Though these children and teens are ill and may not have an upbeat outlook on life, they are putting their time to good use and into a positive activity.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Positive: Rwandan growth could reach 10%
Rwanda's booming manufacturing and farming sectors could push growth in the country to 10% this year, according to the Rwandan central bank governor.
Agriculture is particularly strong and is growing at a minimum rate of 10%, said Francois Kanimba.
But Rwanda's growth rate is likely to fall to 6-7% next year because of the global financial crises.
Several African countries are feeling the fallout of the financial crisis and are readjusting their growth forecasts.
"The current assumption we have [for 2009] is a growth rate of 6-7%, not more," Mr Kanimba told Reuters news agency.
He also said that the drop in commodity prices, a slowdown in the growth of manufacturing and services and a decrease in the amount of remittances Rwanda received would contribute to the lower figure.
Agricultural growth
But he maintained a positive outlook on 2008's growth figures.
"I do not see why economic growth will not be close to 10%."
"Agriculture output is growing at a minimum of 10% ...manufacturing and service sectors over the last five years have averaged higher than 10%," he added.
The forecast 2008 growth rate figures are considerably higher than last year figure of 6%.
Rwanda has been trying to revamp its battered economy since the 1994 genocide. It is particularly ramping up its farming, tourism, mining and energy sectors.
Franc fears
At the same time, Mr Kanimba revealed that the Rwandan franc is overvalued by 10-15%.
The governor attributed the overvaluation to Rwanda's high inflation rate compared to its trading partners.
Inflation in the country stood at 21.9% in October. Mr Kanimba said he anticipated the figure would fall to single digits in 2009.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
African Artists Finally Get a Chance to Really Shine
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- MTV launches its first-ever music award program for Africa, with acts from across the world's poorest continent nominated for prizes in the Nigerian capital.
Peter Okoye of P-Square rehearses Friday for the MTV Africa Music Awards show in Abuja, Nigeria.
Alison Reid, a spokeswoman for MTV Networks Africa, says winners were being selected by fans sending text messages.
Africa has long featured a vibrant music scene, but artists have had difficulties breaking into overseas markets.
MTV hopes Saturday night's awards show offers the artists more exposure and celebrates the continent's artistry.
Nigerian R&B duo P-Square is competing in five categories including best group, best R&B act and the evening's top award, artist of the year. Performers from South Africa, Kenya, Ghana,Gabon and others are also nominated.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Rapid Care Cuts Baby's HIV Risk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7736120.stm
Rapid drug treatment of babies with HIV dramatically cuts their risk of death and debilitating disease, international research shows. The study prompted the World Health Organization to change its guidelines, which had recommended delaying therapy until symptoms became apparent. It found giving antiretroviral therapy (ART) straight after diagnosis cut the risk of death from Aids by 76%. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It is to be hoped that this will save countless babies across the world
Professor Mark Cotton
Comprehensive International Program of Research on Aids
The study, of 377 HIV-positive South African babies, found that babies given treatment immediately after they were diagnosed with HIV cut their risk of dying from the infection to just 4%. In comparison, the risk of death for those whose treatment was delayed until their levels of key immune system CD4 cells began to fall, or other symptoms emerged, was 16%.
Immediate treatment also cut the chance of disease progressing measurably by 75%, from 26% to 6%. The findings were so conclusive that treatment for all babies was re-assessed at the preliminary stage of the trial.
Unexpected findings
Professor Diana Gibb, from the Medical Research Council clinical trials unit worked on the study.
She said: "We did not expect to see differences so soon between the infants receiving early treatment and those in the group where treatment started only when immunity was falling or symptoms developed."
Lead researcher Dr Avy Violari, from the Comprehensive International Program of Research on Aids (CIPRA-SA) said: "Our results reinforce the view that there are no reliable predictors for small infants as to how their disease is progressing.
"CD4 counts do not tell us with enough accuracy if babies under a year of age are becoming sick.
"What was alarming was the speed of disease progression; some infants could seem fine in the morning and get sick and die by nightfall. Some did not even make it to the hospital.
"When these early data were analysed, it became clear that treating all infants at the earliest opportunity after diagnosis was the best course of action."
Saving lives
Her CIPRA-SA colleague Professor Mark Cotton, who also played a key role in the study, said he was delighted that the study had led to changes in the WHO guidelines.
He said: "It is to be hoped that this will save countless babies across the world, especially in low-income countries where mother-to-child transmission is still common.
"However, in order to start ART early, it is important to undertake HIV viral diagnosis very early in life which does require a programme with both manpower and resources."
Professor Gibb also stressed that avoiding mother-to-child transmission in the first place was the top priority.
She said: "These drug regimens are no picnic for these babies and even with improved outcomes in early life, there is still no cure for Aids."
The WHO issued a statement in which it confirmed the study had been instrumental in its decision to revise its guidelines.
Rapid drug treatment of babies with HIV dramatically cuts their risk of death and debilitating disease, international research shows. The study prompted the World Health Organization to change its guidelines, which had recommended delaying therapy until symptoms became apparent. It found giving antiretroviral therapy (ART) straight after diagnosis cut the risk of death from Aids by 76%. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It is to be hoped that this will save countless babies across the world
Professor Mark Cotton
Comprehensive International Program of Research on Aids
The study, of 377 HIV-positive South African babies, found that babies given treatment immediately after they were diagnosed with HIV cut their risk of dying from the infection to just 4%. In comparison, the risk of death for those whose treatment was delayed until their levels of key immune system CD4 cells began to fall, or other symptoms emerged, was 16%.
Immediate treatment also cut the chance of disease progressing measurably by 75%, from 26% to 6%. The findings were so conclusive that treatment for all babies was re-assessed at the preliminary stage of the trial.
Unexpected findings
Professor Diana Gibb, from the Medical Research Council clinical trials unit worked on the study.
She said: "We did not expect to see differences so soon between the infants receiving early treatment and those in the group where treatment started only when immunity was falling or symptoms developed."
Lead researcher Dr Avy Violari, from the Comprehensive International Program of Research on Aids (CIPRA-SA) said: "Our results reinforce the view that there are no reliable predictors for small infants as to how their disease is progressing.
"CD4 counts do not tell us with enough accuracy if babies under a year of age are becoming sick.
"What was alarming was the speed of disease progression; some infants could seem fine in the morning and get sick and die by nightfall. Some did not even make it to the hospital.
"When these early data were analysed, it became clear that treating all infants at the earliest opportunity after diagnosis was the best course of action."
Saving lives
Her CIPRA-SA colleague Professor Mark Cotton, who also played a key role in the study, said he was delighted that the study had led to changes in the WHO guidelines.
He said: "It is to be hoped that this will save countless babies across the world, especially in low-income countries where mother-to-child transmission is still common.
"However, in order to start ART early, it is important to undertake HIV viral diagnosis very early in life which does require a programme with both manpower and resources."
Professor Gibb also stressed that avoiding mother-to-child transmission in the first place was the top priority.
She said: "These drug regimens are no picnic for these babies and even with improved outcomes in early life, there is still no cure for Aids."
The WHO issued a statement in which it confirmed the study had been instrumental in its decision to revise its guidelines.
Happy Article: S. Africa treats 68 cholera patients on Zimbabwe border
S. Africa treats 68 cholera patients on Zimbabwe border
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South Africa has treated 68 cholera patients since the weekend in a town by the border with Zimbabwe, where the disease has killed dozens of people in recent weeks, a health official said Wednesday.
"Since Saturday, we have received and treated a total of 68 cholera patients from Zimbabwe," said Phuti Selobi, spokesman for the health department in the town of Musina said.
"Sixty-six of them are Zimbabweans while two others are South Africans engaged in cross-border business," Selobi told AFP.
"Only 14 of them are still in the hospital," he added, noting that no one has died of cholera in South Africa.
Musina is a sprawling town near the main border crossing between the countries. Zimbabwe has suffered 73 cholera deaths in the latest outbreak, caused by the breakdown of sanitation in the country.
