The North Kivu region of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the “deux trois bibatama” coltan mine. The ore, which is used in the production of mobile telephones, is in great demand, but extracting it is hard work. Conditions are tough, yet children regularly go mining in search not only of [...]
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Burkina Faso: People no longer afraid Pierre Sidy 2011-05-26, Issue 531 Since the assassination of Thomas Sankara in 1987 and the reversing of the country’s revolutionary momentum, Blaise Compaoré has sustained himself through the use of terror and crime as a means of perpetuating his predatory regime, a regime marked by neglect, corruption and clan-based [...] Southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence, election officials have confirmed. They said nearly 99% of the voters in January’s referendum were in favour of dividing Africa’s biggest country. Earlier, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir again said he would accept the outcome of the vote. The poll was agreed as part of a 2005 peace agreement ending [...] By NEIL MacFARQUHAR The New York Times Published: Thursday, December 23, 2010 at 1:00 a.m. Last Modified: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:07 p.m. SOUMOUNI, Mali – The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: Their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were [...] A delegation of three West African presidents who met with incumbent Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo to deliver an ultimatum to step down or face force has left saying more meetings were needed. West African presidents Boni Yayi of Benin, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and Pedro Pires of Cape Verde met Gbagbo on [...] Black Gold asks us ‘to wake up and smell the coffee,’ to face the unjust conditions under which our favorite drink is produced and to decide what we can do about it. The film traces the tangled trail from the two billion cups of coffee consumed each day back to the coffee farmers who produce [...] Shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006, this film breaks the silence surrounding the tens of thousands of women and girls who have been kidnapped, raped and sexually tortured in that country’s intractable civil war. The filmmaker, herself a survivor of gang rape, talks with activists, peacekeepers, physicians and [...] As Africa looks desperately for leaders of integrity and vision, the life and ideals of the late Thomas Sankara seem more and more relevant and exemplary with the passage of time. This new film should go a long way towards explaining why, though largely forgotten in this country, Sankara is still venerated on his own [...] Land grabs: Africa’s new ‘resource curse’? Khadija Sharife 2009-11-26, Pambazuka Issue 459 It has been called the next golden commodity by investment firms, and ‘neocolonialism’ by the now repentant director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Jacques Diouf. The phenomenon better known as ‘land grabbing’ i.e.: Large-scale purchase or lease of farmland [...] |
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