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Latest News: Sub-Saharan Africa
About this event: African Youth Business Forum
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


Congo (DRC)

The United Nations says it is alarmed by the number of deaths in a prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least 26 inmates have died from acute malnutrition at the main prison in the city of Mbuji Mayi in Kasai Oriental province since February. Four inmates died of hunger Since July 13 alone. The UN says it is particularly concerned because no measures are being taken to improve living conditions. It says many of the inmates have not yet been convicted of any crime. The UN is providing water to the prison on a weekly basis. (BBC)

Ethiopia

Army worms, hail and floods are adding to the woes of Ethiopians reeling from high world food prices and a drought that has affected some 4.6 million people, the UN said on July 23. Ethiopia has had the shorter of two annual rainy seasons fail, but aid agencies said earlier this month that a hunger emergency had been averted, although high food prices were still hurting Ethiopian families. Nearly 2,000 farmers in the southern regions of Welayeta and Gamo Gofa lost crops due to torrential rains, hailstorms and army worms, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its weekly report. (Reuters)

Gabon

Gabon and Equatorial Guinea said July 22 that they have made substantial progress towards referring their border dispute to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judicial organ of the United Nations. In a joint statement issued after two days of meetings at the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG), representatives of the neighboring African countries said they had worked on key documents for a planned joint submission to the ICJ, which would then adjudicate on the boundary. The maritime dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, which emerged in 2003, centers on an island which has oil resources. (UN News Service)

Guinea Bissau

The number of people infected by a cholera outbreak in Guinea Bissau doubled in July to more than 600 and infections have spread to areas of the country previously considered low risk, health experts warn. Of 611 people in Guinea Bissau who have contracted the disease this year, 344 of them were infected in July, according to the government's statistics. So far 14 people have died. The outbreak has reached Gabu and Bafata, two areas normally immune from infection, and six other regions. The outbreak started in the Tomboli region in the south of the country and spread to the capital in early July. (IRIN)

Kenya

Elders from Kenya's Luo community in western Kenya have refused to endorse a plan to promote male circumcision to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Luo Council of Elders says it cannot sanction circumcision, as it is against the community's culture. A ministry of health campaign is trying to encourage more men to be circumcised by offering free circumcision services in Nyanza Province. Researchers say circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infection among men. Traditionally, the Luo community does not practise circumcision, unlike some other Kenyan communities. About 2.5 million of 32 million Kenyans are currently living with HIV/AIDS. (BBC)

Liberia

Five years after the peace agreement that ended its civil war, Liberia has made accelerated progress on several human rights issues, but there are still serious concerns about the rule of law. “The installations of a new democratically elected government which took office in January 2006 has witnessed the acceleration of progress on a number of human rights and development issues including economic and social rights," Charlotte Abaka, the UN Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights, Technical Cooperation and Advisory Services in Liberia, said in a statement released July 18. (UN News Service)

Nigeria

Some 150,000 children in Niger are set to benefit from a USD 1.2 million donation to the UN children's fund (UNICEF) for school equipment from the charity Dubai Cares. Basic school kits will be supplied to children as part of the initiative, which will help increase the number of children enrolled in 600 schools around the country. In addition, the program will provide classroom furniture for 200 schools and building materials to construct 50 emergency learning centers. (UN News Service)

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma has said he will prevent the country becoming a key transit point for the international drugs trade. His comments follow the seizure by police of a plane loaded with cocaine at an airport outside the capital. The plane, which was abandoned on the runway, was carrying a 600 kg cargo, worth an estimated USD 54 million. Latin American drugs cartels are using West Africa as a transit point to smuggle cocaine to Europe, the UN says. But with help from the UN, the cabinet has approved tougher laws on narcotics that are expected to be taken to parliament this week. (BBC)

Somalia

Islamist insurgents in Somalia have launched what appears to be a targeted campaign of violence against foreign aid workers, pushing the already war-torn nation toward a full-scale famine, UN officials and observers warn. The warnings come amid fresh violence that has left many civilians dead in Mogadishu, the central battleground between the Western-backed government and armed Islamist militias. The Islamist insurgents have long attacked foreigners working inside Somalia. But the recent spate of violence suggests the attacks have now coalesced into a deliberate terror campaign, The International Herald Tribune reports. (CS Monitor)

South Africa

South African police have forcefully removed hundreds of immigrants from temporary shelters where they had taken refuge from xenophobic attacks. Authorities say the immigrants, who were taken to a repatriation center in Johannesburg, had not registered with the home affairs department. They now face deportation to their home countries, officials said. More than 60 immigrants were killed and tens of thousands more fled during the attacks against foreigners in May. (BBC)

