Set up to bridge the digital North-South divide, the African Virtual University has also proved a success in the education of women and of students living in areas of conflict, said university Rector Dr Bakary Diallo. Speaking at the inauguration of a new distance learning centre at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Diallo gave Somalia as an example of such progress. The African Virtual University had educated 4,000 students in seven Somali universities, of whom nearly a third were women, he said. Throughout the continent, 40,000 people have benefited from the university’s distance education since it was set up in 1997, making the university the biggest network of open and distance education and e-learning institutions in more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Dialo said the university’s greatest advantage is “its capacity to work beyond linguistic and cultural boundaries in English, French, and Portuguese-speaking Africa.”Source: University World News