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☆ African Farmers May Have a Coffee Robust Enough for the Climate Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The two coffee species that most of us drink — Arabica and robusta — are at grave risk in the era of climate change. Farmers in one of Africa’s biggest coffee exporting countries are growing a whole other coffee species that better withstands the heat, drought and disease supersized by global warming. This year, they’re trying to sell it to the world under its own true name: Liberica excelsa. “Even if there’s too much heat, it does fine,” said Golooba John, a coffee farmer near the town of Zirobwe in central Uganda. For the past several years, as his robusta trees have succumbed to pests and disease, he has replaced them with Liberica trees.

☆ Bids for 2027 Africa Cup of Nations offer path for comprise over 2025 hosts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Mark Gleeson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CAPE TOWN, April 27 (Reuters) - Algeria head a list of four bids to host the 2027 African Cup of Nations, which the Confederation of African Football announced on Thursday, but Morocco are a surprise omission suggesting a compromise over the 2025 edition has been struck. A statement said CAF had received bids from Algeria, Botswana, Egypt and a joint candidacy from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for the 2027 tournament after the expiry of the deadline for declarations of interest. CAF have repeatedly delayed deciding who will replace Guinea as the 2025 hosts. Algeria and Morocco are the top two contenders for 2025 but choosing between the two neighbours has become a political dilemma for CAF, sources have told Reuters. The two North African neighbours have an adversarial relationship, with diplomatic ties suspended, and winning the rights to host the 2025 Cup of Nations would be a matter of national pride and a public relations triumph.

☆ Uganda police arrest 11 female lawmakers during protest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Abubaker LubowaKAMPALA, April 27 (Reuters) - Police in Uganda detained 11 female members of parliament on Thursday who they accused of staging of an unlawful protest, with some of the lawmakers sustaining injuries during their arrest. They were protesting what they said was police brutality and use of excessive force to disperse various functions organised by female lawmakers in their local constituencies in recent weeks. "I strongly condemn the manner in which police this morning arrested the 11 women members of parliament who were peaceful and unarmed. He accused the lawmakers of resisting arrest and injuring some police officers. Over the years Uganda's security personnel have frequently been accused of brutality especially against opponents of veteran leader Yoweri Museveni.

☆ LGBTQ Ugandans live in fear as new law looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A British colonial-era law bans gay sex, and members of the community are often victims of violence and discrimination. One resident contrasted the current atmosphere with 2013, when parliament passed a bill that strengthened penalties for same-sex relations. After parliament passed the bill, she deleted her Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter accounts. Other LGBTQ Ugandans said they were taking security precautions like changing the routes they use to travel between home and work and carrying pepper spray. For LGBTQ Ugandans living abroad, the new reality is also clouding their prospects of coming home.

A convoy leaving Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, advances on a road toward Port Sudan, on Sunday. Photo: abubakarr jalloh/AFP/Getty ImagesThe U.S. and other governments moved swiftly over the weekend to evacuate embassy staff from Sudan, where a battle for power between the country’s top two generals has now left millions of residents with the difficult choice of whether to try to sit out the clashes at home or attempt a risky escape. The rapid descent of the east African country—and especially its capital, Khartoum—into all-out war appeared to surprise many embassies, including the U.S. mission, which didn’t issue advisories for American citizens to leave the country before the fighting started on April 15.

☆ Uganda's president sends anti-LGBTQ bill back to parliament for 'strengthening'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni speaks during a Reuters interview at his farm in Kisozi settlement of Gomba district, in the Central Region of Uganda, January 16, 2022. REUTERS/Abubaker LubowaKAMPALA, April 20 (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni supports a bill containing some of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ legislation but will send it back to parliament for "strengthening", the ruling party's chief whip said. A group of lawmakers from Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM) discussed the bill with the president and agreed in principle to make it law, chief whip Denis Hamson Obua said. Obua said Museveni would hold a meeting on Tuesday with parliament's legal and parliamentary affairs committee to draft the amendments. Western governments suspended aid, imposed visa restrictions and curtailed security cooperation in response to the law Museveni signed in 2014.

