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SWAZILAND: IMF walks away from the kingdom
MBABANE, 18 May 2012 (IRIN) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has withdrawn its advisory team from Swaziland, saying it is unable to support the government's proposed financial reform programme.
IRIN | 18-May-2012 11:29

UGANDA: Amnesty or prosecution for war criminals?
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.
IRIN | 17-May-2012 23:29

GAMBIA: Small country with a big crisis
SEREKUNDA/JOHANNESBURG, 17 May 2012 (IRIN) - In 2011, the rains failed in the Central River region of The Gambia, where Mawdou Danso, a farmer, struggled to raise a crop big enough to tide him over to the next harvest. He invested in an early-maturing, high-yielding rice called Nerica (New Rice for Africa), which had recently became available and promised to fit in well with the erratic rainfall patterns.
IRIN | 17-May-2012 23:14

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: DDR moves forward
BANGUI, 17 May 2012 (IRIN) - The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process relating to former rebels in the Central African Republic (CAR) is back on track: More than 1,000 already disarmed fighters of the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) led by Jean Jacques Démafouth began to be demobilized on 12-13 May.
IRIN | 17-May-2012 11:29

COTE D'IVOIRE: Traders resist rice price rules
ABIDJAN, 16 May 2012 (IRIN) - South of the Sahel, where drought, high food prices and other factors have pushed some 16 million into hunger, 320,000 people in Côte d'Ivoire are also grappling with food insecurity. A combination of forces is causing region-wide high prices for rice, but the government's efforts to make the staple food cheaper lack teeth and are proving difficult to impose.
IRIN | 16-May-2012 23:29

DRC: North Kivu in turmoil again
GISENYI (WESTERN RWANDA), 16 May 2012 (IRIN) - In the last few weeks fighting between government troops and “mutineers” has ended three years of relative peace in North Kivu Province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and thousands of refugees have been streaming across the border to Rwanda.
IRIN | 16-May-2012 23:14

NIGERIA: Where is the money to help poisoned children?
ABUJA, 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - Aid organizations and rights groups are putting more pressure on the Nigerian government to release a promised US$5.4 million in aid for lead-poisoned children, but government officials keep ducking the issue.
IRIN | 16-May-2012 11:28

FOOD: Power to the people!
JOHANNESBURG, 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched its first Africa Human Development Report today, stressing food security as a means to a better quality of life for all.
IRIN | 15-May-2012 23:35

NEPAL: HIV widows on the edge
RAKAM, 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - Widows living with HIV in Nepal's remote hill districts in some of the country's poorest and vulnerable communities face a particularly bleak future
IRIN | 15-May-2012 23:20

KENYA-SOMALIA: Life on the margins of Dadaab
DADAAB, 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - For new arrivals to the world's largest refugee complex, in eastern Kenya, life is particularly difficult.
IRIN | 15-May-2012 23:05

KENYA: Maize farmers have rain but lack seeds
MT ELGON, 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - At least 1.3 million farmers in Kenya - more than double the figure for 2010 - do not have any maize seeds to plant this season, despite favourable weather conditions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
IRIN | 15-May-2012 22:50

HEALTH: Airdrops to fight schistosomiasis in Ghana
KPONG, 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - At the Kpong airfield, a few kilometres from Lake Volta in northern Ghana, Patricia Mawuli, pilot and co-founder of Medicine on the Move (MoM), a local NGO, is preparing her plane for takeoff. She is one of four health workers who fly weekly to isolated communities around the lake to raise awareness of the dangers of schistosomiasis, also called bilharzia.
IRIN | 15-May-2012 22:35

SOMALIA: Hundreds of Somalis complete military training
IBANDA, 14 May 2012 (IRIN) - Over 600 Somali troops completed six months of military training in southwestern Uganda on 10 May and are heading home to boost the forces fighting Al Shabab.
IRIN | 14-May-2012 23:29

