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Nigeria: Can an amnesty work with Boko Haram?

April 9, 2013 Boko Haram

Last week, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan appeared ready to look at amnesty for members of Boko Haram. The radical Islamist movement sent contradictory signals back.

World Bank Nods At Senegal Graft Probe

December 14, 2012 World Bank MD Sri Mulyanui Indrawati

An official of the World Bank has welcomed the Senegalese government’s quest to recover state resources allegedly siphoned by officials of the government of ex-President Abdoulaye Wade..

Those under investigation, including Wade’s son Karim, face accusations of amassing ill-gotten fortunes running into millions of dollars.

S. Leone suffers safe drinking water hiccup

December 14, 2012 An African child gets a drink of clean water

Most communities in Sierra Leone, including the capital, Freetown, are facing serious shortages of safe drinking water, with the most affected being children and women who become vulnerable to water-borne diseases.

According to the 2011 State of the World Children report, the lives of nearly 4,000 children could be saved in Sierra Leone, if it met the Millennium Development Goals to halve the proportion of people without safe drinking water by 2015.

ICRC re-unites hundreds of Ivorian families

December 12, 2012 A group of Ivorian women refugees in Liberia

In Cote d’Ivoire, the post-election crisis may be over, but its consequences, such as insecurity, tension between communities and a country awash with small arms, are still present everywhere.

The conflict cost some 3,000 lives and left hundreds more injured, traumatized and internally or externally displaced.  


 

Monrovia Mayor deplores poor sanitation in many African cities

December 11, 2012 Mary Broh, Mayor of Monrovia

“Lack of proper sanitation and hygiene in many African cities is very troubling, embarrassing and depressing,” the Mayor of the Liberian capital, Monrovia, Mary Broh, has said.

She was one of thousands of delegates to Dakar's recent Africities meeting, swapping ideas on making Africa's cities cleaner and more efficient.

Ex-Malian PM Cheikh Modibo Diarra – A Profile

December 11, 2012 Chieck Modibo Diarra, ex-Malian PM

By Chris Simpson

Although the son-in-law of former president Moussa Traoré, Cheikh Modibo Diarra stayed away from Malian politics for most of his adult life.

Diarra was known instead as one of Mali’s brightest stars in the diaspora. He was a renowned astrophysicist, studying first in Paris and then at Howard University in the United States, before going on to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). At Nasa, Diarra was a leading interplanetary navigator, heavily involved with the Mars Pathfinder mission.

 

Why Nigeria kidnapping shift to rich locals?

December 11, 2012 Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

In the not too distant past, kidnappings in Nigeria targeted oil companies’ Western workers, but there has been a dramatic shift to prominent members of the society too often for ransom.

The surge in kidnappings has seen singers, “Nollywood” film stars and now the elderly mother of the Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala becoming victims of abductions.

S. Leone: Poor sanitation threat still looms, no gov't action

December 11, 2012 Doctors treating a cholera patient

Poor sanitation was cited as the key cause of Sierra Leone’s worst cholera epidemic experienced this year, claiming over 2,086 lives.

But since the outbreak subsided a few months ago, there has been no major change in the overall sanitary condition, with rubbish in almost every street corner, especially in the capital, Freetown, which was hardest hit.

3m condoms for Nigerian carnival

December 10, 2012 Multi-colored men's condoms

A Nigerian anti-AIDS agency has acquired over three million condoms to distribute at the Carnival Village in Calabar this year.

There are around 250,000 persons currently living with HIV/AIDS in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, says the Cross River State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS (SACA).

U.S. gives $9m boost to Monrovia power supply

December 10, 2012 US Amb. Deborah Malec & Pres. Ellen Sirleaf

Electricity in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, remains notoriously in short supply and erratic despite a gradual electrification of parts of the city.

But now, the US government has stepped in to boost the service, providing a 9 million dollar grant.