The National Institutes of Health is investing about $74.5 million over five years to advance data science, catalyze innovation and spur health discoveries across Africa.

Under its new Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa) program, the NIH is issuing 19 awards to support research and training activities.

DS-I Africa is an NIH Common Fund program that is supported by the Office of the Director and 11 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices.

Awards will establish a consortium consisting of a data science platform and coordinating center, seven research hubs, seven data science research training programs and four projects focused on studying the ethical, legal and social implications of data science research. Awardees have a robust network of partnerships across the African continent and in the United States, including numerous national health ministries, nongovernmental organizations, corporations, and other academic institutions.

“This initiative has generated tremendous enthusiasm in all sectors of Africa’s biomedical research community,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “Big data and artificial intelligence have the potential to transform the conduct of research across the continent, while investing in research training will help to support Africa’s future data science leaders and ensure sustainable progress in this promising field.”

The University of Cape Town (UCT) will develop and manage the initiative’s open data science platform and coordinating center, building on previous NIH investments in UCT’s data and informatics capabilities made through the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program. UCT will provide a flexible, scalable platform for the DS-I Africa researchers, so they can find and access data, select tools and workflows, and run analyses through collaborative workspaces. UCT will also administer and support core resources, as well as coordinate consortium activities.

The research hubs, all of which are led by African institutions, will apply novel approaches to data analysis and AI to address critical health issues.

The research training programs, which leverage partnerships with U.S. institutions, will create multi-tiered curricula to build skills in foundational health data science, with options ranging from master’s and doctoral degree tracks, to postdoctoral training and faculty development. A mix of in-person and remote training will be offered to build skills in multi-disciplinary topics such as applied mathematics, biostatistics, epidemiology, clinical informatics, analytics, computational omics, biomedical imaging, machine intelligence, computational paradigms, computer science and engineering.

Yesterday the senior military leadership in Sudan arrested the prime minister and seized control of the country in what is already — for the citizens at least — a bloody takeover coup.

It represents the end of a power-sharing relationship between civilian and the military in the African nation which has lasted for over two years.

It will also mean the return to authoritarian rule – for a while at least — after the people forced out the former dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019.

Though the news came as a shock for the world, the overthrow looked more likely last month, after a previous coup attempt failed.

Since that time both the civilian as well as military sides were shoring up their alliances. Last week several cabinet ministers led protests in Khartoum and other major metropolitan areas, against even the prospect of a coup. In parallel, the army strengthened its hand by bringing together an odd alliance of leaders consisting of local warlords, heads of militia, those who still backed previous dictator al-Bashir, and the current military establishment.

The coup took place relatively swiftly and reportedly relatively quietly. The military, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan arrested Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, industry minister Ibrahim al-Sheikh, several other ministers, Governor Ayman Khalid of the state which includes the capital of Khartoum, and other officials within the government. No one seriously injured or killed as those officials were taken, according to current reports.

In doing so, the military dissolved the “sovereign council” which managed a power-sharing arrangement between the civilian leadership represented by Hamdok and the general’s senior team. That council was formed in 2019 after former military officer Omar Hassan al-Bashir himself had led the country for three decades.

Al-Bashir himself took power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese army, he also led a military coup. In a disturbing replay of history, al-Bashir seized power by kicking out the democratically elected government headed up by then prime Minster Sadiq al-Mahd.

News of the coup spread quickly in the nation. Fearing a return to a dictator state run by a military team, protesters came out by the thousands in the country’s capital city of Khartoum to demand the return of Prime Minister Hamdok to power.

Those protesters were also aware that the sovereign council was supposed to have turned the full reigns of leadership of the country to a civilian within just a few months. The coup was broadly seen as an attempt to keep that from ever happening.

The military leadership responded in force, with shots fired by security forces deployed to attempt to restore calm. As of late yesterday, reports from the health ministry said at least seven protesters had been killed in the skirmishes. An estimated 140 protesters were wounded.

The government also shut off the internet to the country, as a means to keep protesters from coordinating their efforts.

In statements released yesterday, General Abdel Fatttah al-Burhan said the takeover of the government was unavoidable. He described the sovereign council as unworkable, with the civilian and military representatives constantly arguing over governance decisions.

In a public statement, he attempted to reassure those who felt the military would keep control of what it had seized.

“The armed forces will continue completing the democratic transition and the handover of the country’s leadership to a civilian, elected government,” he said.

The statement also said the constitution would be rewritten to address changes his group felt were needed. Those changes are to include creating a new governmental entity responsible for writing and passing laws.

Rather than achieving its purpose, the general’s statements only served to intensify the protests. Citizens against the coup spread out within both the capital of Khartoum and its sister city of Omdurman. They blocked streets to keep the security forces out, even as those forces tried to de-escalate matters by using tear gas this time rather than guns to get people to leave.