"We have set up a rehydration centre near the border to handle cases and to relieve the hospital. Not all patients need to visit a hospital to get cholera treated," Selobi said.
He insisted that South Africa did not face a cholera threat because the two countries do not share a common water source.
Up to 1.4 million people in Zimbabwe are at risk of the water-borne disease, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.
State media in Zimbabwe said Tuesday that 36 people have died since Friday in Beitbridge, just across the border from Musina.
Zimbabwe's health system, once among the best in Africa, has collapsed under the weight of the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million percent in July.
Cholera is endemic in parts of rural Zimbabwe, but had been rare in the cities, where most homes have piped water and flush toilets.
But after years of economic crisis, the nation's infrastructure is breaking down, leaving many people without access to clean water or proper sanitation.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hFU1BNa6WThX1EbSh4XqxgX8WLtA
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South Africa has treated 68 cholera patients since the weekend in a town by the border with Zimbabwe, where the disease has killed dozens of people in recent weeks, a health official said Wednesday.
"Since Saturday, we have received and treated a total of 68 cholera patients from Zimbabwe," said Phuti Selobi, spokesman for the health department in the town of Musina said.
"Sixty-six of them are Zimbabweans while two others are South Africans engaged in cross-border business," Selobi told AFP.
"Only 14 of them are still in the hospital," he added, noting that no one has died of cholera in South Africa.
Musina is a sprawling town near the main border crossing between the countries. Zimbabwe has suffered 73 cholera deaths in the latest outbreak, caused by the breakdown of sanitation in the country.
"We have set up a rehydration centre near the border to handle cases and to relieve the hospital. Not all patients need to visit a hospital to get cholera treated," Selobi said.
He insisted that South Africa did not face a cholera threat because the two countries do not share a common water source.
Up to 1.4 million people in Zimbabwe are at risk of the water-borne disease, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.
State media in Zimbabwe said Tuesday that 36 people have died since Friday in Beitbridge, just across the border from Musina.
Zimbabwe's health system, once among the best in Africa, has collapsed under the weight of the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million percent in July.
Cholera is endemic in parts of rural Zimbabwe, but had been rare in the cities, where most homes have piped water and flush toilets.
But after years of economic crisis, the nation's infrastructure is breaking down, leaving many people without access to clean water or proper sanitation.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hFU1BNa6WThX1EbSh4XqxgX8WLtA
UN makes record $7bn aid appeal.
The UN has launched its largest ever annual aid appeal, saying it will need $7bn (£4.6bn) to help 30 million people in 31 countries during 2009.
The amount is almost double the 2008 appeal due to soaring food prices and crises in Africa, among other factors.
Sudan is the subject of the largest individual appeal, at $2bn, followed by Somalia, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, and Iraq.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged countries to give generously despite the economic crisis.
"The global financial crisis has raised inevitable concerns that there could be a decline in humanitarian funding in 2009. I urge member states and private donors not to let that happen," Mr Ban said in a foreword to the appeal.
The UN's chief humanitarian official John Holmes said the aid target equates to only a "few cents of aid" for every $100 of national income in rich countries.
The money will be used to provide drinking water, emergency shelter, medicine and other basic necessities to people in Africa and the Middle East.
African states will receive the most assistance from the Humanitarian Appeal 2009, the largest since the creation of the so-called Consolidated Appeals Process in 1991.
The UN is seeking $2.2bn dollars for Sudan, $919m for Somalia, $831m for the Democratic Republic of Congo, $550m for Zimbabwe, and smaller sums for Kenya, Chad, Uganda, Central African Republic and Ivory Coast.
The latest appeal also includes a request of $547m for programmes in Iraq and surrounding countries, and $462m for Palestinian territories.
Last year, the UN asked for $3.8bn in its initial appeal, and later sought $3.2bn more in "flash appeals" to respond to natural disasters in Bolivia, Madagascar, Myanmar, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Yemen, and southern Africa.
Donors only provided $4.7bn of that $7bn total.
As a percentage of economic output, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Monaco, Luxembourg and Sweden were the top five humanitarian aid providers in 2008, according to UN figures.
Darfur women still face rape risk
Women and girls in Darfur are still subjected to widespread rape and sexual assault five years after the start of the conflict, Human Rights Watch says.
The New York-based group said neither the Sudanese security forces nor international peacekeepers were doing enough to protect women from attack.
Pro-government militias have been accused of using attacks on women to terrorise the civilian population.
Sudan's army has criticised a UN report accusing soldiers of raping women.
The report, released last month, said witnesses saw soldiers joining in attacks by the Janjaweed, raping girls and taking part in the looting of towns in West Darfur.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur since rebels took up arms in 2003, according to the UN. Two million have fled their homes.
Changing pattern
Rape and sexual assault have been a constant feature of the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur.
According to Human Rights Watch, as the conflict has become more complex, the pattern of sexual violence has changed.
Women and girls are now as likely to be assaulted in periods of calm as during attacks on their villages and towns.
Government soldiers, militiamen, and rebel fighters all also targeting women on the fringes of camps for displaced people spread around the region.
The Sudanese government has said it is committed to stopping the sexual violence, but in practice, little or nothing is being done.
Most victims are too afraid to report attacks. When they do, Sudanese police are usually unwilling or unable to act and soldiers are still effectively immune from civil prosecution.
The presence of UN and African Union peacekeepers has helped deter attacks in some areas.
But Human Rights Watch says they must extend their operations, providing patrols to protect women who venture outside the camps to gather firewood.
More women police officers and more sensitive procedures to help victims are also required, it says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7333844.stm
The New York-based group said neither the Sudanese security forces nor international peacekeepers were doing enough to protect women from attack.
Pro-government militias have been accused of using attacks on women to terrorise the civilian population.
Sudan's army has criticised a UN report accusing soldiers of raping women.
The report, released last month, said witnesses saw soldiers joining in attacks by the Janjaweed, raping girls and taking part in the looting of towns in West Darfur.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur since rebels took up arms in 2003, according to the UN. Two million have fled their homes.
Changing pattern
Rape and sexual assault have been a constant feature of the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur.
According to Human Rights Watch, as the conflict has become more complex, the pattern of sexual violence has changed.
Women and girls are now as likely to be assaulted in periods of calm as during attacks on their villages and towns.
Government soldiers, militiamen, and rebel fighters all also targeting women on the fringes of camps for displaced people spread around the region.
The Sudanese government has said it is committed to stopping the sexual violence, but in practice, little or nothing is being done.
Most victims are too afraid to report attacks. When they do, Sudanese police are usually unwilling or unable to act and soldiers are still effectively immune from civil prosecution.
The presence of UN and African Union peacekeepers has helped deter attacks in some areas.
But Human Rights Watch says they must extend their operations, providing patrols to protect women who venture outside the camps to gather firewood.
More women police officers and more sensitive procedures to help victims are also required, it says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7333844.stm
Negative story: Fighting in Congo despite rebel promises
KANYABAYONGA, Congo---- Villages in the mountains of eastern Congo that once housed tens of thousands of people were nearly deserted Monday after Congo's army clashed with rebels in some of the worst fighting in a week.
The battles north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma came even as rebel leader Laurent Nkunda promised a U.N. envoy he would support a cease-fire as well as U.N. efforts to end the fighting that has displaced 250,000 people since August.
The few people remaining in Kanyabayonga were preparing to leave Monday, packing yellow jerry cans and bedrolls before setting off on foot. Congolese army soldiers also were seen fleeing the rebel advance.
The two sides battled Sunday night about 10 miles (17 kilometers) from here in Rwindi. About 150 people took refuge outside a U.N. peacekeeping base, huddling beside a shipping container as mortar shells and artillery fire rained down.
''These blue helmets would not let us inside, but it's better than nothing,'' said Clement Elias, 20, referring to the U.N. peacekeepers. He said he heard 100 explosions Sunday night.
There was no immediate word on casualties, according to U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich.
''Everybody is trying to push the other side back,'' Dietrich said. ''It's very regrettable that they could not respect the cease-fire.''
