Ethiopian Airlines has been the fastest-growing airline in Africa over the past decade or so. It has succeeded where many other airlines have struggled, largely due to a strong plan set out in 2010. In December 2020, it won the best African airline award in the Decade of Airline Excellence Awards. How has it risen to this level?

Not too long ago, when the idea of solar and wind energy was still hotly debated, critics used to point out the limitations of these energy sources: the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. But nowadays many countries’ electricity grids are strongly supplied by renewable energy.

The challenge in creating flexible, reliable and affordable energy supply systems with renewables lies in the very different circumstances across countries and regions. Planning and expanding renewable power must consider countries’ local resources and their existing and planned infrastructure. This becomes even more interesting for countries trying to grow their grids and expand their renewables at the same time – like many in sub-Saharan Africa.

One technology that has the flexibility to complement solar and wind power production is hydropower. It can be used as a constant source of electricity, but also compensate for fluctuations in other sources. But it does need to be properly planned and managed if it’s to be sustainable. //

Can increased electricity generation be harmonised with climate change objectives?

Our research shows that combining sustainably managed hydropower plants with new solar and wind power projects is a promising option for the West African region. It could minimise the use of fossil fuels and their negative climate change impacts as the region seeks to expand access to affordable electricity. //

In our paper, we use a new model to examine the synergies of sustainable hydropower generation with solar and wind power in West Africa. The model shows how to manage these sources in combination.

We show that the region can use hydropower, rather than natural gas plants, to ensure grid reliability while increasing solar and wind power. Natural gas is often touted as a bridging fuel in the transition to sustainable energy. But global emissions need to be around zero by mid-century according to the Paris Agreement. Building more gas infrastructure therefore risks missing climate goals. //

Our paper shows one way to start the renewable transition for West Africa is by optimising the use of local solar, wind and water resources while keeping an eye on sustainability criteria. For instance, our methodology ensures that hydropower lake levels and downstream river flows remain within acceptable boundaries. It also underlines the possibility of replacing future hydropower plants with solar and wind.

This will increase the overall ecological sustainability of renewable power generation.

Zimbabwe is one of the African countries that hopes renewable energy technologies will help to address their energy problems. About 42% of Zimbabwe’s households are connected to the electricity grid.

The country has huge and diverse renewable energy potential. Its sustainable energy portfolio could include solar, hydro, biomass and, to a limited extent, wind and geothermal. //

For policy makers, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and some researchers, it’s a given that renewable energy technologies are the answer. They could meet Zimbabwe’s growing energy demand and achieve universal access sustainably. At face value this is appealing – but the devil is in the details.

My research looked into how renewable energy technologies are understood and how they could alleviate energy poverty in Zimbabwe.

I found that they’re only one piece of the puzzle and other pieces are habitually missing. No matter how well designed and efficient technologies are, their effectiveness is linked to the country’s political economy.

Socio-economic and political factors keep conventional energy out of reach of the poor. My study shows that they can do the same with renewable energy. These factors may even worsen inequality. Adding renewable energy technologies into the existing energy sector structures is like pouring new wine into old wine skins. //

The politics of energy and technological dependency: China has become a source of finance for large-scale energy projects in Zimbabwe. This is true for both coal-based and renewable energy generation.

What’s seldom acknowledged is the skewed nature of this relationship. China has global dominance in renewable energy technologies. For example, the Chinese solar PV cell and module makers quickly dominated global sales. And the country’s wind turbine producers are poised for significant exports. //

Energy as a tool of accumulation: For China, energy poverty in Zimbabwe is an opportunity for its economic growth. The unequal distribution of economic power keeps Zimbabwe energy poor. Accumulation is happening at one pole and energy poverty at another. //

Renewable energy technologies would work if, somehow, they did more for the poor than for the powerful. But in reality, the opposite is true.

First, the private partners (independent power producers) aren’t ordinary citizens, but the economically powerful and politically connected.

Second, the flawed nature of the tendering system cannot be overstated. It’s normally associated with corruption and political interference.

What’s more, this elite group tends to benefit from the state’s intervention.

