Pambazuka News 316: In search of Congo's coltan
Pambazuka News 316: In search of Congo's coltan
The Peace and Security Council of the African Union, at its 82nd meeting held on 23 July 2007, was briefed by the Commission, supplemented by the representative of South Africa, the country coordinating the regional efforts on the Comoros, on the outcome of the Meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Countries of the Region on the Comoros, held in Pretoria, South Africa, on 8 and 9 July 2007, and on the subsequent developments in the Comoros.
The joint African Union-United Nations ‘roadmap’ agreed on 8 June this year is supposed to guide the Darfur political process and the joint operations of these two international bodies in the region. If the current status of the peace process is anything to go by, however, they will find themselves navigating in a sandstorm.
Costly delays at border posts, caused largely by a shortage of experienced staff and the manual clearance of goods, have resulted in SA’s rail utility, Transnet Freight Rail, formerly Spoornet, calling for the introduction of “borderless communities” or the creation of a single inspections standard for freight trains.
The search for African unity is not only an emotional issue, but also a divisive subject.
Togolese senior minister Edem Kodjo said Sunday the formation of an African unity government during the African Union (AU) summit in Accra, Ghana 1-3 July failed due to lack of a methodology.
The Senegalese senior Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, has said immediate unification is “the only way to set Africa once and for all on the right track to fulfil its historic destiny”.
Leader of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces in Guinea (UFDG), Mamadou Bah has expressed grave pessimism about the viability of the African Union government project.
Within the context of developing a Land Policy framework in Africa, the consortium of the African Union Commission (AUC), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and African Development Bank (ADB), in collaboration with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), is planning to organise a regional consultative workshop on land policy in the Southern Africa region. Scheduled to take place from August 29th to 31st, 2007, the regional consultative workshop would be hosted by the Government of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia.
The government should expedite the process of dual citizenship for members of the Diaspora, former Minister of Tourism and Diaspora Relations Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey said Wednesday after the launch of the Joseph Project.
A resolution for the adoption of an Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, on Freedom of Expression was drafted at the CSO AU Summit conference on Strengthening Freedom of Expression organised in Accra, Ghana 25-26 June 2007. The communique and resolution are available at
Africa is witnessing impressive growth in the development and use of mobile communication networks and the Internet. This development is changing the face of media and the way people are informed. Open communication and uncensored exchange of opinions are helping to build transparent societies. This serves good governance and helps to build stronger democracies.
In July 2007, community wireless networks were implemented at telecentres in Lira and Nabweru by the Community Wireless Resource Centre (CWRC). The CWRC team included CWRC staff and four electrical engineering students who are doing industrial training under CWRC. This intervention arose out of the need to reduce the high cost of internet connectivity at IDRC-supported telecentres in Uganda.
The Africa Women Peace Makers Program (AWPP) is a Program of International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and is committed to showcasing Africa as a beacon for peaceful co-existence by enhancing the capacities of Africa women peace makers to promote gender sensitive active non-violence. The Africa WPP intends to hold a Training of Trainers (ToT) is to deepen participants’ skills in gender and nonviolence training and education, in order strengthen their capacities to spread the work of WPP through empowering women at the grassroots.
"Sick and tired" residents of Clairwood, Merebank and Merewent have dug in their heels against Transnet proposals for the extension of Durban Harbour and vowed to petition the Constitutional Court. Transnet representatives and project consultants met with the residents this week to discuss the proposals and to view a presentation outlining plans to widen the harbour entrance and enlarge the Bayhead area to accommodate higher volumes of traffic passing through the port.
The Maandagshoek community, nestled in a valley just outside Burgersfort (a booming mine town that straddles the Mpumalanga-Limpopo border), is theoretically one of the richest places on the planet. But here, where platinum rises up from the bowels of the earth to empower a new breed of capitalist, the people of this valley still wait for the illusive dream of a ‘better life’ for all’.
Summonses have been served on Anglo Platinum, Potgietersrust Platinum and nine other defendants, including the ministers of agriculture and of minerals and energy, to prevent the relocation of Limpopo’s Mohlohlo community and to set aside certain lease agreements.The government and Anglo Platinum have the next few weeks to decide if they want to defend the action .
