Pambazuka News 469: How Yar'Adua has improved Nigerian democracy
Pambazuka News 469: How Yar'Adua has improved Nigerian democracy
Hundreds of Bushmen were left angry and frustrated after the Botswana president refused to enter into discussions with them during a meeting on Thursday. President Khama, accompanied by four government ministers, met with Bushmen at the New Xade resettlement camp where they were dumped after being evicted from their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002.
After 18 years of successful multi-party democracy, Ghanaians are bracing themselves to review the Fourth Republican Constitution. Following cabinet’s approval of a memorandum on the consultative review, government has established an independent body to spearhead the process.
Women's movements have played a critical role in creating political space for female participation in politics around the world. In fact, there are more women in government today than ever before. According to UNIFEM's Progress of the World's Women 2008/2009 report "Who Answers to Women? Gender & Accountability", women now hold an average of 18.4 percent of seats in national assemblies, though the rate of increase is still very slow.
Ethiopia is building a 240-metre high dam on the Omo River that is intended to end the country's electricity shortage and supply power to neighbouring countries. Not everyone's happy.
One of Senegal's leading lawyers has mediated labor strikes and defused election violence. Her name is Amsatou Sow Sidibe and Malena Amusa thinks she's a major reason why Senegal is relatively peaceful compared to neighboring Guinea.
Corruption is not a solitary activity, and the networks that promote corruption are rarely confined to one country or one continent. For corruption in Africa, countries outside the continent enter the picture not only when foreign companies pay bribes for access. They are also a preferred location for stolen wealth.
While South Africa remains one of the countries with highest HIV prevalence rates, gay rights organizations are doing their bit to curb the spread of the syndrome and to ensure that people know their statuses.
Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the harsh, two-year jail sentence which a court passed yesterday on Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, at the end of an incomprehensible and arbitrary trial.
Support is growing for a bid to persuade the G8+5 nations to fund 1,000 senior research positions in African universities. The Academic Chairs for Africa initiative would require the rich G8 countries and the emerging economies that now attend the group's gatherings — Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Mexico — to commit US$100m per year over a five-year period.
The cause of a measles outbreak sweeping South Africa has not as yet been determined, but initial suspicions point to religious objections and unfounded fears that immunizations against the disease increase the risk of autism in children.
Tensions following clashes in N’zérékoré, southeastern Guinea, are hampering the movement of some humanitarian workers and supplies, according to the UN.
Kenya's failure to put in place a comprehensive disaster preparedness policy means its response to high-risk events such as droughts, floods, epidemics and major accidents tends to be slow, poorly coordinated and unnecessarily expensive, say specialists.
Younger teachers in South Africa are taking the lead in talking to students about HIV but are not practicing what they preach, according to new research.
Major routes in Sudan have been cleared of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs) but there are still areas where the devices threaten civilians, as well as affecting aid and development efforts, say officials.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Nigerian storyteller and writer of the acclaimed novels ‘Purple Hibiscus’ and ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ – tells us a tale of ‘the danger of a single story’.
With Porto Alegre hosting an evaluation of the 10 years of the World Social Forum (WSF) in January, Boaventura de Sousa Santos wonders why the mainstream media chose to focus on the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos instead. This is strange, writes de Sousa Santos, 'since the analyses and previsions of the WSF during the last decade turned out to be much more precise than those advanced by the WEF'.
Created in Cairo, the World Forum for Alternatives was established in 1997. In this summary of its 2010–11 proposals, the forum sets out a radical vision for a global network of progressive forces rooted in enabling the peoples of the South to organise and determine their own future.
If the African Peer Review Mechanism is not to degenerate into meaninglessness, writes L. Muthoni Wanyeki, Africa's governments, regional councils and citizens will need to revitalise its progress.
