Africa 54 - November 9, 2021 You are watching Africa 54, your daily news and feature magazine-style program, from the Voice of America. Host Esther Githui-Ewart and a team of correspondents zero in on the big stories making news on the continent and around the world with context and analysis. Top Stories: The U.S. State Department on Monday said Washington believes there is a small window of an opening to work with the African Union to make progress on peacefully resolving the conflict in Ethiopia as a special envoy returned to Addis Ababa. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, will meet with the African Union's envoy for the region, former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, on Monday night. Live NYC Remote interview with VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer on discussions held Wednesday by U.N. Under-Secretary-General for political and peacebuilding Rosemary DiCarlo, A.U. Horn of Africa envoy Olusegun Obasanjo and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. At least 18 people were killed on Sunday in an artisanal gold mine collapse in southern Niger, the local mayor said on Monday. The disaster took place in the southern Maradi region, near the border with Nigeria. The death toll is likely to rise, said the mayor of the commune of Dan Issa, Adamou Guero, The Governor of the Maradi region, Aboubacar Chaibou, visited the site on Monday and promised better working conditions for people at the site. Niger begins three days of mourning Tuesday, honoring at least 25 young children killed when their thatched roof classrooms caught fire in the southern part of the country on Monday, according to the council of ministers. The death toll from a fuel tanker explosion in Sierra Leone's capital has risen to 115, a health ministry spokesperson said on Monday as hundreds gathered on the outskirts of Freetown at a mass burial of the dead. Bar owner Mohamed Lamin Mansaray says he and his 10 family members have received no help after a tanker explosion - which killed at least 99 people in Sierra Leone last week - destroyed his business and home. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa aims, among other things, to promote the economic and social development of its member States. Africa 54's Linord Moudou spoke to Antonio Pedro, the newly appointed Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Non-fungible tokens - a kind of digital ownership, are increasingly being used by artists in Nigeria and across Africa to sell more of their works and at higher prices. Although more states are mandating the COVID-19 vaccine, a few groups are still exempt from getting them. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. With the arrival of a new season and low COVID-19 infection rates, the South African government has reopened music events across the country to the delight of audiences and artists. For VOA, Zaheer Cassim joins music fans in Johannesburg as live performances become the norm again. A documentary about the impact of climate change in Africa is a highlight of the annual French film festival in Los Angeles this year. The festival, “City of Light, City of Angels,” or COLCOA, draws filmmakers from Paris and fans from Los Angeles