InfoNile

Reporting on mining in the DRC carries risks. Jonas Kiriko secured critical information using @forbidden-stories.bsky.social’s #SafeBoxNetwork, helping ensure the investigation could continue safely

Credits: @pulitzercenter.org @oxpeckersnews.bsky.social @annikamcginnis.bsky.social

In this data-based investigation, Jonas Kiriko spotlights the mining permits fueling this tension.

This story was produced in partnership with the @pulitzercenter.org’s Rainforest Investigations Network
#CommunityForests #DRC #RainforestInvestigationsNetwork #Mining

Community-managed forests in the DRC are under serious threat. Designed to protect biodiversity & enable sustainable management, they're now facing encroachment from mining operations

This story is by Jonas Kiriko with support from @pulitzercenter.org

Read: 🔗 bit.ly/3OBJbgW

For our next #SciWed we shall explore how Tanzania is grappling with 220 invasive species, 75 of which threaten environments and biodiversity.

Join us next week on Wednesday for this discussion!
Register now: tinywebs.info/KA9612
#SciWed #NileWell

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Science Wednesday. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Science Wednesday. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

In Kongwa District, Tanzania 🇹🇿, the invasive weed "Mahata" is strangling crops, sucking soil nutrients dry, and forcing farmers to flee their land. A devastating threat to food security!

Join us next week on Wednesday for this discussion!
Register 👉🏾 tinywebs.info/KA9612

Join us next wednesday, for the #NileWell #SciWednesdays as we explore how invasive weeds“Mahata” are choking crops, depleting vital soil nutrients, & driving people to abandon their farmland in Kongwa District, Tz.

Don't miss this discussion!
Register 👉🏾 tinywebs.info/KA9612

Lake Victoria is Choking. Art and Storytelling are Helping it Breathe - InfoNile For a decade, NAAM Festival has turned art into action, using music, storytelling and performance to speak to climate change realities that lakeside communities experience daily

Lake Victoria is suffocating under pollution & neglect. But across its shores, art is giving it voice & hope.

#NAAMFestival is using music, poetry, recycled-art installations & storytelling, transforming public engagement into action. - ChagalaD

Read: 👇
tinywebs.info/Uga9NX

How Nature is Reclaiming its Place Across the Rwandan Capital - InfoNile In just three years, Rwanda's capital, Kigali converted a degraded swamp into a functioning wetland featuring ponds, a riverine forest, and a savanna.

Once degraded by sand mining, farming & urbanisation, Kigali’s wetlands are being reborn.

18,000+ acres of restored wetlands now weave through the city’s hillsides & valleys, a blueprint for climate-smart cities.

Story by @AnnonciataB & @FrederickJC1 👇
bit.ly/4qs20jT

Lake Victoria, the world's second largest lake, is poisoned by sewage, industry & farm runoff.

Over two years, we partnered with 16 scientists and journalists to test the waters in 🇺🇬, 🇰🇪 & 🇹🇿. We found toxic levels.

#TopStories2025

Link: 👉 shorturl.at/Aua7D

Have you signed up to join our pilot group for #NileWell?

Nile Well is an online platform that connects water 💧 and environment #scientists & #journalists in the Nile Basin.

Find accredited journalists ✍️& credible scientists 👩‍🔬

Create account here

🔗nilewell.org/user/register

Once degraded by sand mining, farming & urbanisation, Kigali’s wetlands are being reborn.

18,000+ acres of restored wetlands now weave through the city’s hillsides & valleys, a blueprint for climate-smart cities.

Story by @AnnonciataB & @FrederickJC1 👇

infonile.org/en/2026/02/h...

InfoNile Home - InfoNile Navigate interactive narratives through maps and layers with text related to locations as you scroll.

Thousands of great apes are stolen from the wild, often with devastating brutality.

The surge in digital platforms has made it much more efficient pushing these intelligent, social animals closer to the brink. -
@TC_Africa

Full story 👉 bit.ly/45PmdJ3

Sowing Despair: How Climate Shocks and Crop Failure Are Fueling Suicide in Rural Uganda - InfoNile Each failed season drives farmers deeper into debt and despair. Suicide becomes, for some, an escape from the relentless cycle of hunger, debt, and shame.

In regions like Karamoja & Kotido 🇺🇬, extreme weather and repeated crop losses are pushing farming families into debt, hunger, and deep despair.

Tecy Hellen examines how climate shocks are eroding mental health & livelihoods.

Here's how 👉 bit.ly/4a01JhE

About 4 billion people live with severe water scarcity for at least 1 month a year.

UNUOP warns we’re using fresh water faster than nature can replenish, and many natural systems like rivers & aquifers are unable to recover. - The Conversation Africa

Read:👉 bit.ly/46sCT9g

Sand Mining Increasingly Silting Aswa Waters - InfoNile Although this deposition can occur naturally due to erosion and runoff, in the case of Aswa, it has been exacerbated by human activities.

The Aswa River in northern Uganda 🇺🇬 is choking under uncontrolled sand mining.

Families in Lira & Alebtong earn from sand, but wetlands are degraded, water polluted & only 57% access safe water.

Story by Immaculate Amony

#TopStories2025
shorturl.at/DMkVj

Invasive Plants Threaten Agriculture in Tanzania's Kongwa District - InfoNile This invasive plant, which began spreading in the early 1900s, has increasingly occupied farms causing significant damage to crops and left many farmers impoverished.

In Kongwa District, Tanzania 🇹🇿, the invasive weed "Mahata" is choking crops, depleting soil and forcing farmers to abandon land.