Deeply unimpressed with embassies' inclination towards silence, Alemayehu G. Mariam implores foreign officials to speak out in the face of the Ethiopian government's human rights abuses. Suspicious of the 'veil of diplomatic anonymity', Mariam argues that remaining silent while activists like Birtukan Midekssa are kept locked up simply amounts to complicity.
At an MPLA meeting in November 2009, Angola’s president José Eduardo dos Santos defined the challenges facing his party in terms of three issues: Keeping watch on government, the irresponsibility of government leaders, and fighting corruption with a policy of zero tolerance. Rafael Marques de Morais reveals the gap between dos Santos’ words and its deeds, through an investigation of the MPLA’s extensive business interests. The ‘concept of social solidarity and equal opportunity,’ writes de Morais, ‘applies only to select members of the ruling elite who have been given the task of looting the country.'
Jacob Zuma may have been the only candidate who could unseat Thabo Mbeki from the leadership of the ANC, writes William Gumede, but the inherent danger in electing someone with such 'a colourful private life' to lead the party and the country is that is that ‘sooner or later, the excesses of his private life will so dominate public life’ that they paralyse the government itself.
Agriculture as it was practiced in India over centuries relied and depended on nature’s forces, writes Suraj Kumar. But with the advent of colonialism and a surge in the country’s population, the adoption of new methods of farming have lead to widespread soil degradation across the country. As multinational companies offer genetically modified seeds as the solution to hunger, Kumar calls on his fellow countrymen to use locally produced food and native seeds and help preserve Indian wisdom.
Lucy Corkin reviews ‘China’s Rise: Challenges and Opportunities’, by C. Fred Bergsten, Charles Freeman, Nicholas R. Lardy and Derek J. Mitchell, an assessment of China’s challenges, both internal and external and how this will affect the world in general and the US in particular. Although written primarily for US policymakers, it is ‘an excellent reference for China watchers from any discipline who seek to further understand the complexities of the Chinese state’, says Corkin.
Brazil's mining company, Vale, is preparing to start operations in Mozambique as South America's largest economy steps up its involvement in the scramble for Africa's resources. The remote town of Tete in central Mozambique sits on top of some of the world's largest reserves of coal. With migrant workers and contractors flooding in to take advantage of the opportunities created by this multi-billion dollar Brazilian investment, Tete has become a boomtown, its infrastructure creaking under the constant flow of business visitors.
If people are to overcome the systemic challenges that threaten the future of life on planet earth, we need to overhaul the way in which we manage society, argue Carlos Lopes, Ignacy Sachs, Ladislau Dowbor. In a paper prepared for the World Social Forum in Bahia, Brazil in January, Lopes, Sachs and Dowbor attempt to set out the ‘minimum necessary measures to avoid catastrophes and to guarantee a sustainable and dignified life’.
We can learn lessons from India's unique approach to finance, technology and poverty, writes Greg Mills.
'Society and Governments: debates and alternatives for a post-crisis world' was the name of a Thematic World Social Forum meeting held in the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia.
China increasingly is playing a crucial role in African economies. Two-way trade between China and Africa exceeded US$106 billion in 2008 and Beijing is the leading trading partner with South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, write Chris Alden and Riaan Meyer.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has issued a statement in response to the first anniversary of Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity (GNU).
The statement highlights the increasing concern in Zimbabwe over the GNU’s ‘failure to abide by the provisions of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and its apparent inability to address the social, political and economic crisis still facing the country.’ The statement also criticises the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) inability to influence the GNU to deliver on its promises and commitments.
The Peking University Law School Research Centre for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law ( RCHR) is offering visiting scholar positions at our centre to facilitate solo and collaborative research and teaching. Visiting scholars will be expected to make a modest contribution to the masters’ programme, teaching a one semester course in a specialist topic of their choice.
Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo may be welcome among the world’s most powerful people, who work for his favour behind the scenes in return for lucrative trade deals, but he is less favourably viewed by human rights defenders, development agencies and the citizens of his country. Agustín Velloso looks at Obiang’s controversial effort to obtain wider global respect and appreciation through the creation of an international prize in partnership with UNESCO.