MALAWI: Dream fades for inland port project
NSANJE, 10 May 2012 (IRIN) - Visitors arriving in Nsanje, the sleepy capital of Malawi's southernmost district, are greeted by a large yellowing billboard announcing: “The dream becomes reality. Nsanje Port opens October 2010.” But those who go to the port will find little more than a concrete quay with a couple of dozen mooring posts, and a few fishermen manoeuvring crude dug-out canoes through the murky brown waters of the Shire River.
IRIN | 10-May-2012 23:29

HIV/AIDS: Global Fund will have US$1.6 billion more
JOHANNESBURG, 10 May 2012 (IRIN) - The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced that it will have US$1.6 billion more to invest in life-saving programmes between 2012 and 2014.
IRIN | 10-May-2012 11:29

RWANDA: Substantial HIV funding has not hurt other patient care
NAIROBI, 9 May 2012 (IRIN) - The large amount of donor funding that has gone into Rwanda's fight against HIV has not affected efforts to prevent and treat unrelated diseases, such as malaria and measles, and may in fact have improved overall healthcare, a six-year study has found.
IRIN | 09-May-2012 10:29

SECURITY: A quick reaction force moulded by Africa's circumstances
JOHANNESBURG, 9 May 2012 (IRIN) - Africa's crises are both honing and stalling the formation of the African Standby Force (ASF) of the African Union (AU) - a quick reaction force that could eventually number about 30,000 troops to be deployed in a range of scenarios, from peacekeeping to direct military intervention.
IRIN | 09-May-2012 10:14

DRC: Reducing the HIV risk of girls living on the street
KINSHASA, 8 May 2012 (IRIN) - Sarah, 16, started sleeping on the streets of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic republic of Congo (DRC), when she was only eight years old. She doesn't remember how she came to live on the streets, but thinks it was soon after her mother died.
IRIN | 08-May-2012 11:29

SENEGAL: Change of direction in hunger response
DAKAR, 7 May 2012 (IRIN) - One day after being sworn in on 2 April, Senegal's new President Macky Sall reversed months of public denial of the hunger affecting over 800,000 of his people - part of the Sahel-wide crisis affecting 16 million inhabitants - by calling on partners to help the country get food to those in need. UN agencies and NGOs are struggling to raise enough money to get programmes working so they can catch up with the steadily rising number of hungry people.
IRIN | 07-May-2012 23:29

DRC: Congolese refugees flee fighting into Rwanda
KIGALI, 4 May 2012 (IRIN) - Renewed heavy fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) North Kivu Province has pushed some 3,000 Congolese refugees into northern Rwanda where they are in need of humanitarian assistance, says a senior UN official.
IRIN | 04-May-2012 23:28

DRC: HIV effort needs government, donor commitment to succeed
KINSHASA, 4 May 2012 (IRIN) - Many national hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are not accepting new HIV-positive patients for antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. The only way to get onto a treatment list is to wait until a space opens up due to a death or drop-out, or seek the limited treatment options available outside the government's programmes, but few people can afford the drugs.
IRIN | 04-May-2012 23:13

MADAGASCAR: Peer pressure to stop teen pregnancy
ANTSOHIHY, 4 May 2012 (IRIN) - Daughters as young as 12 in the villages surrounding Antsohihy, the capital of Sofia Region, in Madagascar's remote, traditional north, often suffer the harmful consequences of falling pregnant and giving birth too young when parents accept zebus (cattle) or cash as a dowry.
IRIN | 04-May-2012 22:58

SAHEL: Aid efforts under strain as refugees numbers mount
DAKAR/OUAGADOUGOU, 4 May 2012 (IRIN) - Sahelian governments and local and international aid groups are struggling to cope with both the continual arrivals of people fleeing the regions of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal in northern Mali, and the mounting number of hungry people across the region as the lean season gets underway.
IRIN | 04-May-2012 11:29

SOUTH SUDAN: Losing the war against kala-azar
OLD FANGAK, 3 May 2012 (IRIN) - In the dusty courtyard of a crowded clinic in Old Fangak, in South Sudan's Jonglei state, throngs of people, some of them under mosquito nets strung between trees, wait to get tested for kala-azar, amid the worst continuous outbreak in three decades.
IRIN | 03-May-2012 23:29

