First Independent Mena Newspaper
The trade deficit in Tunisia widened by record 56% in the first semester of 2022, reaching 8.1% of GDP, while the budget deficit, exacerbated by mounting energy and food subsidies, is expected to reach 9.1% in 2022, compared to 7.4% in 2021, according to the World Bank’s latest report. Inflation in this country rose from […]
The United States has allocated to Madagascar $20 million to help the African country to tackle food security exacerbated by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The financing, the US ambassador Claire A. Pierangelo, notes, is within the framework of the US government’s global response to the impact of the “illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The […]
The first UN-chartered ship carrying Ukrainian grain to Africa since the flare up of the Russia-Ukraine conflict arrived in Djibouti on Tuesday (30 August) to be distributed in Ethiopia to help the drought-stricken nation cope with worsening hunger that threatens to become a famine. “The food on the Brave Commander will feed 1.5 million people, […]
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in its seventh month, Nigerians are feeling a harder punch with the scarcity of energy sources, wheat and fertilizer, as well as a worsening foreign exchange scarcity. While oil and gas exports account for 90% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings, falling oil output and demographic growth mean that production is […]
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia — the second largest international exporter after China — the prices of fertilizers in West Africa have skyrocketed, severely aggravating the ongoing food crisis in countries such as Burkina Faso. In the last few months, the Sahel region has been hit by the worst drought in over a […]
The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine have been pushing many electric grid utilities in Africa — which have long been strapped for cash — close to financial collapse, whereby this situation is in turn also slowing down the continent’s clean energy transition. Ghana’s electric grid is in dire straits. In the mid-2010s, […]
King Mohammed VI sent a message of congratulations to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on the occasion of his country’s Independence Day. In this message, the Sovereign offered best wishes to the Ukrainian people for peace and prosperity “in an environment of security, unity and stability.” The King hailed on this occasion the excellent relations […]
The United Nations-chartered ship Brave Commander will shortly set sail from Ukraine bound for Africa after it finishes loading more than 23,000 metric tonnes of wheat in the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi, a UN official said. The ship, which arrived in the port near Odessa, will sail to Ethiopia via a grain corridor through the […]
South Africa’s coal sales to Europe rose eight-fold during the first six months of 2022 compared with last year as demand for the fossil fuel surged ahead of a ban on Russian coal, according to Thungela Resources, a South Africa-based thermal coal exporter. The European Union banned Russian coal imports in response to the invasion […]
Several international human rights watchdogs have lately come under virulent criticism from various sides because of their biased and controversial reports. Like Human Rights Watch, whose broad, sweeping reports conveniently omit or forget about the other side of the ledger, Amnesty International is currently under heavy criticism for a controversial report it published Friday on […]