While the Peoples' Republic of China is building the new headquarters of the AU, which has already cost Beijing more than US$130 million a year until its completion, other powers did not want to miss the grand ball in Addis Ababa by demonstrating their 'solidarity' to the African people, writes Yves Niyiragira.
In the coming weeks Pambazuka News will reproduce a series of oral testimonies given by the people of the Anosy region in southern Madagascar. Individuals describe the difficulties that they are experiencing due to climate change, mining and the rapid changes that come with it, food insecurity and no political voice.
In March 2009, Madagascar underwent a political coup in which Marc Ravolamanana’s government was unseated. Until the planned general elections in October 2010 Madagascar is being ‘managed’ by Haute Autorite de Transition (HAT). Since 2005, the mining of ilmenite has become the central drive of the Anosy region’s development strategy, a World Bank programme. This has led to rapid changes in the area on both the environment and the people. More than three-quarters of the population of Madagascar are reliant on agriculture to sustain their livelihoods. As a result, they are especially vulnerable to environmental shocks and the rapid development that has come with the mining. There are stories being told, but these have so far gone by unnoticed.
This week Pambazuka listens to Zababoatsy, a 58 year old, Antanosy man. ‘He feels strongly that the impact of mining activity on the environment has robbed him of any opportunity to “provide a better future for my family”.’ His account tells how mining in the area has had a profound, negative effect on the forest – the community’s ‘source of life’ – on the rivers and he tells how climate change is affecting food resources.**
Ordinary Nigerians, Funmi Feyide-John observes, are experiencing a backlash of discrimination worldwide as a result of the attempted suicide bombing on an American flight by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Following the event, Nigeria has been listed as a ‘terror prone’ country. Feyide-John goes on to reveal that despite most Nigerians having denounced Abdulmutallab’s actions and terrorism, the US is denying Nigerian students their visas, Nigerian travellers are subjected to special ‘rules’ and Nigerian community initiatives in the US are being shunned. She notes that Nigerians are receiving no support from the Nigerian government to overcome these problems. Furthermore, Nigeria’s unstable political backdrop at the moment is one that encourages separation. What is needed, Feyide-John concludes, however, is unity.
While President Yar'Adua’s absence – since November 2009 – has left a power vacuum in Nigeria, Funmi Feyide-John believes that this ‘cloud has a silver lining’. Feyide-John describes the events and steps that are being taken within Nigeria to fill the presidential seat: Peaceful demonstrations, letters of demand, court cases, discussions amongst legislators and increasing general discontent. She holds that the handing over of power – be it permanently or temporarily – strongly indicates the strength of the people and the giant steps that are being taken to shape a truly Nigerian democracy.
In the calm water of love-nights
the storm of life sends out cries
carri'd by leaves of death
falling one by one,
as distanc'd nearness cries
disturb the silent candle burning
he, a sultan to spheres of love
arm'd with ecstatic flutes
sang poetry of love in the sky
heard only
by the Goddess moon
he, who opens a thousand gates
of love
subdu'd by unimaginable Venus
takes leave of the world he loves
fleeing from heart'less
horde of fears
of atoms and grasshoppers
that brush fire
in the mid-hours of bloodletting
ascending crimson nights,
he, abjures
to play the game of the world
deafen'd by hearts of passion
instead, his soul crawls out
to sev'n thousand years
of fields of nights
of thousand moonlights
to join in dance
with depart'd stars
to find its morning
love in times of war.
Eugénio Costa Almeida
André de Oliveira, Jefferson Pinheiro, Sarah Brito e Sergio Valentim
Alemayehu G. Mariam reflects on his evening at Ethiopian musician Teddy Afro’s concert in Los Angeles. In Teddy, Mariam sees more than a talented young musician, for ‘it is plain that [Teddy] does not sing just to sing. I really believe the man sings for one reason only: He is hopelessly in love with Ethiopia.’ Mariam describes a zealous crowd and a passionate scene, where a musician has the power to bring Ethiopians together and ‘revive’: ‘he is that strong steel bridge that spans the generation and geographic gap among Ethiopians.’
