is close to announcing a roadmap toward easing of Covid-19 restrictions, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said on Sunday.
Akufo-Addo said consultations are ongoing with relevant stakeholders on the form and timing of easing the restrictions.
Ghana banned social gatherings on March 15, following the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country.
The president said the proposed easing of restrictions intends to restore \"social and economic lives.\"
\"I expect these consultations to conclude this week so that I can announce to Ghanaians a clear roadmap for easing the restrictions.
May 16: Nigeria receives COVID-Organics, scientific tests ordered
\tNigerian president Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday (May 16) received the country’s share of a purported coronavirus herbal cure, COVID-Organics.
Madagascar donated a consignment of the controversial cure to the West African bloc, ECOWAS.
May 12: Nigeria accepts COVID-Organics
\tNigeria is set to fly in Madagascar’s herbal cure donation from Guinea-Bissau, a top official at the president who is leader of the presidential task force on COVID-19 disclosed on Monday.
“Mr President has given instructions for the airlifting of Nigeria’s allocation of the Madagascar Covid-19 Syrup; also given clear instructions that it must be subjected to the standard validation process for pharmaceuticals; there will be no exceptions for this.
May 6: ECOWAS ‘rejects’ COVID-Organics, Madagascar’s untested virus cure
\tThe Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has dissociated itself from reports of a donation from Madagascar regarding a coronavirus herbal cure, COVID-Organics.
Born: October 17, 1956
Birthplace: Decatur, Alabama
Mae C. Jemison was born the youngest of three children of Charlie and Dorothy Jemison, a maintenance worker and
schoolteacher. Raised in Chicago, Illinois, she graduated from Morgan Park High School in 1973. She earned a Bachelor of
Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 1977, while also fulfilling the requirements for a Bachelor
of Arts in African-American Studies. She attended medical school and received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Cornell
University in 1981. While in medical school she traveled to Cuba, Kenya and Thailand, providing primary medical care to
people living there.
Following medical school Dr. Jemison served in the Peace Corps, from January 1983 to June 1985. She was stationed in
Sierra Leone and Liberia, West Africa as the area Peace Corps medical officer. There she supervised the pharmacy,
laboratory, medical staff. She provided medical care, wrote self-care manuals, developed and implemented guidelines for health
and safety issues. She also had contact with and worked in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on
research for various vaccines.
In 1985, after returning from the Peace Corps, Dr. Jemison secured a position with the CIGNA Health Plans of California as a
general practitioner in Los Angeles, California. There she began attending graduate classes in engineering and applied to the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for admission to the astronaut program. Her first application was not
accepted. It was her second application in 1987 that was accepted as an astronaut candidate; Mae Jemison became one of the
fifteen candidate accepted from some 2,000 applicants.
Dr. Jemison successfully completed her astronaut training program in August 1988, becoming the fifth black astronaut and the
first black female astronaut in NASA history. In August 1992, SPACELAB J was a successful joint U.S. and Japanese science
mission, making Mae Jemison the first black woman in space.
In a May 6 press release, the ECOWAS Commission said it dissociates itself from claims that it had “ordered a package of COVID Organics (CVO) medicine from a third country.”
“We wish to dissociate ECOWAS and its health institution, West Africa Health Organization, WAHO, from this claim and inform the general public that we have not ordered the said CVO medicine,” the statement read in part.
THE ruling Zanu PF has failed to deal with Zimbabwe’s multifaceted crisis as the socio-economic situation continues to deteriorate since 2018 elections, a survey has shown.
According to a report on citizens’ perceptions and expectations titled Dancing on the Same Spot by SIVIO Institute, an independent organisation focused on ensuring that citizens are at the centre of processes of economic-political-social and policy change, the socio-economic crisis has worsened with no prospects of a turnaround in the immediate future.
It noted that the opposition MDC Alliance has also failed to deliver on its promises in local authorities they run, but added that the opposition party has continuously shifted the blame on Zanu PF, accusing the governing party of interference.
We have been tracking how the promises made by Zanu PF during the elections have been converted into policy programmes,” the report read.
This government still has a lot of work to convince its own citizens and also the international community that they are actually about reforms and turning around the fortunes of the countries,” the report read.
WASHINGTON, May 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Idris Elba on Friday called for urgent action and creative solutions to prevent a looming hunger crisis in poor countries, where food production and transport have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
With 60% of employment in Africa in agriculture, \"that's an awful lot of people who are going to suffer and not eat because of the crisis and ongoing effects,\" Elba said.
Coronavirus is set to almost double global hunger by the end of the year, putting an additional 130 million people at risk because of cut-off trade flows and loss of income, according to the World Food Programme.
