Headlines

Africa: Protecting and Managing the High Seas

[IPS] Rome / London -- On March 4 2023, the 193 members of the United Nations reached a major milestone. They agreed on a treaty to manage and protect the high seas- the marine areas that lie outside the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of coastal states. The high seas

African nations consider swapping debt for climate funding

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — African countries saddled with debt and ravaged by losses and damages from weather events like cyclones, drought and extreme temperatures have agreed to consider swapping debt to invest in climate action in a meeting of finance ministers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

International Red Cross says 2 kidnapped staff freed in Mali

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Two aid workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross were freed in Mali on Monday, the organization announced.The staff members were released unharmed but the organization would not disclose the employees' identities or the circumstances of the abduction.

A week on, brutal Cyclone Freddy still taxes southern Africa

Over a week after Cyclone Freddy's second and more devastating landfall in Malawi and Mozambique and nearly a month since it battered Madagascar, the effects are still being felt as locals, officials and aid workers continue to uncover the full extent of the cyclone's destruction.

South Africans demonstrate and call for president to resign

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African police on Monday monitored protests by the country’s leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party, which is demanding the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa.The party urged all South Africans to participate in a national shutdown but there was limited response in most of the country’s major cities.