NAIROBI, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group focusing on the private sector in developing countries, and the AECF (Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund), an Africa-based development organization, on Wednesday launched the second round of a global competition to increase economic integration and self-reliance among refugees in Kenya.

The competition for the private sector and social enterprise projects will support investment, development, and job creation in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp and hosting area.

"Through this new competition, we hope to attract more businesses, especially those involved in underrepresented sectors like small manufacturing, aquaculture, retail services, and construction," CEO Victoria Sabula of the AECF said in a joint statement issued in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

The competition, which runs until Jan. 31, 2022, is open to private sector businesses or social enterprises operating in any sector.

Winners will be chosen based on their bids' potential to raise incomes, provide goods and services, create jobs, and improve living standards in both the Kakuma refugee camp and the adjacent host community, home to more than 240,000 people, including 220,000 refugees.

According to IFC, winning entrants will be awarded technical support and performance-based grants of between 100,000 U.S. dollars and 750,000 U.S. dollars.

The competition is part of the Kakuma Kalobeyei Challenge Fund (KKCF), a joint initiative of IFC and the AECF, whose aim is to increase economic integration and self-reliance among displaced populations and their host communities.

Jumoke Jagun-Dokunmu, IFC regional director for Eastern Africa, said the IFC is committed to uplifting the lives of refugees and those living in host communities by championing private sector solutions.

The competition is being implemented with support from Kenya's Turkana County Government and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). It follows the first round of the competition in December 2020 that awarded more than 5 million dollars in grant funding to 13 social and private sector applicants in sectors including renewable energy, financial services, health care, and childcare.

The KKCF initiative is a 25-million-dollar, five-year program designed to support private sector investment and unlock the economic potential of refugees and those living in the surrounding host communities in Kenya's Turkana County. - Xinhua

In many ways, Black people in the United States are more religious than Americans of other races. This is especially true for immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who tend to be more religious than U.S.-born Black adults or immigrants from the Caribbean, according to a Pew Research Center Survey.

For example, around half of African immigrants in the U.S. (54%) say they attend religious services at least weekly, compared with about three-in-ten U.S.-born (32%) and Caribbean-born (30%) Black adults. And about seven-in-ten African immigrants (72%) say religion is very important to them, compared with 59% of U.S.- and Caribbean-born Black adults who say this.

In addition, immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are much less likely than other U.S. Black adults to be religiously unaffiliated (that is, to identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”). Just 6% of African immigrants identify in one of these ways, compared with 22% of U.S.-born Black adults and 23% of Black immigrants from the Caribbean.

The religious profiles of immigrant groups differ in other ways, too. Both African and Caribbean immigrants are somewhat less likely to be Protestant, and more likely to be Catholic, than U.S.-born Black adults. And African immigrants are more likely than other Black Americans to identify with other Christian faiths such as Orthodox Christianity, or with non-Christian faiths such as Islam.

While the vast majority of the 47 million Black Americans were born in the U.S., the Black immigrant population has roughly doubled over the last two decades to 4.6 million in 2019, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2019, roughly one-in-ten Black Americans were born outside of the U.S., including 4% who were born in sub-Saharan Africa and 5% who were born in the Caribbean.

More Black Americans come from Jamaica, Haiti, Nigeria and Ethiopia than from any other African or Caribbean countries, according to Pew Research Center tabulations of the Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey.

Some Black Christian immigrants go to churches associated with historically Black Protestant denominations based in the U.S., such as the Progressive National Baptist Convention, while others go to congregations of Haitian Baptists, Pentecostals and Catholics, or those associated with African denominations such as the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Nigeria-based Church of the Lord.

African immigrants also distinguish themselves in the survey through their beliefs about scripture and conversion. Immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to say they believe in God as described in their religion’s holy scripture – such as the Bible for Christians or the Quran for Muslims – than are U.S.-born Black adults.

About eight-in-ten African immigrants (84%) say they believe this, compared with around three-quarters in the other groups. And roughly seven-in-ten African immigrants (68%) say people of faith have a duty to convert nonbelievers, compared with approximately half of U.S.-born and Caribbean-born adults who feel this way.

African immigrants also stand out on certain social and cultural issues. Fewer than half of African-born Americans (38%) say homosexuality should be accepted by society, compared with 63% of U.S.-born Black adults. Caribbean-born immigrants fall between the other two groups, with roughly half (52%) saying that homosexuality should be accepted by society. (In general, opposition to homosexuality is far more common in sub-Saharan Africa than it is in the U.S.)

And African immigrants tend to be more supportive of traditional gender norms, in some ways, than U.S.-born Black adults. For example, those born in Sub-Saharan Africa differ from other Black Americans on questions about how men and women should share duties in households that have both a mother and father.

African immigrants are more likely than other Black adults to say the father should be mostly responsible for providing for the family financially, and that the mother should be mostly responsible for taking care of the children. However, the most common view in all groups is that both parents should divide these responsibilities equally.  Pew Research Center

Security officers stand next to the burned prison in Gitega, Bujumbra, Burundi, on Dec. 7, 2021. Photo AFP/Getty Images

At least 38 inmates were killed and dozens more injured Tuesday in a fire at a prison in Burundi’s capital, officials have said.

Speaking with reporters at the Gitega Prison, Burundi Vice President Prosper Bazombanza said that at least 12 people had died of asphyxia as they tried to escape burning buildings.

At least 26 others died of severe injuries, he said. Bazombanza did not comment on what might have caused the fire.

But in a statement on Twitter, the Burundi interior ministry said an electrical short circuit caused the fire. It confirmed that at least 38 prisoners had died and said Dat least 59 others had been injured.

Photos shared by the interior ministry showed at least one fire truck outside the prison.

One local resident who was near the scene as the tragedy unfolded told Reuters that many of those who died appeared to be elderly prisoners.

The resident said he saw bodies being transported by ambulances from the prison.

A fire broke out at the same prison in August, with an electrical issue also cited as the cause. There were no casualties in that incident. - Chantal Da Silva, Reuters/NBC News