News : Africanews

“I now declare that the Chang’e 6 Lunar Exploration Mission achieved complete success,"

Want to turn off Meta AI? This is what to do

Monday, june 10, 2024

• 11:22 AM

6 min

The chatbot can recommend local restaurants, offer more information on something you see in a Facebook post, search for airline flights or generate images in the blink of an eye.

Tanzanian forest recreated in Italy to raise awareness on biodiversity research

• 10:19 AM

8 min

Through a partnership with Tanzania National Parks, MUSE in 2006 established the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre to support the park in ecological monitoring and biodiversity research, as well as to support development of environmental education pro

Morocco raises awareness of forest fire risk as summer approaches

Sunday, june 2, 2024

• 12:34 AM

According to the National Agency for Water and Forestry, 466 fires were recorded in 2023, affecting 6,426 hectares, while the area burnt in the previous year reached 22,760 hectares.

Gitex Africa: Start-ups carving their way into the global AI economy

Friday, may 31, 2024

• 7:48 PM

Powering Africa into the global AI economy was one of the ambitions of the 2024 Gitex tech fair which ended in Morocco Friday (May 31).

Gitex Africa: Morocco's tech fair focuses on continent's needs

Thursday, may 30, 2024

• 4:50 PM

Around 1,500 exhibitors, companies, entrepreneurs, innovators and startups from over 130 countries are attending the second GITEX Africa tech show.

AI creates excitement and worry at digital festival in Berlin

Tuesday, may 28, 2024

• 7:24 PM

Around 25,000 people are expected to attend this year's event to discuss all aspects of the digitalisation of the world.

AI reigns supreme at the 8th edition of Vivatech

Friday, may 24, 2024

• 7:11 PM

"Today, tech is going to speak your language, whereas before it was you who had to adapt to tech. And what's interesting is that it's reshuffling the deck. Particularly the balance between countries, because access to artificial intelligence doesn't cost

Microsoft's AI chatbot will 'recall' everything you do on a PC

Tuesday, may 21, 2024

• 9:37 AM

Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you're doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next.

Kenyan government recommends regulating, not banning TikTok

Thursday, april 25, 2024

• 2:16 PM

Kenya's government is cautioning against a blanket ban on TikTok despite growing worries over the content circulated on the platform. Instead, authorities are advocating for stricter oversight measures by regulatory bodies.

SA users of Starlink will be cut off at the end of the month

Tuesday, april 16, 2024

• 3:20 PM

Starlink users in South Africa are facing a major setback as the satellite internet service provider has issued a warning that their services will be terminated by the end of the month.

Facebook News tab will soon be unavailable

Friday, march 29, 2024

• 11:44 AM

Meta says users will still be able to view links to news articles, and news organizations will still be able to post and promote their stories and websites, as any other individual or organization can on Facebook.

Internet disruption hits West and Central Africa, Netblocks and Cloudflare data shows

Thursday, march 14, 2024

• 4:44 PM

A major internet outage struck West and Central Africa on Thursday, as reported by the internet observatory Netblocks, which cited information from operators indicating multiple subsea cable failures. The precise cause of these failures remains unclear at

Google denies Gmail is shutting down after viral hoax

Monday, february 26, 2024

• 1:09 PM

Google denies Gmail is shutting down after viral hoax

A Kenyan start-up turns plastic waste into solar-powered freezers

Friday, february 23, 2024

• 12:39 AM

A Kenyan company is collecting plastic strewn across beaches and turning it into cold storage units. The recycled plastic is used to manufacture solar-powered freezers.

Meta says it will label AI-generated images on Facebook and Instagram

Wednesday, february 7, 2024

• 12:47 AM

Facebook and Instagram users will start seeing labels on AI-generated images that appear on their social media feeds, part of a broader tech industry initiative to sort between what's real and not.

Elon Musk says the first human has received an implant from Neuralink

Tuesday, january 30, 2024

• 5:31 PM

When Neuralink announced in September that it would begin recruiting people, the company said it was searching for individuals with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Dis

X now worth 71% less than when Musk bought it, Fidelity estimates

Tuesday, january 2, 2024

• 11:45 AM

X, formerly known as Twitter, has seen its value fall by a staggering 71% since Elon Musk's acquisition in late 2022.

China helps launch Egypt's MISRAT-2 satellite

Wednesday, december 6, 2023

• 3:15 PM

Egypt's space agency chief has hailed cooperation with China, following the launch on Monday of a remote-sensing satellite into orbit from a centre in northwest China.

Women in science: two Cameroonians win prize

Tuesday, december 5, 2023

• 11:30 AM

In Cameroon's rural north, a career in science is a rarity for most women. Two young women have bucked the trend, winning a prestigious science award on November 8.

Flying Taxis: Archer Aviation's Vision for Urban Air Mobility Takes Flight

Thursday, november 16, 2023

• 12:16 AM

Archer Aviation is pioneering the development of the Midnight, a four-passenger electric-powered vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Meta given 30 days to cease using the name Threads

Wednesday, november 1, 2023

• 11:19 AM

A British software firm, Threads Software Limited, has given Meta a 30-day ultimatum to cease using the name "Threads" in the UK, citing ownership of the trademark.