On Monday, Rwindi was quiet but rebels were seen walking freely, carrying generators and boxes of ammunition. The town is tiny, housing little else but a headquarters for Virunga National Park and a peacekeeping base, which is surrounded by barbed wire and sandbags.
Dozens of civilians were sitting under trees Monday, listening to the radio for news. Rwindi is about 75 miles (125 kilometers) north of Goma.
The Central African nation has the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission, with some 17,000 troops, but the peacekeepers have been unable to either stop the fighting or protect civilians caught in the way.
On Sunday, the U.N. envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, met with Nkunda for the first time, after speaking with President Joseph Kabila.
Nkunda launched a rebellion in 2004, claiming to protect ethnic Tutsis from Hutu militias who fled to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide left more than 500,000 Tutsis and others slaughtered. But critics say Nkunda is more interested in power and Congo's mineral wealth.
Fighting among armed groups has ground on for years in eastern Congo's lawless North Kivu province, but the violence sharply escalated in August.
Congo's government says it is willing to meet Nkunda, but only with the many other militias in the region. Nkunda has criticized the government for signing deals with Chinese companies to exploit Congo's cobalt and copper.
Some fear Congo's current crisis could once again draw in neighboring countries. Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war split the vast nation into rival fiefdoms and involved half a dozen African armies.
The battles north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma came even as rebel leader Laurent Nkunda promised a U.N. envoy he would support a cease-fire as well as U.N. efforts to end the fighting that has displaced 250,000 people since August.
The few people remaining in Kanyabayonga were preparing to leave Monday, packing yellow jerry cans and bedrolls before setting off on foot. Congolese army soldiers also were seen fleeing the rebel advance.
The two sides battled Sunday night about 10 miles (17 kilometers) from here in Rwindi. About 150 people took refuge outside a U.N. peacekeeping base, huddling beside a shipping container as mortar shells and artillery fire rained down.
''These blue helmets would not let us inside, but it's better than nothing,'' said Clement Elias, 20, referring to the U.N. peacekeepers. He said he heard 100 explosions Sunday night.
There was no immediate word on casualties, according to U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich.
''Everybody is trying to push the other side back,'' Dietrich said. ''It's very regrettable that they could not respect the cease-fire.''
On Monday, Rwindi was quiet but rebels were seen walking freely, carrying generators and boxes of ammunition. The town is tiny, housing little else but a headquarters for Virunga National Park and a peacekeeping base, which is surrounded by barbed wire and sandbags.
Dozens of civilians were sitting under trees Monday, listening to the radio for news. Rwindi is about 75 miles (125 kilometers) north of Goma.
The Central African nation has the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission, with some 17,000 troops, but the peacekeepers have been unable to either stop the fighting or protect civilians caught in the way.
On Sunday, the U.N. envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, met with Nkunda for the first time, after speaking with President Joseph Kabila.
Nkunda launched a rebellion in 2004, claiming to protect ethnic Tutsis from Hutu militias who fled to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide left more than 500,000 Tutsis and others slaughtered. But critics say Nkunda is more interested in power and Congo's mineral wealth.
Fighting among armed groups has ground on for years in eastern Congo's lawless North Kivu province, but the violence sharply escalated in August.
Congo's government says it is willing to meet Nkunda, but only with the many other militias in the region. Nkunda has criticized the government for signing deals with Chinese companies to exploit Congo's cobalt and copper.
Some fear Congo's current crisis could once again draw in neighboring countries. Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war split the vast nation into rival fiefdoms and involved half a dozen African armies.
Congo Militia Fires at Peacekeepers
It's the second time in a week that the international peacekeeping force was under attack by pro-government fighters. "United Nations troops exchanged fire Wednesday with militia fighters who attacked them in the Democratic Republic of Congo", a military spokesman for the U.N. mission there said. No U.N. troops were wounded in the incident, but at least one of the militia fighters was wounded or killed, he added.
The attackers were Mai Mais calling themselves Resistance Congolese Patriots. The groups had been allied with the government against rebels under the command of Laurent Nkunda, but have recently begun attacking government troops as well.
"Before firing at us, they were asking for food and money," Dietrich said. "We did not give them anything, we just drove on, and they attacked us."
The U.N. troops were originally approached by four or five fighters, but came under fire from two or three different directions, suggesting more militia may have been involved, the spokesman said, citing an incident report written by the U.N. forces who were attacked.
Fighting between government forces and Nkunda's rebels has displaced more than 250,000 people - adding to roughly 800,000 already driven from their homes by previous violence, according to U.N. figures.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/19/congo.un.fighting/index.html
The attackers were Mai Mais calling themselves Resistance Congolese Patriots. The groups had been allied with the government against rebels under the command of Laurent Nkunda, but have recently begun attacking government troops as well.
"Before firing at us, they were asking for food and money," Dietrich said. "We did not give them anything, we just drove on, and they attacked us."
The U.N. troops were originally approached by four or five fighters, but came under fire from two or three different directions, suggesting more militia may have been involved, the spokesman said, citing an incident report written by the U.N. forces who were attacked.
Fighting between government forces and Nkunda's rebels has displaced more than 250,000 people - adding to roughly 800,000 already driven from their homes by previous violence, according to U.N. figures.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/19/congo.un.fighting/index.html
Praise singer in training
Acornhoek - He may only be 11, but Devine Mukansi knows what he wants to be when he grows up - the president's personal praise singer.
Mukansi, who is in grade six at Khokhobela primary school in Silington village in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga, is already an accomplished performer.
He recently won the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's (Dwaf) regional Baswa le Meetse (youth for water) award for his recital of a Xitsonga poem about water and sanitation.
"The moment I open my mouth, everyone listens and pays more attention. That atmosphere gives me the strength to carry on with pride," said Mukansi, who has been reciting poems since he was five.
Poetry before crowds
"I now see myself reciting poetry in front of a huge crowd before the president addresses people," he adds.
Mukansi also wants to study law because he believes his public speaking skills will make him a good representative for victims of abuse.
His idol, he says, is the poet Mzwakhe Mbuli.
The poem he recited for the Dwaf competition was written by his class teacher, Lina Mkhabela.
"I am really happy about the competition because it also educated us about sanitation and water management in our area," said Mukansi, who lives in an area where residents still collect water from rivers and wells.
His poem impressed the judges because it was informative and educational while his performance was riveting.
Mukansi's teacher said that when she composed the poem, she didn't know Mukansi would recite it so powerfully.
"The boy is very talented and made me proud. I would not have recited it that way. He made the message touching and informative," said Mkhabela.
Encore
He was even asked to give a repeat performance.
Mukansi won a cash prize of R6 000 as well as 10 computers, DSTV, a plasma screen TV and a water supply pump for his school.
The competition is held annually and is sponsored by MTN, ABSA, Play-pumps International and Rand Water.
Children are exposed to practical projects that will enable them to identify water and sanitation problems in their schools and communities and try solve them.
- African Eye
posted by - Vincent Deamon
Mukansi, who is in grade six at Khokhobela primary school in Silington village in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga, is already an accomplished performer.
He recently won the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's (Dwaf) regional Baswa le Meetse (youth for water) award for his recital of a Xitsonga poem about water and sanitation.
"The moment I open my mouth, everyone listens and pays more attention. That atmosphere gives me the strength to carry on with pride," said Mukansi, who has been reciting poems since he was five.
Poetry before crowds
"I now see myself reciting poetry in front of a huge crowd before the president addresses people," he adds.
Mukansi also wants to study law because he believes his public speaking skills will make him a good representative for victims of abuse.
His idol, he says, is the poet Mzwakhe Mbuli.
The poem he recited for the Dwaf competition was written by his class teacher, Lina Mkhabela.
"I am really happy about the competition because it also educated us about sanitation and water management in our area," said Mukansi, who lives in an area where residents still collect water from rivers and wells.
His poem impressed the judges because it was informative and educational while his performance was riveting.
Mukansi's teacher said that when she composed the poem, she didn't know Mukansi would recite it so powerfully.
"The boy is very talented and made me proud. I would not have recited it that way. He made the message touching and informative," said Mkhabela.