As demand for energy rises in the developing world, nuclear power could provide one partial solution to the global climate crisis. Large countries such as Russia and China are both investing in nuclear power and positioning themselves to export technology and expertise. But whether developing countries should incorporate nuclear energy depends on a range of factors such as local energy demand and the availability of other energy sources. They should also consider how competitive nuclear energy would be. Most important, countries that go nuclear should have sufficient technological, industrial, and political stability. //

Nuclear expansion in Africa. Energy demand in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow by 80 per cent by 2040—that is, at 3.5 percent a year—faster than the global average of 1.3 percent. Ghana, Kenya, and Namibia have expressed interest in nuclear power. Russia is at various stages of negotiating nuclear cooperation agreements with at least 16 African countries. Currently, only South Africa has a functioning nuclear power plant. However, several African countries possess substantial uranium ore deposits. Namibia, for example, has seven percent of the world’s known uranium reserves and has made a political commitment to supplying its own energy from nuclear power in the future. Still, African access to electricity is the lowest in the world, according to the World Bank, and infrastructure in many parts of the continent is scarce. Consequently, large investments and development are needed before technologically demanding nuclear power production will be economically viable. //

decisions regarding nuclear power often result not from common-sense considerations, but rather from bargaining between countries that seek nuclear technologies and countries that can help them master such technologies. Developing countries rely on the IAEA and major powers such as the United States and Russia to provide access to the purposeful and peaceful application of the nuclear energy worldwide.

This situation of dependency creates challenges and opportunities for the IAEA and major powers engaged in providing access to the technology and expertise necessary for nuclear energy production. The challenge is linked to upholding the commitment to provide access to peaceful nuclear use while also detecting the potential diversion of nuclear technologies for non-peaceful purposes. Balancing these commitments should entail preventing the expansion of nuclear power in regions that are unstable and prone to proliferation. The Middle East is currently the most combustible region in this respect, with several ongoing conflicts involving rival states with nuclear ambitions. Limiting or strictly controlling access to nuclear technology may be one way of controlling developments. On the other hand, nuclear states and the IAEA have an opportunity to provide accessible power to regions that are more stable and whose population density make them suitable for nuclear power. If solutions to produce more cost-efficient nuclear power can be found, this will provide one opportunity to solve the dual problem of the growing global demand for energy and global climate change—an opportunity that should not be missed.

Africa isn’t a continent that gets a huge amount of attention for aviation, which is a shame. This year, there are over 31 million round-trip seats (non-stop and one-stop) planned from the rest of the world to sub-Saharan Africa, for instance all areas below North Africa. While Ethiopian Airlines is predictably the largest airline, we look at the top-10 non-African carriers and the largest markets.

Southern China Morning Post noted on May 23 that the CCP has been focusing on funding and building government buildings for African countries, which has aroused suspicion from the international community.

Currently, the $80 million new headquarters for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is funded by China, is under construction in the south of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Despite the U.S. government’s warning in February 2020 that a China-funded and constructed CDC will be used by the regime to steal “African genetic data,” construction started in December 2020.

According to The Heritage Foundation, China was involved in the building of more than 186 government buildings across 40 of 54 African countries. Even the African Union (AU) headquarters, located in Ethiopia, was fully financed and built by China.

In 2018, French newspaper Le Monde first revealed that AU technicians discovered that between 2012 and 2017, the Chinese-built African Union headquarters had been transmitting AU’s confidential data to Shanghai daily through the building’s IT network using servers provided by Chinese company Huawei.

I was recently in Cotonou for a 24-hour layover. Cotonou is the largest city of the small west African nation of Benin, and has become a secondary hub for emerging airline RwandAir. Taking advantage of its growing network, I booked a RwandAir ticket from Dakar, Senegal to Kigali, Rwanda via Cotonou. The transit stop included accommodation provided by the airline.

What is there to do in Cotonou? A quick Google search indicated that the closest attraction to the hotel was on the beach: an ‘amusement park’ called Air de Jeux Plage Erévan. This ‘park’ appeared to include a large-looking aircraft, so I decided to check it out. Little did I know the airframe was a historic Lockheed L1011 TriStar, full of amazing clues about its long and varied history around the world. //

The first thing that grabbed my attention upon entering was a bronze plaque posted next to the forward door. The registration number, serial number and owner’s details were all meticulously detailed. The aircraft bore Sierra Leonian registration 9L-LFB, and last operated for Air Rum. So much for any trouble working out the aircraft’s history.