Making Governance Gender Responsive (MGGR)" is a generic course that can be adapted and modified to suit the needs of the different countries in Asia-Pacific. The initial training module was developed by the Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP), with funding support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through its Asia-Pacific Gender Equality Network (UNDP-APGEN) and the Regional Governance Programme for Asia and the Pacific (UNDP-PARAGON). The training will take place from November 12-19, 2007.
Say ‘Darfur’, and many of us feel we just can’t confront the prolific slaughter and rape that is taking place there, in the African nation of Sudan. Yet those who don’t turn away will see an extreme example of how many of the world’s governments deal with those seeking independence. On the ground, there’s an arrogant government stripping the natural resources from the area without giving the region and its people opportunities to develop. Together with New Internationalist co-editor Jess Worth – who’s just finished editing a magazine about Darfur – this program travels to Egypt, Uganda, and China in search of some solutions:
Workers migrate away from their families to serve as labor in rich countries and send capital in the form of remittances, or money transfers, back to their loved ones in impoverished communities around the world,say Yania Marcelino and Shannah Kurland in a report for New America Media. But a key challenge faced by these communities is the high fees associated with remittance transactions. Studies show that if money-transfer fees were cut in half, 33 million people could be lifted out of poverty in the developing world.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the DRC authorities for the release of Michel Shango and Vincent Hata, two journalists and trade unionists of the state-owned Congolese National Radio and Television station (RTNC), detained since July 27 in connection with their trade-union activities. A third journalist Risasi Tambwe, arrested with them, was released last Tuesday.
"My name is Mohammed Sokor, writing to you from Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab. Dear Sir, there is an alarming issue here. People are given too few kilograms of food. You must help." A crumpled note, delivered to a passing rock star-turned-philanthropist? No, Mr Sokor is a much sharper communicator than that. He texted this appeal from his own mobile phone to the mobiles of two United Nations officials, in London and Nairobi. He got the numbers by surfing at an internet café at the north Kenyan camp.
The Reuters Foundation is offering full bursaries for journalists from developing countries to attend training on business writing. The course is scheduled for November 5 to 16 in London. The bursaries include travel costs, lodging and a modest living allowance. Partially funded bursaries are also available for journalists at organizations with little or no resources for training. The course provides training on international standards of reporting and writing about business news and issues. The application deadline is September 10, 2007.
The Ugandan Government is mobilizing funds to send primary and secondary school teachers to Rwanda for training in Information and Communication Technology(ICT). Speaking at the Uganda-Rwanda Education Joint Expo in Kigali recently, the education minister, Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire, said "Rwanda has taken serious strides in the development of ICT to achieve its development goals and it's a good lesson for us."
ICTVillage is inviting individuals and organizations to apply for registration as digital village enterprises in the digital village network as owners/managers of digital facilities (centres, schools, kiosks) located in each constituency and location in Kenya in collaboration with key stakeholders.
The British Council is looking for young people who have an interest in exploring past and present relationships between Africa and the UK by documenting the personal histories of families over three generations, highlighting shared experiences, and creating fresh understanding to build new relationships for the future. Forms must be returned by 3 September 2007.
Christian Aid is calling for the Angolan government to stop its harassment of human rights defenders.
Angolan government officials have recently accused seven human rights organisations of illegal activities. Two Christian Aid partners, SOS Habitat and the Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy (AJPD), are among those publicly named as lawbreakers.
Christian Aid is deeply concerned by these accusations, and is calling on the European Union to take urgent action to protect these groups so that they can continue their vital work. Our partners are concerned that, without international pressure, they may face legal action to shut down their activities.
On 10 July 2007, the Director of the Angolan government's Technical Unit for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (UTCAH), Mr. Pedro Walipi Kalenga, claimed in a radio broadcast that certain national and international organizations working in Angola were violating the law and mobilising the population to oppose the government.
Mr. Walipi went on to say the organizations were sponsored by opposition political parties, and using human rights claims as a cover for illegal activities. He threatened that the cases would be investigated by the public prosecutor.
The seven organizations accused are Associação Justiça, Paz e Democracia (AJPD), SOS Habitat and Associação Mãos Livres, Open Society, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Search for Common Ground.
