Engineers and visitors tour an exploratory well in Somalia‘s semi-autonomous Puntland region. Photograph: Reuters Britain is involved in a secret high-stakes dash for oil in Somalia, with the government offering humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in the beleaguered country’s future energy industry. Riven by two decades of conflict that have seen the [...]
Saving Somalia: A wasted effort? We ask how serious world leaders at the London conference are in tackling problems facing the war-torn African state. An international conference on Somalia has taken place in London on Thursday, with representatives from 40 countries attending. “We cannot exclude any kind of an attempt at [...]
Celebration and criticism as the ANC turns 100 Reflecting on the first 100 years of Africa‘s oldest liberation movement, celebrating its centenary today. South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) celebrates its 100th anniversary ceremony on January 8, 2012 [EPA] New York, NY - The invitation came by email, inviting “CDE Danny Schechter” to the ceremony marking the [...]
Maurice Weiss/ DER SPIEGEL Twelve months ago, a young man in Tunisia ignited himself and triggered a revolution that spread across northern Africa. A year later, correspondent Alexander Smolzczyk set out in a new series on a journey to assess the changes the tumultuous Maghreb region has undergone — from Morocco to Egypt. On Dec. [...]
We continue our week-long coverage from the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP17, in Durban, where negotiators from more than 190 nations are in their final week of key talks on fighting climate change. The future of the Kyoto Protocol is in doubt, as is the formation of a new Green Climate Fund. [...]
The capital of North Kivu state, with Mount Nyiragongo in the background [Azad Essa/ Al Jazeera] Flashes of lightning illuminate Lake Kivu as thunder crackles above. The storm causes the lights to trip and disrupts the internet connection at our place of rest, the Ihusi Hotel. The hotel, which overlooks the lake, is a meeting [...]
Moding Ngolapus, a Jei herder in north-east Uganda. Photograph: Sven Torfinn Uganda: nomads face an attack on their way of life Ugandan herders are well placed to adapt to global warming – but won’t be represented at the conference in Durban. Meanwhile their government, backed by EU cash, wants to force them to settle, reports [...]
The Son of Africa claims a continent’s crown jewels 20 October 2011 On 14 October, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States special forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. In the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. They [...]
9/11 and the Cost of Empire by Tim Kelly, September 19, 2011 According to the American media and politicians commemorating the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were a diabolical surprise attack perpetrated by Islamist terrorists against a peaceful and unsuspecting country. While many of the victims [...]
Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade has withdrawn a proposed change to the country’s electoral law after the bill sparked clashes between riot police and protesters [Reuters] African protest fever: Which country is next? Revolts across sub-Saharan Africa risk being misunderstood by an attention-starved global media, says author. Tendai Marima Last Modified: 07 Sep 2011 09:02 [...]
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years, leading the UN to declare famine in the region [Reuters] An African donors conference has pledged $356m to help more than 12 million people across the Horn of Africa suffering from the region’s worst drought in 60 years. The African Development Bank offered $300m [...]
JUAN GONZALEZ: The United Nations has called an emergency meeting to discuss the Horn of Africa drought, which it says has already claimed tens of thousands of lives. Famine was declared in two regions of Somalia on Wednesday, where 3.7 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Another eight million people need food assistance [...]
You can view the video at: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2011/08/2011810113949471720.html Directed by multi-award winning director Jamie Doran Remember Band Aid, Live Aid and developed countries‘ determination to ‘Feed the World‘? Well, we failed. There are more Africans living in extreme poverty today than ever before. Africa Rising goes right inside the extraordinary story of how a large rural [...]
Investment from China, Malaysia and India is helping Sudan to build the $4bn Al Mogran project, a new commercial and financial hub in Khartoum – due to be complete within 15 years [GALLO/GETTY] People across the African continent share the same aspirations: decent employment, affordable access to basic services such as health and education, and opportunities to [...]
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) The famine in the Horn of Africa is spreading and may soon engulf as many as six more regions of the lawless nation of Somalia, the U.N. humanitarian aid chief said Monday. Some “12.4 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti are in dire need of help and the situation is [...]