The bed where missionary Murray Brown lay was on the fifth floor of a hospital in Kumasi, Ghana. A pressure cooker had exploded, leaving severe burns on Murray’s hands, abdomen and legs. On his right hand the wounds were so deep that the muscles and ligaments were exposed.

“For burns as deep as these,” his doctor advised, “you will need skin grafts.”

Very early one morning as Murray lay awake, he saw a procession of African army ants creep across the floor of his room. In horror he watched them come toward his bed. Up they crawled until they reached his body and made their way under the bandages to chew at his burned flesh.

“Help!” Murray cried. But at that early hour there was no nurse on the hospital floor to hear him.

“Isn’t there anyone to help me?” he called. But no one answered.

Three times he repeated his anguished cry. But his pleas went unheard.

In Scottsbluff, Nebraska, it was the middle of the night. A friend of Murray Brown’s lay in bed, sound asleep. Suddenly he was awakened by a cry of distress. Thinking it might be one of his children, he got up and went to look at them. But they were all sleeping soundly.

After returning to his bed, he again heard a cry for help. Once more he went to look at the children, but they were still asleep.

This time when he returned to bed, he distinctly heard these words: “Help! Isn’t there anyone to help me?”

The man awakened his wife. “I’ve just heard Murray Brown’s voice,” he said. “He is calling for help.”

The man and his wife prayed for their friend. They had no idea what his need might be, but they wrestled in prayer until they were assured victory had come.

No one came to the missionary’s aid that morning in the hospital in Kumasi. But suddenly, to Murray’s amazement, the ants turned away from him and left his bed. They crawled across the hospital floor and disappeared, just as though someone had called them.

Later, when the doctor removed the bandages, he found new flesh forming over the wounds. Even over the exposed tendons on his right hand, healthy pink flesh had appeared.

Murray’s healing was so complete that there was no need to graft skin. Eventually, only a tiny scar remained on one thigh to remind him of his dreadful experience.

Many months later Murray learned how his friend in Scottsbluff had heard his voice from the other side of the world. At last he understood why the ants had turned and crawled away.

Murray Brown and his wife, Marjorie, were missionaries to Africa from 1939 to 1980.

I was shocked to find out on the 97th birthday of Kenneth Kaunda - Zambia's first president and a giant in the fight against colonialism - that some people had never heard of him.

I had posted my birthday greeting to the nonagenarian on social media on 28 April with the tag line: "The only African independence leader from the 1960s still alive."

Many celebrated. Other were astonished, saying: "I didn't realise he was still alive."

But to be honest, those under the age of the 30 were clueless.

He went on to become Zambia's founding president at the age of 40.

His wish, he said, was for Zambians to have an egg on their table for breakfast every morning, a pint of milk - and for every Zambian to have a pair of shoes on their feet.

Popularly known as KK, during his presidency he was a fierce critic of apartheid South Africa and white-minority rule in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe - and he allowed groups fighting these regimes, like the African National Congress (ANC), to make Zambia their base.

To begin with he made huge strides towards improving the lot of Zambians, but betrayed the promise of democracy by introducing a one-party state in 1973.

Mr Kaunda was the only candidate in elections in 1978, 1983 and 1987 - scoring more than 80% of the vote each time.

He must have been too embarrassed to register 100%.

Even within his own party, he changed the rules to keep getting selected as the only candidate.

Eventually, Zambians felt Mr Kaunda had overstayed his time in office and voted him out in 1991 after mass protests forced him to reintroduce multi-party elections.

In the three decades since the rush and joy of independence, the continent had become awash with dictatorships - which may explain why some of its post-colonial leaders are no longer remembered by a younger generation.

Some were assassinated or deposed in coups, others had forgotten the dreams of people and the promises made to them.

Africa still has leaders who have been in power for more than 20 or 30 years.

Some have been in power for almost 40 years, like Cameroon's President Paul Biya. He is only the second president Cameroon has had since independence from France in the 1960s.

Perhaps it is because of this legacy that men who should be lionised are largely forgotten.

And it makes me wonder what is taught in African history classes today.