SOS Habitat protects poor people’s housing rights by publicising and opposing illegal evictions. AJPD works to protect prisoners by denouncing prison beatings, police brutality and torture, and also promotes the rights of people living with HIV and other marginalised groups.
This is not the first time that SOS Habitat has been the target of the Angolan government. In May 2006 Prime Minister Fernando Dias Dos Santos publicly accused SOS Habitat of inciting unrest.
‘These organisations have a vital and legitimate role to play in building a fair and democratic society in Angola,’ says Maria do Rosario Advirta, Christian Aid’s programme manager for Angola. ‘These accusations are totally baseless; they are simply intended to intimidate our partners and curb their legitimate activities.’
Christian Aid and seven other international organisations has sent an open letter to Dr. Luís Amado, the President of the Council of the European Union, asking that the EU pressures the Angolan government to retract these accusations, and respect the right of human rights groups to work freely, without government interference.
The signatories to the letter are: Christian Aid, Amnesty International (AI), the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Front Line, Global Witness, the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO), the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) and Oxfam Novib.
To date none of the Angolan organizations accused have been formally notified of any wrongdoing or informed of the legal basis for such accusations.
As is customary, Pambazuka News is taking a break during August to rest and recharge the batteries. The next issue (No 317) is scheduled for 30 August 2007. We wish all our readers and contributors a good break - and thank you for your continued support in making Pambazuka News the platform for discussion, analyses and advocacy in Africa.
The EQUINET Secretariat at Training and Research Support Centre with local hosts, REACH Trust (Malawi), invite personnel working on health equity in east and southern Africa to apply for participation for a capacity building workshop on “Writing scientific papers and peer reviewed journals” to be held in Lilongwe, Malawi from 20-24 October 2007. Call Closes On 3 September, 2007.
The lives of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, who daily try to cross the border from Egypt into Israel, may be in danger, following the use of excessive force by law enforcement officials in the area. This follows the reported death of two men believed to be of Sudanese origin, who were allegedly shot dead by Egyptian security forces as they attempted to cross the border during the night of 1 August 2007.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)has called on South African authorities to conduct a thorough and swift investigation into the shooting of Abel Mutsakani an exiled Zimbabwean journalist and news website editor based in South Africa. “We condemn this attack which raises again the need for more security for journalists and other citizens in South Africa,” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa office.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)has condemned the statements uttered by the Zambian Minister of Information, Mike Mulongoti’s that those threatening to beat up some media personnel are justified, because they have no other forum through which they could express themselves. “These statements are uncalled for and unexpected from a personality holding such a respectable position as the Minister of Information” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa office.
The United Nations envoy tasked with re-energizing the peace process in Darfur is heading to the violence-wracked Sudanese region for talks with local authorities, tribal leaders, civil society groups, Arab nomads and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Jan Eliasson, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Darfur, travels first to El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, before heading later to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, where he is expected to stay overnight.
The United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Somalia François Lonsény Fall has called on the war-ravaged East African nation’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to invite opposition groups to join the reconciliation meeting currently under way in the capital Mogadishu. “We would like to see the stakeholders who renounce violence inside and outside the country take part in this process,” Mr. Fall said in an address to the National Reconciliation Congress.
A joint report by the United Nations refugee agency and its Sudanese Government counterpart has recommended that the estimated 30,000 Chadians who have fled to neighbouring Darfur to escape a worsening security situation in their homeland be classified as refugees. But the report also warned that anyone in that group who is an active or former combatant in the clashes in Chad should not be granted refugee status, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis has said.
Climate change could lead to potential food shortages and increase the risk of hunger in developing countries, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has said. However, industrialized countries could see an increase in their crop yields, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said in a speech in Chennai, India.
All parties to the Darfur conflict continue to carry out “gross violations” of human rights, including killings, disappearances, torture and sexual violence, an independent United Nations rights expert has reported after wrapping up her latest visit to Sudan. Sima Samar, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Sudan, called for greater action to protect civilians in violence-wracked Darfur from breaches of international law.
Repression continues with no end in sight as pro-democrats continue to be arrested and brutalized with impunity, by state security agents. Just this week alone a torture victim from the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) is missing in Mutare; another victim of police brutality, a student leader, has been seriously injured and is in custody in Bulawayo and more than a dozen members of Women/Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA/MOZA) were arrested when they were playing sport in Masvingo.