UGANDA: Combining safe riding on a motorcycle taxi with safe sex
KAMPALA, 3 May 2012 (IRIN) - It's Saturday night and Jaffari Musoke*, who rides a 'boda boda' - motorcycle taxi - arrives at his regular stage, or departure point, near several hotels in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. He has an easy camaraderie with the sex workers who hang around the hotels, taking many of them home after a night's work. Sometimes he mixes business with pleasure.
IRIN | 03-May-2012 23:14

KENYA: Rights groups oppose move to sideline ICC
NAIROBI, 2 May 2012 (IRIN) - Rights groups in Kenya have warned of a potential miscarriage of justice after the government moved to have the cases of four people charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court transferred to a region tribunal which has no experience in handling such crimes.
IRIN | 02-May-2012 23:28

HIV/AIDS: New book tracks the epidemic to its origins
MBABANE, 2 May 2012 (IRIN) - We've all heard the myths and hypotheses about the origins of the epidemic caused by the HI virus, but a new book, “Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and How the World Can Finally Overcome It”, sheds more light on where it all began. It is a fascinating account of the medical detective work that traced the disease to Cameroon a century ago.
IRIN | 02-May-2012 23:13

MALI: Negotiating humanitarian access in the north
DAKAR, 1 May 2012 (IRIN) - Aid agencies in northern Mali are debating how or whether they should negotiate with newly installed rebel groups such as the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar Dine, which is affiliated to Al Qaeda, to reach people in need.
IRIN | 01-May-2012 11:29

SUDAN-SOUTH SUDAN: All we are tweeting is give peace a chance
KHARTOUM, 30 April 2012 (IRIN) - As Sudan and South Sudan sink deeper into full-scale conflict and hostile rhetoric nine months after the country split in two, people from both sides of the border are tweeting a very different message, one of peace, solidarity and frustration with their leaders.
IRIN | 30-Apr-2012 23:59

DRC: Poor sanitation systems hinder fight against cholera
KINSHASA, 30 April 2012 (IRIN) - More than 7,500 cholera cases have been identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the beginning of the year as an epidemic that began in June 2011 continues to affect parts if the capital, Kinshasa, as well as four other provinces.
IRIN | 30-Apr-2012 23:44

UGANDA: Inadequate healthcare and rising HIV prevalence in Karamoja
MOROTO, 30 April 2012 (IRIN) - The nomadic Karimojong ethnic group, once regarded as a low-risk HIV population because regional instability in northeastern Uganda and strong adherence to their culture kept them relatively isolated, have not been a priority on the country's HIV agenda, but recent statistics show prevalence among this community is now 5.8 percent, up from 3.5 percent five years ago.
IRIN | 30-Apr-2012 23:29

SOUTH SUDAN: Teresa Nyakouth, “He was still holding his shoes when he died”
BENTIU, 27 April 2012 (IRIN) - Teresa Nyakuoth, a 24-year-old mother of two, recalls how she was shopping in the market next to her home in Rubkhona, a district of the South Sudanese town of Bentiu, when a Sudanese bomb fell on 23 April. The blast killed one teenage boy instantly, and another died later that day in hospital, where he had been admitted with severe burns and head wounds.
IRIN | 27-Apr-2012 23:29

EAST AFRICA: Regional HIV Bill passed without criminalization clause
NAIROBI, 27 April 2012 (IRIN) - East Africa's Legislative Assembly has passed a regional HIV/AIDS Bill that seeks to protect the rights of people living with HIV and harmonize regional legislation and policy on the prevention and treatment of HIV.
IRIN | 27-Apr-2012 23:14

NIGERIA: Bone marrow register an “important milestone”
LONDON, 27 April 2012 (IRIN) - Only a fraction of the millions of people worldwide with blood and autoimmune disorders survive - especially those in poorer countries - partly due to the lack of bone marrow stem cell transplants. A recently established Nigerian bone marrow registry hopes to boost matches between donors and patients, and survival chances.
IRIN | 27-Apr-2012 11:29

