Today is a public holiday in South Africa – Human Rights Day. There’s a certain irony in spending the day focusing on China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vladimir Putin, knee-deep in a human rights disaster.
What one makes of the Ukraine crisis increasingly maps on where one lives. This is made clear by a remarkable new set of polling data recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations ...
Category: Aviation
Uganda’s Parliament Ends Probe Into Entebbe Airport Contract With China Exim Bank
The parliamentary investigation into the Ugandan government's $200 million loan contract with the China Exim Bank to expand the Entebbe International Airport is now closed. Opposition MP Joel Ssenyonyi (photo) who led the inquiry said it's too late ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: Ethiopian Airlines Moving to Capitalize on Growing China-Africa E-Commerce Trade
There's good news and bad news in Kenya's latest trade figures, released by the National Bureau of Statistics. The good news is that exports jumped 17% in the January-November period last year to $5.9 billion. Higher regional demand, particularly from Uganda, for Kenyan food and industrial output helped to ...
Chinese Stakeholders in Uganda Really Want to Change the Conversation About the Entebbe Airport
Both the Chinese embassy in Kampala and the Chinese contractor responsible for upgrading the Entebbe International Airport have been working hard this week to move the conversation away from the debt trap story that dominated the headlines over the past three weeks.
Two Years Late, Lagosians Want to Know Where’s Their New Chinese-Built Airport Terminal
Work on the new international terminal at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos is almost done. In fact, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) says it's 95% finished. Yet, the new facility is still not open and that has people in Nigeria's largest city asking what is going ...
Finally, Some Good News For Kenya’s Embattled Standard Gauge Railway
While Kenya struggles to repay billions of dollars of loans to the China Exim Bank used to build the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), the government is getting a badly-needed boost from higher cargo and passenger volumes. Kenya Railways this week reported ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Xi Bets on Global South in Moscow
Week in Review: Hostages Rescued in Mali, Rwandan Agribusiness & Nigeria Joins AIIB
Malian security forces on Monday rescued three Chinese nationals kidnapped by unknown assailants after the trio escaped their captors over the weekend. The three construction workers and two colleagues from Mauritania were seized on July 17. While the Mauritanians were freed 10 days later, the Chinese were held ...
In a Bid to Get People Back in the Air, Ethiopian Airlines Deploys Chinese Tech For Rapid Passenger COVID Testing
Ethiopian Airlines is hoping that a new Chinese-made COVID-19 rapid testing facility at its hub in Addis Ababa will resuscitate its passenger business. The airline partnered with BGI Health Ethiopia, a subsidiary of China's biotech giant, the BGI Genomics Co, to build the new testing center at Bole ...
With Chinese Engineers Back on Site, Zimbabwe’s New International Airport is Almost Half Done
Construction of the new international terminal at Harare's main airport is now 46% complete according to Zimbabwean officials who credit the return of Chinese engineers for the recent progress. Chinese staff on the project had been unable to get back into ...
With Its Chinese Parent Company on the Verge of Bankruptcy, the Fate of Ghana’s Africa World Airlines Looks Grim
The future of Ghana's largest airline is up in the air now that its parent, Hainan-based HNA Group, has effectively buckled under the weight of almost $100 billion of debt and widespread reports of embezzlement.
Shock and Disbelief Over the Government’s Request for Passengers to “Self-Quarantine”
Political cartoonists in Kenya are channeling the public's anger over the government's request to passengers arriving on the China Southern flight from Guangzhou to "self-quarantine" themselves for 14-days. Cartoons like this circulated all weekend on Facebook and Twitter amid growing public ...