In Case You Missed It: 2/6/17–2/12/17

mgafrica.com

King Mohamed VI of Moroc­co greets Pres­i­dent Paul Kagame of Rwan­da upon being read­mit­ted to AU.

This week’s most impor­tant head­lines out of and about Africa.

In this week’s news, impactAFRICA pro­pos­als are being accept­ed across the African con­ti­nent, Soma­li­a’s new­ly elect­ed pres­i­dent has dual‑U.S. cit­i­zen­ship, and Moroc­co is read­mit­ted to the African Union.

impactAFRICA encour­ag­ing inno­va­tion for bud­ding journalists

ImpactAFRICA is the sis­ter ini­tia­tive of Inno­vateAfrica, a com­pet­i­tive pro­gram that seeks to strength­en and trans­form African news media by com­pelling appli­cants to com­bat fake news.

Through the use of emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, both orga­ni­za­tions, under the Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Jour­nal­ists and Code for Africa, award grants of up to $100,000 to par­tic­i­pants who can help trans­form African news media into tra­di­tion­al, fac­tu­al, evi­dence-dri­ven reporting.

Appli­cants are required to have one African media part­ner to help co-devel­op and test inno­va­tion for their pro­pos­al. Round three sub­mis­sions for impactAFRICA is closed, but the orga­ni­za­tion is cur­rent­ly accept­ing round 4 submissions.

Soma­lia Elects New President

For­mer prime min­is­ter of Soma­lia, Mohamed Abdul­lahi Mohammed defeat­ed long-time pres­i­dent Has­san Sheikh Mohamud in elec­tions last week­end. Pres­i­dent Mohammed, also known as Pres­i­dent Far­ma­jo, was sworn into office after leg­is­la­tors cast their votes in Mogadishu, the cap­i­tal city.

Mohammed immi­grat­ed to the U.S. in 1985 where he held a posi­tion in the Soma­li embassy in Wash­ing­ton D.C.  After his four year term, Mohammed moved to Buf­fa­lo, NY where he became active­ly involved in local politics.

Peace Talks Resume Between Moroc­co and the Sahrawi Arab Demo­c­ra­t­ic Republic

Moroc­co has not been a mem­ber of the African Union for the past 30 years. The king­dom orig­i­nal­ly left the Orga­ni­za­tion of African Unity(OAU) upon West­ern Sahara’s admis­sion into the African Union(AU).

Quar­rels over ter­ri­to­r­i­al bor­ders and the inde­pen­dent sta­tus of West­ern Sahara(now Sahrawi Arab Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic) pushed Moroc­co to leave the AU. Moroc­co sub­mit­ted their pro­pos­al to be read­mit­ted into the union at the 27th Sum­mit in July 2016.

Out of the 56 par­tic­i­pat­ing nations in the AU, 53 coun­tries vot­ed for Moroc­co to be read­mit­ted. South Africa and Alge­ria vot­ed against. Moroc­co has for­mal­ly rec­og­nized Sahrawi Arab Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic as a sov­er­eign nation.

It is the first time in 33 years that all nations of the African con­ti­nent are rep­re­sent­ed in the AU.