Pambazuka News 554: After Gaddafi: Intervention and imperialism in Africa
Pambazuka News 554: After Gaddafi: Intervention and imperialism in Africa
The briefing from the Arid Lands Information Network discusses how climate change is complicating the energy situation in many parts of Africa. For example, changing rainfall patterns have led to droughts, affecting hydropower generation in many countries. Countries need energy to increase economic production, which improves livelihood options for women and men. Energy is also needed to increase agricultural productivity, provide clean water and improve human health, and energy enables girls and boys to go to school.
This publication is the result of a collective process of reflection on the meaning and implications of
community protests for local governance by the Good Governance Learning Network (GGLN). The contributions 'seek to critically enhance government and civil society’s understanding of the importance of recognising community voice and dissatisfaction as a legitimate alternative to pre-defined and state-sanctioned modalities of public participation. The underlying concern is with the technicist, procedural and instrumentalist approach that has (by and large) come to underpin public participation in South Africa. The plea, therefore, is for more dynamic, more meaningful and more varied modes of participation to be nurtured.'
Amid the still-visible damage from election unrest in Côte d’Ivoire’s main city Abidjan is another less tangible but very real form of destruction - psychological trauma. It is difficult to say how many people need mental health care after the recent unrest, according to health experts in Côte d’Ivoire; the health ministry says it has no such figures. But health workers and residents told IRIN people seeking help with conflict-related trauma have few places to turn.
Doreen Sibanda, 27, was among the first undocumented Zimbabwean nationals to be deported in early October 2011 after South Africa apparently lifted its more than two year moratorium on expulsions imposed following widespread xenophobic violence in 2008. 'I was on my way to the shops to buy porridge for my four-year-old son when I was stopped by the police [in the inner city Johannesburg suburb of Berea] who asked for my passport and residence permit. I lied to them that I had forgotten them at home but they never gave me a chance,' Sibanda told IRIN.
Child rights activists have expressed concern over the stagnation of a juvenile justice law in Somalia's self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland, where officials say an average of 200 children are detained every month by police. According to Khadar Nour, a child protection activist in the capital, Hargeisa, children are regularly detained for minor offences and 'end up being detained with adults because there are no rehabilitation centres for children or prisons for children'.
Liberia's main opposition party says it is boycotting the November presidential election run-off unless a set of demands are addressed. George Solo, deputy campaign manager for the Congress for Democratic Change, said that the party is demanding that the head of the electoral body be changed. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the incumbent president, will face Winston Tubman in the 8 November run-off.
Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has rejected calls by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to enshrine gay rights in a new constitution. Chinamasa told the BBC that gay rights could not be 'smuggled' into the constitution because most Zimbabweans opposed it. Earlier, Tsvangirai told the BBC that gay rights were a 'human right' that should be respected.
The two cases at the International Criminal Court against six Kenyans suspected of masterminding the post-election chaos present a good opportunity for victims to get justice for the atrocious crimes, writes Shailja Patel. Kenya failed to set up a special tribunal for the purpose
Gerald A Perreira recalls Muammar Gaddafi as a brilliant and profound man of honour, courage, strength and great integrity. He spent his entire life fighting on the side of oppressed humanity worldwide and will continue to inspire those who admired him
The dominant discourse among Muslim women tends to be about dated cultural rules and practices, writes Salma Maoulidi. But activists are now increasingly preoccupied with contemporary questions such as leadership and political participation, as was the case at a recent conference in Istanbul
The global demand for secondary education has risen exponentially, says a new United Nations report, which adds that governments, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are having a hard time keeping up and many children are being left out. The 2011 Global Education Digest by the Institute for Statistics of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), says there are only enough seats for 36 per cent of children who want to enrol in secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa.
Kenya’s military invasion of Somalia ostensibly to pursue the Al Shabaab terrorists is unconstitutional and unnecessary, argues Onyango Oloo. The war is part of a larger US/NATO geo-political agenda to ‘stabilize’ the Horn of Africa in line with wider imperialist interests
Cameroon's President Paul Biya promised more jobs for young people and said he would set Cameroon on the path to being an emerging nation in a speech after he was declared winner of this month's presidential election. Cameroon's supreme court said 78-year-old Biya was re-elected by a widely expected landslide in a vote that US and French authorities have said was marred by irregularities.