IFAD has pledged $40 million to the new U.N. fund and is providing cash transfers to farmers, distributing seeds and fertilizers and in some places negotiating with authorities to get food to market.
\"The combined effects of climate change, exacerbated by the locust outbreak, exacerbated by COVID means there's been a complete disruption in all food supply chains,\" said Sara Mbago-Bhunu, director of IFAD's East and Southern Africa Division.
Namibia is bordered on the north by Angola and Zambia, on the east by Botswana, and on the east and south by South Africa. It is for the most part a portion of the high plateau of southern Africa, with a general elevation of from 3,000 to 4,000 ft.
Republic.
The San peoples may have inhabited what is now Namibia more than 2,000 years ago. The Bantu-speaking Herero settled there in the 1600s. The Ovambo, the largest ethnic group today, migrated in the 1800s.
In the late 15th century, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to visit Namibia. Formerly called South-West Africa, the territory became a German colony in 1884. Between 1904 and 1908, German troops massacred tens of thousands of Herero, who had revolted against colonial rule. In 1915, during World War I, Namibian territory was taken over by South African forces. In 1921, it became a mandated territory of the League of Nations, under the administration of South Africa.
Upon the dissolution of the League of Nations in 1946, South Africa refused to accept United Nations authority to replace its mandate with a UN trusteeship. A black Marxist separatist group, the South West African Peoples Organization (SWAPO), formed in 1960 and began small-scale guerrilla attacks aimed at achieving independence. In 1966, the UN called for South Africas withdrawal from the territory, and officially renamed it Namibia in 1968. South Africa refused to obey. Under a 1974 Security Council resolution, South Africa was required to begin the transfer of power or face UN action. Prime Minister Balthazar J. Vorster rejected UN supervision, claiming that his government was prepared to negotiate Namibian independence, but not with SWAPO, which the UN had recognized as the “sole legitimate representative” of the Namibian people.
South Africa handed over limited powers to a new multiracial administration in 1985 (the previous government had enforced South Africas apartheid laws). Installation of this government ended South Africas direct rule, but it
The Council of Federated Organization was founded in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, COFO included the statewide organizations of three national civil rights groups, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led by Bob Moses, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) under Tom Gaither, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The organization was […]
Total confirmed cases = 6,269 (new cases = 173)
Total recoveries = 1,898 (new = 125)
Total deaths = 31
Active cases = 4,340
\tFigures valid as of May 21, 2020
May 20: Cases pass 6,000 mark, govt eyes COVID-Organics
\tGhana’s case count passed 6,000 mark reaching 6,096 on Tuesday according to tallies released by the Ghana Health Service.
Total confirmed cases = 6,069
Total recoveries = 1,773
Active cases = 4,292
\tFigures valid as of May 19, 2020
May 19: govt to explain boom recoveries and address hot spot case management
\tNo new figures were released on Monday but the government through the Information Ministry will release new tallies at a press conference scheduled for later today.
May 17: 5,735 cases, prez fact-checked on testing ‘record’
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5735 (new cases = 97)
Total recoveries = 1,754 (new = 294)
Total deaths = 29 (new = 5)
Active cases = 3,952
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 16, 2020
\tGhana maintained her spot as West Africa’s most impacted after the Health Ministry released latest figures yesterday.
AFP Fact-check – Ghana’s leader falsely claims his country fronts COVID-19 testing
May 16: 5,530 cases, jumbo recoveries
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,638 (new cases = 108)
Total recoveries = 1,460 (new recoveries = 1086)
Total deaths = 24 (new deaths = 0)
Active cases = 4,150
\tGhana recorded a boost in recoveries with a record 1,086 discharges authorities reported early Saturday.
READ MORE – Uniting behind a people’s vaccine against COVID-19
April 14: 5,530 cases, 13 of 16 regions infected
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,530 (new cases = 122)
Total recoveries = 674 (new recoveries = 160)
Active cases = 4,832
\tThirteen of the 16 regions in the country have recorded cases of the disease.
On August 5, 1999 President William Clinton appointed Gregory Lee Johnson U.S. Ambassador to Swaziland. He served in that post from November 16, 1999 to October 18, 2001. Johnson began his career in the Foreign Service in 1968 and has served in Vietnam (1968-1971). His next posts were in Japan (1972-1976), Brazil (1976-1980), and the Soviet Union (1981-1983). He has also served in Somalia, Canada, and as Interim Charge d’ Affaires in the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. Ambassador Johnson speaks Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, and Vietnamese.
Gregory Lee Johnson was born in Ellensburg, Washington on July 18, 1945. His parents are Orville and Edith Johnson. He graduated from Franklin High School in Seattle, Washington in 1963 and four years later received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washington State University. He later attended The American University, Washington, D.C. and received a master’s degree in international relations in 1968.