Surely Mr Kaunda - who since leaving office has largely kept out of politics and has devoted much of his energy to fighting HIV after losing one of his sons to Aids in the late 1980s - is someone who ought not to be forgotten.

He is a living reminder of the continent's history - good and bad - and we can learn from both.

According to Stat Trade Times, the An-124 was chartered from Antonov Airlines for a special ferry mission by Rhenus Project Logistics USA. The logistics company needed the aircraft to carry a massive power generator with a unique shape, requiring more cabin space to accommodate it.

This was no problem for the An-124, which has a payload capacity of 150 tonnes, more than enough to carry the 54-tonne generator. However, fitting the 10.5m long, 3.89m wide, and 4.13m high item required experts to be on hand for loading and unloading. The flight flew from Accra to Mumbai and then back once the repairs were complete.

Monrovia – One hundred and fifty years after their patriarch, John Prince Porte, led his young family and joined 240 other citizens of Barbados, braving the cold and turbulent waters of the Atlantic, the story of the Porte emigration to Liberia has been recorded and published.

The multi-year collaborative project was the brainchild of Ambassador Lorenzo Witherspoon, great-great grandson of John Prince Porte who served as Project Director and Executive Director, and his daughter, Loyce Beryl Witherspoon, as Lead Researcher and Producer.

It was produced thanks to the support of family members across the globe, as well as indispensable contributIons from family elders, Elfric K. Porte, Kenneth Y. Best and Ina D. King, in addition to Rodney D. Sieh and Lindiwe Khumalo. //

the Barbados Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, Hon. Wilfred Abrahams, announced the decision by the government to enact new and transformational legislation that will extend citizenship rights to all direct descendants of citizens of Barbados, irrespective of generation. This is a fundamental change from the current citizenship law which restricts citizenship rights to children and grandchildren. //

The plan hopes to boost its population, currently 290,000, by availing multi-generational diaspora descendants citizenship of the island. The change would mean that, providing they can prove it, descendants of the island who settled in Liberia beginning in April 1865 and after could be in line for citizenship of Barbados.

John Henry Smythe, an RAF navigator from Sierra Leone in West Africa, was shot down and captured in Nazi Germany in 1943.

War had broken out four years earlier when he was 25 years old, and Johnny volunteered to join the fight against fascism after a call from Britain to its colonies for recruits. Again and again, he and his comrades risked their lives in the skies above occupied Europe.

After he was liberated from a prisoner-of-war camp, he would go on to become a senior officer aboard the Empire Windrush and then an amateur courtroom talent of such promise he was invited to train as a barrister in England. As the attorney general of Sierra Leone, he would meet President John F Kennedy in the White House.

Polls are set to open in 48 hours across the US as the authoritarian regime of Donald Trump attempts to consolidate its hold over the troubled, oil-rich, nuclear-armed, north American nation. Analysts are sceptical the election will end months of political violence.

#BREAKING African envoys have called for Americans to maintain peace during the elections and to be prepared accept the outcome of the vote. In a joint statement , the diplomats condemned recent incidents of incitement, violence and intimidation directed at opposition supporters

From Mozambique on Africa’s East Coast to Nigeria, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso in West Africa, Christians in the region are under jihadi attack.

As BBC Focus on Africa marks its 60th anniversary, one of its former deputy editors, Ghanaian journalist Elizabeth Ohene, looks back at her time with the radio programme, how its journalism changed and how it helped shape the continent.

I joined Focus on Africa in September 1986. I left the programme in July 2000.

The team I joined was a small group, dominated totally by Robin White, the editor, and the voice of the programme, Chris Bickerton.

My introduction on air was a shock to the system; an obviously Ghanaian-accented English was not exactly what people were used to on Focus on Africa - not the BBC hierarchy and certainly not the listeners.

In the remote mountains of northern Ethiopia, a lone priest scales a 250m cliff each day to reach his church and study ancient books containing religious secrets.

West African Power Pool Organization is the association of public and private power entities

The West African Power Pool is a specialized agency of ECOWAS. It covers 14 of the 15 countries of the regional economic community ( Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone //

Developing clear and measurable standards to harmonize electricity planning and operation of pooled electric systems in ECOWAS Member states.