Sudan

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, in a show of defiance, made his first visit to Darfur on July 23 since the International Criminal Court prosecutor accused him of genocide and war crimes and sought his arrest. Dancing to traditional music and chanting Islamic slogans, Bashir addressed thousands of Darfuris in the regional capital el-Fasher, his promises of development and peace drawing cheers from onlookers who surged forward to get closer to him. Promising more schools, universities, water projects and roads, Bashir said Darfur would also soon be connected to the national electricity grid, ending constant problems with power blackouts. (Reuters)

Tanzania

Twenty-five people with albinism have been murdered in Tanzania since March, a BBC investigation has found. Albinos are targeted for body parts that are used in witchcraft, and killings continue despite government efforts to stamp out the grisly practice, the BBC's Karen Allen says. Winifrida Rutahiro (2nd left) says she is now scared even to leave her house. Once, albinos used to seek shelter from the sun. Now they have gone into hiding simply to survive, after a series of killings linked to witchcraft. In Tanzania, 25 albinos have been killed in the past year. (BBC)

Zimbabwe

The rival claimants to victory in Zimbabwe's widely criticized presidential elections - Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai - have agreed to immediately begin intensive talks aimed at establishing a "new government." At their first meeting in more than a decade, Zimbabwe's president and the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change yesterday signed a five-page "memorandum of understanding" that envisages a fortnight of secret talks by representatives dealing with an array of issues from political violence against the opposition to constitutional reform. (The Guardian, UK)

July 25, 2008 | 10:38 AM Comments  0 comments


IMF, World Bank & IFI Round-Up
About this event: African Youth Business Forum
Related to country: South Africa
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Global trade talks began a third day on July 23 after emerging economies such as Brazil and South Africa said a US offer to cut its farm subsidies was not enough to justify reciprocal moves by them. Without a breakthrough in the coming days, the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha negotiations risk further years of delay. On July 22, the United States said it was ready to cut its annual ceiling on trade-distorting farm subsidies to USD 15 billion -- a level lower than its spending in seven of the last 10 years -- in order to kick-start the talks. But India, Brazil and other big developing countries said Washington had to make deeper cuts before they would offer concessions of their own because the ceiling represented virtually double the level of US farm subsidies last year.

The EU began crucial global trade talks July 21 with an offer of reducing its farm tariffs by 60 percent - the highest figure it has yet offered - in a challenge to developing countries to make concessions. The offer from the European Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, was intended to spark several days of vital discussions on the stalled trade round, begun seven years ago. Until now, the EU has offered a maximum of 54 percent tariff reductions, but Mandelson's spokesman, Peter Power, said the higher figure could be achieved by including a range of tropical products.

Fourteen states have been selected as the first developing country members of an innovative partnership and international financing mechanism to combat tropical deforestation and climate change. The 14 developing countries include six in Africa (the DRC Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar); five in Latin America (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Panama); and three in Asia (Nepal, Lao PDR, and Vietnam). They will receive initial funding from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), an innovative approach to financing efforts to combat climate change. The FCPF aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation by compensating developing countries for greenhouse gas emission reductions. The 14 tropical and sub-tropical countries will receive grant support as they build their capacity for REDD and tap into future systems of positive incentives for REDD.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on July 22 that central banks in emerging were moving too slowly to combat the threat of oil and food inflation, which it warned seemed to be seeping into the broader economies of the region. It said timely action by policy makers was needed to maintain emerging 's healthy growth rate, which it forecast at 7.6 percent for both this year and next, otherwise the region risked a damaging upward spiral of wages and prices. In its latest Asia Economic Monitor report, the Manila-based lender warned that while previous food price surges were “cyclical and temporary," the higher prices now being seen were caused by permanent changes.

Foreign ministers of the 10 ASEAN nations and their counterparts from , and other key dialogue partners agreed Tuesday on the need to improve crop productivity in the region to overcome the looming food crisis and create a mechanism to deal with rapidly growing energy consumption amid soaring fuel prices. They agreed to launch a USD 3 million ASEAN-plus-three Cooperation Fund, in line with plans endorsed by the nations' leaders last November under the 2nd Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation, the official said. The fund will finance cooperation in such fields as politics and national security, business and finance, energy and the environment, and social development as stipulated under the 10-year guideline.

The World Bank (IBRD) for the first time has disbursed a loan in one of Africa's local currencies The 58.2 million South African Rand (ZAR) loan is to support the Government of Namibia in its educational improvement program. The South African and Namibian currencies are equivalent. The transaction is part of the World Bank's ongoing efforts to respond to requests from its borrowing member countries to provide flexible financial products in support of their risk management objectives.“This is particularly the case in Middle Income Countries, like Namibia, which are looking for additional flexibility from the World Bank in terms of lending instruments. Borrowing in Rand represents a lower risk for the country," said Mmantsetsa Marope, World Bank Team Leader for the Namibia lending operation. The loan was possible thorough a conversion of the originally dollar denominated USD 7.5 million loan which took place on July 15, 2008 and is the first time the World Bank has provided a Rand-denominated financing to any country.