Several UN agencies and NGOs are calling for a greater mobilization of aid workers and funding in the West African Sahel to meet the needs of a population facing one of the worst nutrition crises in recent years.
Author: WHES
Half a world from the Gulf, giant oil spills have occurred every year for the past 50 years in the Niger Delta
BODO, Nigeria — Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless.
Searching for Liberia’s missing millions. How much money did Charles Taylor, Liberia’s deposed president, take from his country and where is it?
For almost seven years, since an international warrant was issued for his arrest, the search has stretched from the mangrove swamps and diamond fields of West Africa to Swiss banks and shell corporations — a state-of-the-art version of the sweeping asset hunts that have accompanied the fall of autocrats since the shah of Iran’s demise in the 1970s.
At least 6.8 million people were displaced last year, mainly by long-running conflicts, pushing the number of those forced to live away from home to 27 million – the highest since the mid-1990s
At least 6.8 million people were displaced last year, mainly by long-running conflicts, pushing the number of those forced to live away from home to 27 million – the highest since the mid-1990s, a new report states.
Angola: Oil wealth no benefit to farmers
Joaquina Chitala Jarviso, 40, a small-scale farmer in Huambo, in the central highlands of Angola, is running out of options. Despite careful management and clever innovation, the high cost of fertilizer and the acidity of the soil may defeat her efforts to get a good crop in the next planting season.
NaTchuto gains power in Guinea-Bissau–US government considers him a major figure in the international drug trade
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau — For months, as the United States Treasury Department prepared to declare him a drug kingpin and a major figure in the international narcotics trade, Rear Adm. José Américo Bubo Na Tchuto was hiding out in the unlikeliest of places — living in the United Nations building here, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a United Nations office and sometimes eating in the canteen.
Shaky rule in Madagascar threatens trees
MAROANSETRA, Madagascar — Exploiting a political crisis, Malagasy timber barons are robbing this island nation of its sylvan heritage, illegally cutting down scarce species of rosewood trees in poorly protected national parks and exporting most of the valuable logs to China.
A recipe for extreme hunger: How a Kenyan woman feeds her family of ten when she has 40 shillings (50 cents)
(Kiberia, Kenya. May 14, 2010) Widowed 16 years ago, Wilbroda Aoko Wandera, 48, has had to become creative with the little she has, at times spending just 40 shillings (US$0.50) to feed her family of 10. She has no steady job and sells spinach, plaits hair and washes clothes for a fee. She spoke to IRIN on 13 May:
“My husband had been sick for a long time, but his relatives chased me away with my children and demolished our house upcountry when he died, saying I had something to do with his death. Since then life has been one long struggle.
“My mother sent me bus fare when she learnt I had been chased away and I returned to Nairobi where we had been living before my husband died.
“I have tried many things to feed my family and to put the children into school; right now two boys are in secondary school.
“I have sold [donuts] and worked as a cleaner at the Catholic Church nearby. One time I got lucky when the local chief allowed me to build a kiosk near the road; I used the front part as a salon where I plaited people’s hair and lived in the back with my children. However, this was demolished in 2007 to pave way for the Kibera slum upgrading programme. Now I live near the river, where I have built a mud structure.
“We mostly live on one meal a day. This is hard, especially on the children. I have learnt to make meals for the whole family even when I have only 40 shillings [$0.50]. With this, I buy maize flour for 20 shillings, sugar for five, paraffin for 10, a lemon for two and water for three. This will make a [pot] of porridge and everybody can get a cup. That takes us to the next day.
“When I have 50 shillings, I buy sukuma wiki [kales] for 10 shillings, maize flour for 30, cooking oil for five and paraffin for five. With this, I cook ugali and the sukuma wiki and everyone will at least have a hot meal.
“On a good day, when I make at least 100 shillings, the diet is better; I buy maize flour for 45, omena [sardines] for 20, tomatoes for 10, paraffin for 10 and cooking oil for 10. This is enough for two meals for the whole family. But the days I make 100 are rare. Besides, when I make more than 100, I put away some money for school fees and rent.
“I feel blessed that I have the support of other widows. We formed a self-help group in 2007. We are there for each other, we skip meals together, we help each other in merry-go-round donations of 20 shillings a week and struggle to bring up our children. Life in Kibera is hard but it is 10 times harder for a widow with children.”
World Hunger Education Service. For more information about world hunger, see https://www.worldhunger.org This article was first published by IRIN News and can be viewed at http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=89132
Analysis: What is a famine?
Aid agencies and donors have warned of the possibility of a famine in Niger, evoking images of the last food crisis in the Sahelian country in 2005. Some media organizations have already pronounced the current crisis a famine. So, what exactly is a famine?
The wavering war on AIDS (opinion)
The global war on AIDS has racked up enormous successes over the past decade, most notably by providing drugs for millions of infected people in developing countries who would be doomed without this life-prolonging treatment. Now the campaign is faltering.