Encore
He was even asked to give a repeat performance.
Mukansi won a cash prize of R6 000 as well as 10 computers, DSTV, a plasma screen TV and a water supply pump for his school.
The competition is held annually and is sponsored by MTN, ABSA, Play-pumps International and Rand Water.
Children are exposed to practical projects that will enable them to identify water and sanitation problems in their schools and communities and try solve them.
- African Eye
posted by - Vincent Deamon
Somali pirates 'out of control'
Kuala Lumpur - An international watchdog said on Wednesday that piracy in Somalia was "out of control" and called on the United Nations to step in after a Saudi supertanker was hijacked with $100m of oil.
Saturday's brazen taking of the Sirius Star was one of almost 100 attacks on ships since January, and the tanker was by far the largest vessel taken by Somali pirates - and the one taken furthest out to sea.
"The situation is already out of control," said Noel Choong, head of the piracy reporting centre at the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
"The UN and the international community must find ways to stop this menace," Choong said. "With no strong deterrent, low risk to the pirates and high returns, the attacks will continue."
Somalia is one the world's poorest and most lawless countries, and the well-armed pirates have proven to be all but unstoppable in the Gulf of Aden. Kenyan authorities say three ships have been hijacked since the Sirius Star.
But the capture of the supertanker - a high-tech vessel the size of three football fields, which was taken 800km off the coast of Kenya in the Indian Ocean - was a sign of the reach of the pirate gangs.
Well armed
According to a recording broadcast on Al-Jazeera, a man identified as Farah Abd Jameh said his group had machines that could detect fake money in case authorities tried to pay the ransom with counterfeit bills.
The amount demanded was not disclosed, but he said the group had negotiators on board the ship as well as on land. The IMB says that at least 17 ships, with more than 250 crew on board, are still in the hands of pirates.
"They're very well armed. Tactically they are very good," Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of staff, said this week. He said the pirate gangs were "very good at what they do".
The Gulf of Aden effectively controls access to the Suez Canal, which allows ships to go from Europe to Asia without having to take the much longer and more expensive route around the southern tip of Africa.
NATO, the United States and a number of European nations have all sent ships to the region to try to stop the piracy, which has only increased instead.
The German navy said on Tuesday one of its frigates had foiled attacks on two ships in the Gulf of Aden, using a helicopter to chase off pirates who fled in their speedboats.
The Sirius Star, the Saudi supertanker, is at anchor off Puntland - a breakaway northern state in Somalia - where the pirates have shown they can virtually operate at will.
Many of the pirates have made small fortunes from their activities, which have broad support from many Somalis, including shopkeepers who are able to charge them higher prices for their goods in the impoverished nation.
Meanwhile shipping companies have usually decided to pay the ransom demanded, eager to get crews and goods home safely, and at least one major shipper has said it will no longer use the Suez route through the Gulf of Aden.
Norway's Odfjell said on Monday its vessels would now go around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
"The re-routing will entail extra sailing days and later cargo deliveries. This will incur significant extra cost, but we expect our customers' support and contribution" to cover the costs, CEO Terje Storeng said.
- SAPA -->
Posted by- Vincent Deamon
Saturday's brazen taking of the Sirius Star was one of almost 100 attacks on ships since January, and the tanker was by far the largest vessel taken by Somali pirates - and the one taken furthest out to sea.
"The situation is already out of control," said Noel Choong, head of the piracy reporting centre at the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
"The UN and the international community must find ways to stop this menace," Choong said. "With no strong deterrent, low risk to the pirates and high returns, the attacks will continue."
Somalia is one the world's poorest and most lawless countries, and the well-armed pirates have proven to be all but unstoppable in the Gulf of Aden. Kenyan authorities say three ships have been hijacked since the Sirius Star.
But the capture of the supertanker - a high-tech vessel the size of three football fields, which was taken 800km off the coast of Kenya in the Indian Ocean - was a sign of the reach of the pirate gangs.
Well armed
According to a recording broadcast on Al-Jazeera, a man identified as Farah Abd Jameh said his group had machines that could detect fake money in case authorities tried to pay the ransom with counterfeit bills.
The amount demanded was not disclosed, but he said the group had negotiators on board the ship as well as on land. The IMB says that at least 17 ships, with more than 250 crew on board, are still in the hands of pirates.
"They're very well armed. Tactically they are very good," Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of staff, said this week. He said the pirate gangs were "very good at what they do".
The Gulf of Aden effectively controls access to the Suez Canal, which allows ships to go from Europe to Asia without having to take the much longer and more expensive route around the southern tip of Africa.
NATO, the United States and a number of European nations have all sent ships to the region to try to stop the piracy, which has only increased instead.
The German navy said on Tuesday one of its frigates had foiled attacks on two ships in the Gulf of Aden, using a helicopter to chase off pirates who fled in their speedboats.
The Sirius Star, the Saudi supertanker, is at anchor off Puntland - a breakaway northern state in Somalia - where the pirates have shown they can virtually operate at will.
Many of the pirates have made small fortunes from their activities, which have broad support from many Somalis, including shopkeepers who are able to charge them higher prices for their goods in the impoverished nation.
Meanwhile shipping companies have usually decided to pay the ransom demanded, eager to get crews and goods home safely, and at least one major shipper has said it will no longer use the Suez route through the Gulf of Aden.
Norway's Odfjell said on Monday its vessels would now go around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
"The re-routing will entail extra sailing days and later cargo deliveries. This will incur significant extra cost, but we expect our customers' support and contribution" to cover the costs, CEO Terje Storeng said.
- SAPA -->
Posted by- Vincent Deamon
Nel may be sentenced on Friday
Johannesburg - The trial of Skierlik killer Johan Nel has been postponed to Friday for judgment and possible sentencing, SABC news reported on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old is standing trial in the Mmabatho High Court in Mafikeng for the January 14 shooting spree which left four people dead and several others wounded.
The attack, believed to have been racially motivated, was carried out in the Skierlik informal settlement near Swartruggens in the North West.
Enoch Tshepo Motshelanoka, 10, Anna Moiphitlhi, 31, her three-month-old baby Kegitlho Elizabeth Moiphitlhi and Sivuyile Banani, 35, were killed in the shooting spree.
Nel has since pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including 4 of murder and 11 counts of attempted murder.
On Wednesday, a psychologist told the court that Nel deserved a sentence of between 20 and 25 years.
Superintendent Lesego Metsi, a police spokesperson attending the trial in the Mmabatho High Court, told Sapa earlier that psychologist Kobus Truter had recommended the sentence during his testimony in court.
The SABC also reported that Truter said the fact that Nel's family and friends had repeatedly been victims of violent crime made him believe that white people were under attack.
The court heard that Nel was given a suspended sentence after shooting and paralysing a man cutting grass alongside a railway line near Rustenburg in 2003.
Metsi said two state psychologists were expected to testify next.
- SAPA -->
- Posted by Vincent Deamon
The 19-year-old is standing trial in the Mmabatho High Court in Mafikeng for the January 14 shooting spree which left four people dead and several others wounded.
The attack, believed to have been racially motivated, was carried out in the Skierlik informal settlement near Swartruggens in the North West.
Enoch Tshepo Motshelanoka, 10, Anna Moiphitlhi, 31, her three-month-old baby Kegitlho Elizabeth Moiphitlhi and Sivuyile Banani, 35, were killed in the shooting spree.
Nel has since pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including 4 of murder and 11 counts of attempted murder.
On Wednesday, a psychologist told the court that Nel deserved a sentence of between 20 and 25 years.
Superintendent Lesego Metsi, a police spokesperson attending the trial in the Mmabatho High Court, told Sapa earlier that psychologist Kobus Truter had recommended the sentence during his testimony in court.
The SABC also reported that Truter said the fact that Nel's family and friends had repeatedly been victims of violent crime made him believe that white people were under attack.
The court heard that Nel was given a suspended sentence after shooting and paralysing a man cutting grass alongside a railway line near Rustenburg in 2003.
Metsi said two state psychologists were expected to testify next.
