The current trend is for rich nations to purchase the natural resources of developing countries that, in turn, should not be selling those lands lest their domestic economy and food security be adversely affected. This landgrabbing trend has seen some staggering deals. The extent of the new trend in colonialism across the word is vast. [...]

Madagascar owns one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots. In some of the country’s protected areas, organized groups engaged in illegal logging have been felling ‘valuable rosewood trees and extracting other resources’ mostly from the Marojejy National Park and Masoala National Park.
To prove that illegal logging, a major cause of deforestation of the world’s rainforests, [...]

Through a subsidiary of the conglomerate Daewoo, South Korea concluded in 2008 with Madagascar an agreement to lease 1.3 million hectares for 99 years. Land leases in Africa are not only prevalent; they are dirt cheap. Land rights are very low in northern Sudan, for instance, where a hectare can be leased from 2 to [...]

International investors continue to cast their sights on farmlands, especially the best ones, in the African continent. These arable lands constitute the livelihood of local people who are likely to lose access, but African governments pay little attention to them. This phenomenon was analyzed in detail for the first time by experts from the International [...]

After a period of violence, Madagascar’s opposition leader Andry Rajoelina proudly entered into the palace of fallen President Marc Ravalomanana on Monday after the army troops took the building. Rajoelina, former mayor of Antananarivo, said during a rally before thousands of supporters that “the struggle for democracy is almost complete.” On February 7, presidential guards [...]

The protest ended in a bloody tragedy. Police opened fire against supporters of the opposition. On Saturday, the security forces killed at least 25 people during a protest against the government of President Marc Ravalomanana. The carnage happened in front of the presidential palace, reported an official of the force. Eighty other people were injured.
Two [...]