“The people are stronger, stronger,” the protesters chanted back at them in defiance. “Retreat is not an option!”

As the tear gas appeared to be failing to stop the protests, the security forces apparently once again returned to firing into the protesters.

Protests are reportedly intensifying close to the military headquarters where the ruling junta is situated.

The coup has been greeted with condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The return to instability in a country which under al-Bashir was ravaged and ransacked by its leadership is considered a threat once again to peace extending well beyond the borders of Sudan.

Josep Borrell, foreign affairs head for the EU, said the European bloc had “utmost concern” about what had happened.

Speaking for the Biden-Harris administration, Jerry Feltman, U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, said the White House was “deeply alarmed at reports of a military takeover of the transitional government.”

Soon after Feltman’s remarks, Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokeswoman for Joe Biden, issued a more explicit message about the seizure of the government.

“We reject the actions by the military and call for the immediate release of the prime minister and others who have been placed under house arrest,” she said in a meeting with reporters.

The U.S. has also responded to the military coup by suspending the $700 million it was planning to send to Sudan. It was at least in part intended to support the transition to a full democratic state.

An open election for the new government was also originally intended to happen in 2023. Even though the new military in its statement says that will still happen, most experts on the situation say the current situation is far too volatile to be certain of what will happen.

Meanwhile the largest party in the country, Umma, said there was little choice but to take the streets and continue protests.

The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), the largest of the nation’s pro-democratic political groups, also made a strong call to the people to rise up to reject the military takeover.

“We urge the masses to go out on the streets and occupy them, close all roads with barricades, stage a general labor strike, and not to cooperate with the putschists and use civil disobedience to confront them,” the SPA said in a social media post yesterday.

Sanergy, a U.S.-owned company based in Nairobi, Kenya, just received a $2.5 million investment from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for a unique “circular economy” sanitation operation.

The company operates by first gathering organic waste from public markets, restaurants, and local farms, along with excrement to create a biowaste mass.

Then it adds larvae from black soldier flies to the mix. They feed on the waste and break it down without the need for added chemicals or toxic materials.

The resulting biowaste is then converted into multiple forms. Among them are:

An Insect Feed called KuzaPro

An organic crop fertilizer. It is currently being sold and distributed throughout Kenya.

Biomass briquettes for use in industrial boilers and other heating solutions.

Sanergy began its first test organics recycling facility in Kenya’s capitol of Nairobi in 2015. That facility processes around 12,000 tons of biowaste annually. It also produces insect feed along the same lines as the new investment will make possible. In 2021 it is the largest insect feed plant in East Africa

The company was launched in 2009 by three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students. Their goal was to provide a more hygienic and affordable solution to sanitation even for those living in Nairobi’s urban slums.

Sanergy is positioned well for growth in this type of industry. With its urban base in Nairobi on its way to growing to a population of 5.94 million in 2030, according to investor JICA the amount of biowaste it produces should increase from 1,848 tons/day to 3,990 tons per day. That represents a 116% increase in less than a decade.

In announcing its new investment in Sanergy, Shohei Hara, JICA’s director general of Private Sector Partnership and Finance, expressed excitement about the opportunities for the new enterprise.

“We are thrilled to expand Sanergy’s pioneering circular economy model which solves multiple social problems, such as waste management, sanitation, agricultural productivity and food security, that most countries in Africa commonly face,” he said.

“JICA will continue to develop partnerships with wider stakeholders in tackling with these social problems,” Hara continued.

On September 14, national leaders from Africa came together in a virtual forum to discuss how best to adapt to the extreme weather events global heating has brought to the continent.

While Africa may only be responsible for just 3% of global carbon emissions, it is suffering from a much larger-than-fair share of the problems as global temperatures increase.

World leaders from Ghana and Nigeria, with guidance from United Nations officials also present, met last Tuesday to discuss how best to deal with the growing reality that the climate crisis is going to hurt Africa likely worse – and sooner – than in most other continents on the planet.

For further details on the event, please see the article, “Africa Virtual Conference Focuses on Impacts of Global Heating,” available via the Trillions Intelligence Network.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced the formal engagement of the global Fintech company, Bitt Inc., as the Technical Partner for its digital currency, named eNaira, which is due to be unveiled later in the year.

This development was disclosed in Abuja by the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who listed the benefits of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to include increased cross-border trade, accelerated financial inclusion, cheaper and faster remittance inflows, easier targeted social interventions, as well as improvements in monetary policy effectiveness, payment systems efficiency, and tax collection.