Pambazuka News 473: Land reform is common sense
Pambazuka News 473: Land reform is common sense
Venue - Alliance Francaise, 17 Lower Park Drive/Kerry Road, Zoo Lake, Parkview
Time - 2-5pm
Date - 20 March 2010
Guest Artist - Thobile Magagula for Swaziland
The WINNER will TRAVEL to the House of Hunger Poetry Slam, Zimbabwe!
For more info call Linda: 073 081 5194
On September 19-25, 2010, a festival and conference promoting peace and conflict resolution will be held in Nairobi, Kenya. A two-day conference will be accompanied by seven days of artistic performances featuring traditional and popular music, oral narrative, and drama. Organized by the Drum Café, the event seeks to bring together practitioners and researchers working in areas related to the arts and/or conflict resolution in and out of Kenya.
Pambazuka News 471: History through a hundred looted objects
Pambazuka News 471: History through a hundred looted objects
Comparative African Perspectives on China and other emerging powers in Africa is a research project initiated by FAHAMU, the network for social justice issues. China’s deepening engagement with Africa is receiving increased attention from the global media, public- and private sectors as well as academic research. This should however not overshadow the activities of other emerging powers in Africa, including India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. This call therefore seeks to develop an African perspective by strengthening the civil society voice in the discourse surrounding the engagement between Africa and these emerging powers.
Pambazuka News 468: The new American imperialism in Africa
Pambazuka News 468: The new American imperialism in Africa
Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison on Friday in connection with a January 2008 column that criticized Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's statements about religious affairs in Ethiopia, according to local journalists. Federal High Court Judge Mohammed Omar sentenced Editor Ezedin Mohamed of the Muslim-oriented newspaper Al-Quds to one year in prison.
Three flow stations in the oil-rich Niger Delta have had to be closed after a pipeline was sabotaged, according to Royal Dutch Shell. The company said the Jan. 30 leak on the Trans Ramos oil pipeline was due to sabotage, but no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. A represnetative of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told a Nigerian newspaper at the end of January that it was ending a truce agreed in October 2009.
A surprise intervention at the weekend by Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations secretary-general, has drawn warnings from senior officials in south Sudan that any outside efforts to influence a referendum next year could lead to further conflict. Mr Ban told an African Union summit at the weekend that he would “work hard” to avoid the secession of south Sudan following the referendum.
The Second Feminist Leadership and Movement Building Institute is a week-long course designed to strengthen feminist leadership, strategies and collective power for social transformation in Africa. The Institute which will take place in Kampala, Uganda from 10 – 15 April 2010, and is the second institute convened by CREA and Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA). The first institute took place in Entebbe, Uganda in 2008.
The peace agreement which ended years of war between north and south Sudan could unravel unless immediate steps are taken to salvage it, two key former diplomats say. "Today, five years after the historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed between North and South Sudan, there is a real threat of an all-out war returning to Sudan and still no permanent resolution to the Darfur conflict," Lt-Gen Lazarus Sumbeiwyo and John Danforth warned.
Twenty kids, five weddings (and more to come?) and a whole lot of polygamous loving going on, marital and extra-marital. Some say it is a private matter, but like it or not, just as with any celebrity, Zuma’s sexual behaviour is not private.
The International Criminal Court is to review its earlier decision not to add genocide to the charges against Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. "It was a legal error to reject the genocide charges against President al-Bashir," said prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in a press statement.
Interface is a new journal produced twice yearly by activists and academics around the world in response to the development and increased visibility of social movements in the last few years – and the immense amount of knowledge generated in this process.