- SAPA -->
- Posted by Vincent Deamon
Sad & Happy Stories from Africa
Rare gorillas threatened by rebels
(CNN) -- The survival of several hundred rare gorillas is threatened by rebel fighters who have taken over the animals' sanctuary, a spokeswoman for the Virunga National Park said Tuesday.
The gorilla sector of the park "has been swallowed up in this conflict," said Samantha Newport, communications director for the refuge.
She fears for the animals' safety, not least because mountain gorillas do not always flee the sound of gunfire and mortars, she said.
"There are documented cases of the gorillas getting caught in the crossfire and getting killed," she said. "It's the chaos of war and they are right in the middle of it."
That leaves the situation "extremely precarious" for the critically endangered species, she said.
About 200 of the world's 700 known mountain gorillas lived in the park when rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's men took control of the gorilla section last year, Newport said. At least nine gorillas are known to have been killed in Virunga National Park last year.
There are no mountain gorillas in captivity, she added. "The mountain gorillas live in the wild. They don't reproduce in captivity."
Nkunda's fighters seized the headquarters of the park on October 26, park officials announced last month, a move park director Emmanuel de Merode called "unprecedented."
The seizure forced hundreds of rangers who normally monitor the gorillas to flee.
The rangers "track and monitor the mountain gorillas," freeing them from snares and intervening medically in life-threatening situations, Newport said. "It's really important to keep track on a daily basis."
That has been impossible for weeks, she said. "There has been a complete lack of knowledge about the gorillas for some time. Nkunda's forces control about 50 percent of the park, including the gorilla sector."
The gorilla section of the park lies in a strategically important area near the borders of Rwanda and Uganda, she explained.
Fighting between Congolese government soldiers and rebels led by Nkunda has displaced more than 250,000 people. That's in addition to roughly 800,000 who already had been driven from their homes, according to the United Nations.
On Sunday, even as there was fighting in North Kivu province, Nkunda met with Olusegun Obasanjo, the U.N. special envoy for the area.
"Laurent Nkunda engaged on two things in my presence: the respect of the ceasefire on the one hand and on the other, the maintenance of humanitarian corridors in order to give unconditional access to assist vulnerable populations," Obasanjo said following the meeting.
But Obasanjo said nobody could say for certain what Nkunda wanted to gain from his offensive.
Virunga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Africa's oldest national park. It was formerly known as Albert National Park
Electoral commission approved
17/11/2008 12:07 - (SA)
Khartoum - Sudan's parliament on Monday approved an electoral commission, a crucial step towards scheduled national polls and a democratic transition laid out in peace arrangements after a 21-year civil war.
The nine-member commission, which will be headed by a former vice president of Sudan and political independent from the south, was passed overwhelmingly by 298 votes for and 12 votes against, said an AFP reporter.
Two women were also given positions on the commission.
The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by north and south after a devastating two-decade civil war, calls for elections no later than 2009, although efforts to implement the accord have hit major delays.
The electoral law was approved by parliament on July 7, two and a half years late. The electoral commission should have been appointed within a month of its approval.
AFP (www.news24.com)
Africans elated by first black U.S. president
(CNN) -- Celebrations erupted in Barack Obama's ancestral home in Kenya and across Africa as the U.S. Democratic candidate made history by being elected America's first African-American president.
In the western Kenyan village of Kogelo, where Obama's father grew up, people partied in the streets. But the biggest party of all was at the house of Obama's grandmother, 86-year-old Sarah Obama, who could not resist doing a victory dance of her own.
Speaking in the local language, Sarah Obama said she planned to one day visit her now-world-famous grandson, whom she still calls "Barry." To a roar of laughter, she said she's afraid she may die of happiness when she sees him next.
In true African style, Kogelo villagers slaughtered a boar to give thanks for Obama's presidential win.
"We are going to have a feast and eat every single meal we have," Sarah Obama said with laughter.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the entire country was proud of Obama's presidential victory. He said the government declared Thursday a public holiday to celebrate the win, which he said offered hope for Kenya and the world.
"It gives them confidence in themselves that everything is achievable," Odinga told CNN.
"If somebody sets his mind to it, has the confidence and commitment, this is what Obama's victory really means -- not just to young Kenyans but to the youth all over the world -- (believing) in the ability of one to achieve what one sets out to do."
With a population of less than 1,000, Kogelo is a normally sleepy place that has found itself transformed by Obama's political success. Campaign posters shout Obama's name and vendors sell CDs of his speeches and T-shirts bearing his picture.
Obama has visited the village before. His first visit was in 1987, just after his father died. When he visited his grandmother in 2006, Obama already drew huge crowds.
Besides his grandmother, Kogelo is also home to Obama's uncle, Said Obama; aunt, Hawa Auma; and half-brother, Malik Obama, who says he speaks regularly to his sibling.
Thousands of people have been posting messages on CNN blogs congratulating Obama and America after the Democrat's victory over Republican rival John McCain.
Yvonne Okwara, from Kenya, wrote: "Obama's win is so personal to so many of us, it continues to amaze me. One thing America has taught us today is that true democracy never dies."
Basimane Bogopa, from Botswana, added: "Americans have shown once again, why they are world leaders. Obama's victory has shown me that the American dream is real, you just have to dream. My heart is filled with joy."
Many Africans believe an Obama presidency will help the impoverished continent. His victory is likely to seal America's reputation in the minds of many Africans as a land of opportunity.
And for South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, the election of America's first is a symbol of hope.
"Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place," Mandela said in a letter of congratulations to Obama.
Zimbabweans in remote area eat termites to survive
MHANGURA, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Katy Phiri, who is in her 70s, picks up single corn kernels spilled from trucks that ferry the harvest to market. She says she hasn't eaten for three days.
Rebecca Chipika, a child of 9, prods a stick into a termite mound to draw out insects. She sweeps them into a bag for her family's evening meal.
These scenes from a food catastrophe are unfolding in Doma, a district of rural Zimbabwe where journalists rarely venture. It's a stronghold of President Robert Mugabe's party and his enforcers and informants are everywhere.
At a school for villagers visited by The Associated Press, enrollment is down to four pupils from 20. The teachers still willing to work in this once thriving farming and mining district 160 miles (250 kilometers) northeast of Harare, the capital, say parents pay them in corn, cooking oil, goats or chickens. One trip by bus to the nearest bank to draw their government salaries costs more than teachers earn in a month.
Meanwhile, the country is in political paralysis following disputed elections in March. A power-sharing deal signed two months ago has stalled over the allocation of ministries between Mugabe's party and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change.
Shingirayi Chiyamite is a trader from Harare who brings household goods to the countryside to barter for crops. He says a 12-inch bar of laundry soap exchanges for 22 pounds of corn. He crisscrosses the land in search of the few villages that have corn to spare, hauls his purchases to the highway and hitchhikes back to the city. Some of the corn will feed his family, the rest he sells. He is constantly on the move.
"If you rest, you starve," he says.
Information is almost as scarce as food. Survival is the obsession.
Cell phones operate only sporadically. State radio has not been received since the district relay beacon broke down eight months ago.
Mhangura, a town of about 3,000 people, has had no running water for months. Power outages happen daily because of a lack of cash to maintain utilities. People walk about three miles to a dam to fill pails or gasoline cans.
Some of the scarce water is used to embalm the dead in wet sand, a centuries-old African tradition to preserve a body until family members gather for the burial.
"There's nothing here. People are dying of illness and hunger. Burial parties are going out every day," said Michael Zava, a trader in Mhangura.
The hospital that serves the district is closed, and so is its small morgue, so there's no way of telling how many are dying, Zava said. Children's hair is discoloring, a sign of malnutrition. Adults are wizened and dressed in rags -- they have no cash for new clothes.
Zava said he has seen villagers plucking undigested corn kernels from cow dung to wash and eat. A slaughtered goat is eaten down to everything but hooves, bones and teeth. Crickets, cicadas and beetles also can make a meal.
The food crisis began after 2000, when Mugabe launched an often violent campaign to seize white-owned farms and give them to veterans of his guerrilla war against white rule over the former British colony.
