The U.S. Africa Command, designed to boost America’s image and prevent terrorist inroads on the continent, has scaled back its ambitions after African governments refused to host it and aid groups protested plans to expand the military’s role in economic development in the region.
Author: WHES
In postwar Liberia, paradise amid the poverty: feelings mixed as aid workers live well
MONROVIA, Liberia — The second sushi bar to open in ragged postwar Liberia did not settle for having its chefs wear simple T-shirts, or for serving $25 worth of sliced fish on plain white plates.
South African violence against immigrants fed by post-apartheid poverty
RAMAPHOSA INFORMAL SETTLEMENT, South Africa — This was the kind of place that was not supposed to exist in the new South Africa. All black. All poor. Dense, squalid, dirty, angry — with charred patches of earth where men once stood.
Six million Ethiopian children at risk of malnutrition as crops fail and prices rise
Up to 6 million children under the age of five are at risk of malnutrition in Ethiopia because of rising cereal prices and the failure of rains, the UN’s children agency, Unicef, has warned.
Famine looms as wars rend Horn of Africa
DAGAARI, Somalia — The global food crisis has arrived at Safia Ali’s hut.
She cannot afford rice or wheat or powdered milk anymore.
At the same time, a drought has decimated her family’s herd of goats, turning their sole livelihood into a pile of bleached bones and papery skin.
Kenyan government starts returning people displaced by violence to their homes and land–many still fearful for their safety
MOLO, Kenya — The bus was full. Expectant faces pressed against the windows. Soldiers stood guard with their guns.
It was time to go home.
“I’m ready,” said Dominick Ngigi, an 80-year-old farmer, stoically clutching a plastic bag with no more in it than a sweater and a flashlight.
Eradicating malaria worldwide seen as a distant goal, at best
A generation after the first attempt failed, people are once more talking seriously about eradicating malaria.
Sri Lanka: on track to eliminate malaria
Sri Lanka, once among Asia’s worst affected nations for malaria, is now close to eliminating it. The sharp drop in the number of reported cases to 196 in 2007 – with no deaths – demonstrates that the national malaria control programme has been effective even in the traditionally disease-prone northern districts, portions of which are controlled by Tamil Tiger separatists.
World Bank again accused of tolerating corruption in Kenya
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AFRICOM to focus on military, not humanitarian role
In a key briefing to Congress on 13 March, General William “Kip” Ward, head of the US Command for Africa, AFRICOM, devoted only 15 seconds of his four-and-a-half minute opening remarks to a possible humanitarian role.