☆ ‘We Will Hunt You’: Ugandans Flee Ahead of Harsh Anti-Gay Law
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a spartan safehouse with flimsy curtains and no furniture northwest of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, people from neighboring Uganda clung to the few valuables they could snatch while fleeing harsh new legislation targeting them back home. A gay man clutched the white rosary that he took to church every Sunday. A transgender woman brought her favorite shimmering blue dress. A lesbian couple clenched the one smartphone that held photos from happier days, going on dates and dancing in clubs. They began leaving after Uganda’s Parliament passed a sweeping anti-gay bill in late March that threatens punishment as severe as death for some perceived offenses, and calls for life in prison for anyone engaging in same-sex relations.

☆ Podcast: Gay in Uganda - A life or death situation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni must this week either sign, veto or send back to parliament one of the world’s toughest anti-gay bills. Whatever he decides, life for the country’s LGBTQ community is a dangerous endeavour. A corruption scandal at FC Barcelona and the war of words over Spain’s fascist past. Abortion activists and doctors look for alternatives as the Supreme Court considers the future of abortion pill Mifepristone. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Uganda: Leading scientists urge President Museveni to veto anti-LGBT bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Catherine Nicholls | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —A group of leading global scientists and academics have signed an open letter urging Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to veto a hardline bill criminalizing homosexuality in the country. The Anti Homosexuality Bill 2023, which was passed by Ugandan lawmakers in March, is set to be either signed into law or vetoed by the president on Thursday. Before the bill was passed almost unanimously last month, President Museveni called on scientists to establish whether homosexuality was natural or learned. The letter has been signed by 15 leading scientists around the world, from countries including South Africa, the United States, Canada, the UK, Kenya, and Australia. Under the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2023, it would be a crime to even identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

☆ For LGBTQ Kenyans, court win prompts backlash as threats escalate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Ayenat Mersie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NAIROBI, April 18 (Reuters) - For Kenya's lesbians and gays, a supreme court ruling allowing the rights body that represents their interests to register as a non-governmental organisation has turned out to be a mixed blessing. But, in a country where same-sex acts remain punishable by up to 14 years in prison, the ruling has also led to a menacing backlash. An LGBT activist wears a badge as he attends a court hearing in the Milimani high Court in Nairobi in Nairobi, Kenya. For now, Kenya is still seen as a relative haven for LGBTQ people in a hostile region. For Kevin Mwachiro, an LGBTQ activist for 15 years, this is the most challenging time that the community inside Kenya has experienced.

Jet fighters and military helicopters roared in the skies above Sudan’s capital and residents sheltered at home from gunfire and explosions, as a lethal power battle between the country’s top generals dragged into a third day Monday. The Committee of Sudanese Doctors, a medical union, said its members had counted at least 97 civilians killed and nearly 1,000 people injured across Sudan since Saturday, when tensions that had been building for weeks between Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto head of state, and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo , erupted into warfare.

Smoke rises from the tarmac of Khartoum International Airport in an image from a video. Jet fighters and military helicopters roared in the skies above Sudan’s capital and residents sheltered at home from gunfire and explosions, as a lethal power battle between the country’s top generals dragged into a third day Monday. The Committee of Sudanese Doctors, a medical union, said its members had counted at least 97 civilians killed and nearly 1,000 people injured across Sudan since Saturday, when tensions that had been building for weeks between Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto head of state, and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo , erupted into warfare.

☆ Ugandan LGBTQ activist readies for the fight of his life
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Since then, as Mugisha has emerged as the country's most prominent LGBTQ rights activist, the perils have multiplied. "The Ugandan population has been radicalised to fear and hate homosexuals," Mugisha, 38, told Reuters during an interview outside the capital, Kampala. "I guess I am going to be in trouble a lot because I am not going to stop," Mugisha said. [1/5] Ugandan LGBTQ activist Frank Mugisha poses for a photograph after a Reuters interview in Makindye, suburb, of Kampala, Uganda March 30, 2023. In 2007, Mugisha took over leadership of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), an advocacy group he had earlier joined as an activist.

