The only real solution to the migrant crisis is the economic development of Africa. Sadly, Africans will continue to take dangerous journeys and risk their very lives searching for opportunities for productive employment in other countries. Economic growth is the sine qua non for Africa and this depends on massive expansion of infrastructure across the continent. The levels of investments required in vital areas of infrastructure cannot be accomplished by the private and financial sectors. Government issued public credit is necessary to fund the trillions of dollars of infrastructure needed to develop the African continent. The application, training, and education in new scientific endeavors in nuclear energy and space satellites are key components of a healthy growing economy that all African nations should enthusiastically embrace to secure the their future.
More African Refugees Take Dangerous Atlantic Route to Europe
Dec. 5, 2018 –Reuters reports “a resurgence in African migrants taking the treacherous Atlantic route to the Spanish territory this year in search of jobs and prosperity that they cannot find at home. It marks the revival of a worrying trend. In 2006 — when 30,000 migrants managed to reach the Canary Islands — some 7,000 people died trying to make the crossing, rights groups say.”
Faced with the land route via Libya ending now in detention camps, with no hope of ever reaching Europe, migrants increasingly take the sea route from West Africa to the Iberian Peninsula.
“Managing … migratory flows is very much like squeezing a balloon. When one route closes, the flows increase on another,” the Reuters report quotes Izabella Cooper, spokeswoman for EU border agency Frontex, as saying.
“Migrants face many dangers on the open ocean, including mountainous waves, blistering heat and starvation,” writes Reuters, and, although reliable data are not available, authorities in Senegal and Gambia said there has been a rise in boats attempting to reach the Canary Islands this year. The boats are often canoes not really seaworthy for ocean voyages, or tiny boats with dozens of refugees on board, propelled by engines not fit for such voyages either. Empty boats have been spotted repeatedly, and their real numbers remain unrecorded. “The sea is
very, very big. And they can leave from wherever in Senegal, Gambia or further south,” the Reuters report quotes Rafael Carballo Abeger, an attaché at the Spanish Embassy in Dakar, Senegal.
Rwanda Has Signed a Nuclear Deal with Russia
Dec. 6, 2018– During an official visit of Rwanda’s Minister of Infrastructure Claver Gatete to Moscow, an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy was signed between the two countries. “The cooperation agreement will lay the foundation for active dialogue between the two countries in the field of peaceful use of atomic energy, and will allow for practical implementation of particular projects,” {ESI Africa}, a power journal, reported on Dec. 6. Rosatom’s Director General Aleksey Likhachev signed the agreement on behalf of Russia and Gatete signed on behalf of Rwanda.
Likhachev said: “We are happy to share our more than 70 years expertise in the field of peaceful use of nuclear technologies with our Rwandan partners. We hope that our cooperation in that area will contribute to the economic growth and improve the quality of life of the Rwandan population.” The document establishes a legal basis for interaction between the two countries including elaboration of the project for the construction of a Center for Nuclear Science and Technology, and of a Nuclear Power Plant in the Republic of Rwanda, {World Nuclear News} reported.