Besides his service abroad, Ambassador Johnson held assignments in the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and attended the U.S. Army War College between 1983 and 1988. From 1989 to 1992, Johnson returned to Japan where he served as Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General in Osaka-Kobe, Japan.
Johnson’s appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Swaziland provided him the opportunity to help deepen relationships with the United States. Swaziland was the last nation in Africa to be governed by a monarchy and was seen as the most stable nation in Southern Africa. Johnson‘s greatest challenge was in helping Swaziland confront its HIV/AIDS epidemic where one-fifth of its one million people were HIV-positive.
Ambassador Johnson helped negotiate the lifting of sanctions on cane sugar exports from Swaziland to the U.S. and played a key role in gaining commitment from the Government of Swaziland to contribute resources to the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) peacekeeping efforts in in Northeast and West
Electoral authorities in Guinea on Saturday declared President Alpha Conde winner of Sunday's election with 59.49% of the vote, defeating his main rival Cellou Diallo.
\t Some people went to the streets to protest immediately after the announcement. Such demonstrations have occurred for months after the government changed the constitution through a national referendum, allowing Conde to extend his decade in power.
\t Opposition candidate Cellou Diallo received 33.50% of the vote, the electoral commission said. Voter turnout was almost 80%.
\t Political tensions in the West African nation turned violent in recent days after Diallo claimed victory ahead of the official results. Celebrations by his supporters were suppressed when security forces fired tear gas to disperse them.
They accuse the electoral authorities of rigging the vote for incumbent president Alpha Conde.
\t At least nine people have been killed since the election, according to the government. The violence sparked international condemnation by the U.S. and others.
\t ``Today is a sad day for African democracy,'' said Sally Bilaly Sow, a Guinean blogger and activist living abroad. The government should take into account the will of the people who have a desire for change, he said.
ICC warning
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned on Friday that warring factions in Guinea could be prosecuted after fighting erupted.
“I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages and contributes in any other way to crimes … is liable to prosecution either by the Guinean courts or the ICC,” she said.
#ICC Prosecutor #FatouBensouda: "I wish to repeat this important reminder: anyone who commits, orders, incites, encourages or contributes, in any other way, to the commission of #RomeStatute crimes, is liable to prosecution either by #Guinean courts or by the #ICC."
— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) October 23, 2020
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
In 2002, the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations formally agreed to the creation of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a so-called 'hybrid court,' to bring justice and reconciliation to the country and region.
David Crane spoke with Tom Sheehy, a long-time staff member on the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives, addressing the Special Court, its lessons, relevancy for today, and the state of contemporary international justice.
I also had a quarterly meeting with all of the civil society organizations of Sierra Leone to discuss their perspectives on justice, the Special Court, and various related issues.
I felt in putting together my General Strategy that the Special Court for Sierra Leone was only one star in a galaxy of stars working together to bring peace to that war-torn land.
Greatest responsibility was the standard by which the Special Court for Sierra Leone was established.
Afro-Caribbeans are Caribbean people who trace at least some of their ancestry to West Africa in the period since Christopher Columbuss arrival in the region in 1492. Other names for this ethnicity include African-Caribbean (especially preferred among the United Kingdom branch of the diaspora), Afro-Antillean, or Afro-West Indian. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, European-led triangular trade brought enslaved West African people to work on Caribbean islands, primarily on various sugar plantations and in domestic households. Many Afro-Caribbeans also have non-African ancestry, such as European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Native American, as there has been extensive intermarriage and unions among the peoples over the centuries.
Although most Afro-Caribbean people today live in French, English, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations, there are also significant diaspora populations throughout the Western world – especially in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands. Both the home and diaspora populations have produced a number of individuals who have had a notable influence on modern Western, Caribbean, and African societies; they include political activists such as Marcus Garvey and C.L.R. James; writers and theorists such as Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon; US military leader and statesman Colin Powell, whose parents were immigrants; and Jamaican musician Bob Marley.
During the post-Columbian era, the archipelagos and islands of the Caribbean were the first sites of African diaspora dispersal in the western Atlantic. Specifically, in 1492, Pedro Alonso Niño, an African-Spanish seafarer, was recorded as piloting one of Columbuss ships. He returned in 1499, but did not settle. In the early 16th century, more Africans began to enter the population of the Spanish Caribbean colonies, sometimes arriving as free men of mixed ancestry or as indentured servants, but increasingly as enslaved workers and servants. This increasing demand for African labour in the Caribbean was in part the
A plucky young girl in West Africa tells the story of her growing up in the novel Of Women and Frogs by Bisi Adjapon.
