The era of the “blitzscaling” African tech startup is drawing to a close. For the past decade, investors prioritized user growth above all else. But as global capital becomes more discerning, metrics for success in Africa’s digital market and African tech investmentlandscape have shifted from sheer active users to sustainable unit economics. African tech consolidation…
The year is almost done and dusted, and many of us are already thinking about a few days and weeks to grab some well-earned rest. After a hard year, even thinking about planning for 2026 seems a bridge too far. Yet 2025, with all its challenges, has also held some glimmers that we would do…
Cape Town — When Dr Mike Chase banks the small survey plane over northern Botswana’s mopane woodlands, he can see the country’s wildlife story written in the dust below. Carcasses — some months old, others more recent — lie scattered along ancient elephant paths, mute evidence of drought, hunting and poaching. Farther ahead, the shadows…
Some orcas have a taste for liver — specifically, the livers of great white sharks. Videos taken by scientists in Mexico reveal how the crafty whales manage to snag bites of the apex predators’ fatty organs. Researchers filmed two orca hunts in the Gulf of California — one in 2020 and another in 2022. They…
At the close of an international conference in Paris on the Great Lakes region, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that €1.5 billion has been pledged in aid. Meanwhile the airport in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, will reopen to humanitarian flights. Millions of people are facing hunger in the DRC, which has…
Best intentions to create a green wall to capture millions of tons of carbon while tackling desertification are up against a lack of funding and banditry in Jigawa State, northwestern Nigeria. In 2017, 45-year-old Jabiru Muhammed could hardly contain his excitement when the village head of Batu in Jigawa State, northwestern Nigeria, announced that their…
France and Togo are co-hosting a conference in Paris on Thursday to support peace and prosperity in the Great Lakes region of Africa. A coalition of international NGOs will urge participants to step up their financial response to the “unprecedented humanitarian crisis” in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring countries. The conference aims to…
The Great Wildebeest Migration is one of the most remarkable natural spectacles on Earth. Each year, immense herds of wildebeest, joined by zebras and gazelles, travel 800-1,000km between Tanzania and Kenya in search of fresh grazing after the rains. This vast, circular journey is the engine of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. The migration feeds predators such…
US President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of George Santos, a former Republican congressman serving seven years in prison for fraud and identify theft, ordering his immediate release. In a post on social media, Trump said Santos “has been horribly mistreated”, adding: “Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY….
Nairobi — President William Ruto has eulogised former Prime Minister Raila Odinga as “Kenya’s foremost statesman and one of Africa’s greatest sons”. The President further described Odinga as a colossus of Kenya’s modern politics, a tireless warrior in Kenya’s struggle for freedom and prosperity. “Raila Amolo Odinga’s name will forever be etched in the story…