SIERRA LEONE: "Now we can move on”
DAKAR, 26 April 2012 (IRIN) - Sierra Leoneans are relieved that former warlord and President of Liberia Charles Taylor has been convicted by the Special Court of Sierra Leone on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
IRIN | 26-Apr-2012 23:58

KENYA: Salome Matakwei, “Some people still hate me”
MT ELGON, 26 April 2012 (IRIN) - The widow of a militia leader killed by Kenyan security forces speaks of her regrets over the numbers killed during the 2006-2008 conflict and of her efforts to promote peace and support other women who lost loved ones.
IRIN | 26-Apr-2012 23:43

COTE D'IVOIRE: Displaced in west feel “forgotten”
DUÉKOUÉ, 26 April 2012 (IRIN) - President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire promised paved roads, an end to power cuts and water shortages, better mobile phone coverage, and a new university in the country's west as part of an “emergency plan” to develop a region that has been steeped in violence and insecurity for a decade. But for some displaced Ivoirians still unable to return to their homes, the promises ring hollow.
IRIN | 26-Apr-2012 23:28

SWAZILAND: Nurses demand protection from TB infection
MBABANE, 26 April 2012 (IRIN) - Hospitals are not protecting their workers from tuberculosis (TB) infection, say nurses in Swaziland, who recently staged a rare public demonstration to draw attention to how vulnerable they are to this highly infectious disease.
IRIN | 26-Apr-2012 23:13

MALAWI: Without land reform, small farmers become "trespassers"
BANGULA, 26 April 2012 (IRIN) - Dorothy Dyton, her husband and seven children used to make a living farming just over a hectare near the town of Bangula in southern Malawi's Chikhwawa District.
IRIN | 26-Apr-2012 22:58

KENYA: Protest over $500 million in unspent PEPFAR funds
NAIROBI/KISUMU, 25 April 2012 (IRIN) - More than 400 Kenyan AIDS activists have demonstrated in the capital, Nairobi, demanding that the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief release some US$500 million for HIV programmes in Kenya that is stuck in the pipeline.
IRIN | 25-Apr-2012 23:29

ETHIOPIA: Still too many deaths in childbirth
ADDIS ABABA, 25 April 2012 (IRIN) - A lack of awareness of the importance of skilled hospital deliveries in Ethiopia, cultural beliefs, and transport challenges in rural areas are causing a high number of deaths during childbirth, say officials.
IRIN | 25-Apr-2012 23:14

ZIMBABWE: Dying rivers dry up livelihoods
MUREWA, 25 April 2012 (IRIN) - Thousands of poor Zimbabweans have turned to illegal panning for precious minerals, but environmental and water experts say their activities are contributing to the drying up of rivers which many communities rely on for their livelihoods.
IRIN | 25-Apr-2012 22:59

KENYA: High court ruling on anti-counterfeit law "upholds right to health"
NAIROBI, 25 April 2012 (IRIN) - Kenyan HIV activists say a ruling by the High Court that the definition of "anti-counterfeit" in the 2008 Anti-Counterfeit Act is too broad will save millions of lives and protect the right to life of citizens.
IRIN | 25-Apr-2012 11:29

KENYA: Early warning volunteers try to prevent flood misery
BUDALANGI, 24 April 2012 (IRIN) - Joseph Mbima wades along submerged footpaths as he moves from homestead to homestead in the Bunyala area of western Kenya. His mission: to ask residents to evacuate their homes in the event of flash-flood warnings.
IRIN | 24-Apr-2012 23:58

DRC: Concern over welfare of IDPs in Katanga
KINSHASA, 24 April 2012 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are unable to access thousands of people displaced from the town of Mitwaba, in the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) province of Katanga as a result of recent fighting between rebels and government forces.
IRIN | 24-Apr-2012 23:43

DRC: End of mother-to-child HIV transmission still a long way off
KINSHASA, 24 April 2012 (IRIN) - Poorly integrated maternal health services, a lack of human resources and a serious shortage of money for treatment mean the Democratic Republic of Congo is unlikely to meet the global plan of eliminating mother-to-child transmission by 2015.
IRIN | 24-Apr-2012 23:28