The AfCFTA aspires to connect all the regions of Africa, to deepen economic integration and to boost intra-African trade and investment. It aspires to create a single market for goods and services across 55 countries and our continent, creating a market of as much as 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion.

We welcome the African Continental Free Trade Area, because we want to see Africa’s economic power in the world grow. More consumers should gain access to African goods and services. More jobs must be created for Africa’s young people – the global workforce of the future.

Somalia this week elected two Members of the Lower House of Parliament in polls delayed by a year, mainly by political infighting. That means it still has to elect 273 more seats by 24 December, and those elected MPs must in turn vote for a president for the ‘democratic’ transfer of power to be complete.

As Africa’s economies and middle class continue to grow, there is a tremendous market for American consumer goods. Consumer and business spending in Africa is expected to top $6.6 trillion by 2030, up from $4 trillion in 2015. Again, not only China, but also nations in every other region of the world, are looking to fill the continent’s need for consumer goods.

In most coverage, Gates’s donations are broadly presented as altruistic gestures. Yet many have pointed to the inherent flaws with this model, noting that allowing billionaires to decide what they do with their money allows them to set the public agenda, giving them enormous power over society.

Since Muammar Gaddafi died, Libya has been a country in war and filled with terrorists, who disguise themselves sometimes in suits and ties and pretend to be leaders. Violent intervention in Libya was not chiefly about the security of the people: it was about the security of global banking, money, and oil.

The fact that Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela are not only attempting to build independent projects but build socialism makes their example even more of a threat.

It was De Klerk who began to take the screws out of the edifice of apartheid and open the pathway to negotiations with other parties. Serving in the governing white National Party, which had introduced apartheid in 1948, De Klerk held ministerial positions till becoming party head in February 1989. Between 1984 and 1989, he served as education minister, overseeing the notorious Bantu education program.

Joshua Meservey, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, advocated in a recent policy paper that the United States recognize Somaliland as an independent state

Research suggests that the links are overstated, especially compared to Africa's voting patterns with other council members.