Full Coverage: Africa

30.03.2004 A surprise decision by Angola to reject genetically modified (GM) food aid threatens to disrupt distributions to 1,9-million vulnerable people -- many of them newly returned after the country's two-decade civil war -- the United Nations food agency has said.

30.03.2004 Just days ahead of the 10-year anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the United Nations last week hosted a memorial conference to mark the occasion, which served as an opportunity to review past mistakes and draw lessons for the future.

29.03.2004 "My excitement upon arriving at a weekend workshop of the Anti-Privatization Forum in South Africa and seeing a room filled with community activists - more than half of them women - was abated as the workshop progressed and I realized that most of the women were not participating." Alternatives intern Dawn Paley maps the reality that while Black women often dominate the membership of South African social movements, they remain deeply marginalized within them.

29.03.2004

29.03.2004 A leading activist group today joined a growing chorus of critics of U.S. efforts to exclude generic anti-AIDS drugs from distribution through any U.S.-funded program. The EU has reportedly pulled out of a meeting to start today that is widely believed to be aimed at questioning the efficacy of generic drugs, and Canada is considering a similar move, according to AIDS activists.

29.03.2004 Swaziland's 40% HIV+ rate is threatening to turn crisis into calamity in the small kingdom that has also suffered several years of drought. Rapidly rising death rates from AIDS mean that fewer and fewer working-age people are alive to harvest food. More than 100,000 Swazi children are AIDS orphans.

29.03.2004 Mentre in questi giorni è stata presentata una mozione parlamentare che presenta in nove punti una nuova politica dell'Italia per l’Africa, la società civile e le istituzioni si mobilitano. A metà settimana parte il 4° "Forum Mondiale delle Città contro la povertà" che rilancia l'impegno alla cancellazione del debito e alla cooperazione decentrata. A seguire ci sarà il prossimo 17 aprile la prima manifestazione per l'Africa e poi il 30 aprile le "8 donne al G8".

29.03.2004 L'impacte de les sequeres, la pandèmia de vih/sida i l'incessant augment de la inflació i l'atur han provocat el col·lapse de l'economia i del serveis socials i han sumit Zimbabwe en una crisi humanitària sense precedents que obliga el 60% de la població a dependre de l'ajuda internacional, segons l'Escola de Cultura de Pau de la UAB. L'entitat alerta que aquesta situació, juntament amb la tensió política que pateix el país a causa de les fraudulentes eleccions presidencials en què Mugabe va renovar el seu mandat, han portat a un enfrontament civil que podria degenerar en un conflicte armat.

29.03.2004 El impacto de las sequías, la pandemia de vih/sida y el incesante aumento de la inflación y el desempleo han provocado el colapso de la economía y de lo servicios sociales y han sumido Zimbabue en una crisis humanitaria sin precedentes que obliga al 60% de la población a depender de la ayuda internacional, según la Escuela de Cultura de Paz de la UAB. La organización alerta que esta situación, unida a la tensión política que sufre el país tras las fraudulentas elecciones presidenciales en las que Mugabe renovó su mandato, han llevado a un enfrentamiento civil que podría degenerar en un conflicto armado.

29.03.2004 The UNHCR wants to repatriate 10 000 Angolan refugees this year, but some Angolan refugees have happily settled into the Namibian way of life and are reluctant to return, sceptical about peace, safety and infrastructure in their home country.

29.03.2004 With Liberians returning from neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea in a sign of increased confidence in the West African country's peace process, the United Nations refugee agency said last week it was scrambling to provide emergency relief since poor security in some areas did not allow returnees to go back to their homes.

29.03.2004 The Supreme Court will be asked to rule whether the re-arrest of 13 Caprivi Treason Trialists released in February was lawful. The 13 were released because the circumstances surrounding their capture in Zambia and return to Namibia were irregular

27.03.2004 Pour alimenter le conflit armé qui dure depuis dix ans au Burundi, des chefs militaires ont recruté et enlevé des mineurs, ruinant leur enfance et leur avenir. En octobre 2001, le gouvernement burundais et l'UNICEF ont signé un protocole d'accord selon lequel l'UNICEF apporterait au gouvernement un soutien technique et financier afin de développer un plan de démobilisation et de réinsertion des enfants soldats. Dans ce rapport, Amnistie internationale explique les enjeux.

26.03.2004

© WWF

To preserve the ecological integrity of the waters surrounding a string of small, biodiverse islands off the coast of Tanzania a leading environmental group is carrying out an innovative program featuring small loans to local fisherman allowing them to invest in new, more sustainable fishing gear.

26.03.2004

© Chandra Foundation

Hospitals in Tanzania were all set to fight AIDS, until they realized there were no trained clinicians to administer the anti-retrovirals needed to keep patients alive. Enter a little South-South cooperation, add some funding and solidarity, and voila, 60 trained health workers are ready to save lives.

26.03.2004 A gathering of civil society groups from around the world heard Zimbabwean groups complain that African governments and regional organizations are not speaking up loudly enough about the political situation in their country, as well as sharp criticisms of World Bank development formulas.

26.03.2004 The Torra Bay conservancy in Namibia’s remote Damaraland region recently scooped the Equator Prize at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Malaysia. The conservancy is the first rural community project from Southern Africa to win the prestigious award.

26.03.2004 Yhdysvallat on näkyvästi käyttänyt arvovaltaansa nopeuttaakseen Irakin velkahelpotuksia, samalla kun Etiopialle jo luvattuja helpotuksia pantataan yhä. Jubilee research –järjestön mukaan tämä osoittaa HIPC-velkahelpotusohjelman poliittisuuden: kyse ei olekaan pelkistä taloudellisista lainalaisuuksista vaan ennen kaikkea ulkopolitiikasta ja vallasta.

26.03.2004 Namibia’s media is amongst the freest in Africa, according to Reporters without Borders’ 2003 Annual Report. The country’s standing was harmed, however, when President Nujoma temporarily appointed himself Minister of Information and took over the beleaguered Namibian Broadcasting Corporation

From: Reporters Without Borders

26.03.2004 The practice of hunting and eating bushmeat in Central Africa is infecting people with a new virus. While it has not caused illness, it has spread — and scientists are watching carefully. A primate virus is thought to have triggered today's HIV pandemic.