Improving cross-border and reliable flows of electricity in ECOWAS Member states.

Worldwide, malaria infects more than 500 million people annually, and kills at least 1 million. Most of the victims--375 million--are women and children.

"That's more victims than there are people in the United States and Canada combined," said Roy Innis, national chairman of the U.S.-based Congress of Racial Equality.

"We [have] emphasized fears about speculative risks from trace amounts of insecticides and ignored the real, immediate, life-or-death risks that those insecticides could prevent," said Innis. "The result has been another holocaust of African mothers, fathers, and children every few years, a death toll since the 1972 DDT ban that surpasses World War II's--over 50 million people. It is a travesty worse than colonialism ever was, a human rights violation of monstrous proportions."

"The result of the DDT ban has been an unspeakable death toll," observed film producer and preventive medicine doctor D. Rutledge Taylor in the March 20 issue of American Daily. "It is about the greatest human death toll in the known history of man, far greater than the holocaust and all the wars combined. It is time that we as generations of humans wake up and do what is right for humanity."

EU Threatens Africans

European Union officials and nongovernmental organizations, who claim DDT spraying inside Ugandan huts may result in trace levels of the chemical being found on exported Ugandan crops, threatened to restrict the import of Ugandan crops in retaliation for the nation's use of DDT. //

No Threat to Crops

Today, DDT is used in carefully controlled campaigns that spray tiny amounts of the chemical on the inside walls of canvas, mud-and-thatch, or cinder-block dwellings. A single treatment lasts up to eight months (versus eight hours for bug repellants with DEET, the most common active ingredient in mosquito repellants currently legal worldwide), keeps 90 percent of mosquitoes from entering homes, irritates any that do come in so they don't bite, and kills many of those that land on the inside walls.

Used this way, virtually no DDT ever enters the surrounding environment, and results are astounding.

"Within two years of starting DDT programs, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Madagascar, and Swaziland slashed their malaria rates by 75 percent or more," Innis noted.

Ban Keeps Africans Poor

In addition to the direct annual death toll, malaria strangles African economies, preventing them from escaping near-universal poverty. According to a March 22 statement from the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks, "Economically, malaria drains the wealth of nations and households.

"Recently the [World Health Organization] reported that malaria costs Africa $12 billion a year. In countries where this disease is endemic, it grinds down the per-capita economic growth rate by 1.3 percent yearly. Poor households can spend up to 34 percent of their total income fighting malaria," the statement continued.

But these Ghanaian disputes rarely degenerate into political mud-slinging and still less, as in much of the world, into war.

It is all a bit boring, really, for us journalists.

And so, after a run through the usual journalistic questions - how is Kufuor dealing with Ivory Coast conflict, the privatisation issue, whether Ghana is under the thumb of the IMF - I braced myself to ask the question.

I put it to Mr Kufuor that while some African leaders were hotheads and demagogues, no-one could accuse him of being that.

But would it be fair, I asked tentatively, as some people suggest, to say he is a bit boring?

The president of Ghana quietly but firmly put me in my place.

"If boredom gives us peace and stability for people to go about their normal businesses and live in dignity," he said, "then I would say let's have more boredom."

http://www.webcitation.org/5s27yft7v // I once asked a president of the Central African Republic, Ange-Félix Patassé, to give up a personal monopoly he held on the distribution of refined oil products in his country.

He was unapologetic. "Do you expect me to lose money in the service of my people?" he replied.

That, in a nutshell, has been the problem of Africa. Very few African governments have been on the same wavelength as Western providers of aid. Aid, by itself, has never developed anything, but where it has been allied to good public policy, sound economic management, and a strong determination to battle poverty, it has made an enormous difference in countries like India, Indonesia, and even China.

Those examples illustrate another lesson of aid. Where it works, it represents only a very small share of the total resources devoted to improving roads, schools, heath services, and other things essential for raising incomes.

Aid must not overwhelm or displace local efforts; instead, it must settle with being the junior partner.

Because of Africa's needs, and the stubborn nature of its poverty, the continent has attracted far too much aid and far too much interfering by outsiders. //

But the truth is that most of Africa's growth -- based on oil and mineral exports -- has not made a whit of difference to the lives of most Africans.