☆ Uganda’s anti-gay bill is the latest and worst to target LGBTQ Africans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Aditi Bhandari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +14 min

Same-sex activity in Africa is punishable by … Map of the 32 African countries where same-sex activity is illegal. Same-sex activity in Africa … Map of the 22 African countries where same-sex activity is legal. In 1993, Guinea-Bissau became the first African country to legalise LGBTQ activity when it adopted a new Penal Code that didn’t include any laws criminalising it. Country Constitutional protection Broad protections Employment Hate crime Incitement Marriage or civil union Adoption Angola No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Botswana No No Yes No No No No Cape Verde No No Yes Yes No No No Gabon No No No No No No No Guinea-Bissau No No No No No No No Lesotho No No No No No No No Mozambique No No Yes No No No No Sao Tome and Principe No No Yes Yes No No No Seychelles No No Yes No No No No South Africa Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes YesNote: Broad protections include laws protecting against discrimination in at least 3 of 4 categories: the provision of goods and services, housing, healthcare and education. Namibia and Mauritius criminalise same-sex activity, but around 35% of respondents said they would dislike having a gay neighbour.

☆ Aid shortage leaves refugees in Uganda reliant on kitchen gardens
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Justin Dralaze | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] People who fled fighting in South Sudan are seen walking at sunset on arrival at Bidi Bidi refugee’s resettlement camp near the border with South Sudan, in Yumbe district, northern Uganda December 7, 2016. REUTERS/James AkenaBIDI BIDI, Uganda, April 6 (Reuters) - Watering the neat lines of green salad leaves outside her thatched home, Susan Konga, a South Sudanese woman living in a refugee camp in northern Uganda, is preparing her kitchen garden for the next harvest. Global crises like the war in Ukraine, the earthquake in Turkey and the drought in East Africa, mean there's less food aid for people like Konga. After six years in Uganda, Konga, a single mother, must now rely entirely on the maize, cassava and salad leaves grown in her small vegetable patch. "Donors are having to make very difficult decisions because the needs are enormous globally," said Marcus Prior, country director at WFP Uganda.

☆ Fact Check-Fabricated Joe Biden tweet about anti-LGBTQ legislation passed by Uganda’s parliament shared online
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The image also purports to show replies from Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Russian President Vladimir Putin. There is no record of the tweets, and the handles differ from the official accounts of these world leaders. Reuters reported that Uganda’s parliament passed a law making it a crime to identify as part of the LGBTQ community on March 21, 2023. There is a spacing issue with Biden’s handle, which appears to have a space between “Joe” and “Biden” in the screenshot circulating online. An alleged tweet by Joe Biden on Uganda’s law making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ has been fabricated.

PRETORIA/CAPE TOWN, March 31 (Reuters) - South Africans took to the streets of Pretoria and Cape Town on Friday to protest against a Ugandan law passed last week that makes it a criminal offence to be openly LGBTQ. Singing and waving flags, demonstrators called on Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, not to sign it. "Queer people don't owe anyone anything, but we also deserve to live just like everyone else. You can't strip all our rights. Reporting by Catherine Schenck and Esa Alexander, Writing by Rachel Savage Editing by Giles ElgoodOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Corporate giants say anti-LGBT law would hurt Uganda's economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NAIROBI, March 29 (Reuters) - A coalition of international companies, including Google (GOOGL.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O), on Wednesday denounced anti-LGBTQ legislation passed by Uganda's parliament last week, warning it would damage the East Africa country's economy. The Open for Business coalition said the legislation, which criminalises identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, would curb investment flows and deter tourists. Open for Business said in a statement the new law would undermine companies' ability to recruit a diverse and talented workforce. "Either they violate the law in Uganda or they are going against international standards of corporate responsibility as well as human rights laws of the countries in which they are headquartered," she said. Among the coalition's members, Google, Mastercard (MA.N) Unilever (ULVR.L), Standard Chartered (STAN.L), PwC and Deloitte (DLTE.UL) have operations in Uganda.

☆ Bitcoin is poised to blow up Africa's $86 billion banking system
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +16 min

Then there's mobile money, which has been around since the early 2000s. Africa's mobile money transactions rose 39% to more than $700 billion in 2021, according to data from the GSM Association, a non-profit representing mobile network operators worldwide. That cash network was extraordinarily difficult and expensive to build, which is why there aren't a lot of direct competitors. Bitnob is SMS-based and piggybacks on the mobile money system, making it easier for people to send money directly into bank accounts and mobile money wallets in African countries. "We're able to settle into bank accounts or mobile money accounts, without the recipients having to interact with bitcoin themselves," Parah tells CNBC.

