MEST Africa is excited to announce MEST Portfolio Company Dropque has been accepted into the PeaceTech Accelerator program in Washington D.C. The PeaceTech Accelerator is an eight-week program providing intensive mentorship and training, with particular emphasis on cloud technology, to startups developing and using innovative technologies to help to bring about the end of violent conflict and promote sustainable peace.
Read MoreDe terreurgroep Boko Haram zet steeds vaker vrouwen in om zelfmoordaanslagen te plegen in Noordoost-Nigeria. Twee jonge vrouwen bliezen zich maandag op in een moskee in Maiduguri, de stad waar Boko Haram ruwweg tien jaar geleden opkwam. Het gebouw stortte in en er vielen acht doden. Een week eerder vielen negentien doden toen een vrouw zich opblies in een drukke straat van Maiduguri.
Het aantal aanslagen is volgens Nigeria-expert David Ehrhardt van de Universiteit Leiden toegenomen, omdat Boko Haram in het nauw is gedreven. "Het plegen van sporadische aanslagen is dan een logische stap", zegt hij. Daarnaast hebben vrouwen een tactisch voordeel volgens Ehrhardt, omdat ze "makkelijker wapens kunnen transporteren onder hun kleren".
Read MoreA growing source of concern that divides people and societies is the use of hate speech through the social and mainstream media.
It is a trend Channels Academy hopes to check in the coming days, working in partnership with the Peace Media and Peace Tech Lab.
The Director of the Peace Media and Peace Tech Lab, Theo Dolan, who was at the launch of the Channels Academy in Abuja, said his organisation would support the academy’s curriculum.
“With the launch of the Channels (journalism) Academy, we can integrate hate speech training into the academy’s curriculum and that is what we are hoping to do. We’ll be in discussions about that and I think this is something that professional media can learn more about as well,” he said.
Read MorePeaceTech Lab has taken another step towards securing its position as an international leader in the use of technology, media, and data to accelerate local peacebuilding efforts with the addition of ChannelsTV CEO John Momoh of Lagos, Nigeria as its newest board member.
Read MoreA recent NASA study found that the drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean Levant region, including conflict-affected countries such as Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey, was the worst drought in over 900 years.
Read MoreThe PeaceTech Lab and Nigeria-based Channels TV have agreed to pursue joint initiatives using media in combination with data and technology to foster long-term peace and prosperity in northern Nigeria and the surrounding region. The agreement’s implementation will begin immediately with the joint development of Nigeria’s first, independent Hausa-language television news network to serve northern Nigeria.
Read MoreAnyone who follows events in Nigeria understands that the conflict environment is complex. Extremist violence affects the northeastern part of the country and increasingly the Middle Belt as well. In the Niger Delta, conflict dynamics are complicated by economic interests and community demands related to oil extraction. Across Nigeria, inter-communal conflicts are fueled by access to resources and complicated by issues of ethnic or religious identity.
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