The Open Society Institute (OSI) seeks a full-time Program Officer in its New York office to work jointly with the Sexual Health and Rights Project (SHARP) and the Law and Health Initiative (LAHI).
Berlin, Germany. Lusaka, Zambia. How have mobile phones, the Internet and computers changed people's lives on the African continent? To find out, eLearning Africa has launched an online photography contest. The organisers are inviting people from Africa to submit images that show how they live, learn and work with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
Networks of people living with HIV in southern Sudan are trying to overcome deficiencies in the limping health system and broken infrastructure by spreading information about the pandemic and reducing stigma and denial.
At the moment Jon Qwelane is in the middle of controversy for being appointed Ambassador to Uganda. Before focusing on the present, let us rewind to the 1980s when Qwelane was a reporter for the Star. At that time a fake priest, Ebenezer Maqina, purporting to represent the Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo), who later disowned him, repeatedly claimed attacks by United Democratic Front (UDF) supporters. He was awarded honours by cities and similar recognition.
UNICEF and the Graduate Program in International Affairs (GPIA) at The New School will host an international conference on adolescent girls in April 2010. With an emphasis on reviewing existing evidence and policies, the conference will focus on the role and potential agency of adolescent girls in meeting emerging global challenges.
Arriving at the airport in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, you have a fair chance that the newish-looking taxi taking you into town will not be the usual French or Japanese model, but Iranian. And it will not have been imported, as most cars in Africa are, but assembled in nearby Thiès.
The Horn of African region remains the locus of some of the long-running wars and local conflicts which are becoming sources of domestic turmoil and regional instability. Specially, the years 2010-12 will be extremely critical for the sub-region.
The government seeks to create a land bank which businesses and investors can tap into and has sent out a second appeal to Kenyans to offer their property for sale. The move follows investors’ growing appetite for land to build houses, warehouses and put up businesses.
The Egyptian government has announced that it would be sending a committee to assess farmland in Uganda to grow wheat to then import back into Egypt. Egypt is the leader in wheat consumption and has historically relied mostly on imports. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Egypt consumes 14 million tons of wheat a year but is only able to produce 8 million tons.
An Italian village is hoping to reverse its population decline by welcoming refugees from around the world. The immigrants get free room and board and are expected to work and learn Italian in return. The project is proving highly successful - but the local Mafia aren't happy.
Ethiopia’s recent history is punctuated by famine. Severe droughts, on-going conflicts and stagnating agricultural growth have been reproducing widespread food insecurities for decades. Compounded by cereal prices doubling over the last year, many people are struggling to meet even their most basic food needs. Concurrently the World Food Programme has had to reduce emergency food rations due to the high global food prices.
Nigeria's long-drawn political impasse, caused by the failure of President Umaru Yar'Adua to transfer power to his deputy while on a prolonged medical treatment in Saudi Ara bia, may soon be over, if assurances given Thursday by one of his aides are anything to go by.
The African Union Commission Chief Jean Ping, has informed Eritrea to send an ambassador to represent it in Addis Ababa, the seat of the African Union (AU), despite Eritrea's frosty relations with hosts, Ethiopia.
Women human rights activists in Mauritius, under the umbrella Women in Politics (WIP), have asked political parties to field women as one-third of their candidates in the next general elections. They said one woman should be among the three candidates that each party shall field in each of the 20 constituencies of the island.
Against the backdrop of continued widespread gender discrimination worldwide, the European Union (EU) has urged Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to "urgently" speed up the creation of the proposed new U.N. agency for women.
The World Bank has joined the push to make 2010 a conflict-free year for the African continent, Bank President Robert Zoellick, has said here.'We recognize the pioneering role African regional organizations have played in managing conflict across the continent and we can learn from them,' said Zoellick, who led America's trade diplomacy before moving to the World Bank as President.
Employees of the African Union (AU) have demanded that the new AU Chairperson should address outstanding demands for benefit and security. The staff urged the new AU Chair, Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika, who would be presiding over the 53-member continental organization for the next 12 months, to make sure that they would be beneficiaries of attractive benefit packages.