There are reports that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans could have failed to register their names with the mobile voter registration teams, after officials avoided certain areas associated with opposition supporters. MDC legislator Editor Matamisa, who first raised the issue of the irregularities with her party, claimed on Wednesday that the mobile registration teams did not bother to visit her constituency, which has close to 10 000 residents who want be added to the voters’ roll.
Sierra Leone holds presidential and parliamentary polls on Saturday, the first since U.N. peacekeepers left two years ago and a watershed in its recovery from an 11-year civil war fuelled by "blood diamonds". President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, a war-time leader re-elected on a wave of euphoria after a 2002 peace deal, is stepping down under the constitution amid dismay at his Sierra Leone People's Party's (SLPP) failure to provide water, power or decent roads in one of the world's poorest countries.
Nigeria's anti-corruption police is working to uncover who allegedly received $6 million in bribes from a U.S. oil services executive who has been indicted in the United States, the head of the force said on Thursday. U.S. prosecutors have accused Jason Steph, a former manager at Willbros Group Inc., and others of bribing Nigerian officials between 2003 and 2005 to help the Houston-based firm secure a $387 million contract to build a gas pipeline.
The High Court in Chennai, India has upheld India’s Patents Act in the face of a challenge by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. The ruling allows the Asian country, dubbed the “pharmacy of the developing world”, to continue supplying antiretrovirals at much reduced prices to countries battling to treat the thousands in need.
After a steep increase in the 1990s, and several years of plateauing, South Africa's HIV prevalence may finally have entered a phase of decline. The first evidence of this downward trend comes from the government's 2006 National HIV and Syphilis Survey, which tested more than 33,000 pregnant women at antenatal clinics in all nine of the country's provinces.
It was as if my CD player had developed a heart, a passion, a resonant emotion of its own. How, I thought to myself, can an instrument such as the double bass, usually lost as the background in the orchestra, so rarely heard as an instrument in its own right, play with such passion and meaning? And how was it that it has such meaning for me, largely unschooled in Western classical music? I don’t pretend to have even heard of the Italian romantic composer Bottesini, so I can’t say whether it was just the music that touched me. But I also sensed that it was the player, the South African musician Leon Bosch, who was reaching out to me, across years of experience of repression and suffering – that was what made listening to this an extraordinary experience.
‘I have no doubt that the double bass and I were made for each other,’ writes Bosch on the CD sleeve. ‘- we’re completely inseparable and the music we make together brings me unbridled joy! It has always been my mission in life to defend the cause of the underdog and my passion for the double bass, the ‘Cinderella’ of instruments, will never die.
‘Every note I play on the instrument embraces my life experiences, both in Europe and in my South African homeland. I’ve known love and comradeship, but also witnessed the epitome of hatred. I’ve felt both shining optimism and deep despair. I’ve benefited from the pleasures of civilised society, but also seen the destructive impact of poverty and ignorance. I’ve been privileged to stand side by side with people who’ve lost their lives in the defence of their principles.’
As a 15-year-old protestor in Cape Town Bosch was arrested, detained and tortured by the apartheid regime. After a trial at which he was found not-guilty as a result of being defended by Abdullah Omar (subsequently Minister of Justice in the new dispensation), Bosch wanted to study law, but was denied a place at University as a consequence of his political activities. And that made him turn to music, first at the South African College of Music and then the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK.
There is a long tradition of music as a place for protest and politics. We are used to hearing jazz, reggae, hip-hop, and similar forms of music expressing the struggle against oppression. To hear the same through classical music is rare, and even rarer was to hear the soul of the double bass sing of the struggle and of love. This is something to be experienced. Add this one to your collection.
We hope to feature extracts of this music in future Pambazuka News podcasts. Look out for these!
* Virtuoso Double Bass: Giovanni Bottesini 1821-1889 is published by Meridian Records, 2007 (www.meridian-records.co.uk)
* Firoze Manji is editor of Pambazuka News and director of Fahamu
* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
Maternal HIV and malaria infection during pregnancy reduces tetanus antibody levels in newborns and mothers thereby exposing them to an increased risk of tetanus, according to the findings of a study published in the August 15th edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. According to the paper and an accompanying editorial, the control of these diseases in child-bearing women have an important role to play in the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus which causes 213,000 deaths annually.
