Artificial intelligence is the main game in town on the planet. On 3 and 4 April, Rwanda will host the first Global AI Summit on Africa. The continent is lagging behind others in terms of preparedness, but it is also bursting with initiatives.

Participants will discuss how AI can drive economic growth, innovation, and workforce development while ensuring ethical governance and risk mitigation. Issues such as education, building infrastructure, and preserving sovereignty will be addressed, as well as investment, governance, and ethics. Discussions will focus on national AI strategies and the role of emerging technologies such as quantum computing and robotics.The Artificial Intelligence African Council, which will bring together representatives from 40 African countries to promote the use of new technologies on the continent, is expected to be launched during the summit. This initiative follows the African Union’s assessment that AI is a strategic asset critical to achieving the aspirations of Agenda 2063 (The Africa We Want) and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Photo: courtesy GAISA

Adoption of AI technologies is growing rapidly across Africa. According to the 2024 Stanford AI Report, 27% of Kenyans use ChatGPT daily. The hope is that AI can fill gaps in education and health systems, improve agricultural yields, and provide access to financial services for people who remain excluded from the banking system.
However, the rapid adoption of foreign AI technologies raises many concerns. Data privacy is a key issue, as is the location of data storage. This highlights the need for robust AI governance policies and data protection laws to prevent data loss or theft for foreign technology companies. In addition, surveillance by AI technologies poses a significant risk to citizens in countries with weak institutional
and governance systems.

The AI impact in Africa
According to a recent OECD study, 27% of jobs worldwide are in occupations at high risk of automation, as up to a quarter of the work currently done by humans could be done by AI systems. The impact could be enormous in Africa, a continent where economic growth, while spectacular, cannot absorb the number of young people entering the labour market each year and could increase the brain drain to Europe
or other destinations.
Several African countries have embarked on the AI path but so far, only three have fully developed policies and less than ten have national AI strategies. AI labs have emerged in universities in Ghana, Uganda, and South Africa, centred on utilizing AI for social impact.

In Africa, many startups and public organizations are beginning to invest in the development of AI applications in health, transportation and agriculture. 123rf

One example is the SignTalk project of the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Lab (RAIL) at Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, which aims to enhance healthcare accessibility for the hearing and speech impaired through a Ghanaian Sign Language translation system.
In an interview with Radio France Internationale, Paulin Melatagia, head of the research team on AI and data science at the University of Yaoundé, says that Africa has already begun its transformation. Many startups and public organizations are beginning to invest in the development of AI applications in health, transportation and agriculture. But the pace of transformation varies widely from country to country.

A flight operator scans a package barcode before loading it into the Zipline drone. Rwanda, in partnership with the U.S. company Zipline, has developed a drone delivery system. Photo: Zipline

Concrete examples of AI applications in Africa illustrate its transformative potential. In Nigeria, data platforms like Zenvus are making it easier for farmers to access critical information, leading to improved yields and agricultural productivity. In South Africa, a startup called ThisIsMe has developed an AI-powered platform that allows banks to more accurately and securely verify customer identities.
Rwanda and Kenya are at the forefront of the continent’s drone revolution. Rwanda, in partnership with the U.S. company Zipline, has developed a drone delivery system that can transport blood to remote clinics and hospitals in less than half an hour, compared to three hours in the past. Rwanda’s success led to Ghana also adopting the Zipline system, while encouraging African companies such as Niger’s Drone Africa Service, Nigeria’s Zenvus, Rwanda’s Charis UAS and Zambia’s i-Drone Services Limited to also develop drone technology.

Drone Operators
By 2023, there were more than 300 licensed drone operators in Kenya. Local authorities are developing a drone facility in Laikipia with AALTO, a subsidiary of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, to serve as a home base for Zephyr drones, which will conduct long-duration flights in the stratosphere that can serve as communication relays and high-resolution surveillance platforms.
Kenyan authorities have created an impressive innovation hub between Nairobi and Mombasa called Konza Technopolis. The evolution of drone technology could help African countries leapfrog over bad roads and unreliable power grids in the same way that cell phone technology overcame the lack of landline telecommunications. At the current rate, Africa’s drone industry could create more than 200,000 jobs by 2030, according to the World Bank.

Last August, Baykar announced that Kenyan operators had completed a specialized training program at Baykar’s pilot training centre in Keşan, Turkey. Photo: Baykar

Drone technology has also transformed the defense sector. According to the UN, attack drones are being used in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and the Rwandan Defense Force. Similar Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones are being used in the Sahel against jihadists by the armies of Burkina-Faso and Niger.
However, African countries are lagging in the global adoption of AI. Currently, no African nation ranks among the top 50 countries in the world in terms of government readiness for AI. Several conditions need to be in place to enable such development.
African nations face significant challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, limited connectivity, low digital literacy, and a lack of robust AI governance and regulatory frameworks. Perhaps the competition between Chinese and American tech companies could offer African governments a strategic advantage in attracting investment from both sides in these areas.

