Africa

28 November 2007 -- Human rights advocates say China is not doing enough to address the crisis in Sudan's troubled region of Darfur. One group is calling on corporate sponsors of the 2008 Olympic Games to push China to do more. But their responses have also drawn criticism.

U.S.-based advocacy group Dream for Darfur says corporate sponsors of the Olympics in Beijing have failed to do their part to pressure China to ensure peace in Darfur.    » read more »

27 November 2007 -- Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says his country is prepared for a possible war with neighboring Eritrea, and warned that an invasion by Eritrea would lead to that country's destruction. His comments came three days before a deadline for demarcating their common border. Mr. Meles also acknowledged that Ethiopia is bogged down in another conflict in Somalia.    » read more »

Addis Ababa -- 25 November 2007 -- The United States says it is more than doubling humanitarian aid to Ethiopia's troubled Ogaden region. The announcement was made Saturday following talks beween top U.S. foreign aid officials and Ethiopia's prime minister on the importance of stability in the Horn of Africa region. The meeting came days before a deadline in the simmering border dispute between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea.    » read more »

Washington, D.C. -- November 15, 2007 -- The closure of three independent radio stations by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) earlier this week has left war-torn Mogadishu virtually devoid of reliable media outlets as the situation in Somalia becomes increasingly desperate, Freedom House said today.

The station closures coincide with the arrests of human rights activists Ali Farah Mohammed and Amir Hashi Ibrahim of the Center for Peace and Democracy (CPD), a human rights organization in Mogadishu that was also temporarily closed earlier this week.    » read more »

JOHANNESBURG, November 14, 2007 – Many African economies appear to have turned the corner and may be moving to a path of faster and steadier economic growth needed to reduce high levels of poverty, according to the World Bank Africa Development Indicators 2007 (ADI), released here today.    » read more »

November 14, 2007 – After years of stop-and-start results, many African economies appear to be growing at the fast and steady rates needed to put a dent on the region’s high poverty rate and attract global investment.

The encouraging trend is shown in the World Bank Africa Development Indicators 2007 (ADI) released today. The report is based on more than a thousand indicators covering economic, human and private-sector development, governance, environment, and aid.    » read more »

Nov 13, 2007 -- BUGESERA REGION, Rwanda — A young Rwandan boy leaves barefoot on a 3-mile walk to retrieve water for his family who lives in a home with no electricity or running water. The six-mile commute consumes most of his day, keeping him from enrolling in school.

The Bugesera region of eastern Rwanda has solved the problem of water versus school, by building the Shyara School across the street from a communal well. Now children can bring empty water containers to school and fill them when school is dismissed.    » read more »

November 13, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today expressed his heartfelt sympathy to the people of Darfur at a “New Jersey Lights Torch for Darfur” event in Newark, New Jersey.

“America and the international community have a moral responsibility to work together to stop the violence in Darfur. China in particular must be held accountable and use its influence with Sudan to help end the genocide. We must apply the lessons of past atrocities to what is taking place and bring peace to Darfur,” said Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ).    » read more »

13 November 2007 -- Government authorities in Somalia on Tuesday ordered two more radio stations off the air, a day after shutting the popular Radio Shabelle station. The closures follow a surge in violence in Mogadishu as Ethiopian troops backing the government battle Islamist-led insurgents.

The closure of Radio Simba and Radio Banadir on Tuesday, and of Radio Shabelle a day earlier, has prompted outcries from local and international press groups.    » read more »

12 November 2007 -- Experts on lung disease meeting in South Africa are warning the world could face a tuberculosis crisis if drug resistant strains of TB are not contained and if TB testing does not become a regular part of HIV treatment.

Three thousand experts from 100 countries ended a five-day conference in Cape Town warning that urgent measures are needed to address the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis and its growing presence among victims of HIV/AIDS.    » read more »

12 November 2007 -- The treatment of neglected tropical diseases, as well as malaria, in developing countries was the focus of a recent conference in Washington, DC. The term “neglected tropical diseases” is used to describe a group of illnesses that don’t receive enough funding, due to the fact that although they hurt people, they don’t kill them.    » read more »

13 November 2007 -- The former foreign minister of Somalia who is now minister of education says the violence in Mogadishu does not reflect the reality in the rest of the country. Ismael Mohamoud Hurreh says the rest of Somalia is moving away from statelessness and chaos toward stability.

From Baidoa, the seat of the transitional federal parliament, Hurreh told VOA transitional government forces have been conducting mopping up operations in Mogadishu in recent days.    » read more »

12 November 2007 -- The group of illnesses known as neglected tropical diseases continue to strike people across Africa. The diseases are called “neglected” because they don’t receive enough funding, due to the fact that although they damage people, they don’t kill them.    » read more »

08 November 2007 -- Rising violence in and around Somalia’s capital Mogadishu has forced thousands to flee the city for makeshift accommodations and camps along roads and towns outside the capital. Somali-born professor of geography at the University of Minnesota, Abdi Samatar, says the disruption and displacement of thousands of people can be attributed to a complex mixture of forces.    » read more »

07 November 2007 -- An advisory this week from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group is alerting world bodies and governments to stop Ethiopia and Eritrea from sliding back into a protracted border war. Although both sides agreed in Algiers in 2000 to halt their boundary dispute, which flared up in 1998, and abide by rulings of an international commission, tensions have grown since 2002, when Ethiopia blocked physical demarcation of the border and Eritrea blocked UN peacekeepers from carrying out their mission.    » read more »