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The Latest Breaking News from West Africa

A solo trip to Senegal, Sierra Leone and beyond

Tom Ford gets a West African welcome on a four-month solo trip

Evening Standard

Journalist and aid worker released after years as hostages

French journalist Olivier Dubois was hugged by emotional reporters at a briefing in Niger yesterday announcing the release of him and US aid worker Jeffery Woodke, who had been held hostage in West Africa for years by Islamist militants.

Irish Independent

Jeffery Woodke: American aid worker held hostage for six years in Niger is freed

An American aid worker held by Islamic extremists in West Africa for more than six years and a French journalist abducted almost two years ago were both freed on Monday.

Evening Standard

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French, US hostages released after years of captivity in West Africa

French journalist Olivier Dubois was hugged by emotional reporters at a briefing in Niger on Monday announcing the release of him and U.S. aid worker Jeffery Woodke who had been held hostage in West Africa for years by Islamist militants.

Reuters

US citizen held by terrorist network freed in West Africa

An American man who was held hostage in West Africa has been released after more than six years in captivity, the White House said Monday.

Tribune News Service

Meet the sargassum belt, a 5,000-mile-long snake of seaweed circling Florida

Since 2011, a fleet of seaweed patches double the size of the contiguous U.S. has cycled from West Africa to Florida, threatening beaches from Martinique to Miami. This year, it could grow bigger.

WEKU

US trains West African militaries as jihadi threat spreads

As extremist violence in West Africa’s Sahel region spreads south toward coastal states, the United States military has launched its annual military training exercise which will help armies contain the jihadi threat

The Independent UK

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France eyes Ivory Coast after Burkina Faso boots out French troops

France's defence minister pledged on Monday to boost military support to Ivory Coast, as Paris adjusts its strategy in West Africa after neighbouring Burkina Faso ordered French troops to leave and vowed to curb a worsening Islamist insurgency solo.

Reuters

Holy trinity

The banjo is a key instrument in Western folk music -- from US bluegrass to Irish trad -- and over the past 20 years, research into the roots of this three-stringed instrument have revealed its west African lute origins, with two instruments, the ngoni and the ekonting, now understood to…

Bangkok Post

Wretched life of migrants building Senegal's city of the future

Diamniadio (Senegal) (AFP) - When Mohamed was hired at the construction site for the United Nations' new West Africa headquarters in Senegal, he was proud to say he would be working "not only for Africa, but for the world."

AFP

Pope Francis slams 'brutal atrocities' committed in DR Congo

In tonight's edition: The pope consoles Congolese victims of atrocities from the country's volatile east as he welcomes them in Kinshasa on the second day of his trip. Also, the trafficking of medical products in the Sahel is on the rise and costing lives, according to a UN report. Finally,…

France 24

Four West African nations get $311 million from World Bank for renewables

The World Bank has signed an agreement with four West and Central African nations worth $311 million to fund renewable energy projects.

Reuters

France's shrinking footprint in Africa

Paris (AFP) - With anti-France feelings running high in many of its former colonies in West Africa, Paris is being forced to retreat ever further from the increasingly unstable region and re-think its presence, experts say.

AFP

Commentary: Why the Wagner Group’s influence in West Africa is growing

France has waged a counterterrorism campaign in the small West African country of Burkina Faso since 2018. But on Jan. 20, hundreds of protesters in the capital city of Ouagadougou waved Russian flags and demanded the French army’s ouster. Days later, the country’s military government told the French to leave…

Chicago Tribune

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The Independent UK

Nigeria bets on Chinese-funded port to drive economic growth

Nigeria's president has marked the opening of a $1.5 billion, Chinese-funded deep seaport in the commercial hub of Lagos that authorities hope will help grow the West African nation’s ailing economy

The Conversation

Who invented jollof rice? Senegal beats Ghana and Nigeria to the title

The authorship – and therefore origins – of jollof rice (called ceebu jën in Senegal according to the Wolof spelling) is the subject of a spicy debate between West African nations. In particular, Senegalese, Nigerians and Ghanaians claim ownership. And each believes their recipe surpasses all others.

France 24

French and German FMs in Ethiopia to support Tigray peace process

In tonight's edition: The foreign ministers of France and Germany head to Ethiopia to show support for the deal upon which rest hopes of peace after two years of conflict with Tigray rebels. Also, record temperatures are making life harder for millions around the world. We hear from those in…

The Guardian - UK

C of E’s historic slavery fund – worth £100m but how far will it stretch across communities?

Clerical leaders hope for ‘lasting legacy’ to serve places affected by past slavery trade, but fund may spread thinly across all of west Africa and Caribbean

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Al Jazeera

How Ghana, Africa’s rising star, ended up in economic turmoil

The West African nation is a major cocoa and gold exporter, so why is it battling its worst economic crisis in decades?

Radio France Internationale

Kora virtuoso Sona Jobarteh bucks West Africa gender trend

The kora – a stringed instrument that combines the features of a lute and a harp – is traditionally reserved for men in West Africa, but that hasn't stopped British-Gambian artist Sona Jobarteh from carving out her own place alongside its greatest players.

The Independent UK

Jihadi violence hits Benin, shows spread across West Africa

Violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, which has wracked much of West Africa’s inland Sahel region for more than seven years, is spreading to the region's coastal states and Benin is the hardest hit

Radio France Internationale

African Biennale of Photography in Mali defends culture despite difficulties

Despite a security crisis in the West Africa and Sahel regions, Covid-19, and diplomatic tensions with France, organisers of the African Biennale of Photography have managed to put on the Pan-African exhibition in Bamako, Mali in the spirit of resilience and resistance.

Al Jazeera

The good, bad, and the ugly: West Africa’s big issues in 2022

A recap of top issues in West Africa in 2022, including heated political campaigns and armed groups gaining ground.

AFP

I.Coast seeks life for four suspects over 2016 attack

Abidjan (AFP) - An Ivory Coast prosecutor Wednesday urged life in jail for four suspects over one of West Africa's bloodiest jihadist attacks -- a 2016 machine-gun assault on a beach resort that killed 19.

The Independent UK

Chance the Rapper to bring free concert, festival to Ghana

Chance the Rapper took a trip to the Motherland that ultimately birthed an idea of creating a free concert marrying music and art in West Africa

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