CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Plagued by locusts

When swarms of locusts descended on the Horn of Africa, a few men in the self-declared republic of Somaliland shot at the clouds of insects. Unsurprisingly, the bullets had little effect. The act was a desperate attempt to ward off the threat to their crops and pastures. Locust swarms can cover up to 150km in 24 hours, consuming all vegetation in their path. The insects have already hit Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea and are predicted to spread to northern Kenya and Djibouti.

Tanzania pardons inmates

John Magufuli, the Tanzanian president, has pardoned 5 533 prisoners in a process that began on Tuesday. This is a move aimed at reducing congestion in prisons. Magufuli made the announcement on Monday as the country marked the 58th anniversary of independence. This is the highest number of prisoners to be released in this way, and accounts for about 15% of all prisoners in the country. The president said the prisoners receiving pardons were jailed for minor offences, ranging from stealing chickens to insulting a friend. “But some were detained because they lacked lawyers to defend them well in their cases, while others for a failure to pay fines,” he said.

Abiy avoids press scrutiny

Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister, received the Nobel peace prize on Tuesday in Oslo, Norway. He was awarded the prize for his efforts to end years of conflict and hostility between Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea. He achieved this just three months after taking office. He also lifted Ethiopia’s state of emergency, freed dissidents and lifted a ban on some political parties among other actions, AFP reported. But he did not hold the usual Nobel press conference, which the Nobel committee said was “highly problematic”. (Former US president Barack Obama didn’t given a news conference when he received the award in 2009.) The reason may be that Abiy is facing major problems at home, including the possibility of ethnic violence disrupting Ethiopia’s first democratic elections in 15 years. And the border with Eritrea is again closed.

Sahel food crisis

Increased violence and insecurity has resulted in the number of people requiring urgent food aid doubling to about 9.4-million people in 16 countries in the Sahel region. Three countries — Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso — are facing crisis conditions. They are on phase three of five on the scale used by the Food Crisis Prevention Network. The World Food Programme warned that “violent attacks by extremists ‘almost every day’ have displaced nearly one million people and caused emergency levels of malnutrition.” Burkina Faso is worst hit and a third of the country is a conflict zone.

Ghanaians rap Cardi B

American rapper Cardi B was on the receiving end of a backlash from Ghanaian celebrities after she failed to pitch at a meet-and-greet event prior to a performance at the Accra Sports stadium. She denies any guilt and instead blamed her agent, who apparently failed to inform her about the event. The incident has been trending on Ghanian and Nigerian Twitter after videos of local celebrities criticising Cardi B for disrespecting her hosts went viral. — Briefs compiled by Wianda Gilliland and Annerine Snyman. Sourced from

AFP and BBC