Full Coverage: Africa

31.05.2006 WASHINGTON, DC, May 31 (OneWorld) - A dramatic shift of funds and priorities is needed to stem the tide of the global AIDS pandemic, said women's health advocates in Washington, DC last week, marking the 25th anniversary of the disease's discovery.

31.05.2006 Amnesty International ha diffuso oggi immagini inedite sulla distruzione di massa di una grande comunità dello Zimbabwe, fornendo la prova dell’impatto devastante della politica di demolizione delle case adottata dal governo di Harare. "Se mai ve ne fosse ancora bisogno, queste immagini costituiscono la prova inconfutabile che il governo dello Zimbabwe ha raso al suolo intere comunità, cancellandole completamente dalle mappe, come se non fossero mai esistite” – denuncia l’organizzazione per i diritti umani. Il 28 giugno 2005, nell'ambito dell’operazione “Restaurare l’ordine”, un convoglio di veicoli militari e camion entrò a Porta Farm e ridussero in briciole la zona. I poliziotti minacciarono fisicamente chiunque tentasse di opporre resistenza. Il giorno dopo la polizia tornò e completò la devastazione, caricando a forza le persone a bordo dei camion. E Save the Children riporta che i bambini che attraversano il confine dallo Zimbabwe al Mozambico finiscono spesso nelle reti dello sfruttamento sessuale o di imprenditori senza scrupoli. Molti di questi sono orfani oppure 'non accompagnati' e perciò particolarmente vulnerabili.

31.05.2006 The trial of a Dutch businessman accused of trading weapons for timber concessions in Liberia during the 14-year civil war that left 250,000 dead has come to an end.

31.05.2006 The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) have launched the Sudan Open Archive, an open-access digital library for Sudan, containing documents that until now were largely unavailable in digital form.

30.05.2006 On a journey to Africa a year after his involvement in Live8 and Make Poverty History, Midge Ure, Save the Children Ambassador and Band Aid trustee, finds that even small fees for healthcare are beyond the means of the world's poorest and that every year 250,000 children die in Africa because they can’t afford to see a doctor or a nurse. Watch the video...

30.05.2006 Mogadishu's Keysaney hospital was taken by armed fighters yesterday, despite repeated calls by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Somali Red Crescent Society for medical facilities to be spared.

29.05.2006 For many African governments, moves towards embracing e-governance have gone little beyond the opening of websites for state ministries and departments.

29.05.2006 South African police are targetting people they perceive to be foreigners for harassment, according to human rights bodies.

26.05.2006

26.05.2006 The dispute between Somaliland and Somalia will become an ever-increasing source of friction, and possibly violence, unless the African Union engages in preventive diplomacy, the International Crisis Group has warned.

26.05.2006 The partial Sudan peace deal signed in Abuja in May is unravelling in Darfur and the international community appears paralysed in the face of Khartoum’s objections to a UN force, warned a US African affairs lobby group.
* Government allows UN to assess proposed Darfur mission
* Darfur: no peace, no food
* Darfur needs robust protection force
* Joint UN-AU assessment team to visit Darfur within days

26.05.2006 Joseph Kony, the indicted commander-in-chief of the insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army, has announced that he is ready to hold peace talks with the Ugandan government to end two decades of fighting.

26.05.2006 Prospects for much of Africa are more positive than they have been in the recent past, says a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, though it does not underestimate the obstacles of poor governance, conflict, and extreme poverty.

26.05.2006 "It seems as if everyone is at war against everyone," said one human rights worker in Mogadishu Thursday as fighting re-erupted in what many believe is a battle over control of the local trade of a light drug called khat.

26.05.2006 Bursting with talent and eternally tipped as the coming force, African countries won't win this World Cup, or the next one, writes David Runciman. The reason? For all the money splashing around, nothing is changing at the grassroots.

25.05.2006 Government forces in Ivory Coast, their allied militias and rebels are all committing serious abuses against civilians, says a new report that warns of serious concerns about violence in the run-up to the October elections.

25.05.2006 LUSAKA, ZAMBIA, May 23 (OneWorld) - Africa Freedom Day, which falls on May 25th, is a day in which as Africans we observe the creation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and pay tribute to the Heads of State, who through a common vision of unity, decided to seek a joint African solution to the dichotomy facing Africa in the 1960s.

24.05.2006 "When you just look at the need, I feel like it's too hard to ignore," said Green Bay Packers running back Samkon Gado, who worked undercover at a local Wisconsin hospital this off-season to further his goal of returning to Nigeria to practice medicine.

24.05.2006 The Tunisian authorities "have once again demonstrated their complete disregard for freedom of expression" by arresting and deporting a board member of International Amnesty Switzerland.

24.05.2006 President Issaias Afeworki has been asked to mark Eritrea's independence anniversary today by releasing all prisoners of conscience, including 13 journalists held incommunicado.