KANO, Nigeria — The nation blessed with Africa’s largest oil reserves and some of its most fertile lands has a problem. It cannot feed its 140 million people, and relatively minor reductions in rainfall could set off a regional food catastrophe, experts say.
Author: WHES
Fed-up South Africans lash out at Zuma’s government. Violent protests have erupted in about 20 townships as the urban poor who backed the ANC grow angrier about the lack of improvement to their lives.
TOKOZA, SOUTH AFRICA — When he was 13, Celi Xaba protested against South Africa’s white-minority government over the lack of water in his township. Now 29, he’s still protesting, and there’s still no running water in Tokoza. But this time he’s fighting the black-led government that promised salvation from poverty and unemployment.
Obama gives a call for change to a rapt Africa
CAPE COAST, Ghana — President Obama traveled in his father’s often-troubled home continent on Saturday, where he symbolized a new political era but brought a message of tough love: American aid must be matched by Africa’s responsibility for its own problems.
WHO warns swine flu is unstoppable
World Health Organization head Margaret Chan added that the holding of the meeting in Cancun showed confidence in Mexico, which has been hard hit. The WHO says most H1N1 cases are mild, with many people recovering unaided.
G8’s promise to Africa is likely to be broken–pledge to double aid by 2010 far behind schedule
The G8 group of leading industrial nations looks set to break its promise to eradicate poverty in Africa because of a poor performance by France and especially Italy, aid campaigners warned today.
The One campaign group, which fights poverty and disease in Africa, said that the G8 had only delivered one third of the additional assistance it had promised to Africa by the end of next year.
WHO declares swine flu pandemic
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global flu pandemic after holding an emergency meeting. It means the swine flu virus is spreading in at least two regions of the world with rising cases being seen in the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile.
Battle to halt corruption in Africa ebbs
LUSAKA, Zambia — The fight against corruption in Africa’s most pivotal nations is faltering as public agencies investigating wrongdoing by powerful politicians have been undermined or disbanded and officials leading the charge have been dismissed, subjected to death threats and driven into exile.
High food prices force Kenyan slum dwellers to go hungry
Millions of people who live in Kenya’s sprawling slums are among those worst hit by the food price crisis, yet they receive far less humanitarian attention than other demographic groups, according to officials, who pointed in particular to the plight of malnourished children in such settlements.
Mexico flu sparks global action
The international community is better prepared than ever to deal with the threatened spread of a new swine flu virus, a top UN health chief has said. As the UN warned the outbreak might become a pandemic, Dr Keiji Fukuda said years of preparing for bird flu had boosted world stocks of anti-virals.
Burkina Faso: largest measles outbreak in more than 10 years
While health officials undertake vaccination campaigns across West Africa to control meningitis and polio epidemics, measles has overtaken both diseases in Burkina Faso in the biggest outbreak the country has seen in more than a decade, according to the Ministry of Health.
