African refugees see racial bias as US welcomes Ukrainians — WXYZ

African News Review, Google News-AfricaLeave a comment

(AP) — African refugees say the recent deci­sion to grant refugee sta­tus and oth­er human­i­tar­i­an pro­tec­tions to Ukraini­ans flee­ing war under­scores the racial bias inher­ent in Amer­i­can immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy. Wil­fred Tebah says he and oth­er immi­grants from Cameroon have long been deserv­ing of sim­i­lar human­i­tar­i­an con­sid­er­a­tions. They also argue that Con­go and Ethiopia should qual­i­fy because of their ongo­ing con­flicts, as should Mau­ri­ta­nia. The Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty said it con­tin­ues “mon­i­tor­ing con­di­tions in var­i­ous coun­tries.” Pres­i­dent Joe Biden recent­ly announced the U.S. would take in 100,000 Ukrain­ian refugees and grant Tem­po­rary Pro­tect­ed Sta­tus to anoth­er 30,000 already in the country.

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How the Swahili Language Can Lift Up the African Continent

African Perspective, Central Africa, Culture and Society, East Africa, Headline, North Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa

After so many years of talk about its poten­tial, the African con­ti­nent is wak­ing up to under­stand and appre­ci­ate the pow­er of uni­ty rep­re­sent­ed by a lan­guage.  The African Union (AU) offi­cial­ly adopt­ed Kiswahili or Swahili as one of the offi­cial work­ing lan­guages of the African con­ti­nent, the Assem­bly of Heads of State and Government…

US removes three African states from trade pact — World News

African News Review, Google News-AfricaLeave a comment

WASHINGTON DC

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s admin­is­tra­tion announced on Jan. 1 that it had exclud­ed Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from a U.S.-Africa trade agree­ment, say­ing the actions of the three gov­ern­ments vio­lat­ed its principles.“The Unit­ed States today ter­mi­nat­ed Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from the AGOA trade pref­er­ence pro­gram due to actions tak­en by each of their gov­ern­ments in vio­la­tion of the AGOA Statute,” the U.S. Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (USTR) said in a statement.The African Growth and Oppor­tu­ni­ty Act (AGOA) was put in place in 2000 under the admin­is­tra­tion of for­mer pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton to facil­i­tate and reg­u­late trade between the Unit­ed States and Africa.But the Unit­ed States is “deeply con­cerned by the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al change in gov­ern­ments in both Guinea and Mali,” the state­ment said.It also voiced con­cern about “gross vio­la­tions of inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized human rights being per­pe­trat­ed by the gov­ern­ment of Ethiopia and oth­er par­ties amid the widen­ing con­flict in north­ern Ethiopia.”“Each coun­try has clear bench­marks for a path­way toward rein­state­ment and the admin­is­tra­tion will work with their gov­ern­ments to achieve that objec­tive,” the USTR said.Under the AGOA agree­ment, thou­sands of African prod­ucts can ben­e­fit from reduced import tax­es, sub­ject to con­di­tions being met regard­ing human rights, good gov­er­nance and work­er pro­tec­tion, as well as not apply­ing a cus­toms ban on Amer­i­can prod­ucts on their territory.By 2020, 38 coun­tries were eli­gi­ble for AGOA.

African Women Are Taking a Stand in Colorado, USA Politics 

African Perspective, Elections and Democracy, Headline

Han­na Bogale is one of 7 can­di­dates run­ning to fill two at-large posi­tions on the Auro­ra, Col­orado city coun­cil.  As a sec­ond-gen­er­a­­tion Ethiopi­an Amer­i­can, she believes it is crit­i­cal for more Africans to become involved in pol­i­tics to encour­age the younger gen­er­a­tion to get their voic­es heard. “Every­body in the African com­mu­ni­ty hears Amer­i­can pol­i­tics and…

With Coverage of Guinea Coup, US News Media Dumb Down the News

Elections and Democracy, Headline, West Africa

I’ve writ­ten about US news media cov­er­age of the African con­ti­nent over the course of many years. In my analy­sis of the cov­er­age seen, the empha­sis con­tin­ues to be on what’s wrong with the con­ti­nent, with lit­tle effort made to report progress made over many decades of African social, eco­nom­ic, and demo­c­ra­t­ic change. The coverage…

Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Receives Attention from CNN

African Dictators, Elections and Democracy, Headline, Journalism

A desta­bi­liz­ing war between the gov­ern­ment in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and Anglo­phone sep­a­ratists has been going on for more than four years. Hun­dreds of civil­ians have died as a result. Thou­sands have been dis­placed and are now refugees in neigh­bor­ing coun­tries. Most nego­ti­a­tions to resolve the con­flict appear to have failed. With each pass­ing day that…

Djibouti’s Green Energy Revolution Not Getting Attention It Deserves

Finance and Economics, Headline

Uncov­er­ing the News — 04/05/21 – 04/13/21 What’s At Stake: This world­wide silence about such a big accom­plish­ment for the small East African coun­try shows once again that for many news orga­ni­za­tions, Africa only makes the news in neg­a­tive instances.   Dji­bouti, an East African nation is mak­ing it big with green ener­gy. On April 13, The…

Uncovering the News — 03/22/21 – 03/29/21

Headline

What’s At Stake: African media applaud the effort of a Niger­ian bil­lion­aire who is giv­ing back to the home­land, Tigray con­flict con­tin­ues to grab the head­lines as Eritrea begins a peace effort by with­draw­ing its troops from Ethiopia, and pres­sure mounts on inter­na­tion­al insti­tu­tions to return loot­ed African arti­facts where they belong.  Niger­ian Bil­lion­aire Pays It…