Conservation scientist Lee White reflects on four decades spent creating Gabon’s national parks, tackling illegal logging and confronting the failures of global carbon markets. Climate change will trigger wars over water across much of Africa unless the continent protects the Congo Basin, warns former Gabonese environment minister Professor Lee White. White describes the Congo Basin as the “pumping heart of Africa”, generating atmospheric rivers – vast streams of moisture in the atmosphere – that sustain agriculture across much of the continent, from the Sahel to the Ethiopian Highlands. If the forest falls, he argues, Africa’s water cycle could collapse with it. White’s warnings about Africa’s environmental future are rooted in a life shaped by extraordinary experiences. As a schoolboy in Uganda, he regularly found himself in playground fistfights with one of the sons of the late dictator, Idi Amin. Follow us on WhatsApp | LinkedIn for the latest headlines “He...

Gabonese MP Augustin Lobelle Yembi, who was arrested in Kigali following an alleged assault on an employee at Kigali International Airport, has been handed over to authorities in Gabon after diplomatic intervention between Kigali and Libreville, according to Gabonese officials. Yembi was arrested at Kigali International Airport on September 3 after an altercation with the airport employee. He was subsequently held in Rwanda pending proceedings over the incident. ALSO READ: Gabon president meets diaspora in Kigali Michel Régis Onanga Ndiaye, Speaker of Gabon’s National Assembly, said on Monday that the lawmaker had been “removed from the Rwandan justice system” and handed over to Gabonese authorities, according to APAnews. Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn The Gabonese National Assembly said Yembi was placed at the disposal of Gabonese judicial authorities upon his arrival in Libreville. Gabon’s Foreign Minister Marie-Édith Tassyla-Ye-Doumbeneny confirmed the development in a television interview....