Esi lives a happy life in Lagos with her Ghanaian father, Nigerian mother and younger brother.
Over the years we follow Esi as she blossoms into a young woman.
Of Women and Frogs traverses the coming of age experiences of young African women and Esi’s feelings and frustrations are relatable.
In tracing Esi’s journey into adulthood Adjapon boldly explores the hard choices confronting African girls and covert topics such as unwanted pregnancies, back-alley abortions, masturbation and same sex relationships in boarding schools.
Ahead of the September 19 and October 10 governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states respectively, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned politicians planning to undermine or disrupt the processes.
The INEC boss assured of the commission's commitment to free, fair and credible elections and warned that where an election was disrupted, the commission would not make a declaration on the outcome due to lack of adherence to guiding rules of the election.
He said, \"Where the election is disrupted and the commission cannot vouch for the integrity of the process, we will not go ahead to make any declaration.\"
He said there would be no point in making a declaration in such situation because the commission would not endorse fraud or function outside the minimum standard set for the conduct of credible elections anywhere.
On his part, the Executive Director of CDD Ghana, Henry Prempeh, said the COVID-19 pandemic had compressed elections in the country.
Most of Mali, in West Africa, lies in the Sahara. A landlocked country four-fifths the size of Alaska, it is bordered by Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and the Côte dIvoire. The only fertile area is in the south, where the Niger and Senegal rivers provide water for irrigation.
Caravan routes have passed through Mali since A.D. 300. The Malinke empire ruled regions of Mali from the 12th to the 16th century, and the Songhai empire reigned over the Timbuktu-Gao region in the 15th century. Morocco conquered Timbuktu in 1591 and ruled over it for two centuries. Subjugated by France by the end of the 19th century, the land became a colony in 1904 (named French Sudan in 1920) and in 1946 became part of the French Union. On June 20, 1960, it became independent and, under the name of Sudanese Republic, was joined with the Republic of Senegal in the Mali federation. However, Senegal seceded from the federation on Aug. 20, 1960, and the Sudanese Republic then changed its name to the Republic of Mali on Sept. 22.
In the 1960s, Mali concentrated on economic development, continuing to accept aid from both Soviet bloc and Western nations, as well as international agencies. In the late 1960s, it began retreating from close ties with China. But a purge of conservative opponents brought greater power to President Modibo Keita, and in 1968, the influence of the Chinese and their Malian sympathizers increased. The army overthrew the government on Nov. 19, 1968 and brought Mali under military rule for the next 20 years. Mali and Burkina Faso fought a brief border war from Dec. 25 to 29, 1985. In 1991, dictator Moussa Traoré was overthrown, and Mali made a peaceful transition to democracy. In 1992, Alpha Konaré became Malis first democratically elected president.
In the early 1990s, the government fought the Tuaregs, nomads of Berber and Arab descent who inhabit the northern desert regions of Mali and have little in common with Malis black African majority. The Tuaregs accused the government
The Sierra Leone Creole people (or Krio people) is an ethnic group in Sierra Leone. The Creole people are descendants of freed African American, West Indian and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of Sierra Leone between 1787 and about 1885. The colony was established by the British, supported by abolitionists, under the Sierra Leone Company as a place for freedmen. The settlers called their new settlement Freetown.[1] Today, the Creoles comprise about 5% of the population of Sierra Leone.[2] [3]
Like their Americo-Liberian neighbors in Liberia, Creoles have varying degrees of European ancestry because some of the settlers were descended from European Americans and other Europeans. Though the Jamaican Maroons, some Creoles probably also have indigenous Jamaican Amerindian Taíno ancestry.[4] Alongside the Americo-Liberians, the Creoles are the only recognised ethnic group of African-American, Liberated African, and West Indian descent in West Africa. As with their Americo-Liberian neighbors, Creole culture is primarily westernized. The Creoles developed close relationships with the British colonial power; they became educated in British institutions and held prominent leadership positions in Sierra Leone under British colonialism.
The vast majority of Creoles reside in Freetown and its surrounding Western Area region of Sierra Leone.[5] The only Sierra Leonean ethnic group whose culture is similar (in terms of its integration of Western culture) are the Sherbro. From their mix of peoples, the Creoles developed what is now the native Krio language (a mixture of English, indigenous West African languages, and other European languages). It has been widely used for trade and communication among ethnic groups and is the most widely spoken language in Sierra Leone.[6]
The Creoles are primarily Christian, at 90 percent and are the descendants of freed African American and West Indian slaves who were virtually all Christians. However, some scholars such as consider the Oku people as Creoles