Officials from Mugabe's party toured the Doma district recently and told the new farm owners that the government could not supply their needs. People were advised to make do with what seed they had left, and with animal manure for fertilizer.
Ordinarily, after harvest the cotton fields are burned to protect the next year's crop from disease. Not this year. People couldn't afford to buy new seeds, and were hoping to get another season out of last year's crop. Instead, the crops came up diseased.
Pasture has been burned by poachers to scare rabbits and rodents into traps. Deer are being hunted for food, and lions from remote parts of the Doma region and Chenanga nature reserve are killing cattle, donkeys and goats, villagers said.
Jackals, baboons and goats compete with villagers for roots and wild fruits.
The wild guava season is over and matamba, a hard orange-like fruit, cannot safely be eaten until ripe. Villagers pick the fruit and cover it with donkey or cow dung, leaving it in the sun to hasten ripening.
Katy Phiri, the grandmother collecting corn kernels, said she put her trust in God.
"There's nothing else I can do," she said. "I have never gone this hungry before."
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Negative News: New fighting in Congo despite rebel pledges
New fighting in Congo despite rebel pledges
(CNN) -- Government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have engaged in heavy fighting with rebels despite their leader's pledge to back a cease-fire, the United Nations and witnesses said Monday.
The clashes forced government troops to abandon the eastern Congolese town of Rwindi on Sunday, according to U.N. spokesman Madnodje Moumoubai.
The clashes raged roughly 125 kilometers (75 miles) north of the provincial capital of Goma and smashed a tenuous cease-fire between rebels and government forces.
Scores of people tried to take refuge under artillery fire at a United Nations peacekeeping base in the town but without success, according to The Associated Press.
"These blue helmets would not let us inside, but it's better than nothing," Clement Elias, 20, told AP, referring to the U.N. peacekeepers. He said he heard 100 explosions Sunday night.
U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich could give no details about casualties.
"Everybody is trying to push the other side back," Dietrich said. "It's very regrettable that they could not respect the cease-fire."
The reports came a day after former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said rebel leader Laurent Nkunda had promised to support the U.N.-brokered cease-fire aimed at ending a new wave of unrest and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the conflict-devastated country.
"Today is a great day for us because we were losing many men and material. Now we have a message of peace. We should work with this mission," Nkunda said following a two-hour meeting in Jomba, a rebel-held town near Congo's eastern border with Uganda, according to AP.
Fighting between government forces and Nkunda's rebels has displaced more than 250,000 people -- adding to roughly 800,000 already driven from their homes by previous violence, according to United Nations figures.
Obasanjo's meeting with Nkunda followed talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila in the capital, Kinshasa. Obasanjo said Kabila had expressed willingness to meet Nkunda but added that negotiations were still at an "exploratory stage."
He said he would tell Nkunda that the international community expected the warring sides to agree to a "durable cease-fire to address the issue of humanitarian crisis and tragedy," followed by a "durable peace and political stability."
The conflict in Congo has been complicated by ethnic tensions, the presence of a myriad of rebel factions and by the involvement of neighboring countries including Rwanda and Angola. Explainer: Behind Congolese conflict
Nkunda, a Tutsi, has repeatedly blamed the Congolese government for failing to protect Tutsis from attacks by Rwandan Hutus who fled over the border following the 1994 genocide that left hundreds of thousands of Tutsis dead.
On Friday Obasanjo met Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who told him there were no Angolan troops operating in the country, AP said. Obasanjo is next due to meet Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Fresh fighting also broke out Sunday in the town of Ndeko, 90 kilometers (50 miles) north of Goma, according to a spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers.
Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich said the fighting was "heavy" and had begun early in the morning. It was unclear who was involved, AP said.
On Saturday, the U.N. said it was considering relocating a refugee camp for up to 70,000 people near Goma to avoid the inhabitants getting caught up in the renewed fighting.
On Friday, the U.N. World Food Program started distributing several tons of food to rebel-held areas for the first time since October, a food program spokesman said.
Peter Smerdon said a dozen trucks, escorted by a U.N. peacekeeping force, brought in food to distribute in the towns of Rutshuru and Kiwanja, north of Goma.
Red Cross Secretary-General Jacques Katshitshi said conditions in refugee camps in the region were "extremely difficult," according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
"They shelter in churches, schools or wherever they can find a place to sleep. Additional temporary shelter is needed because people have to vacate the schools to facilitate the resumption of school lessons," Katshitshi said.
"There is a lack of food and water, and the hygiene conditions are terrible. Cases of malnutrition have been discovered in some of the camps. There might just be enough water to drink, but not enough for washing. This, combined with a lack of sanitation such as latrines, is putting people's health at risk."
Positive News: Israeli Army relaxes restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza
Israeli army relaxes restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza
17 November 2008The Israeli army allowed a limited number of trucks carrying humanitarian assistance into Gaza for the first time in two weeks on Monday. However, the long-term nature of the blockade and restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza has led to a situation where reserves have long been depleted.
"What is necessary, at a minimum, is for Israel to allow regular and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid, medical supplies and other basic necessities into Gaza," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
"The trickle of humanitarian and medical supplies which Israel allows into Gaza is not even enough to meet basic daily needs and certainly not enough to build reserves; so when the inflow is suspended even for a few days this immediately causes a crisis as there is no back up."
"It will last a matter of days. But then what?" Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said of the new supplies.
The Israeli army has not, however, relaxed the restrictions on the European Union-donated industrial fuel needed to power Gaza's power plant, meaning that a blackout continues in large parts of Gaza City.
Since the Israeli strikes that killed six Palestinian militants on 4 November, 10 others have been killed in Israeli air strikes and other attacks. These have prompting a daily barrage of Palestinian rockets into nearby Israeli towns and villages. Two Israeli civilians were lightly wounded, but, for the most part, these rockets fell in empty areas causing no casualties or damage.
Amnesty International has reiterated its call for an end to the dangerous spate of attacks and counter-attacks must be swiftly halted.
"Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups must immediately cease attacks and actions which put the lives of the civilian populations of Gaza and southern Israel at risk,” said Donatella Rovera. "The five-and-a-half-month ceasefire had brought some respite to civilians; both sides need to understand the consequences of their actions."
Full information at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGNAU200811178219&lang=e&rss=africa
Obama is asked to focus on Darfur. (Lead blogger article)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Human rights groups are asking President-elect Barack Obama to pay early attention to the crisis in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, where government forces have waged a bloody war against militias that some international critics have characterized as genocide.
"We've seen the military surge in Iraq. We've seen the development surge that NATO's announced for Afghanistan," said Darfur activist John Prendergast. "What's really needed in Sudan and the broader Horn and East Africa region is a peace surge."
Prendergast's ENOUGH organization to combat genocide is a project of the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank run by Obama's transition co-chairman, John Podesta.
Prendergast and other Darfur activists penned a recent letter to Obama, asking him to designate a team to focus solely on the Darfur issue within the first 100 days of his administration.
"It's about putting a few people, a team of people, on the case with the objective to end the crisis in Sudan, not simply manage the symptoms through massive amounts of humanitarian aid and peacekeeping support," he said.
Fighting in the western region of Darfur started in 2003, when rebels began an uprising and the government launched a counterinsurgency campaign.
The Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels draw In the past five years, an estimated 300,000 people have been killed through direct combat, disease or malnutrition, the United Nations said.
Another 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and allied Janjaweed militias.
During the presidential campaign, Obama called the crisis in Darfur "a collective stain on our national and human conscience" and said he would make ending it a priority on "Day One."
Obama has promised to appoint a special envoy to deal with the Darfur issue and implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended the decades-long civil war between the North and South. That agreement could be a model for a peace process in Darfur, Prendergast said.
Although the United States does not have to lead the peace process, it could be an active partner in the global effort to develop a strategy for getting the various parties in Sudan together, he said.
"There will be much bigger issues, much bigger fish to fry in the kitchen for the new Obama administration. No question," he said. "But part of governing is walking and chewing gum and eating crackers and doing all this stuff at the same time. And we think the administration can make the creation of a sustained serious peace process for Darfur a top priority."
