US President Barack Obama has announced a $3bn (£1.9bn) plan to boost food security and farm productivity in Africa, US officials say. They say the initiative is aimed at alleviating shortages as world food supplies are being stretched by rising demand in Asia’s emerging markets. Food security is also on the agenda of this weekend’s [...]
KAMPALA, 17 May 2012 (IRIN) – The arrest of a senior Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander has reignited debate in Uganda about what to do with alleged war criminals: let them go, to encourage other rebels to surrender; or prosecute them in the name of accountability and justice. LRA commander Caesar Acellam Otto, along with [...]
A leading human rights organisation has urged NATO to investigate fully the deaths of civilians in air strikes in Libya last year. Human Rights Watch believes NATO air strikes killed at least 72 civilians and says the organisation needs to bear responsibility where appropriate. “We’re calling for prompt, credible and thorough investigations,” HRW’s Fred Abrahams [...]
The voluntary rules call on governments to protect the rights of indigenous peoples who use the land. It is estimated that 200m hectares, an area eight times the size of Britain, has been bought or leased over the past decade, much of it in Africa and Asia. But aid agencies warn it will be very [...]
International Organization for Migration (IOM) yesterday launched a peace and Stability Program for states bordering South Sudan and Sudan. The targeted areas are Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap and Unity states. The project has already been launched in Warrap, Unity, and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states. A total amount of 3 million Euros is given [...]
GISENYI, Rwanda — When gunfire broke out in her home area in eastern Congo, Annie Kabeja joined a wave of thousands fleeing the area and walked for two days with her two children toward neighboring Rwanda. “We heard gunshots and blasts. We had no option but to flee,” the 34-year-old Kabeja said after arriving in [...]
Tribal leaders in South Sudan’s oil-rich Jonglei state have signed a deal aimed at ending a deadly cycle of inter-ethnic violence. Recent clashes have killed at least 1,000 people and displaced thousands. The peace deal was signed by six chiefs on Saturday May 5 in Jonglei’s capital Bor at a ceremony attended by tribal elders, [...]
CAIRO, May 8, 2012 (IPS) – More than a year since president Hosni Mubarak was removed from power, the money he allegedly syphoned from Egypt during his 29-year rule remains beyond the reach of authorities attempting to recover it. Mubarak amassed a fortune by carving up Egypt as if it were his own private estate. [...]
Al Jazeera will retell the Libyan civil war from a new perspective: through the eyes of Gaddafi and other top officials. They’re the conversations Muammar Gaddafi didn’t want the world to hear: Al Jazeera has had access to more than 12,000 recordings of Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and other high-ranking Libyan officials. Libya on [...]
Omar al-Bashir’s government is waging a brutal war against the people of South Kordofan. As Sudan’s army fights anti-government rebels, an estimated 1 million civilians suffer from daily air strikes that threaten their lives and prevent them from growing crops. The situation is fast becoming another humanitarian crisis to equal Darfur, but the international community [...]