Mohammed Yusuf

People living during the golden age of the Roman Empire experienced an average 2.5 to 3 point reduction in IQ due to atmospheric lead, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences popsci.com/science/roman-…

Africa Football Business Summit explores strategies to boost sports development voanews.com/a/africa-footb…

Conflicts have closed 14,300 schools in 24 African countries, study finds voanews.com/a/conflicts-ha…

OUR STATEMENT: The Foreign Press Association, Africa condemns the unjustified actions of Nigeria’s State Security Services (DSS) operatives to arrest and detain our colleague, Adejuwon Soyinka, West Africa Editor for the Conversation Africa, in Lagos on Sunday, 25 August 2024.

IMF should work with Kenya to account for public funds, says rights group voanews.com/a/imf-should-w…

Kenyan president dismisses most of cabinet amid protests voanews.com/a/kenyan-presi…

What began as a protest of the tax increase has created bad blood between Kenyan youth and politicians, who they accuse of failing to do their legislative work, mismanaging public money and bad governance. voanews.com/a/kenyan-youth…

Troubled By Negative Thoughts On Repeat? Here’s How to Get Them Under Control discovermagazine.com/mind/troubled-…

Indeed, Tuesday, June 25, 2024 was an unprecedented day of chaos and deadly violence never seen in Kenya's 61-year history of independence. I captured some moments here: 📸Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi. Kenyans seemed unbowed even when police sprayed them with itching coloured water from water cannons.

OUR STATEMENT: The Foreign Press Association, Africa unequivocally condemns the alarming and reprehensible actions of Kenya’s security forces during the recent protests in Nairobi. The blatant use of excessive force, particularly against journalists, is completely unacceptable.

Sudan, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and now in Kenya, young people are standing up against oppression, dictatorship, economic inequality, corruption, rights violations and abuses. Tonight 1700GMT, 8pm EAT: @XSpaces. twitter.com/i/spaces/1BRJj…

Thousands of Kenyans demonstrate against proposed tax increases voanews.com/a/kenyan-prote…

Today is #WorldFoodSafetyDay. When so much of #Africa relies on street vendors & traditional market sellers, safe food starts with the informal sector. @au_ibar @ILRI are designing new guidelines to help governments boost food safety @VOANews @Moyusef voanews.com/a/au-ilri-coll…

Excerpts of #Kenya's 🇰🇪 Candidate for the post of #AUC Chairperson, Raila Odinga's Speech on how he intends to help Africa invest in infrastructure, Open-Skies. #AU “Africa does not trade with itself for reasons which are actually solvable. There are non-tariff barriers which have been introduced by some African countries which makes it difficult for goods to move from one African country to the other. There's infrastructure challenges that make it difficult for Africa to trade with itself. African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, is now 2 years old. But little progress has been made because of these barriers. I have been talking about the Intra-African Highways, the Cape-Cairo, Dakar-Djibouti, Dakar-Lagos, Lagos-Mombasa, and so on and so forth. I have been talking about the Continental High Speed Railway Network, Beira to Walvis Bay, one old Benguela line, Lobito to Lubumbashi. The other one is the High Speed Railway along the coast from Lagos to Cairo, then the LAPSET Corridor (Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport) which as a Representative of the African Union High for Infrastructure Development we extended from Juba, South Sudan through Bangui in Central African Republic to the Port of Cameroon (Douala) to create a land bridge that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and opening up the interior of the continent, which are landlocked, for trade. For example, Kenya grows tea. But how does Kenya export its tea to the Central African Republic? Between Kenya and Central African Republic, there's only South Sudan. But how do you take your tea there and there's no infrastructure? You have to find a ship that will go around the Cape along the Western Coast to the Cameroonian Port of Douala and then by road to Bangui. The French are there ahead of you, that's why they drink in Bangui, Kenyan tea christened as English breakfast tea. With LAPSET, we can be able to take our goods there. But this infrastructure cannot be developed country by country, we need to have a mechanism at the centre that is coordinating funding for the infrastructure. I am also talking about the High-Speed Fiber Optic Network to connect all African capitals, Open-Skies to move freely in the African Airspace without so much impediment. At the moment traveling across Africa is so much problem. Recently, when I traveled to the funeral of the President of Namibia, we chartered an aircraft here in Nairobi, had to spend 3 hours at the Wilson Airport (Nairobi) waiting for clearances of airspaces of the transit countries. We have to get a clearance to fly over Tanzanian airspace, DRC, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia itself. And it is very expensive. The other day, I was in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania going to Niamey in Niger, I spent 10 hours waiting. We need clearances over Uganda, over DRC, over Central African Republic, over Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger. That's what is making the Air Transport on the continent so expensive. It is easier to move good by air. We need to put facilities across the continent and then have African Continental Air Traffic Control. In Europe, you only need one Permit and you can fly all over the countries of Europe. Here, you need permission from Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Kinshasa, Lusaka, and so on. We need to make the Nile River navigable so that you can move the Mediterranean sea to Lake Victoria. Ships can move from Europe and don't have to go through the Horn to come to the coast on the other side. They can go direct on the Nile to Lake Victoria and land there in Jinja, Kampala, in Kisumu and Mwanza. These are some of the projects that can be done. I have ideas which I think if implemented will improve Intra-Africa Trade.”

For some African communities, the road to food security is travelled best by tractor 🚜 @HelloTractor, supported by @Heifer, is enabling smallholder farmers to access farm equipment, increasing productivity and incomes. More from @Moyusef in @VOANews: bit.ly/3wAdtrA

African leaders before they meet the US president, the CIA assesses African leaders. A CIA visit piece studies a leader’s hopes, dreams, attitudes, demeanor, and friends and enemies at home and abroad. csis.org/analysis/intel…

FEATURED: #MALI @VOAAfrica by @Moyusef "In a statement this week, Save the Children said that unless aid gets to the Menaka communities soon, the area could see many deaths in coming months." voanews.com/a/residents-of…

OUR STATEMENT: The Foreign Press Association, Africa truly finds the actions of Burkina Faso's government deeply troubling and a continuation of media violations witnessed on the African continent against international journalists and media organisations. Cc. @CapitaineIb226.

@Heifer's work with @HelloTractor to support mechanization for smallholders in #Kenya was featured in @VOANews last week! Thanks @Moyusef for covering this effort to boost smallholder #farmers’ productivity and profits. Check out the full report: shorturl.at/nxJ05

A life of extreme contrasts: 16 African Heads of State are in Nairobi attending the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) Summit #IDA21 to discuss "dignified and sustainable livelihoods for all." With the Summit, Kenya is positioning itself as an economic powerhouse within Africa. But at the same time, Kenya is confronted by floods that have killed over 120 people and more than 185,000 displaced, causing widespread damage to infrastructure such as roads and bridges. A short distance from the Conference hall, KICC, people are trapped and being swept away by raging floods, others stranded in the deluge are hanging on rooftops to save their lives and belongings. Submerged roads and bridges have turned into gushing rivers, and the helpless have to use sticks to scour through to safety.