Obama could have an opening to make a difference in Darfur. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has agreed to an immediate, unconditional cease-fire with Darfur's rebels, which could pave the way for international talks.
Activists have called on the incoming Obama administration to strengthen the current arms embargo and continue to support investigations by the International Criminal Court into war crimes by al-Bashir, leading Sudanese officials and certain members of rebel groups.
More pressure, Prendergast said, should be brought to bear on countries like China, which has vast oil interests in Sudan. During the campaign, Obama said that if elected, the crisis in Darfur would be elevated to a major issue in the bilateral U.S. dialogue with China.
Do you guys think Obama has what it takes to help save Darfur?
Do you think the U.S. should lead the peace process?
What do you guys think??
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/12/obama.darfur/index.html
"We've seen the military surge in Iraq. We've seen the development surge that NATO's announced for Afghanistan," said Darfur activist John Prendergast. "What's really needed in Sudan and the broader Horn and East Africa region is a peace surge."
Prendergast's ENOUGH organization to combat genocide is a project of the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank run by Obama's transition co-chairman, John Podesta.
Prendergast and other Darfur activists penned a recent letter to Obama, asking him to designate a team to focus solely on the Darfur issue within the first 100 days of his administration.
"It's about putting a few people, a team of people, on the case with the objective to end the crisis in Sudan, not simply manage the symptoms through massive amounts of humanitarian aid and peacekeeping support," he said.
Fighting in the western region of Darfur started in 2003, when rebels began an uprising and the government launched a counterinsurgency campaign.
The Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels draw In the past five years, an estimated 300,000 people have been killed through direct combat, disease or malnutrition, the United Nations said.
Another 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and allied Janjaweed militias.
During the presidential campaign, Obama called the crisis in Darfur "a collective stain on our national and human conscience" and said he would make ending it a priority on "Day One."
Obama has promised to appoint a special envoy to deal with the Darfur issue and implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended the decades-long civil war between the North and South. That agreement could be a model for a peace process in Darfur, Prendergast said.
Although the United States does not have to lead the peace process, it could be an active partner in the global effort to develop a strategy for getting the various parties in Sudan together, he said.
"There will be much bigger issues, much bigger fish to fry in the kitchen for the new Obama administration. No question," he said. "But part of governing is walking and chewing gum and eating crackers and doing all this stuff at the same time. And we think the administration can make the creation of a sustained serious peace process for Darfur a top priority."
Obama could have an opening to make a difference in Darfur. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has agreed to an immediate, unconditional cease-fire with Darfur's rebels, which could pave the way for international talks.
Activists have called on the incoming Obama administration to strengthen the current arms embargo and continue to support investigations by the International Criminal Court into war crimes by al-Bashir, leading Sudanese officials and certain members of rebel groups.
More pressure, Prendergast said, should be brought to bear on countries like China, which has vast oil interests in Sudan. During the campaign, Obama said that if elected, the crisis in Darfur would be elevated to a major issue in the bilateral U.S. dialogue with China.
Do you guys think Obama has what it takes to help save Darfur?
Do you think the U.S. should lead the peace process?
What do you guys think??
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/12/obama.darfur/index.html
60 killed in Burkina Faso bus crash. "Neg. Article"
(CNN) -- At least 60 people were killed Saturday in a collision between a bus and a truck in the West African country of Burkina Faso, according to local media reports.
The accident happened before dawn on a road west of the capital, Ouagadougou, The Associated Press reported, quoting state radio.
Many more bus passengers were injured as fire swept through the bus, according to state radio.
A local journalist told AP that firefighters were still battling the blaze eight hours after the crash. Moussa Souna said there were bodies trapped inside.
The cause of the crash was unknown, AP said. A regional official told AP the driver of the bus had survived the crash.
Road accidents are common across West Africa, especially toward the end of the rainy season as potholes fill with water.
Death tolls from traffic accidents tend to be high because of overcrowding on buses and because people travel on top of trucks, AP said.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/15/burkina.faso.accident/index.html
The accident happened before dawn on a road west of the capital, Ouagadougou, The Associated Press reported, quoting state radio.
Many more bus passengers were injured as fire swept through the bus, according to state radio.
A local journalist told AP that firefighters were still battling the blaze eight hours after the crash. Moussa Souna said there were bodies trapped inside.
The cause of the crash was unknown, AP said. A regional official told AP the driver of the bus had survived the crash.
Road accidents are common across West Africa, especially toward the end of the rainy season as potholes fill with water.
Death tolls from traffic accidents tend to be high because of overcrowding on buses and because people travel on top of trucks, AP said.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/15/burkina.faso.accident/index.html
Congo Violence Reaches Endangered Mountain Gorillas
Congo Violence Reaches Endangered Mountain Gorillas
BULENGO, Congo — Jean-Marie Serundori wakes up every morning with gorillas on his mind.
“I wash my face, I stare at the mountains and I think of them,” he said. “They are like our cousins.”
But Mr. Serundori, a Congolese wildlife ranger entrusted with protecting some of the most majestic — and most endangered — animals on the planet, is far from the broad-backed mountain gorillas he loves.
Instead, he is stuck in a wet and filthy camp for internally displaced people where the only wildlife are the cockroaches that scurry across the mud floors. He is one of the hundreds of thousands of people left idle and destitute by eastern Congo’s most recent spasm of violence, and the consequences in this case may be dire and irreversible.
Eastern Congo is home to almost a third of the world’s last 700 wild mountain gorillas (the rest are in nearby areas of Rwanda and Uganda). Now, there are no trained rangers to protect them. More than 240 Congolese game wardens have been run off their posts, including some who narrowly escaped a surging rebel advance last month and slogged through the jungle for three days living off leaves and scoopfuls of mud for hydration.
“We figured if the gorillas can eat leaves, so can we,” said Sekibibi Desire, who is staying in a tent near the other rangers.
This is just the latest crisis within a crisis. Congo’s gorillas happen to live in one of the most contested, blood-soaked pieces of turf in one of the most contested, blood-soaked corners of Africa. Their home, Virunga National Park, is high ground — with mist-shrouded mountains and pointy volcanoes — along the porous Congo-Rwanda border, where rebels are suspected of smuggling in weapons from Rwanda. Last year in Virunga, 10 gorillas were killed, some shot in the back of the head, execution style, park officials said.
The park used to be a naturalist’s paradise, home to more than 2,000 species of plants, 706 types of birds and 218 varieties of mammals, including three great apes: the mountain gorilla, the lowland gorilla and chimpanzees.
Now Virunga is a war zone.
Rebel soldiers command the hilltops. Government soldiers fire mortars at them, blowing up precious gorilla habitat that is rapidly disappearing anyway because of deforestation and an illegal charcoal trade.
“Armed groups hide in the park, they train in the park, and most importantly, they eat in the park,” said Samantha Newport, a spokeswoman for Virunga National Park.
Ms. Newport said that two years ago, at one of the lakes in the park, a local militia went on a hippopotamus-hunting rampage, machine-gunning hundreds of hippopotamuses for their meat.
“The lake turned red,” she said.
Eastern Congo has been stuck in a vise of bloodshed for more than a decade. The trouble began in 1994, with the genocide in Rwanda, which killed 800,000 people and sent waves of refugees into Congo, along with bloodthirsty militias. Since then, various armed groups and neighboring nations have battled for control of this stunningly beautiful land, loaded with gold, diamonds and other precious resources. Last month, a rebel force widely suspected of being supported by Rwanda routed government troops near the strategic city of Goma and was poised to capture it, when the rebels declared a cease-fire.
That cease-fire remains shaky. On Sunday, the same day that the rebels’ leader, Laurent Nkunda, vowed to stick to the truce, heavy fighting broke out north of Goma. Congolese troops fired rockets. The rebels responded with mortar bombs. Once again, game wardens were caught in the middle. Some of their families have even been shot.
Last month, the 14-year-old daughter of a ranger was shot in the stomach during a firefight near a ranger post deep in the forest. “I put her in my arms and just ran,” said her father, Mberabagabo Rukundaguhaya. “I thought she was dead.” She lived, though it is not clear when her family will be able to go home.