Data availability
Another major barrier is data availability. Creating AI solutions that address Africa’s problems requires African data, but little data is collected on Africa. ChatGPT, for example, has been criticized for alleged biases about African realities due to the limited amount of African data used to train these models, which is why it is important to develop solutions that understand and process African languages.
There is a shortage of data centres on the continent, which houses less than 2% of the world’s equipment needed to process the data used by AI applications. According to Alex Tsado, founder of the South African expert group Alliance4AI, only 5% of Africa’s talent has access to the computing power and resources needed to perform complex tasks.

Africa can benefit from artificial intelligence, but first it needs to develop its infrastructure, especially electricity and data connectivity. 123rf

In addition, there is a lack of local skills and a context of underfunding for African companies in the sector. Although Africa represents 17% of the world’s population, it produces less than 1% of the world’s AI, according to analyst Bright Simons of the Ghanaian think tank Imani.
There is a consensus that Africa can benefit from artificial intelligence, but first needs to develop its infrastructure, especially electricity and data connectivity. Only 37% of Africans use the Internet, compared to 90% in Western Europe, Russia and the Americas, and around 70% in Arab countries and Asia. It is no coincidence that sub-Saharan Africa ranks last in Oxford Insights’ Government AI Readiness Index 2024. Only Mauritius, South Africa and Rwanda scored above 50% in AI readiness.
The best-prepared countries are, not surprisingly, those with the highest access to telephones and electricity.
The same countries appear in all three rankings. According to Oxford Insights, South Africa, Namibia, Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Tunisia are among the countries with the best telephone access.Not surprisingly, six of these countries appear in the AI readiness rankings.

There is a shortage of data centres on the continent, which houses less than 2% of the world’s equipment needed to process the data used by AI applications. 123rf

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt are also among the countries with the best access to electricity. Internet is not sufficiently available, but even when it is, the high cost of Internet access, smartphones and broadband hinders the widespread adoption of AI.
As Fahd Azaroual points out in a paper on the challenges and opportunities of AI in Africa published by the Policy Centre for the New South in May 2024, another constraint to the adoption of AI intelligence in Africa is the development of conducive ecosystems involving stakeholders such as policymakers, universities, technology companies, startups, civil society, and international organizations. Another important enabling condition is regulation.
The African Union introduced a legally binding framework with the Malabo Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection, which will come into force in 2023 and aims to harmonize data protection laws across Africa. However, with only 15 countries having ratified it so far, its impact remains limited. (Open Photo: 123rf)

François Misser

When conflicts subside, children used by armed groups become the most forgotten victims. In an area in the south of the Central African Republic, some of them are trying to reintegrate in the face
of great difficulties.

Sitting under a tree, in a large courtyard next to a water pump where several women come to fill their jerrycans, 20 teenagers wait in silence. It is just before eight in the morning and the office of the NGO that called them to the Central African city of Alindao is about to open. They left their village 15 kilometres away, very early, before 5 am. The local chief, Arthur, gives them one last piece of advice before the social workers start calling them one by one.
The twelve boys and eight girls belong to the category of “children associated with armed groups”, a nomenclature that the institutions that help these minors describe as more accurate than that of “child soldiers”, as they have been known for decades. These are minors who have spent time in militias or rebel groups as fighters, or who have been forced to perform other tasks, such as porters, spies, cooks, guards or, very often in the case of girls, sex slaves.

‘Children associated with armed groups are young people who have spent time in militias or rebel groups as fighters. File swm

“When the militias came to our village, neither these children nor their parents had any choice,” Arthur recalls. “They selected all the children they thought could be useful to them and forced them to go with them.” As state authority gradually returned to the area, three years ago some rebel groups disbanded and the minors who were in its ranks returned to their homes. “Almost all the leaders of the various guerrilla groups were conscripted into the army, but the children returned traumatised, many sick or with unhealed wounds. Others disappeared or were believed to be dead,” Arthur continues.
Today, the NGO staff conducts an individual interview with each of them. Once their family and social profile are known, an attempt will be made to provide those who were unable to return to school with training courses in mechanics, bricklaying, commerce, sewing, etc., so that they can practice a trade that will facilitate their reintegration.

Village women with their children. “”When the militias came to our village, neither these children nor their parents had any choice”. File swm

The prefecture of Basse Kotto, in the south of the Central African Republic, was one of the most affected by the crisis that erupted in the country in 2013 when the Muslim-majority Seleka rebels took power. Following the intervention of international forces, the Seleka fragmented into several militias. One of these, the Unit for Peace in Central Africa (UPC), led by warlord Ali Darrassa, settled in the central and southern areas of the country including Basse Kotto, recruiting mainly young Peul ethnic groups, semi-nomadic shepherds who follow the Muslim religion. At the same time, anti-balaka militias, which emerged to fight the Seleka, and therefore the Islamic community, spread across the
area like an oil slick.