Angolan head of state, José Eduardo dos Santos, formed a new government marked by the creation of the post of Vice-president of the Republic which will be occupied by the incumbent speaker of the National Assembly, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos "Nando", according to official sources.
Cancer control programmes - Up to 40 per cent of all cancers could be prevented through changes in lifestyle and improved prevention and screening policies, the WHO Regional Office for Europe said ahead of the World Cancer Day on 4 February.
A UN report sys the number of people in southern Sudan in need of food quadrupled during the past year. "The conflicts and drought have increased the number of southerners in need of food aid from 1 million in 2009 to 4.3 million at the beginning of 2010," the report released by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday, said.
A Ghana High Court, sitting in Accra, has dropped a four-year-old defamation suit brought against 'Akosua', a cartoonist with the privately-owned Accra-based Daily Guide newspaper.
African leaders have called for an end to detention of political opponents and reiterated the need to end an African era dominated by the grabbing of political power. African Union (AU) Chairman, President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, said key among the decisions reached during the Addis Ababa Summit which ended Tuesday was to call for an end to the political crises in Guinea, Madagascar and an end to illegal takeover of power in Africa.
The African Union has weighed in again on the vexed question of Western targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and other officials of his former Zanu PF administration, Harare sources said.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister (PM) Morgan Tsvangirai are locked in a fresh power struggle after the former instructed government ministers to report to his two vice-presidents by-passing the Premier – a clear breach of the former foes' power-sharing agreement.
Zimbabwe may have to import over half the maize it needs this year to cover a deficit after drought has destroyed crops and left the country facing a severe food shortage, a farmers' group has said. The former regional bread basket has relied on food aid and imports since 2001, after President Robert Mugabe's government seized commercial farms from whites to resettle landless blacks, most of whom were poorly equipped and underfunded.
Uganda's controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill is likely to be changed, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Henry Okello Oryem. However, he did not give details of how he thought the final bill would be different to the current proposals.
A ruling by the African Commission on Human and People's Rights condemning the expulsion of the Endorois people from their land in Kenya is a major victory for indigenous peoples across Africa, Human Rights Watch, WITNESS, and the Endorois' lawyers have said.
When people buy diamond jewellery, they often want to convey love or commitment to someone dear and special. But, this jewellery, if it contains diamonds from the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe, could have a bloody past signifying mistreatment and abuse.
The Obama administration should adopt recommendations in a report issued to help stop the flow of stolen money into the United States, Human Rights Watch said.
An estimated 5.23 million people will require emergency food assistance up to December 2010 with the net food requirement including TSF needs being 290,271 MT estimated to cost around USD 231.3 million according to the Joint Government and Humanitarian Partners' Humanitarian Requirement Document released on 2 February 2010
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned today the continued harassment and intimidation of the reporters of the Plateau Radio and Television Corporation (PRTVC) by soldiers in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. Three reporters of the media house were molested by soldiers in Jos on Thursday, January 21, 2010, while on Sunday, January 24 PRTVC reporters were again repeatedly manhandled by soldiers in the exercise of their duties.
The United Nations refugee agency has reported that a sharp rise in violence in Somalia in January left nearly 260 civilians dead, in addition to uprooting over 80,000 and causing widespread destruction. According to local sources, intense clashes between Government forces and militia groups fighting in the strife-torn central regions have also left 253 civilians wounded.
Dozens of African leaders met in Ethiopia to tackle the challenges facing the continent in the effort to meet the United Nations target of ensuring universal access to malaria control measures by the end of this year. Some 26 heads of State convened the first working session of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) during the annual African Union (AU) summit, which got under way in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW) demonstrates and promotes a youth-led approach to development, implementing internationally recognised programmes across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. SPW is looking for a Country Director with relevant professional experience and a passion for SPW’s mission to place young people at the forefront of change and development. Closing date for applications: 18th February 2010, 5pm GMT (UK time)
Egyptian border police shot dead two African migrants who tried to escape into Israel through the Sinai border, bringing the number of migrants killed this week to four. Police sources say they refused orders to stop. They were a 26-year-old Eritrean and a 27-year-old migrant of unknown nationality.
