African press review 18 January 2015

From the height of the Egyptian pyramids to the hole in the country's budget, today's African press review has all the stories the African press in talking about. Plus, news of the Al-Shebab in Kenya.

DR

More details are emerging this morning on the Al-Shebab attack on the Kenyan Defence forces last Friday. The Daily Nation explains how the event unfolded.

According to the paper, "the armed-group Al-Shebab used three vehicles loaded with explosives to attack Kenyan soldiers at their camp in Somalia. Those trucks were followed by several suicide attackers" adds the newspaper.

The search and rescue operations are still ongoing - they are being described as "difficult" by the paper, which has information "that some soldiers were being used as human shields".

So far, the Kenyan army is refusing to give details on how many soldiers were killed last Friday, but we know four injured have arrived in the country's capital.

According to The Standard, Kenyans are deeply shocked by the events. This would explain why the chief of the country defence forces has sworn to "hunt and detroy" Al-shabaab.

The East African has a look at what the arrival of Netflix in Africa means for the continent. The on-demand service was launched in every country of Africa a little over a week ago.

And according to the regional paper, Netflix brings to Africa "a mixed bag of fortunes and challenges for viewers, Internet service providers, content producers and pay TV providers".

But the real issue, according to The East African, are internet speeds and "pricey data plans".

"4G is currently confined to Mombasa and Nairobi in Kenya, and available only in the capitals Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania " it writes - which is a problem because 3G is not fast enough to stream Netlifx.

And that's not all - if Netflix wants to succeed in East Africa, it will have to adapt itself to the market. For one, its prices are the same as in the US or Europe - meaning they're too expensive for the region.

Egypt is getting money from China. According to the Egypt Independent, the Egyptian Central Bank will receive a 1.3 billion euros loan from China during Xi Jinping visit this week.

"According to a source, the loan will be used to support the country's general budget" writes the paper. This of course, is part of China's strategy of investing - a lot- in Africa.

"The visit [...] will also witness the signing of a series of agreements".

British paper The Guardian has a story this morning on a team of researchers that will soon begin "analysing cosmic particles collected inside Egypt’s Bent Pyramid to search for clues as to how it was built".

It's a bit technical, but bear with me.

The team of scientists have installed plates inside the pyramid that have collected "data on radiographic particles known as muons that rain down from the earth’s atmosphere".

"The particles pass through empty spaces but can be absorbed or deflected by harder surfaces" explains The Guardian.

And by studying that, "scientists may learn more about the construction of the pyramid, which was built by the Pharaoh Snefru".

Don't expect to get straight answers anytime soon, the analysis will take some time. I think we can wait a few more months - after all the pyramid was only built over 4,600 years ago.