A multisensory exhibition marking the Chinese Spring Festival opened in Addis Ababa, presenting traditional arts, interactive programs, and heritage displays to local audiences. Titled “A New Spring, A Soaring Journey,” the event was presented by the Information Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the African Union, and organized by the Jinhua Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, with support from the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism.

The exhibition was structured around three themes: Individual, Family, and Culture. In the “Timeless Traditions” section, selected works including Longquan celadon zodiac figures, the Dongyang wood carving Galloping to Success, and Jinyun paper-cut horse designs illustrated elements of Chinese zodiac symbolism and craftsmanship. The “Home, Harmony & Celebration” section recreated aspects of a traditional Spring Festival household setting, featuring Dongyang festival lanterns, Pujiang wheat straw paintings, Wuzhou (Wu) Opera character displays, and Song-style floral arrangements. Visitors were invited to sample Zhejiang green tea and Wu-style pastries and to participate in writing the Chinese character “Fu” (fortune) and Spring Festival couplets.

The African Development Bank Group has signed an agreement to make a $25 million equity investment in the Currency Exchange Fund (TCX), marking the Bank Group’s return as a shareholder in the global fund founded by development finance institutions to manage currency risk in emerging and frontier markets.

The signing took place in the offices of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hague.   

The investment, to be deployed in two tranches, will reinforce TCX’s capital base, enhance its risk-bearing capacity, and expand its ability to offer hedging instruments in illiquid and underserved African currencies, for which conventional hedging solutions are unavailable or prohibitively costly.

The equity participation is expected to help crowd in additional development finance institutions and private investors, reduce currency mismatches for borrowers, and support sustainable growth across key sectors including infrastructure, energy, microfinance, small and medium-sized enterprises, and the public sector. The African Development Bank Group’s Board approved the investment on 17 September 2025.

A three-day technical workshop aimed at strengthening Africa’s Civil Aviation Authorities concluded in Nairobi, focused on enhancing the capacity of national aviation specialists to develop and implement corrective action plans based on the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) Key Performance Indicator (KPI) audits. 

The workshop was aimed at equipping audited States to finalize, execute, and monitor these plans, while facilitating knowledge-sharing and lessons learned from the implementation of the Banjul Accord Group Multilateral Air Service Agreement (BAG/MASA).

Robert Lisinge, ECA Director for Technology and Infrastructure, emphasized in his opening address: “Effective monitoring of the Yamoussoukro Decision is the cornerstone of a transparent and unified aviation market. Realizing the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is not just an aviation goal, but a vital catalyst for the African Continental Free Trade Area.”

Lisinge emphasized the need to leverage digitalization to enhance the efficiency of monitoring mechanisms. To this end, ECA is collaborating with the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) to digitize the monitoring system, ensuring it is accessible online for all member States.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has launched a new emergency health project in South West Ethiopia Region, marking the beginning of a stable operational Emergency presence in the Southwest Region. The project started in 2025 following assessments that identified unmet medical needs in a region home to more than three million people and highly vulnerable to recurrent outbreaks of malaria, measles, cholera, and other infectious diseases.

The new MSF project aims at establishing an agile response capacity in a region with remote communities, particularly vulnerable during recurrent outbreaks and health emergencies. Through this intervention, MSF aims to strengthen the capacity of the local health system to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks while improving access to quality, free healthcare. (Press release)