Since the first HIV test was licensed in 1985 there has been a constant tug of war between those who advocate the widest possible use of HIV testing, and those who argue that testing throws up a raft of ethical issues that need to be considered before testing can be expanded. In an effort to increase access to and uptake of HIV testing, there has been growing support for implementation of provider-initiated testing and counselling (PITC).
HIV-positive children taking antiretroviral therapy in rural Uganda often have poor adherence, a detectable viral load and extensive resistance to anti-HIV drugs, according to a study conducted by Medecins Sans Frontieres and presented as a poster to the recent International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Sydney.
As SADC Heads of State and Government meet for their annual Summit in Lusaka, Zambia in mid-August, one of the expected outcomes is the adoption of the Protocol on Gender and Development. The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development will provide a legal and institutional framework for the region to accelerate implementation of the commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment. A Protocol is the most binding of SADC legal instruments.
SADC Member States are scaling up the provision of regional infrastructure, a critical foundation for the speedy realization of regional integration objectives. Infrastructure support intervention has been placed at the core of the region's community-building agenda and concerted efforts are being made to ensure the availability of an integrated, efficient and cost-effective system to sustain regional economic development and trade.
At 10:00 a.m. August 9, Philani Zungu, deputy president of Abahlali baseMjondolo, was arrested in the Pemary Ridge settlement. A meeting had been scheduled with the eThekwini Housing Department. However they arrived with the Sydenham SAPS who immediately went to Philani and demanded to search him. He asked them why they were searching him and was immediately arrested for 'resisting arrest'.
FEATURE: Mvemba Dizolele on coltan, conflict and the DRC
COMMENTS AND ANALYSIS
- Laurie Nathan asks is if the Darfur Roadmap is likely to bear fruit
- Mammo Muchie calls for an alternative mediation process in Ethiopia
- If government was a restaurant, then … writes Rakesh Rajani
- Betty Muragori casts African eyes on America’s virtual segregation
LETTERS
- Jacques Depelchin responds on ‘A farewell to activism’
- Old habits die hard
- Calls for an end to the harassment of human rights defenders
BOOKS & ARTS: The double bass and a political instrument
PODCASTS: Don’t turn away from Sudan and Darfur
AU MONITOR: As AU Monitoring work expands, so does the round up of key news
WOMEN AND GENDER: African sex workers still at risk of violence
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Morocco and Polisario in new talks
HUMAN RIGHTS: Mauritanians outlaw slavery
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: Slum-dwellers’ leader arrested
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: More Kenyans flee attacks
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Massive irregularities in Zimbabwe voter registration
CORRUPTION: Nigeria, US cooperate on bribe probe
DEVELOPMENT: Foreign aid will not make poverty history
HEALTH AND HIV/Aids: Victory for affordable ARVs
LGBTI: Circumcision message could confuse gay community
ENVIRONMENT: UN debates climate change
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Women still back of the queue on land access
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Zambian Minister’s attack on journalists condemned
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Wireless launched for rural Uganda
PLUS: e-newsletters and mailings lists; courses, seminars and workshops and jobs
*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit
Climate change climbed another rung up the global agenda when the United Nations General Assembly held its first ever plenary debate in New York on “Climate Change as a Global Challenge” on 31 July – 2 August 2007. Many speakers stressed that climate change has emerged as the major environment crisis of our times, but it must be dealt with in the context of development.
The International Lesbian and Gay Association, ILGA, would like to join the South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities, to condemn the brutal killing of Sizakele Sigasa (34 years old) and Salome Masooa (23 years old) from a township in Johannesburg. On Sunday 8th July they were found murdered in a nearby field in Meadowlands.
The UN refugee agency is working with internally displaced Sudanese to rehabilitate the environmental degradation that has been both a cause and a consequence of the Darfur conflict. Earlier this year, UNHCR through its implementing partner INTERSOS started a community-based environmental rehabilitation project in three localities in West Darfur: Forobaranga, a small town bordering Chad, in Garsila and in Um Kher village
The UN refugee agency has announced it is coordinating an operation to bring help to some 26,000 refugees who fled insecurity in the Central African Republic and are now living in precarious conditions scattered along the eastern border of Cameroon.
