Africa

Photo: Zimbabweland

Farmer-led irrigation in Africa: Driving a new Green Revolution?

by Ian Scoones Zimbabweland December 10, 2016

A new open access review paper is just out in the Journal of Peasant Studies on farmer-led irrigation in Africa.  The paper offers a fantastically useful overview of the debate about what form of irrigation is most likely to support increases in smallholder production and livelihoods in Africa. ...

A suspected oil thief is pulled out of a crane in Elechi Beach. Photo: Magnus Boding Hansen/IRIN
A suspected oil thief is pulled out of a crane in Elechi Beach. Photo:  ©  Magnus Boding Hansen/IRIN

Can $10 billion end Nigeria’s century-long oil war?

by Magnus Boding Hansen IRIN November 23, 2016

Militant groups are fighting for a greater share of Niger Delta's vast oil wealth.   See full story at http://features.irinnews.org/nigera-oil-conflict...

Grazing on the outskirts of Kibera, a Nairobi slum. Photo: Andrew Renneisen / The New York Times
Grazing on the outskirts of Kibera, a Nairobi slum. As the city’s population swells, fences go up, big roads chop the wilderness into smaller pieces, rural turns suburban and suburban turns urban. Photo:  ©   Andrew Renneisen / The New York Times  Also see video.

As grasslands dwindle, Kenya’s shepherds seek urban pastures

by Jeffrey Gettleman New York Times November 21, 2016

NAIROBI, Kenya — Allan Lemayian is what you would call an urban shepherd. He goes where the green grass grows. It doesn’t matter if that grass grows along a four-lane highway or in front of a Shell station or o...

Woman farming.
Southern Africa has been suffering from an extreme drought due to El Nino, as this video explains.

The massive food crisis you haven’t heard about (video)

by Center for Strategic & International Studies November 8, 2016

In Southern Africa almost 40 million people will likely need emergency assistance before the year is out. The weather system El Nino is causing abnormal weather conditions, wreaking havoc in the region. CSIS saw the impact for itself in June, during a visit to Mozambique and Malawi. ...

Mozambique farmer. Photo: Bread for the World
Mozambique farmer.  The ProSavanah project in Mozambique, which was supposed to transform 35 million acres into foreign-owned soybean plantations has failed, but many other projects continue, according to the new report, “Land Matrix Analytical Report II: International Land Deals for Agriculture.”  Photo: Bread for the World

Land grab update: Mozambique, Africa still in crosshairs

by Timothy A. Wise Food Tank November 3, 2016

More than 1,000 large-scale foreign land deals are now under contract for agriculture covering more than 26 million hectares of land, according to the new report, "Land Matrix Analytical Report II: Internation...

Women wait for food to be distributed at an internally displaced persons camp in Monguno, Nigeria. Photo: Jane Hahn/The Washington Post
Women wait for food to be distributed at an internally displaced persons camp in Monguno, Nigeria. Very little aid has reached those in need in Borno State, where it is estimated that more than 3 million people have been affected by a long-running conflict. Photo: Jane Hahn/The Washington Post

75,000 children in Nigeria could die from hunger over the next year

by Kevin Sieff Washington Post November 1, 2016

The crisis in northeastern Nigeria has morphed into something much more deadly. Boko Haram is no longer the biggest threat. Now, it’s hunger.   See full story at ...

Pulses, such as chickpeas, lentils and kidney beans, are good for nutrition and income, particularly for women farmers who look after household food security, like those shown here at a village outside Lusaka, Zambia. Photo: © Busani Bafana/IPS
Pulses, such as chickpeas, lentils and kidney beans, are good for nutrition and income, particularly for women farmers who look after household food security, like those shown here at a village outside Lusaka, Zambia. Photo: © Busani Bafana/IPS

The beating pulse of food security in Africa

by Busani Bafana Inter Press Service October 17, 2016

MASVINGO, Zimbabwe - Elizabeth Mpofu is a fighter. She is one of a select group of farmers who equate food security with the war against hunger and shun poor agricultural practices which destroy the environment and impoverish farmers, especially women. Mpofu grows ma...

A Djiboutian soldier enters a dark building during a night vision goggle training exercise in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Oct. 10, 2016. The Djiboutian troops prepare for a two-year deployment to Somalia. Photo: Staff Sgt. Benjamin Raughton/U.S. Airforce
A Djiboutian soldier enters a dark building during a night vision goggle training exercise conducted by U.S. Army trainers in Djibouti City, Djibouti, Oct. 10, 2016.  The Djiboutian troops prepare for a two-year deployment to Somalia, as part of the African Union Mission in Somalia’s effort to remove al-Shabaab from the region.  Photo: Staff Sgt. Benjamin Raughton/U.S. Airforce  See larger photo and full story.

In Somalia, U.S. escalates a shadow war

by Mark Mazzetti, Jeffrey Gettleman and Eric Schmitt New York Times October 17, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has intensified a clandestine war in Somalia over the past year, using Sp...

Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Government of Southern Sudan. Photo: UN/Jenny Rockett
Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Government of Southern Sudan.  Around $4 billion has been “lost” in the 11 years since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, with most coming from oil revenues.  Download full report (66 page PDF). Photo: UN/Jenny Rockett

How South Sudan’s leaders robbed their country – and nearly got away with it

by Karin Zeitvogel IRIN September 15, 2016

South Sudan’s political and military leaders have bled their country dry to fuel extravagant lifestyles and fund a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee their homes, says the Washington-based conflict investigative group, ...

San Bushwomen. Photo: Mario Micklisch
San Bushwomen. For the past 20 years, the San have been systematically stripped of their homes, land and culture. Now these people live, dispossessed, on the edge of the huge game park, forbidden to hunt in or enter the land they have lived on sustainably for centuries. Photo: ©©  Mario Micklisch  (Click to see larger photo.)

The tribes paying the brutal price of conservation

by John Vidal The Guardian September 9, 2016

Across the world, governments are protecting habitats. But indigenous peoples are being evicted....

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