☆ How this 26-year-old went from running bitcoin trading desks in Taco Bells to creating the largest crypto exchange in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +28 min

Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice just before meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Accra, Ghana. Chris MauriceFrom there, Yellow Card users can send or receive digital cash in eligible markets. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice in Accra, Ghana loading cash onto his Mobile Money account, MoMo. Yellow Card has facilitated $1.75 billion in transactions since launching in 2019 and has about 220 employees – mostly in Africa. A resident checks his phone outside a mobile money kiosk in the Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.

Paul Rusesabagina’s detention had been condemned by the U.S. State Department. Rwanda’s justice minister on Friday commuted the 25-year prison sentence of Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the movie “Hotel Rwanda” about the 1994 genocide and later used his Hollywood fame to criticize President Paul Kagame . A Belgian citizen and U.S. green-card holder, Mr. Rusesabagina was convicted by a Rwandan court in 2021 on a string of charges including terrorism, the financing and founding of armed groups, murder, arson and conspiracy to involve children in militancy. Rwandan authorities say Mr. Rusesabagina for years funded the National Liberation Front, the alleged armed wing of his opposition group, the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change.

☆ Factbox: Legal hurdles faced by LGBT+ people in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Africa accounts for nearly half of the countries worldwide where homosexuality is outlawed, according to the review, which was last updated in December 2020. - Life imprisonment is the maximum penalty for same-sex relations in Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, while jail terms of up to 14 years are possible in Gambia, Kenya and Malawi. - Broad protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation exists in three countries: Angola, Mauritius and South Africa. - South Africa is the only African country where gay marriage is legal and where the constitution protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, South Africa has high rates of rape and homophobic crime.

☆ Batteries for hire could help Nigerians ditch their generators
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Ollie Macnaughton | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

As a result, many Nigerians rely on petrol and diesel to fuel the generators that power their homes and businesses. Fuel shortages were a key issue in Nigeria’s recent presidential election and have made it increasingly difficult to run generators. His company Reeddi rents out small, lightweight solar-powered batteries called “Reeddi Capsules” that can power devices including TVs, laptops and refrigerators. One Reeddi Capsule can power a TV for around five hours, or a 15-watt fan for 15 hours. Olubanjo says organizations in countries including Uganda, Ghana and South Africa have expressed an interest in the Reeddi Capsule.

Persons: Olugbenga, Reeddi, Prince William’s Earthshot, Prince, Wales, ” Reeddi, Prince William's Earthshot, “, Olubanjo, ”, Joel Jewell, We’re, Anita Otubu, – Organizations: CNN, International Energy Agency, University of Ibadan, University of Toronto, “, Reeddi, Mobile Power, Sustainable Energy, –, UN Locations: Nigeria, Canada, Ogun State, Lagos, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Africa, Zambia

☆ Uganda bill one of the world's most extreme anti-LGBTQ laws- White House
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Uganda's Speaker Anita Annet Among leads the session during the proposal of the Anti-Homosexuality bill in the Parliament in Kampala, Uganda March 9, 2023. REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa/File PhotoWASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - Uganda's anti-gay bill passed on Tuesday is concerning and represents one of the most extreme actions taken against the LGBTQ community in the world, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on WednesdayUganda's parliament passed a law on Tuesday making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ, handing authorities broad powers to target gay Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence. Reporting By Nandita Bose and Jarrett RenshawOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Uganda passes a law making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

KAMPALA, March 21 (Reuters) - Uganda's parliament passed a law on Tuesday making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ, handing authorities broad powers to target gay Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence. The new law appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), according to rights group Human Rights Watch. In addition to same-sex intercourse, the law bans promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality. Violations under the law draw severe penalties, including death for so-called aggravated homosexuality and life in prison for gay sex. In recent weeks, Uganda authorities have cracked down on LGBTQ people after religious leaders and politicians alleged students were being recruited into homosexuality in schools.

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