Kenya's parliament will soon debate a constitutional amendment bill to improve female representation in the legislature by creating 50 special seats for women. At present, only some eight percent of parliamentary posts in the East African country are occupied by women. The bill is scheduled for discussion Aug. 14, to be adopted or rejected in its entirety the same day. Over 2,000 women from across Kenya will be present at parliament to lobby legislators to vote for the bill.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) can make sex painful, complicate childbirth, lead to urinary tract infections, enable the transmission of HIV -- and induce a host of other ills. So, promising to fight this practice should be a winning strategy for someone hoping to be elected to parliament this Saturday in Sierra Leone - where about 90 percent of girls and women undergo FGM, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International.
A report published by Wateraid argues that there is a genuine risk that the human development related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be met if international donors continue to pursue single issue ‘global causes’ instead of building an aid system that will respond to the complex needs of poor communities.
This paper published by the Institute for Security Studies examines the problems of civilian protection created by the war in Darfur, focusing on the role of African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and the challenges it has encountered in protecting civilians in Darfur. The paper argues for the strengthening of the AU force in the context of the UN support and the fast-tracking of the peace process within Darfur between Khartoum and the Darfur rebels. It also draws attention to the need for dialogue between Khartoum and its neighbours.
This paper by the UN Millennium Project analyses the need to reform abortion laws and policies in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on maternal health, gender equality and poverty reduction. The paper reviews existing international agreements which support access to safe and legal abortion including the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, and the actions of international bodies, governments and non-governmental organisations in promoting women’s access to safe abortion.
In its mission to educate policy makers about the existence of LBT women in Africa and to tackle the myth that homosexuality is unAfrican, The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) is planning to publish a book that will document lived experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women in the continent. As part of CAL’s research project, the book will “increase lesbians’ political voice in the continent, create a platform for expression and help eradicate homophobia.” This is according to CAL director, Fikile Vilakazi.
Experts are warning Senegalese men who have sex with men not to get caught up in the hype about male circumcision after recent research indicated that the procedure could offer some protection against HIV, and are urging them to keep using other means of protection. In 2006, the results of three studies, one each in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, showed that the risk of HIV infection was up to 60 percent lower among circumcised men. However, these studies were specific to heterosexual interaction.
Morocco and the Polisario Front are meeting for a second round of UN-brokered talks in New York to try to resolve their 32-year dispute over Western Sahara. The Polisario, or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro, is a political and military group fighting for the separation of Western Sahara from Morocco.
Military officials in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda say they will work together to ease tensions along their shared border, where two people were killed in clashes last week. Army officers from the two sides met on Monday on an island in Lake Albert, which straddles the border.
Poor farmers in Tanzania are using modern information and communication technologies like mobile phones and even the Internet to get access to market information, and to learn how to build better and more collaborative market chains from producer to consumer. Market “spies”, known locally as shu shu shus, investigate prices and other aspects of local markets, then use their mobile phones to report the information back to their villages. Soon they might be using SMS to access Internet-based databases of locally-relevant market information.
It all seems almost too normal to be newsworthy. On August 11, Sierra Leone goes to the polls to choose a new president among three candidates, all pledging to reform government, create jobs, address health and education, and expand the economy. For most countries, this would hardly merit outside attention. But Sierra Leone remains for many the ultimate symbol of the failed state, the classic case of a violent crisis arising from environmental degradation, crime, overpopulation, and ethnic divisions. What seems normal elsewhere is exceptional here.
President Robert Mugabe has signed the Interception of Communications Bill into law. The Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda announced this in a general notice issued in the Government Gazette of 3 August 2007. The Act will make lawful the interception and monitoring of communications in the course of their transmission through a telecommunications, postal or any other related service or system in Zimbabwe. The Act also provides for the establishment of a monitoring centre.
The demons of the past will remain the evils that will continue cursing the development of ICT in Africa, if not exorcised. This was the sentiment held by the delegates attending the session on 'ICT Policy in Africa' at the SANGONeT conference. Delegates from various countries in Africa were given an opportunity to share experiences of the information technology communication (ICT) environment in their countries.
