In West Africa, particularly in Ghana and Nigeria, there is a rise in informal academies known as “hustle kingdoms,” where young people are trained how to carry out online frauds.
Ghana’s parliament voted a bill, making it a crime to accuse someone of practicing witchcraft in late July. The bill will also force the closure of camps where hundreds of accused witches live in exile if the president signs it into law.
Analysts observing political developments in Niger report that economic sanctions imposed on the West African nation by the ECOWAS bloc and Western nations have driven up food prices nationwide and could eventually lead to food insecurity.
As the U.N. urges greater participation of women in international peace and security efforts, West African women are playing a more significant role in the region’s military campaign to combat extremism. In order win hearts and minds in terrorist hot spots, order to win over people in terrorist hotspots, U.S.-led training is helping in putting more women on the front lines.
A Ghanaian activist is swimming the nearly 500-kilometer-long Volta River, which includes Lake Volta, to raise awareness of the problem of growing water pollution. In order to check for contamination, Yvette Tetteh is also taking water samples along the way.
Attacks by Islamist militants in southern Burkina Faso have raised concerns that young people in Ghana across the border may get attracted to extremism due to a lack of employment opportunities. Through a program they call “Peace in Schools,” the aid group Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment, or RISE-Ghana, uses arts and entertainment to rally young people against extremism
Ghana, a neighboring country, is concerned about security as a result of Burkina Faso’s struggle against Islamist extremists. According to observers, illegal firearms are being smuggled into Ghana through the porous border.
In Ghana’s capital, Accra, photographer and filmmaker Paul Ninson opened the Africa’s largest photography library. The “Dikan Center” is a hub where more than 30,000 photography books and collections on early African photographers, the diaspora, and creatives are kept
In the Gulf of Guinea, fishing villages and fish stocks in West Africa are allegedly being decimated by Chinese boats, according to environmental groups. In order to combat illegal fishing, the nations in the Gulf of Guinea joined this year.
Watch VOA’s top stories from Africa this week, including the reasons why Islamist insurgents from the Sahel region of West Africa pose a threat to the entire region and how African teams are vying for a chance to win the World Cup of football