This story was co-produced by journalist Jenifer Gilla and scientist Dr. Upendo Richard.
JRS Biodiversity

#TopStories2025
shorturl.at/NhUu3

Chart produced showing water use by method of fuel extraction and energy generation under world governments' current stated energy policies. Graph produced by International Energy Agency. Graph shows the combination of water use in extraction of oil gas and coal combined with water use generating power from these, places fossil fuels as most water consumptive, followed closely by biofuels, then nuclear, with renewables and hydrogen consuming the least water.

Fossil fuels + biofuels use high levels of water in extraction, production + in energy generation, says IEA. If governments pursue the most ambitious net zero targets, water use in the energy sector could reduce by 20 billion cubic metres by 2030.

share.google/c83aimcM6FOP...

In Kotido, northern Uganda🇺🇬, the climate crisis has done more than dry up rivers - it has broken lives & drained hope.

But under a shade tree, a circle of women is finding strength, solace, and community through shared healing.

Find out how👉 bit.ly/4jYA59A

Ethiopia 🇪🇹 harbors many unique endemic plant species, but several face extinction. The Gulelle Botanical Garden is leading an effort to conserve medicinal plants.

Story co-produced by journalist Tewodros Kassa & scientist Fikadu Erenso.

Read: infonile.org/en/2025/10/e...

#TopStories2025

Lake Turkana: Desert Lake Swallows Its Shores, Fueled by Climate Change - InfoNile As dawn breaks over Lake Turkana, the winds curl across the water, dragging waves toward the shrinking land. The emerald surface glitters with promise, yet

Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake is rising, not shrinking.

Ancestral homes, schools & livelihoods now lie underwater as the desert lake swallows its shores.

Communities are confronting a future rewritten by rising waters.

Read: infonile.org/en/2026/01/l...

Lake Turkana: Desert Lake Swallows Its Shores, Fueled by Climate Change - InfoNile As dawn breaks over Lake Turkana, the winds curl across the water, dragging waves toward the shrinking land. The emerald surface glitters with promise, yet

Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake is rising, not shrinking.

Ancestral homes, schools & livelihoods now lie underwater as the desert lake swallows its shores.

Communities are confronting a future rewritten by rising waters.

Read: infonile.org/en/2026/01/l...

Burundi's eucalyptus is drying water sources, degrading soil & threatening biodiversity.

Communities are pioneering mixed-species reforestation.

This story was co-produced by journalist Bizimana Arthur and scientist André Nduwimana.

#TopStories2025
🔗 shorturl.at/8GaPo

Illegal, unregulated fishing is devastating East Africa's lakes from Tanzania to DRC. Weak enforcement & corruption cripple communities on Lake Victoria.

The story series exposes the crisis & demands action.

#CaughtInCrisis
Read now: 👇
url-shortener.me/6VAW

Why Illegal DRC-Uganda Timber Trade Continues to Thrive - InfoNile Corruption is a major problem. Some loggers would rather pay bribes than follow the rules. As a result, illegal timber moves freely.

In DRC's Ituri, villages like Makoko II lose forests that fed & sheltered them. "Trees are gone," says farmer Jean-Marie.

Tenywa Gerald & Tali Joel, supported by Global Forest Watch
explore how illegal timber moves from DRC to Kampala.

#TopStories2025 #DRCTimberTrade

url-shortener.me/6K64

Our Ethiopian co-production program grantee, Demise Tareke, won an award at the 2025 African Science Journalism Awards, held during the World Conference of Science Journalists in Pretoria.

This award celebrates his excellence in African science storytelling.

#WCSJ2025

From DRC’s forests to Nairobi’s high-end furniture shops. At the Kasindi border, trucks face unofficial fees/bribes before loading.

Experts warn that porous borders & language barriers complicate efforts to verify documents.

Read more 👇
bit.ly/3MBaIy9

Tea vs Trees: Burundi is Trading a National Park for a Cash Crop - InfoNile When Kibira was elevated to protected area status by a ministerial order establishing its boundaries on 12 December 1933, its area was 90,000 hectares, but the expansion of tea plantations has reduced...

Burundi’s 🇧🇮 Kibira forest, once a lush National Park, is being cleared for tea☕️.

As plantations spread, #biodiversity fades & climate resilience weakens.

Is the price of tea worth the loss of a forest🌲? - Arthur Bizimana

@pulitzercenter.org
Read more 👉 shorturl.at/UliDe

Of the 24,787 water sources available in Burundi in 2019, 10% have already dried up, and 6% are in the process of disappearing. Only 72% water sources are in good condition, according to Jérémie Nkinahatemba, former Director General of Environment and Sanitation.

#NoWater

No Water, No Peace: The Human Cost of Kibira's Vanishing Water Sources - InfoNile Deforestation in Kibira and drought are accelerating the drying up of water resources. The population in the park's two watersheds is paying the price. Scientists fear the worst. This fourth story is ...

As Kibira's water sources disappear, locals in Burundi are left stranded - walking miles for water, facing failed harvests & losing hope.

Deforestation & poor land use are turning a once-lush forest into a water-scarce crisis. - Bizimana Arthur

@pulitzercenter.org
infonile.org/en/2025/11/n...

Despite logging bans in DRC, illegal timber from its protected forests is quietly powering Rwanda’s booming wood market.

Fueled by corruption & conflict, this trade threatens Congo’s rainforests, and the future for climate, wildlife & communities.

bit.ly/447W1J3