Anti-Balaka militia. The anti-balaka forced countless minors to join their ranks. CC BY-SA 4.0/Clementalline

The worst moment of the crisis erupted when, in November 2018, the UPC – supported by a group of young radical Muslims – attacked a camp for displaced people in Alindao, killing 120 civilians and wounding hundreds more. The conflict entered a spiral of endless violence, and in the surrounding villages, everyone was forced to choose a side, leaving no room for neutrality, under penalty of being branded as traitors. The anti-balaka forced countless minors to join their ranks, in a dynamic of relentless confrontation between Muslims and Christians.
A few years ago, most of the anti-balaka groups disbanded and today government soldiers, supported by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group, exercise some control over the affected areas. But the UPC is still active in various areas, where it extorts money from the civilian population and carries out sporadic surprise attacks, often on the roads, where traffic is not without risks.

An uncertain number
Children associated with the armed groups have been the big losers of the crisis years. In the villages where the Anti-balaka recruited minors until recently, they have returned home empty-handed and with a myriad of problems. A community network, RECOPE (Community Child Protection Network), supported by several humanitarian organizations, works with local leaders to support these children. Its president assures that “it is almost impossible to know the exact number of minors who have spent years with the militias, because there is still a lot of insecurity in the area and many of the boys who were forced to fight are hiding, because they are afraid of possible reprisals from the other side, especially in the most remote villages of Alindao”. RECOPE members sensitize people in the villages to understand the problems of children who the armed groups have abandoned and to support them as best they can. They present lists of names to NGOs so that, after appropriate checks, they can access reintegration programs.

It is difficult to know the exact number of minors who have spent years with the militias. File swm

One of them, Thierry, 18, now lives with his parents in a suburb of Alindao, where he combines his studies with two small businesses: a kiosk where he sells various items and a stable where he raises pigs. Thierry recalls how, at the age of 14, the Anti-balaka came to his area one day and forced him to go with them: “They made me do military training, they gave me a rifle and I spent two years fighting the UPC,” he explains. He and other boys of his age also took part in attacks on villages of the Peul communities, almost always looting and burning their homes.”One day I managed to escape. I went back to my parents and since then I have stayed at home, I have not moved from here,” he says. Thierry has been supported with therapies to overcome the trauma he has suffered. The same NGO helped him to resume his studies and with the course in which he learned the basics of small business management.

Central African Republic. Kids playing football on the streets. An apparent calm reigns.
Shutterstock/sandis sveicers

Today, in Alindao, an atmosphere of normalcy and apparent calm reigns. Christians and Muslims meet at the market, at the same hospital, in the same schools, and even at football matches organized by young people.
Overshadowed by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the Central African Republic is no longer in the spotlight of the international community. Their low-intensity conflict hardly attracts attention. In most of its territory, the weapons have fallen silent, but in the hearts of the victims, the traumas suffered continue to damage people, especially the minors who have been used by the armed groups. Some will be able to find opportunities to move forward. Others, in the most remote areas, will remain invisible. (Open Photo: File swm – Pierre Holtz /UNICEF)

José Carlos Rodríguez/MTM

In Mali and Niger, the lives of millions of people depend on the Niger River. Forced to live with the terror of jihadist attacks and military reprisals, and under the threat of an increasingly harsh climate, the inhabitants of the two Sahelian countries entrust their destinies to a river, an inexhaustible source of life, which continues to flow placidly amid the torments of men.

Old Ousmane Djebare Djenepo smiles as he watches the placid waters of the Niger flow around his wooden canoe. The 76-year-old man is one of many Malians who earn their living thanks to the river and the verdant wetlands that surround it. But Djenepo’s smile hides apprehensions. “Before, the river was deep and the fishing seasons were long,” he says. “Now there are far fewer fish and the river has too many problems.” Djenepo heads the association of fishermen in the inner delta of the Niger River, a vast area of ​​land in central Mali. Ecological problems threaten the survival of local populations, already hit hard by the violence of armed jihadist groups that have taken control of the region, governing its most profitable trafficking (drugs, weapons, migrants).

Armed jihadist groups have taken control of the region. 123rf

Since the Islamic militants launched their insurrection in 2012, terror has spread among the inhabitants who live on the Niger, and the repeated attacks on civilians – costing the lives of thousands of defenceless citizens – have emptied entire villages. Due to the insecurity, many farmers have abandoned the patches of land where they once grew courgettes, onions, tomatoes and aubergines. The armed raids by the jihadists, who travel on motorbikes armed with Kalashnikovs, are usually carried out while people are working in the fields, or along the roads on market days when the farmers go to the city with their carts to sell their vegetables. In an increasingly uncertain climate, those who remain can do nothing but entrust their lives to the river, which has always guaranteed daily food and in the event of an attack can represent an escape route. But the problems remain.