This report by Balancing Act analyses the nascent apps ecosystem in Africa while providing an analytical framework allowing African mobile operators or other stakeholders to decide on what strategy to adopt regarding mobile apps.
Tuberculosis is the main killer of people with HIV infection; drug-resistant strains continue to spread; and paediatric tuberculosis remains an area of neglect. In the past decade, the number of new cases of tuberculosis worldwide has barely declined, and the number of deaths remains catastrophic: more than 4,500 per day for this largely treatable disease. As a Lancet editorial has pointed out, 'A status quo in tuberculosis control is unacceptable.'
The Sudanese authorities are increasingly deporting Eritreans to their country without allowing them to claim asylum, Human Rights Watch said. On 17 October, Sudan handed over 300 Eritreans to the Eritrean military without screening them for refugee status, drawing public condemnation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, Frank La Rue, has urged governments to guarantee the free flow of information on the Internet, and to ensure that the Internet is made widely available, accessible and affordable to all. 'Governments are using increasingly sophisticated technologies and tactics which are often hidden from the public to censor online content and to monitor and identify individuals who disseminate critical or sensitive information, which frequently lead to arbitrary arrests and detention,' said La Rue, presenting his annual report to the UN General Assembly. In his report, La Rue explores how the framework of international human rights law remains relevant in determining what kinds of information can be restricted on the Internet and how such restrictions should be formulated and implemented.
Over 50 campaigners joined the family and friends of Jimmy Mubenga recently in a vigil on the first anniversary of his death. Mubenga died on 12 October 2010, after being restrained by private security guards from the company G4S on a BA flight at Heathrow airport during a deportation attempt to Angola. Jimmy's wife, five children and his wider family are still waiting, one year on, to see if the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will charge the three officers involved.
It's couched in 60 pages of near-incomprehensible economic-speak, but a radical World Bank plan to set up a new way to lend money to developing countries is being called a potential disaster for indigenous peoples, the environment and human rights, reports the London Guardian. The proposal, called A New Instrument to Advance Development Effectiveness: Programme-for-Results Lending (P4R), would lend money according to results achieved by projects.
The World Bank has amplified its rhetoric on the importance of gender equality in the context of development in recent weeks by promoting its flagship World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development and launching its Think Equal social media campaign. Unfortunately, says this article in the London Guardian, for billions of poor women and girls worldwide, the bank's track record in promoting gender equality in its investments reflects an alarming gap between rhetoric and reality.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, a government minister in the West African county, used his position to siphon millions of dollars for his own personal use, authorities said in two civil forfeiture complaints filed in US District Court in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The complaints say Mangue's assets can be forfeited because he engaged in misappropriation and theft of public funds for his benefit. The US government is seeking to recover $70 million in stolen funds from Nguema.
With the US announcing that 100 troops will be sent to help combat the Lord's Resistance Army, Gary K. Busch unpacks the history of US intervention in Africa - and points to recent oil discoveries in East Africa as the real reason for the military intervention.
In July, Carmen Ludwig took part in the World Congress of Education International in Cape Town, speaking to a number of activists and occupants of land. Here are her thoughts.
‘Kenyans are seen to have a “business-as-usual” approach to corruption, but a new report published by the International Peace Institute shows that our extreme tolerance of impunity is having devastating consequences and is, in fact, undermining the State’s legitimacy,’ writes Rasna Warah.
With Muammar Gaddafi buried in a secret desert grave this week, Maximilian C. Forte, in this article written earlier this year, outlines the ten myths that served to justify the NATO-led war on Libya and advance the cause of 'war corporatists, transnational firms, and neoliberals'.
Artist Brandon Carter has released a new rap entitled 'Blood Money' - a strong criticism of capitalism and Wall Street. There's an excellent video which goes with the song.