You can watch the video at: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/countingthecost/2011/07/201173010323514396.html George Ikners ikners.com It is perhaps the worst drought and famine in East Africa in 60 years, taking in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Three million Somalis are at risk of starvation, with thousands of them leaving their homes for Mogadishu, Ethiopia or Kenya. The United Nations says it [...]
Somali militia, as well as other armed forces active in the region, have played a major role in creating the conditions for the current famine in Somalia [EPA] Droughts are common in the Somali peninsula, but only an exceptional one produces famine. For instance, the Horn of Africa drought of 1984 did not produce famine [...]
A Somali government spokesman has said the famine response from aid agencies ‘is too slow’ [Reuters] An appeal for more famine relief by Somalia‘s president has been echoed by US President Barack Obama who has called for an “international response” to the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. President Sharif Sheik Ahmed said on Friday [...]
There is a video report from al Jazeera at: http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/07/2011724175513730382.html In recent months, Kenya has struggled to cope with an influx of refugees fleeing the drought in Somalia. In Dadaab camp alone, an estimated 380,000 refugees are now living in facilities intended to cope with a population of 90,000 people. But as Al Jazeera‘s Catherine Soi reports [...]
Somalian children who have fled the famine look out from their tent in the Dagahaley refugee camp in Kenya. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images The United Nations is to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the response to Horn of Africa drought, which it says has already killed tens of thousands of people. Famine was declared in two [...]
There is a video with the report below at http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/07/2011721185014194521.html In drought-hit Horn of Africa countries, refugees are seeking food and water in neighbouring countries as conditions deteriorate. Reporting from the Dolo Ado transit camp near the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, Al Jazeera‘s Peter Greste said the situation is a “good deal [...]
The Horn of Africa smuggling trade could involve more than 70,000 people and be worth more than $20m each year, according to a 2010 report fom Chatam House think-tank [GALLO/GETTY] There were more than 30 people crammed on the back of the truck as the vehicle bumped through the desert in eastern Djibouti. The passengers were men, [...]
AMY GOODMAN: As famine and drought grip Somalia in what’s being called the worst humanitarian disaster in the world right now, The Nation magazine has revealed the CIA is greatly expanding its covert operations inside Somalia. Following an in-depth, on-the-ground investigation inside Mogadishu, the magazine revealed the agency has set up a secret counterterrorism training base at the [...]
Hundreds of thousands of refugees are fleeing lands in Somalia due to severe drought and arriving in what has become the world’s largest refugee camp. The Dadaab refugee camp, just over the border in Kenya, was initially setup to host some 90,000 refugees fleeing Somalia’s ongoing civil war in March, 2009. Today, the number of [...]
East Africa’s hunger crisis has been described by a US official as one of the worst humanitarian crisis in decades amid stepped-up efforts by Western countries to provide relief aid and a decision by Kenya to open a fourth camp for starving refugees. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees are flooding camps in Ethiopia and Kenya – [...]
Newly arrived Somali refugees waiting to be registered at Dagahaley camp, Dadaab in Kenya, [EPA] Kenya has agreed to open a new camp near its Somalia border to cope with the influx of refugees fleeing the region’s worst drought in 60 years. The lfo II camp in Dabaab will open its doors to 80,000 refugees within [...]
There are fears that Habre might not get a fair trial in Chad [Reuters] Senegal has called off its decision to extradite Hissene Habre, the former Chadian president, to his homeland to face trial for crimes committed during his rule in the 1980s. Madicke Niang, Senegal’s foreign minister, said on Sunday that the move followed a [...]
By Nazanine Moshiri in Africa on Sun, 07/10/2011 – 22:57. The following article deals with drought in Africa. There is also a video report with the article that you can see at http://blogs.aljazeera.net/africa/2011/07/10/african-drought-tragedy Whenever you see the phrase humanitarian crisis it does not just mean humans in a crisis. It also means the rest of the so [...]
Smallholder farms are disappearing across Africa because of large-scale foreign investment [EPA] The “town” chief of the village seemed to be in a state of shock. Sitting on the front porch of his mud and thatch home in Pujehun District in southern Sierra Leone, he struggled to find words that could explain how he had [...]