Officials with Virunga National Park are urging the rebels and government troops to allow them to return to work. The rebels insist the gorillas are safe.
“We are protecting them,” said Babu Amani, a rebel spokesman.
Mr. Serundori said that in his 20 years as a ranger, he has seen the gorillas more than 100 times.
“But what always impresses me is how fragile they are,” he said. “They could be wiped out — in a minute.”
France Moves to Add Troops
UNITED NATIONS — France began circulating a draft resolution on Monday that would temporarily authorize an additional 3,085 troops and police officers for the peacekeeping mission in the Congo to protect civilians in the eastern part of the country.
Closure of Zimbabwe Parliament Due to Lack of Funds - Negative Article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/14/zimbabwe-world-mugabe
• Parliament has run out of money and water
Lack of funds forces closure of Zimbabwe parliament, says MDC
• Parliament has run out of money and water
• High court, schools and hospitals have also shut
- guardian.co.uk, Friday November 14 2008 13.03 GMT
Zimbabwe's parliament has been forced to close because it has run out of cash and water, the opposition claimed today, as the country's economic crisis causes a virtual shutdown of public life.
Hotels in Harare have been refusing to accept MPs because the parliament has no money to pay their expenses or allowances.
It has also gone days without water. Speaking to the independent news agency Zim Online, Innocent Gonese, chief whip of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said: "Parliament has no money to pay for the MPs' allowances and accommodation. That is why parliament had to adjourn to December 16. There was also no water at the building."
On Tuesday the high court was forced to close because of water shortages. Many schools and hospitals are also shut.
The capital's main hospital, Harare Central, has been spared daily water and power cuts, but most of its wards are empty, and the reception areas are deserted, according to the US medical charity Operation Hope. "I have never seen anything like this," said its director, Jennifer Trubenbach.
Zimbabwe's economic crisis means its water authority is unable to import chemicals to purify Harare's supply.
Meanwhile, state media reported today that Robert Mugabe has started the process of forming an "inclusive government" in line with the recommendations at the weekend by the 15-nation Southern African Development Commission (SADC).
A power-sharing deal was stalled after the Zimbabwean president appointed his own party representatives to the cabinet jobs.
The MDC is meeting today to discuss its response to the SADC proposals to break the deadlock.
Albino Girl Killed for Body Parts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7733597.stm
A six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine.
Albinos in the region have been targeted because of a belief peddled by witchdoctors that their body parts can be used for magic potions. The girl, who was attacked on Sunday, was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September. There have also been a number of attacks in neighbouring Tanzania. The latest attack took place in Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi. The BBC's Prime Ndikumagenge in Burundi said the child and her family had only just returned to their family home. Armed attackers broke into the family home and tied up the girl's parents before shooting her in the head, local officials say. They had been among a group of about 50 people with albinism to have fled to a provincial centre because they feared for her safety. The head of the Burundi Albinos' Association, Kasim Kazungu, says people with albinism had not suffered any discrimination until other Burundians heard about the lucrative trade in albino body parts in neighbouring Tanzania. Last week, police in south-western Tanzania arrested a man who was attempting to sell his albino wife to Congolese traders. Two mothers in western Tanzania were also attacked with machetes after gangs failed to find their albino children.
A six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine.
Albinos in the region have been targeted because of a belief peddled by witchdoctors that their body parts can be used for magic potions. The girl, who was attacked on Sunday, was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September. There have also been a number of attacks in neighbouring Tanzania. The latest attack took place in Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi. The BBC's Prime Ndikumagenge in Burundi said the child and her family had only just returned to their family home. Armed attackers broke into the family home and tied up the girl's parents before shooting her in the head, local officials say. They had been among a group of about 50 people with albinism to have fled to a provincial centre because they feared for her safety. The head of the Burundi Albinos' Association, Kasim Kazungu, says people with albinism had not suffered any discrimination until other Burundians heard about the lucrative trade in albino body parts in neighbouring Tanzania. Last week, police in south-western Tanzania arrested a man who was attempting to sell his albino wife to Congolese traders. Two mothers in western Tanzania were also attacked with machetes after gangs failed to find their albino children.
At least 47 dead in Somali violence
MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- At least 47 people have been killed in a series of violent incidents in Somalia, according to reports.
A Mogadishu resident flees after fighting among insurgents and peacekeepers on September 24.
A roadside bomb exploded Monday as African Union forces were traveling through K4 square, a major junction in southern Mogadishu, witnesses said. An exchange of gunfire between AU forces and insurgents followed the bombing, they added.
At least five civilians were killed and another 20 people wounded, including an AU soldier, an AU spokesman said.
Also slain were an insurgent, a spokesman for the Islamist insurgents said, and a Somali government soldier, according to a government spokesman.
The daytime attack on the square, which is also a base for the AU forces, came a day after 400 Burundian soldiers landed at Mogadishu's airport, which reopened this week after militant Islamists lifted a siege on it. A nearby school was hit by artillery and people could be seen fleeing under a hail of bullets.
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In another incident on Monday, insurgents ambushed Ethiopian forces 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) east of Bardale and 300 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu, leaving at least 40 Ethiopians dead, Islamists said.
A military vehicle was destroyed in the attack, which witnesses said lasted for at least an hour and included heavy gunfire between the insurgents and the Ethiopian forces.
Ethiopians had set up checkpoints outside Bardale, witnesses said.
In a third incident, members of the Islamic Courts Union on Monday ambushed a convoy of 18 Ethiopian military vehicles in the town of Leego, between Mogadishu and Baidoa and 130 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu.
Fighting was continuing two hours later in the town, which is along the road that is the sole route Ethiopian convoys can take between Ethiopia and Somalia
Crew member of hijacked ship dead, Somali town official says
(CNN) -- A crew member of a Ukrainian vessel pirates seized off the African coast last week has died, a Somali town commissioner said Sunday.
A photo from the USS Howard shows Somali pirates in small boats hijacking the MV Faina last week.
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Abdi Salan Khalif, commissioner of the coastal town of Harardhere, Somalia, said the pirates told town elders the man died of problems relating to high blood pressure.
Khalif said the pirates, who were communicating with the elders and the U.S. Navy by radio, reported they were holding the crew in a hot part of the ship. The elders, who talked to the U.S. Navy by radio, had formed a crisis team.
The ship Faina, loaded with tanks and weapons, was seized Thursday not far from its destination port of Mombasa, Kenya, officials said. Ukrainehad sold the weapons to Kenya, said Ukraine Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
On Friday, the Russian news agency Interfax quoted a source in Kiev, Ukraine, as saying the pirates had contacted the Kenyan Defense Ministry to obtain information about the ship's owner so ransom negotiations could begin. 
Watch CNN's David McKenzie report on the hijacking »
However, Dr. Alfred N. Mutua, a spokesman for the Kenyan government, said Sunday it had neither been contacted by the pirates nor asked to pay ransom.
"Combined security efforts are still going on to secure the ship ferrying Kenya military equipment that was hijacked ... by pirates off the Somali coast," Mutua said in a written statement.
"The Kenyan government is NOT in contact with the pirates. ... The Kenyan government will not engage in answering back to terrorists who have hijacked important military equipment paid for by the Kenyan taxpayer for use by the Kenyan military."
The Ukrainian defense ministry said the ship is carrying 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, tank artillery shells, grenade launchers and small arms. The ship departed from Nikolayev, Ukraine, officials said.
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The Pentagon said U.S. naval ships in the area are "monitoring the situation."
"I think we're looking at the full range of options here," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, because the United States does not want the pirates to dock the ship in Somalia and offload the weapons.
Khalif said representatives of Harardhere "have told the pirates that they can't bring any crew or material from that ship to our town because we don't want to risk a military response from the surrounding military navies."
Faina is owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine, and its crew includes citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Latvia, the U.S. Navy said.
U.S. officials said the ship reported being surrounded by three small boats of pirates while sailing 250 miles off the coast of Somalia.
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