Project Giant, as the Nigerian CBDC pilot is known, has been a long and thorough process for the CBN, with the Bank’s decision to digitize the Naira in 2017, following extensive research and explorations. Given the significant explosion in the use of digital payments and the rise in the digital economy, the CBN’s decision follows an unmistakable global trend in which over 85 percent of Central Banks are now considering adopting digital currencies in their countries.

The CBN’s selection of Bitt Inc, from among highly competitive bidders, was hinged on the company’s technological competence, efficiency, platform security, interoperability, and implementation experience.In choosing Bitt Inc, the CBN will rely on the company’s tested and proven digital currency experience, which is already in circulation in several Eastern Caribbean Countries. Bitt Inc. was key to the development and successful launch of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) in April 2021.

Researchers have discovered tropical forests in Africa have been sequestering far more carbon than previously known. As they are also rapidly now being cleared for multiple uses, their days in helping save the planet may be numbered.

Scientists at the University of York who have been investigating what are called Africa’s montane forests, those forests located in the tropics, recently discovered those ranges have been acting as a much bigger carbon sink for the planet than earlier investigations had shown.

The current calculations show those ranges are drawing in an estimated 150 tons of carbon per hectare. Put another way, that means every hectare of montane forest left standing in Africa saves the equivalent of CO2 emissions produced by a group of 100 homes consuming electricity at normal average rates for a year.

The data used in the study came from extensive forest inventory data from the AfriMont and AfriTRON plot networks, which cover information provided within 13 countries in Africa. The data is available at afritron.org and is curated at www.forestplots.net.

The study, just published in the journal Nature, found that African mountain forests store more carbon per unit area than the Amazon rainforest and are similar in structure to lowland forests in Africa. Existing guidelines for African mountain forests – which assume 89 tons of carbon per hectare – greatly underestimate their role in global climate regulation.

The international team also investigated how much tropical mountain forest had been lost from the African continent in the past 20 years. They found that 0.8 million hectares have been lost, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia, emitting over 450 million tonnes of CO₂₂ into the atmosphere. If current deforestation rates continue, a further 0.5 million hectares of these forests would be lost by 2030.

Lead author Dr Aida Cuni-Sanchez, from the University of York’s Department of Environment and Geography and at Norwegian University of Life Sciences, said: “The results are surprising because the climate in mountains would be expected to lead to low carbon forests.

“The lower temperatures of mountains and the long periods they are covered by clouds should slow tree growth, while strong winds and steep unstable slopes might limit how big trees can get before they fall over and die.

“But unlike other continents, in Africa we found the same carbon store per unit area in lowland and mountain forests. Contrary to what we expected, large trees remain abundant in mountain forests, and these large trees (defined as having diameters over 70 cm) store a lot of carbon.”

Scientists measured 72,000 trees in 44 mountain sites in 12 African countries, from Guinea to Ethiopia, and south to Mozambique. In each mountain site they established plots where they recorded the diameter, height, and species of every tree.

Researchers said that better knowledge about how much carbon mountain forests store is especially important for the ten African nations where the only tropical forests they have are those found on mountains.

“While we know what makes African forests special, we don’t yet know why they are different. It is possible that in Africa, the presence of large herbivores such as elephants plays an important role in mountain forest ecology, as these large animals disperse seeds and nutrients, and eat small trees creating space for others to grow larger, but this requires further investigation,” Dr Cuni-Sanchez added.

Co-author Dr Phil Platts, from York’s Department of Environment and Geography and the IUCN’s Climate Change Specialist Group, said: “About five per cent of Africa’s tropical mountain forests have been cleared since 2000, and in some countries the rate exceeds 20 per cent. Besides their importance for climate regulation, these forests are habitats for many rare and endangered species, and they provide very important water services to millions of people downstream”.

Most African nations have committed large amounts of land to forest restoration under the Bonn Challenge. Although forest restoration is important to mitigate climate change, avoiding deforestation is a greater priority.

Co-author Dr Martin Sullivan, at the Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, added: “Previous carbon estimates for tropical mountain forests in Africa were much lower than the values we report in our study.

“We hope that these new data will encourage carbon finance mechanisms towards avoided deforestation in tropical mountains.  As outlined in the Paris Agreement, reducing tropical deforestation in both lowland and mountain forests must be a priority.”

Co-author Dr Gerard Imani, at the Department of Biology, Université Oficielle de Bukavu in DR Congo, added: “Carbon finance mechanisms could help improve conservation interventions on the ground – even within protected areas, deforestation, forest degradation and defaunation remain a challenge.”

The paper, “High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests,” by Aida Cuni-Sanchez, Martin J. P. Sullivan, and Etienne Zibera, was published in the 25 August 2021 issue of Nature.