The climate change affecting the Sahel, increasingly characterised by prolonged droughts, is draining the Niger dry. File swm

Overfishing has depleted fish stocks in the Niger Inner Delta, and the Sahara Desert is also encroaching on the green floodplains. Concerned Boukary Guindo, director of the government fisheries department for the region, comments: “The situation is going from bad to worse.” The Niger Inner Delta is a complex ecosystem that supports fishing, farming and pastoral communities. During the floods of the rainy season, only pirogues can cross it. But when the waters recede, vast meadows of fresh grass emerge, attracting livestock from across the semi-arid Sahel. Today, this alternation is disappearing.

War among the poor
“The Sahara is ‘swallowing’ the Niger River,” is the blunt view of Hamidou Touré, head of the delta fisheries development office. “Every week, new sandbanks cut off the once productive areas of the delta, and the fish cannot survive in the pools, which evaporate under an increasingly harsh sun.” Also to blame are the dams built since the 1970s, which have altered the course of the third-longest river on the African continent and reduced its flow. Today, the climate of the Sahel, increasingly marked by prolonged droughts, is bleeding the Niger dry.
“The heat causes strong evaporation along the watercourse,” notes Hamidou Touré. “In Bamako, the river has a flow of a thousand cubic meters, but this halves after about 500 kilometres.” And every year, new negative rainfall records are recorded.

High tensions exist between Fulani herders, Bambara farmers, and Bozo fishermen. File swm

“The result is there for all to see: an environmental and human catastrophe waiting to happen,” says Ibrahima Sankaré, of the humanitarian NGO Delta Survie. “What was once the green heart of the Sahel is becoming arid and unproductive. And this is upsetting the fragile balance between populations, which for centuries have ensured peaceful coexistence between Fulani herders, Bambara farmers and Bozo fishermen.” With the progressive impoverishment of resources, tensions are increasing and the rules of customary law devised in ancient times and passed down orally for generations are being undermined. In the dry season, the level of the river goes down allowing small grassy islands to emerge in the middle of the river. The fishermen then move and build makeshift huts and exploit new fishing grounds.
Getting food from the river is a matter of survival, but every human activity in these lands causes environmental repercussions that can cause problems and conflicts.

We civilians are a target
“Our Bozo cousins ​​think fish fall from the sky,” Boukary Guindo says with a sad smile. “They don’t respect closed seasons and raid fish that are breeding, but in doing so they risk decimating the stocks.” Guindo’s work would consist of raising awareness among fishermen about the need to deal with the river responsibly, for example by encouraging them to use nets that spare the smallest fish. However, widespread insecurity in central Mali impedes fieldwork. Since al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists advanced into this region, the area has become one of the bloodiest battlefields in the Sahel conflict, where the government has little control. “We are at the mercy of bandits and militiamen,” shouts in despair Barthélémy Ouédraogo, a farmer who lives in the red zone – an area considered highly dangerous where the authorities allow access only to the military.
“The problem is that we don’t even feel protected by those who should defend us. The French army and military soldiers who were once stationed in these parts have left the field to Russian mercenaries called to cleanse the area of ​​jihadists. But we civilians are often the ones who end up in the crosshairs of their weapons. We live in terror at the mercy of those who forcefully impose their law.”

Those who pay the highest price for the situation of instability and political uncertainty in the region are the communities. File swm

Security has certainly not improved with the coup d’état of July 26 that removed President Mohamed Bazoum and installed a military junta in power (as already happened in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali). For months, al-Qaeda groups have been exploiting the situation of instability and political uncertainty in the region to launch attacks on military bases, villages and gold and uranium mines.
Those who pay the highest price are the communities in the Nigerien area of ​​the so-called “Triple Frontier” (the Liptako-Gourma area) at the intersection of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger: the ones most affected by the jihadist insurgency.
But Niger, despite the environmental alarms and the instability of the regions it passes through, maintains its charm unchanged. You travel at the slow pace of the pinnaces, with their sails made of cement bags sewn together. Enormous patches that intercept the tired breezes of the river, to push people and goods. On the banks, villages made of earth houses and straw domes seem to parade slowly by. The herds of nomadic shepherds are part of the landscape, as are the small pirogues of fishermen looking for a good place to cast their nets. It is that unchanged landscape that inspired Ali Farka Touré, the king of the Sahel blues, a Malian guitarist and singer who died in 2006, whose vibrant music was born on the banks of the Niger and drew strength from its waters. (Open Photo: File swm)

Amaury Hauchard and Pierre Yambuya/Africa