The Ethiopian government has accused two freelance Swedish journalists of ‘terrorism’, after they entered the country with insurgents from the Ogaden National Liberation Front. With Prime Minister Meles Zenawi backing the charges against them, they have little chance of a fair trial, writes Alemayehu G Mariam.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned a campaign of intimidation against the private press which it says has seen the arrest of six journalists on alleged terrorism charges.
With the death of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, Mazin Qumsiyeh says the US and their allies may still be in for a surprise in the region.
‘From the minute a United Nations resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya became a green card to regime change’, NATO’s ‘plan A was always to capture and kill’ Gaddafi, writes Pepe Escobar.
It is almost a quarter of a century since Thomas Sankara disappeared. In the pantheon of the brave sons of Africa assassinated by the former colonists and their African accomplices, he joins people like Lumumba, Um Nyobé, Félix Moumié, Osendé Afana, Ben Barka, Outel Bono and Pierre Mulele. But today, now that Africa needs the Sankarist spirit of action more than ever, Guy-Marius Sanga wishes more people looked to Sankara as a role model
Health officials in Ghana say breast cancer is a growing problem compounded by untrained medical practitioners, a lack of equipment, and unhealthy, sometimes fatal, cultural beliefs. Historically, breast cancer has received scant attention in this West African country. International donors and institutions have been focused on communicable diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS. Despite the fact that, according to Ghana Health Services (GHS), non-communicable diseases are the leading causes of death.
Sokari Ekine takes a look at what ‘African bloggers had to say about Gaddafi’s demise and Libya’s freedom celebrations.’
NATO’s assassination of Gaddafi ‘may well turn out to be the final nail in the coffin of the system of "international law"’, writes David Comissiong.
An AU expert with the South African Institute for International Affairs, Kathryn Sturman, says Col Gaddafi's death will have a profound effect on the AU. 'It's the end of an era for the AU. Libya was one of the big five [along with South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria] financial contributors of the organisation. It paid 15% [of its budget], and also the membership fees of countries in arrears, like Malawi,' Ms Sturman said.
Indian, Chinese and US companies are among many inking land-investment deals in Africa, including Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Sudan, Mali, and Mozambique. According to a study by the US- based Oakland Institute, foreign investors bought or leased a land area in sub-Saharan Africa about the size of France in 2009 alone. On this episode of Al Jazeera's The Stream, a discussion takes place between
Indian author and media commentator Anand Giridharadas, the Oakland Institute’s Executive Director, Anuradha Mittal and Christine L. Adamow, Managing Director of Africa BioFuel, a US company invested in farmland in Kenya and Tanzania.
Following the kidnap of three humanitarian workers from Sahrawi refugee camps on the southern Algerian border, Konstantina Isidoros is sceptical about Morocco’s narrative about who is behind the attack.
Sahrawi refugee camps have been ‘safe from any kind of security problems for the last three decades’, writes Malainin Lakhal, arguing that Morocco could be behind the recent kidnapping of three humanitarian workers, in an attempt to challenge the Sahrawi national project and terrorise Western Sahara’s supporters into stopping their humanitarian aid and political efforts.
Lecturers at Chancellor College, the main constituent college of the University of Malawi, were meeting Tuesday to decide whether the directive and assurances given by President Bingu wa Mutharika met their conditions in the eight-month academic freedom stand-off. In a surprise statement by the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Mutharika said he was guaranteeing academic freedom within the conditions of service of the lecturers and ordered that four lecturers that were sacked at the peak of the wrangle be reinstated without any conditions.
The UN children's fund has denied that there has been a polio outbreak in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. It said that its office in Madagascar had issued a statement last week that led to the mistaken belief there had been an outbreak of wild poliovirus. In fact the last such case was detected on the island in 1997, Unicef said.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir says his country gave military support to the Libyan rebels who overthrew Col Muammar Gaddafi. In a speech broadcast live on state television, Mr Bashir said the move was in response to Col Gaddafi's support for Sudanese rebels three years ago. President Bashir said the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfuri rebel group, had attacked Khartoum three years ago using Libyan trucks, equipment, arms, ammunition and money.
Two police officers have been sentenced to seven years in prison for the assault that led to the death of Khaled Said, the young man whose murder in Alexandria has fueled the Egyptian revolution. Netizens are angry at what they describe as a lenient sentence and a slap to the revolution and its scream for justice, reports Global Voices.
