The event followed a now familiar pattern: a small convoy of dusty 4x4 vehicles drove on to the edge of the airstrip at Galkayo in Puntland, north-central Somalia; armed security guards took up watchful positions nearby and a number of bemused-looking men stepped gingerly from the cars and lined up to have their photographs taken by the media.

On this occasion there were 11 of them; all had been hostages until that morning. They were sailors from a Malaysian cargo vessel that had been hijacked by Somali pirates a few years ago and held until a ransom was paid for their release.

One of them gave a brief account of what had happened. "On November 26, 2010 our ship was hijacked in the Indian Ocean. Their demand was 20 million. After that, they threatened the owner. You now increase money or we will shoot the crew. The owner didn't increase the money and then one Indian is shot with just three bullets. Then they hit us and tortured us. Tell your family to bring us money, otherwise we will kill you!"

The crew had been held for three and a half years but they were the fortunate ones. Five of their crew mates had died in that time. Now the survivors were going home and a UN plane with two envoys on board was flying in to see them to safety.

Such scenes have become relatively commonplace in Galkayo in recent times. Eighty percent of global trade is carried by sea and Somalia sits on a key maritime route linking Europe and Asia. More than 18,000 ships pass its shores every year. Over the past decade, Somali pirates, often former fishermen whose traditional livelihoods have been destroyed by foreign trawlers and toxic waste dumping, have attacked more than 300 vessels and kidnapped 700 people.

Faced with such a threat, the international community responded aggressively. In 2008, European states, the US and others began sending naval forces to these seas. They are still there today - warships, planes and helicopters patrolling thousands of square miles and doing a fair job of keeping the hijackers at bay. The UN and others have also played an increasing role in facilitating negotiations for the release of hostages - such as those set free at places such as Galkayo - for whose liberty large ransoms have been paid.

But if the problem is now slowly coming under control in Somalia, the same cannot be said for other parts of the world where piracy is on the increase. Lawlessness, desperation, poverty, greed and even political radicalism have brought the phenomenon to the waters of South America, Asia and, perhaps most aggressively, to West Africa.

In an effort to understand the reasons why, Bertrand Monnet, a French academic and filmmaker, has been travelling to piracy hot spots around the coast of Africa. In an extraordinary and very tense series of encounters, he came to face to face with heavily armed pirate gangs operating in and around the Niger Delta, where Nigeria's huge offshore oil industry, which employs thousands of expatriates, offers rich ransom pickings. It gradually became clear that piracy in West Africa has many of the same root causes as piracy in Somalia and elsewhere, not least of which is that those who don't share in the benefits and profits of global trade have ever fewer reasons these days to respect the security of those who do.

Source: Al Jazeera


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A film by Callum Macrae & Elizabeth Jones

It's one of Africa's most bitter, if often forgotten, conflicts.

In 2011, South Sudan gained independence from Sudan following a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

After a referendum, in which an overwhelming majority of South Sudanese voted to secede, Africa's newest country came into being, the first since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993.

But two Sudanese provinces, South Kordofan and Blue Nile, the people of which predominantly wanted to become citizens of the new nation, were excluded from the deal.

The SPLM-N, the northern affiliate of Sudan's People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in South Sudan, consequently took up arms against the Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir, and fighting has continued on and off ever since.

Five years ago, as the war got under way, People and Power sent reporter Callum Macrae to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by the Bashir regime in the region. Last month he went back.


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Uganda and Tanzania have entered a partnership to build a 1,443km (896 mile) heated oil pipeline to pump oil from the Albertine basin in Uganda to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Tanga.

What does the deal mean for both countries? Why were environmentalists against the project? And why was Kenya left out?

BBC Africa's Peter Mwangangi explains.

Produced and edited by Leone Ouedraogo.

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At Bethlehem Baptist Church in Anacostia, Washington, DC., Stokely Carmichael leads a discussion on ways to organize people. He stresses the responsibility of each person to organize people to achieve goal. He explains the power possible when people are properly organized.

At Bethlehem Baptist Church in Anacostia, Washington, DC., Stokely Carmichael leads a discussion on ways to organize people. He stresses the responsibility of each person to organize people to achieve goal. He explains the power possible when people are properly organized.

Renowned author of 'The New Jim Crow' says the death of Freddie Gray points to the need for concerted community action to halt excessive force targeted at African Americans. A discussion of the school to prison pipeline and how the The US government, law enforcement agencies, prison industrial complex and banks profit from the War On Drugs.

Construction of An Earth Library in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Using locally sourced materials and labour.

Max Boot discusses his new book, "Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare From Ancient Times to the Present," as part of the Pritzker Military Library Presents series.

SPEAKER:
Max Boot
INTRODUCTORY SPEAKER:
Nancy Houghton

http://www.cfr.org/wars-and-wa....rfare/history-future

The Hadzabe tribe of Northern Tanzania, Africa are a unique hunter gatherer tribe found near Lake Eyasi, The Great Rift Valley. This video is a introduction and insight into the their language.

⁣Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan The African and His Religion