Mauritanian lawmakers yesterday outlawed slavery in the desert country. With effect, those found promoting slavery or practising the century old culture will face between five and 10 years in prison. The leader of the anti-slavery group, SOS-Esclaves, Boubacar Ould Messaoud, expressed satisfaction about the development, describing it as “a great victory for the democrats and the people of Mauritania."
More than a dozen activists from the Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise were finally released on Thursday, but they had been badly beaten. They were arrested on Tuesday while playing a game of netball and mixed soccer when state security agents arrested them at Macheke Stadium in Masvingo. The victims spent two cold nights in police cells in their sports uniform. They were released after being forced to pay admission of guilt fines. WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams said all 16 activists were badly beaten.
The South African government is dusting off a 2002 plan to deal with a feared mass influx of Zimbabweans into South Africa, amid a growing official recognition that economic migration is snowballing towards crisis. Last week Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told a media conference in Pretoria that the Zimbabwean influx was “a serious problem” and that it was “vital for South Africa to act”.
Namibia is to set up two special offices to implement obligations related to climate change control under the Kyoto Protocol. Namibia acceded to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change in July 2003. To implement the Protocol, Namibia needs to establish a Designated National Authority (DNA) and a Clean Development Mechanism Office (CDM). At its latest meeting, Cabinet decided to create these two offices.
Fresh killings in the Mt Elgon District of Kenya – where a long-standing dispute over land ownership has sparked violent clashes between two communities – have left more people displaced and heightened tensions in the area, aid workers said. Seven more people were killed on 5 August and another three on 7 August in the Kopsiro area of the district, said William Kebeney, a church minister aiding the displaced.
The yams in the family plot were ripe when Elizabeth Igwenagu's husband died. But at the end of the one-week-long burial rite, his family harvested the entire crop of the thick, potato-like tubers, a staple starch in southern Nigeria. In many African societies, women's rights to land and property are tenuous and dependent on males. Although legislation may guarantee equality among men and women, family matters are often managed under customary law, which evolved to retain property within the family and under male control.
Ghana and the rest of Africa can make significant progress in developing high-tech export products industry to boost trade if attention is given to the development of scientific and industrial research base. According to reports and supported by evidence collated by the World Bank a number of countries in Africa have a low research. Analysts believe that the trend was attributable to the minimal number of scientists and engineers available on the African continent.
Community wireless networks have been set up at telecentres in northern Uganda in Lira and Nabweru, areas that are considered extremely rural by the CWRC. This intervention arose out of the need to reduce the high cost of Internet connectivity at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) that is supporting telecentres in Uganda, to explore optimal connectivity models such as sharing the existing bandwidth with neighboring institutions via outdoor wireless networks.
Though Southern Africa is seeing increasing opportunities and rights for women, protection from gender violence continues to be elusive for those engaged in sex work. Some people even argue that sex workers cannot be victims of rape at all. Moreover, when they are victims of violence or sexual assault, few receive help from police or health services. Many turn to drugs or alcohol.
There is an innate paradox in the global conversation about poverty alleviation that eludes even the most astute scholars. Proponents of foreign aid are advocating for a big push, featuring an increase in foreign aid through which billions of dollars could be transferred to the poor. Yet $2.3 trillion in foreign aid and nearly sixty years later, over one billion people around the world are still hungry, infirm, illiterate and homeless.
Torture, assault, unlawful detention and other violations of human rights are increasing rapidly in Zimbabwe, according to a new report. The report, by the independent Human Rights Forum, highlighted the government crackdown on the country's political opposition. Monitors said they collected evidence documenting 5 307 human rights violations in the first six months of this year - nearly double the number during the same period a year ago, the report said.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday spoke out against corruption in poor countries that receive the bank's loans, echoing the anti-graft stance of his controversial predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz. "If people are trying to steal the World Bank's money, we can't accept that," Zoellick told reporters.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) are pleased to announce the two-day advanced policy and research dialogue which they are jointly hosting in Cotonou, Benin Republic, on 24 and 25 September, 2007 on the theme of The Politics of Succession in West Africa’s Democracies. The dialogue is a follow-up to a survey of governance trends in West Africacarried out in 2006 under the auspices of the two institutions.