Rwanda: an AI platform for small holder farmers

Thursday, september 28, 2023

• 5:12 PM

A young female student in Rwanda from the University of Rwanda Theofrida Muginga is creating 'Mkulima GPT,' a ChatGPT-driven Swahili chatbot. Its mission is to empower smallholder farmers by detecting crop diseases and providing culturally-sensitive agric

Meta officially launches "Threads", the new social network competing with Twitter

Thursday, july 6, 2023

• 8:48 AM

The app went live just after midnight Wednesday in the U.K. in Apple and Google Android app stores in more than 100 countries including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan.

The young guard of African animation in the spotlight on Disney+

Wednesday, july 5, 2023

• 1:59 PM

The young guard of African animation in the spotlight on Disney+

In conservative Somalia, an online app to find your soulmate

Wednesday, june 28, 2023

• 9:33 AM

"It's less difficult than physically meeting strangers. When you interact with someone online, you can ask them all the questions you want and make sure they're right for you before you meet them," she smiles.

VivaTech forum: Africa at the heart of the digital revolution

Thursday, june 15, 2023

• 8:59 PM

The 2023 edition has given prominence to artificial intelligence. The sector is getting increasingly popular in Africa, a continent firmly at the heart of the digital revolution. From June 14th to 17th, over 2,500 exhibitors will showcase their latest inn

Young Nigerian entrepreneur in vanguard of green mobility

Sunday, june 11, 2023

• 1:13 PM

31-year-old entrepreneur Mustapha Abubakar Gajibo first converted petrol-powered minibuses into solar-powered electric vehicles, in his workshop of Borno state. He launched his company after dropping out of university. He says potential clients contact hi

Kenya: Virtual reality used to teach students about plastic pollution

Saturday, june 3, 2023

• 3:07 PM

So, VR comes in helping them, one, conceptualise the problem. It's one thing to say 'don't throw away waste,' but it is another thing to understand that if I throw away a plastic bottle, it will end up in the Indian Ocean and it will affect marine life, w

Gitex Africa: Tech giants, startups and SMEs gather in Morocco

Thursday, june 1, 2023

• 11:06 AM

The first edition of #Gitex Africa was launched in Marrakech on Wednesday (May 31st). 900 companies and 250 lecturers from 95 countries are taking part in the exhibition.

Kenya: Residents on a mission to reduce flooding damage

Sunday, may 7, 2023

• 8:32 AM

5 min

Kenyan volunteers are being equipped with weather forecasts and advice to allow people living in informal settlements to prepare for extreme weather. They clear waste from drains ahead of rainy weather in a bid to prevent blockages and reduce the damage

World's tallest hemp hotel set to open in June in South Africa

Wednesday, may 3, 2023

• 9:34 AM

The 12-storey building with breathtaking views and a minimal ecological footprint is set to open its doors in Cape Town, South Africa. "Hempcrete" blocks derived from the cannabis plant have been used to fill the building's walls, supported by a concrete

Twitter begins removing legacy verified check marks

Friday, april 21, 2023

• 2:17 PM

Twitter users bid farewell to an iconic feature on the platform, as many reported on Thursday that they had lost their verified blue check marks.

Launch of Kenya's 1st observation satellite aborted again

Friday, april 14, 2023

• 11:17 AM

Satellite Taifa-1 was supposed take off from California USA on Friday (Apr. 14) but exploration technology company Space X, cancelled the exercise nearly 28 seconds into flight. The new launch is scheduled on Saturday (Apr. 15).

Young Libyans answer call of e-gaming

Thursday, april 6, 2023

• 3:29 PM

Unlike in other Arab states, "the gaming community was completely dead here" until recently, says Sofiane Mattouss, a computer science student, who runs an arcade set up in 2022.

Twitter logo changed! Elon Musk replaces Twitter's blue bird with 'Doge' Meme

Wednesday, april 5, 2023

• 11:36 AM

As of now, when Twitter users open the website, they will be greeted with a new loading screen featuring Kabosu, the Shiba Inu who served as the inspiration for the infamous Doge meme.

Meta testing new subscription service for verified Facebook and Instagram accounts

Monday, february 20, 2023

• 12:13 AM

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta Verified on his social media accounts Sunday. Testing will begin in New Zealand and Australia this week and will roll out to other countries soon, he said.

South Africa battles with water crisis

Thursday, february 9, 2023

• 10:09 AM

"Infrastructure deterioration" is "also leading to people not having sufficient water. There’s also the element of the unequal distribution of water in South Africa. Less than 40% to 45% have taps in their homes," says Dr Ferrial Adam. This prompted innov

Secrets of 2,300-year-old golden boy mummy revealed by CT scans

Tuesday, february 7, 2023

• 4:06 PM

Using 21st-century computed tomography (CT) scans, researchers at Cairo University avoid damaging the well-preserved remains of a 14-year-old boy.

Google hopes 'Bard' will outsmart ChatGPT, Microsoft in AI

• 12:07 AM

Google is girding for a battle of wits in the field of artificial intelligence with "Bard," a conversational service apparently aimed at countering the popularity of the ChatGPT tool backed by Microsoft.