Two Ugandan journalists with the Daily Monitor newspaper - Henry Ochieng, editor and Angelo Izama, a staff writer - were yesterday charged with criminal libel at the Makindye Chief Magistrates Court over an article the State claims defamed President Museveni.
The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) is demanding the arrest of a security guard from the University of Zimbabwe, after a student leader was ‘severely’ beaten in a crackdown by police and security guards on a public students meeting.
Infighting in one of Darfur's rebel groups has driven at least 10,000 people from their homes in the restive Jabel Marra area, deepening the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's west, officials said. Darfur's rebels have fractured into dozens of groups since their rebellion began in early 2003, hindering peace efforts and increasing insecurity in Sudan's west, where the United Nations estimates a humanitarian crisis has claimed 300,000 lives.
One of Nigeria's most politically turbulent states goes to the polls on Saturday to elect a new governor in a vote seen as a test of the country's ability to hold credible national elections in 2011. vThe governorship vote in southeastern Anambra state is the first in a cycle of state and federal polls culminating in presidential elections next year.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given a grant of $7 million over five years to the American Cancer Society to lead and coordinate the African Tobacco Control Consortium, a global coalition of public health-oriented organizations focusing on using evidence-based approaches to stem the tobacco epidemic in Africa.
Researchers have reported results of a clinical trial showing that a new vaccine - Mycobacterium vaccae (MV) - is effective in preventing tuberculosis in people with HIV infection. The DarDar Health Study, named for Dartmouth and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, found that MV immunization reduced the rate of definite tuberculosis by 39 percent among 2,000 HIV-infected patients in Tanzania.
The humiliating ritual has become a way of life for the 19-year-old, who lives in a shack with her parents in a section of the sprawling township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town. There are no toilets for the hundreds of families crammed into the shantytown known as QQ section.
The latest national survey from market research company Synovate shows Kenya’s Internet market is growing fast and on the basis of this growth will soon reach “critical mass”. The growth in users is coming from both urban and rural areas and is predominantly amongst the young and well educated.
An Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison on Friday in connection with a January 2008 column that criticized Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s statements about religious affairs in Ethiopia, according to local journalists.
Morocco has strongly criticised a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, and the response to the document in Moroccan civil society has been divided. Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were among 15 North African and Middle Eastern countries, and over 90 countries worldwide, discussed in the 612-page World Report 2010, HRW's 20th annual review of human rights around the globe.
HIV-positive Justine Kirumira* is a mother torn between doing what is right for her daughters and her own fear of HIV/AIDS. She suspects that her eight and 12-year-old daughters may also have the virus. But she may never know the truth of their status because she refuses have them tested.
A stalemate between labour unions and business associations is preventing Egyptian authorities from setting a minimum wage that could improve the lot of millions of citizens living in poverty.
The threat by influential Christian leaders to mobilise a vote against Kenya's draft constitution if it does not explicitly prevent any expansion of abortion rights appears to have succeeded.
Even though the global economy appeared to start growing again during the closing months of 2009, labour markets showed little sign of improving. The number of unemployed persons is estimated at 212 million in 2009, representing an increase of almost 34 million over the number of unemployed in 2007, with the bulk of this increase occurred in 2009. This issue of Global Employment Trends analyses the impact of the global economic crisis on labour markets worldwide.
In this week's emerging powers news roundup, are Chinese investments in Africa a ploy for the Asian nation to take away Africa's natural resources? India steps up to challenge China's primacy in Africa, and South African companies aim to become the continent's corporate captain.