Human rights campaigner Sabrina Tucci spent a month in the Sahrawi camps in Tindouf earlier this year. Despite the recent kidnapping of three aid workers, Tucci feels she can still confirm that “the camps are one of the safest places on the planet”.
Horace Campbell reconstructs ‘the decision at the highest levels’ to execute Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi and considers ‘the urgency for organising to oppose the remilitarisation of Africa.’
Following the death of Gaddafi, Libyan communities ‘will have to work together to prevent the nation from disintegrating or being recolonised,’ writes Cameron Duodu.
The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) has challenged the Gambian Government to speak out on the whereabouts of journalist Ebrima Manneh. FAJ President Omar Faruk Osman and his Vice-President Foster Dongozi took Gambia’s Justice minister Edward Gomez to task over his government’s silence regarding the whereabouts of the journalist who disappeared in 2006. In an interview on 10 October with The Daily News, a Gambian newspaper, Mr Gomez had said the missing journalist was alive, without disclosing where he was.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has demanded an explanation from Malawi on why it failed to arrest and surrender Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited the country. Malawi has been given up to 11 November 2011 to clarify why it failed to act on the court’s request when the indicted leader visited the country for the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) summit. The Registrar of the court had sent a letter to the Malawi Embassy in Brussels on 13 October, 2011 asking for its cooperation for the arrest and surrender of President Bashir in the event that the latter entered the southern African nation’s territory. The note was not answered.
The ‘reasons put forward by the Kenyan government for this operation are demonstrably false’, writers and intellectuals have said in statement arguing against the country’s military attack on Somalia, following the recent kidnapping of three foreigners, allegedly by Al-Shabaab.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) has released the official list of the presidential and legislative candidates. There are less than 40 days to election day in the Central Africa state in the poll set for 28 November. According to the list released by CENI chairman Daniel Mulundaongo, 11 candidates will be running for president while a whopping 18,500 candidates will be contesting for the 500 legislative seats.
Japanese women have launched a petition to stop the government from exporting nuclear power plants and sending food from disaster areas contaminated with radioactive waste as aid to developing countries.
Did France intervene in Libya out of desire to promote democracy, or simply to secure its business interests, asks Khadija Sharife.
The taking-control of Libya by the West and the assassination of Gaddafi may signal the beginning of the militarisation of Africa and the hastening of its recolonisation, writes Demba Moussa Dembélé.
Several books have been written in an attempt to capture Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s personality, and ‘the enigmatic aura that surrounds this African dictator’, but Fanny Pigeaud’s new account ‘surpasses them all’, writes Peter Wuteh Vakunta.
We, the undersigned African social justice activists, working to advance societies that affirm peoples’ differences, choice and agency throughout Africa, express the following concerns about the use of aid conditionality as an incentive for increasing the protection of the rights of LGBTI people on the continent.
AIDS-Free World has presented a first-ever legal challenge to the Jamaica’s anti-gay laws, arguing that by criminalising homosexuality under its constitution, Jamaica is in violation of international human rights law.
LDPI is launching a Small Grants Competition Part 2: 2011-12. Grants of up to US$3000 per study are available to successful applicants who wish to undertake original field research, carry out follow up fieldwork on an ongoing related initiative, or write up a paper based on research that is being/has been undertaken on any of the following themes (or combinations).
This article from Media Lens looks at the mainstream media coverage of Gaddafi's killing. 'We suspect that most journalists are not actually unfeeling brutes. They are conformists wary of the high price they can be made to pay for even the suspicion that they might be "apologists" for an official enemy,' says the article in response to many of the crass headlines that have been seen in some newspapers.
Through photography and video, Her Story Wins will document the personal stories of US & Kenyan women political candidates as they run for office in the 2012 elections. Her Story Wins will highlight the social and physical obstacles that girls and women face in translating leadership skills to political aspirations, and more importantly celebrate the valuable impact women have on their communities when they run for and get elected to office. Visit the website to find out more.
The Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation is a comprehensive and cumulative website resource that provides continually updated cutting-edge knowledge, experience and lessons learned for those working in the field of transforming violent ethnopolitical conflict.
'Farmers represent 1/3 of the world’s population, 1/2 of its poor, and over 800 million of the hungry. As the planet’s primary ecosystem managers, farmers are best placed to ensure sustainable development and contribute to a green economy. However, there is a concern that today’s agricultural policy and governance fall short of contributing to sustained food security, eradicating poverty and catalyzing sustainable rural development. Yet African countries are primarily agricultural economies with 70% of the population engaged in agriculture.'
Since 1998, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) has produced The World's Abortion Laws map to visually compare the legal status of abortion in different countries - and to advocate for greater progress in ensuring access to safe and legal abortion services for all women worldwide. Visit the website for more information.
This video shows how African women have, for a long time, been taking a back seat in many aspects of life, but also that the trend is changing and now women are taking on men, even in such areas as the crowded entertainment industry in Niger.
Libya is plunging into a cycle of tribal violence and retribution which, if left unchecked, could undermine the authority of its new leaders, spur new forms of insurgency and throw the country back into chaos, says this Reuters article. More than a week after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, anger is on the boil again with what many Libyans see as the inability of the interim government to rein in its brigades and stop a wave of revenge attacks. The cycle of retribution appears already to have started. The town of al Jemel, a scattering of sandy homes in the palm-studded desert southwest of Tripoli, is one example. Residents said brigades from faraway Misrata had appeared at their doorstep a week ago, breaking into people's homes and looking for Gaddafi loyalists.
Land-related conflicts are increasing in Tanzania where more than 12,600 such cases are recorded every year, if the last twelve months' figures are anything to write home about. Mr Godfrey Eliseus Massay, an official with the Land Rights, Research and Resources Institute (HAKI-ARDHI), has revealed that such land cases that were reported between mid- last year and June 2011 had reached 12,643.
Gmedia Center is a Geneva based initiative whose overall objective is to empower media to further civil society goals on human rights and democracy. Gmedia Center will facilitate the necessary interaction between international actors and the media to enhance journalists’ capabilities in human rights reporting and maintain these connections through a global web community dedicated to furthering civil society goals.
The Angola Monitor covers the politics, economics, development, democracy and human rights of Angola. It is published quarterly by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA). The latest issue covers the deportation of southern Africa civil society leaders, Angola’s hosting of the SADC Summit, rumours about whether President dos Santos will stand down before elections in 2012, objections to the proposed changes to electoral law, discussions with the DRC over oil, the sale of properties at Cidade do Kilamba, recent protests and the authorities response, the halting of evictions in Lubango, the conviction of a newspaper editor for libel and the recent floods in southern Angola.
Preparations for the Rio+20 meeting that could decide whether humans survive or not are hotting up. 1 November 2011 is the deadline for official contributions to its Zero Draft document but over the next seven months decision-makers and campaigners will need all the facts they can lay their hands on. 'Earth Grab - Geopiracy, the New Biomassters and Capturing Climate Genes' - essential, cutting-edge climate science in everyday language - is published this week (27 October 2011). The authors reveal information that the large corporations who profit from climate change do not want the public to know.
Reporters Without Borders says it fails to understand a decision by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to urge countries that have given asylum to Rwandan refugees to withdraw their refugee status by the middle of next year on the grounds that political life in Rwanda is back to normal. 'What normalization is UNCHR talking about?' Reporters Without Borders asked. 'President Paul Kagame was reelected with 93 per cent of the vote in 2010 in an election in which his main opponents could not take part. One is in prison and another is in exile and escaped an assassination attempt. The Rwandan authorities do not tolerate criticism. The independent press is harassed.'
Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has been to Cairo’s notorious C28 military prosecution headquarters to face charges of incitement to violence in the violent 9 October Maspero clashes between Coptic-Christian protesters and military police. Abdel Fattah, who rejects the notion of civilians being tried by military courts, has refused to be interrogated by military prosecutors as a matter of principle. He has also vociferously criticised the idea that the military prosecution should investigate the Maspero clashes, in which military police were directly involved.