The app making 'Made in Togo' local products more accessible

Monday, february 6, 2023

• 6:03 PM

"The application has allowed me to have an easy access thanks to the sales points. Currently, there is even a way to find a point of sale that is very close to us". Kpatcha AKABA, a DuSa app user

President Joao Lourenço inaugurates Angola's satellite control centre

Saturday, january 28, 2023

• 8:29 AM

Angolan President João Lourenço inaugurates the country’s first satellite control centre. Its main task is to monitor the activity of the satellite "ANGOSAT 2". "

Kenyan teacher uses old laptop batteries to power bikes

Tuesday, january 24, 2023

• 4:04 PM

Paul Waweru founded a company called Ecomobilus to supply his laptop-battery powered bikes. He collects frames from old motorbikes, removes the engines and replaces them with a battery and a motor to propel the bike

Laboratories in Kenya and Tanzania train rats to detect tuberculosis

Sunday, january 22, 2023

• 12:39 AM

Scientists in Tanzania and Kenya are training rats to detect tuberculosis and provide much quicker diagnoses than conventional testing methods. They work for the APOPO Project, a Belgian non-profit organization in Tanzania.

Job cuts in tech sector spread, Microsoft lays off 10,000

Friday, january 20, 2023

• 1:10 PM

5 min

The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that the layoffs were a response to "macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities."

Will ChatGPT be a threat to Google’s dominance in the AI market?

• 12:05 AM

ChatGPT seems to have come as a competitive threat to Google as DeepMind, a Google subsidiary, plans to launch a ChatGPT competitor soon.

Lowering prosthetic costs through 3D technology

Friday, november 25, 2022

• 11:53 AM

In South Africa, amputee care is a service most cannot afford. Prosthetics can cost anything from 20 000 US dollars to 100 000 US dollars.

Five big tech companies that have embarked on massive layoffs in 2022

Thursday, november 17, 2022

• 12:10 AM

5 min

Five big Tech companies that have embarked on massive layoffs in 2022

Ivorian researcher awarded for her research to protect yams

Friday, november 11, 2022

• 2:16 PM

Adjata Kamara is one of the 20 winners of the For women in science initiative of the L'Oréal Foundation and UNESCO, which aims to give visibility to women researchers worldwide.

NASA rocket transports first ever Zimbabwean and Ugandan satellites into space

Tuesday, november 8, 2022

• 11:39 AM

Zimbabwe and Uganda have launched the first satellites built by local engineers into space aboard a NASA rocket.

Elon Musk announces $8 monthly charge for verified Twitter accounts

Wednesday, november 2, 2022

• 2:22 PM

This comes after a series of criticisms of his plan to charge Twitter users $19.99 a month to get or keep a verified account.

Scientists warn of a new invasive mosquito species in Africa

• 11:23 AM

The mosquito species, known as Anopheles stephensi, has mostly been seen in India and the Persian Gulf. In 2012, it was discovered in Djibouti and it has since been found in Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria.

Electric bus debuts in Nairobi in clean energy push

Thursday, october 20, 2022

• 6:42 AM

A Kenyan-based green transport company unveiled Wednesday an electric bus. Its inventors hope to encourage environmentally friendly commuting in a city where polluting exhaust fumes contribute to a thick smog.

Mobile app enables Kenyans to become wildlife conservation actors

Sunday, october 9, 2022

• 3:22 PM

The National Museums of Kenya has launched an app to help the country's wildlife authorities track and log rare and common mammals and record whether the species and their habitat are thriving. The phone app allows users to contribute what animals they se

Rwanda : tech portal to store background information on domestic workers

Saturday, october 1, 2022

• 1:35 PM

The death of nine-year-old Davis Ihirwe Rudasingwa in June left Rwanda in shock. He was found to have died by strangulation by the house help. This hence inspired the boy’s father to create the tech portal Tekana app

Young Togolese inventor makes a homemade 4-wheel drive

Friday, september 30, 2022

• 10:42 AM

Twenty-five-old Togolese inventor, Sourou-Edjareyo Malazouwe, is making waves with his self-made 4-wheel drive car, constructed using mostly recycled materials.

Scientists stunt parasite growth to tackle malaria

Tuesday, september 27, 2022

• 10:09 AM

7 min

Scientists fighting malaria say they've managed to genetically modify mosquitoes to make them unable to spread the infection which kills well over half a million people each year

S.Africa teens build solar train as power cuts haunt commuters

Friday, september 23, 2022

• 4:07 PM

A group of 20 teenagers have invented South Africa's first fully solar-powered train.For years, students in a South African township have seen their parents struggle to use trains for daily commutes, the railways are frequently plagued by power outages an

Ivory Coast develops "Superphone" aimed at illiterate people

Friday, september 9, 2022

• 3:07 PM

Estimates suggest that around 40% of Ivorians are illiterate

Microbiomes mission reaches last stop in Senegal

Sunday, september 4, 2022

• 10:16 AM

Scientists took samples along the West African coast in order to better understand the microbiome of this part of the Atlantic