According to Afrotech, the first cargo robot route could be operating in Rwanda by 2016. Although at present, the maximum weight that can be carried is around 9kg, the company believes that by 2020, the flying robot technology will be capable of taking 20kg over distances of several hundred kilometres.

The architects points out that it is unlikely that countries will be able to invest sufficient capital in road and rail provision to meet the needs of the continent’s future population, which is expected to double to 2.2 billion by 2050.

IN THE past year or so, drones have increasingly been mentioned as a possible solution to Africa’s infrastructure problems, helping the continent leapfrog poor or non-existent road and rail networks straight into air transportation.

Although drones are more infamously known for their applications in security – such as surveillance and targeted executions – but Africa’s cargo drone highway came closer to reality last week when futurist organisation Afrotech and British architects Foster + Partners launched proposals for a “droneport” in Rwanda to help get cargo to communities with poor access to roads.

Cargo drones are small pilotless airplanes designed to transport packages across distances of 80km or so.

Many companies, including Amazon and Google, have already been looking into the commercial potential of unmanned flying vehicles, which to date have typically been used for surveillance and filming purposes. Drones are already being used in countries like Zimbabwe to track elephant and rhino poachers.

Rwanda is an ideal location to test out the impact of the commercial drone highway, said Jonathan Ledgard of Afrotech. The country – and the same could be said for much of Africa – has a relatively open airspace.

Rwanda, for example, has just a handful of commercial flights in and out of the country each day, while in industrial countries, the skies are dense not just with planes but power lines, making drones more of a nuisance.

Northern Ethiopia, too, features remote villages and steep mountain passes connected by winding dirt roads. Cargo drone delivery could find many applications in these, and other, contexts.

The drone lines will initially be on two routes – a “red line” that will carry small packages of emergency units blood to remote health clinics, and later, a “blue line” or commercial routes for the delivery of conventional cargo ordered online.

Drones could account for 10% -15% of Africa’s transport sector in the next decade, Legard believes.

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Seven lions in South Africa are to be tranquilized, placed in steel crates and loaded on to a charter flight to Rwanda, restoring the predator to the east African country after a 15-year absence.

Cattle herders poisoned Rwanda’s last remaining lions after parks were left unmanaged and occupied by displaced people in the wake of the 1994 genocide, according to the conservation group African Parks, which is organising the repopulation drive.

It said two parks in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province with “relatively small, confined reserves where it is necessary to remove surplus lions” are donating the big cats to Rwanda. The seven – five females and two males – were chosen based on future reproductive potential and their ability to contribute to social cohesion, including a mix of ages and genetic makeup.

From Monday they will be transferred to Akagera national park in north-east Rwanda by truck and plane in a journey lasting about 26 hours. African Parks said: “They will be continually monitored by a veterinary team with experience in translocations. They will be kept tranquillised to reduce any stress and will have access to fresh water throughout their journey.”

Upon arrival at the 112,000-hectare park, which borders Tanzania, the lions will be kept in quarantine in a specially erected 1,000m² enclosure with an electrified fence for at least two weeks before they are released into the wild.

The park is fenced, but the lions will be equipped with satellite collars to reduce the risk of them straying into inhabited areas. African Parks said: “The collars have a two-year life, by which time the park team will have evaluated the pride dynamics and only the dominant individuals in each pride will be re-collared.”

As a wildlife tourist destination, Rwanda is best known for its gorilla tracking safaris. But Akagera, a two-hour drive from the capital, Kigali, is home to various antelope species, buffaloes, giraffes and zebras, as well as elephants and leopards. It attracted 28,000 visitors in 2014.

Last year, as part of the preparations for the reintroduction, the Akagera team ran a sensitisation programme in communities surrounding the park to promote harmonious co-existence with lions.

Yamina Karitanyi, the head of tourism at the Rwanda Development Board, said: “It is a breakthrough in the rehabilitation of the park ... Their return will encourage the natural balance of the ecosystem and enhance the tourism product to further contribute to Rwanda’s status as an all-in-one safari destination.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed the lion as vulnerable in an update this month of its red list of species facing survival threats. It noted lion conservation successes in southern Africa, but said lions in west Africa were critically endangered and rapid population declines were also being recorded in east Africa.

African Parks cited human encroachment on lion habitats and a decline in lion prey as reasons for the population drop. It identified a trade in lion bones and other body parts for traditional medicine in Africa, as well as Asia, as a growing threat.

Peter Fearnhead, the chief executive of African Parks, which manages Akagera and seven other national parks on the continent, said: “The return of lions to Akagera is a conservation milestone for the park and the country.”

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PHOTO: REUTERS

The European University of Lefke (EUL) Dean of students and Rwandan students held a memorial programme in Rwanda Genocide’s 21st anniversary.

Rwandan students studying at other universities also attended to the commemoration program which was held at the Rauf Raif Denktaş Education Complex Conference Hall.

Video presentation about the genocide was shown in the memorial program, which began with standing in silence, the reading Turkish National Anthem and the National Anthem of Rwanda.  Students who shared their thoughts about genocide, made best wishes for the future by reading poetries.

Credit: European University of Lefke

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Photo: Facebook Profile Esther Mbabazi

As Rwanda observes the 21st anniversary of the 1994 genocide, we also pay attention to the positive gains the country has made since then. Today's Woman Crush is Esther Mbabazi, Rwanda's first female pilot

Esther Mbabazi was only four years-old when the idea of becoming a pilot first occurred to her. Back then, her experience of aircraft was limited to freebies she received as a child whilst on flights with her family, frequently moving her father who was a priest.

“Being a pilot really was my childhood dream, I don’t think anything was going to stop it. It started when I travelled with my family and we would get the free things for kids, like the backpacks. I really liked that and I just liked to travel. The whole intrigue of this big bird in the sky, I was amazed. That and the free backpacks planted the seed.”

So even when her father passed away in a plane crash, she was undeterred. She was more resolute and when the time came, she announced her intentions – which were understandably poorly received by her family.

Now at 27, she is Rwanda’s first female pilot, having qualified three years ago. But it’s not yet easy sailing as the idea of a female pilot hasn’t fully matured with passengers. As a result, she avoids making flight announcements as this scares the passengers.

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We salute you, Esther Mbabazi, may you soar higher and higher!

Credit: mgafrica

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