Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa’s Economic Outlook 2025: Navigating Uncertainty and Aligning Policy for Sustainable Recovery

The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …

Dupont s harmless lark

Named after the French naturalist Leonard Puech Dupont, who was the first to collect a specimen, Dupont's lark (Chersophilus duponti), is the only lark in the genus Chersophilus. It breeds across north Africa

Water relations of baobab trees (Adansonia spp. L.) during the rainy season: does stem water buffer daily water deficits?

Baobab trees are often cited in the literature as water-storing trees, yet few studies have examined this assumption. We assessed the role of stored water in buffering daily water deficits in two species of baobabs (Adansonia rubrostipa Jum. and H. Perrier and Adansonia za Baill.) in a tropical dry forest …

Global forest resources assessment 2005: progress towards sustainable forest management

FRA 2005 examines current status and recent trends for about 40 variables, covering the extent, condition, uses and values of forests and other wooded land, with the aim of assessing all benefits from forest resources. In the main section of this report, results are presented according to six themes representing …

Humanitarian vessel confiscated

The military in Congo confiscated Ferbo I, a freight ship of the African Wildlife Foundation's (awf) on on November 12, 2005, which works for wildlife conservation and development. The ship was carrying agricultural products and humanitarian supplies to provide economic benefits and relief to local communities. But the army confiscated …

High hopes

AN AGREEMENT aimed at conserving and improving the condition of elephants in West Africa was signed on November 22, 2005, at Nairobi in Kenya, at the eighth conference of parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (cms) of Wild Animals. The agreement was signed by 12 West African countries. Elephant …

At cross purposes

two genetic disorders, the sickle cell (deformed red blood cell) trait and alpha thalassemia (a type of anaemia), are known to provide a natural defence against malaria. This prompted scientists to think their occurrence together would be even more potent. However, a recent study among 2,000 Kenyan children by scientists …

REACH Africa s bane

Thabo Mbeki, President, African National Congress, expressed his concerns to the eu regarding its Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (reach) legislation. reach is designed to protect people and the environment from adverse effects of chemicals found in wide ranging products. reach also covers metals, steel, alloys, waste and scrap …

Bytes

viral cancer: The fusion of human cells is a normal process that leads, for instance, to the formation of muscle and bone. Viral infections can also cause cell fusion, but such cells are generally believed to die without consequences for the host. According to a recent study, however, cell fusion …

Africans or Asians?

The Negrito tribals of the Andamans have been objects of scientific curiosity since the colonial times. Two of these groups

Hoary TB

The tuberculosis (TB) germ is far older than believed, predating diseases such as the plague. TB was thought to be a few tens of thousands years old. But a molecular analysis by scientists at the Paris-based Institut Pasteur shows Mycobacterium tuberculosis is about 3 million years old. M tuberculosis and …

The Birds II

This story reminds one of the Hollywood blockbuster of the 1960s that changed the way many people looked at birds. Gigantic flocks of the quela quela (Quelea quelea) bird have attacked rice and maize fields in Nigeria's northern states of Zamfara and Yobe, bordering Niger on the south of the …

The gardens of appropriation

Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the

Savvy Africa

Modernising classrooms

Apocalypse is dry now

The past year's droughts in Africa, central America, Asia and Europe are part of an emerging, global warming-induced pattern that will become more pronounced if climate change is not curbed. In 2005, one in six countries will face food shortages, un scientists warned on June 29, 2005. The admonition was …

Un dammed opposition

The us $1.2 billion Merowe/Hamadab dam on river Nile in Sudan, the largest hydropower project being developed in Africa, is being opposed by environmentalists. The 1,250-megawatt dam, to be completed 2007-2009, aims to double Sudan's power-generating capacity. But environmental groups such as International Rivers Network (irn) and Corner House point …

Where did leprosy originate?

india might have the maximum number of leprosy-affected people in the world but a new study rejects the prevalent theory that the disease originated in India and spread to Europe through Alexander's troops. Researchers from the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France theorise that East Africa is the more likely place of …

Pygmies speak up

Bitterness is the only emotion the

Another distress call

Drought-struck Djibouti, on Africa's eastern coast, is experiencing severe food and water shortage. The country's local economy is almost entirely dependent on livestock rearing but the recent drought has destroyed its pastures and killed livestock. Its woes have further been increased by the burden of herders migrating from neighbouring, drought-affected …

Championing charcoal

if people in Africa were to switch to charcoal as cooking fuel from wood, it would not only significantly reduce greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions but also save millions of lives, claim researchers. Led by Dan Kammen of the University of California, Berkeley, the scientists calculated the health and environmental effects …

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