The White House has confirmed that the US military has unmanned drone aircraft in Ethiopia but says no strike missions are being launched from the east African country. The White House confirmed the drone flights out of an airfield in the city of Arba Minch after the Washington Post newspaper first reported the operation. The Post, citing unnamed officials, reported that the MQ-9 Reaper drones flying out of Arba Minch were armed, but the US government on Friday denied that they were.
In an extraordinary move, President Michael Sata has apologised to the government of Angola for what he said was Zambia's 'treachery' through its support of the rebel Unita movement of Dr Jonas Savimbi during the Angolan civil war. The apology came as Sata received the credentials of the new Angolan ambassador last week and was the first time Zambia had admitted to its part in the Angolan civil war. Subsequently, Sata sent Zambia's first president, Kenneth Kaunda, to deliver the apology in Luanda.
Kenya has received the support of Rwanda and South Africa for its action in Somalia during separate meetings here between President Mwai Kibaki and Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Jacob Zuma of South Africa. The three leaders, who met in Perth, were in the capital of Western Australia to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) held from Friday to Sunday. President Kibaki briefed his two fellow African leaders on the security situation in war-torn Somalia. President Kibaki also appraised the two leaders on the joint military operation that Kenya and the Transition Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia were undertaking to neutralize the insurgents of the Al-Shaabab militia inside Somalia.
Calm has returned to the town of Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, after an overnight curfew was imposed because of violent post-election protests, police said. The curfew - in effect from 7:00pm on Friday until 5:00am on Saturday - was imposed after hundreds of people marched on the Sidi Bouzid headquarters of the Ennahdha party. The crowd burned tyres and pelted security forces with stones following the announcement that Ennahdha had won last Sunday's national elections.
A Kenyan air strike on a camp packed with displaced women and children killed at least three and wounded scores in southern Somalia, witnesses and an aid group said. The Kenyan army denied killing civilians and said that its strike on Sunday had taken out 10 fighters from the Islamist group Shebab, the main target of its two-week-old military operation in Somalia. Medecins Sans Frontieres said at least three were killed in the air raid on the camp with some 9,000 internally-displaced people and witnesses spoke of up to five victims following a strike residents said was conducted by a Kenyan warplane on the city of Jilib.
Egypt has a budget deficit of nearly 10 per cent of GDP and the finance minister recently said that the country is on the brink of a liquidity crisis. Meanwhile, economic growth has slowed since the uprising, decreasing government revenues, while public sector workers around the country are striking to raise wages that have been stagnant for decades. Egypt is in a tight fiscal spot. But a group of Egyptian and international activists have a solution that would take pressure off the budget and at the same time undue the economic legacy of Hosni Mubarak’s corrupt regime. The Popular Campaign to Drop Egypt’s Debt, a coalition of civil society groups and concerned individuals, are calling for a comprehensive public debt audit with the eventual aim of debt forgiveness from foreign lenders.
Police authorities at the Leopold Sedar Senghor airport in Dakar have confirmed that they were preventing the secretary-general of the International Federation of Human Rights from entering the country. A statement issued by the rights group quoted the airport police as saying that Mr Paul Nsapu had been detained since Thursday. Since the beginning of the Arab upheavals, civil society and rights groups in Senegal have been facing difficult times with the regime of President Abdoulaye Wade over his bid for a controversial third mandate. Several rights activists have been beaten up, arrested and briefly detained during a string of public demonstrations that left scores injured and public and private property destroyed.
The shortage of health workers in Uganda is a 'crisis', says the Minister of Health, and activists say expectant mothers are bearing the brunt of the country's staffing deficiency. Just 56 per cent of Uganda's available health positions are filled. Parliament's recent refusal to reallocate part of the country's budget to hire more doctors, nurses and midwives has now become a rallying point for Uganda's maternal health advocates.
UN agencies and NGOs are urging the Côte d’Ivoire government to reconsider its planned shutdown of sites for displaced people in the west in a bid to force them to return home. Some 18,455 internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain in 36 sites in the west, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates, while a further 169,486 are living in Côte d’Ivoire with host families. Teams are currently out verifying the latest numbers.