Africa

RECENT POSTS

August 23, 2011 | 9:31 AM | By

Top 20 “young power” women in US entertainers; Africa’s top 20 intellectuals

Forbes

Forbes magazine recently published its selection of the world’s most powerful women, including a sub-list called the “20 youngest power women” such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Serena Williams and Danica Patrick.

In the U.S., most young women judged to be in power were entertainers, sports stars or supermodels.

In response to this somewhat typical (if not also dispiriting) celebration of American celebrity elite, Nigerian writer Mfonobong Nsehe decided to put together for Forbes his own list of the top 20 young power women of Africa.

Forbes

Ory Okolloh

They are mostly activists, writers, thinkers and entrepreneurs like Kenyan Ory Okollah, founder of the crowd-sourcing website Ushahidi, which allows citizens, journalists and eyewitnesses all over the world to report and/or track incidences of violence through the web, mobile E-mail, SMS, and Twitter.

Others on the list of Africa’s top 20 young power women include Nigerian writer Chimanda Adichie, controversial Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo and Ethiopian shoemaker-businesswoman (founder of Sole Rebels) Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu.

Yeah, but can they dance and sing?

FILED UNDER: Basics, Africa, Forbes, women
August 19, 2011 | 10:30 AM | By

World Concern delivering aid to drought- and famine-stricken Horn of Africa

Derek Sciba/World Concern photo

12 million people at risk of starvation

News on the 12 million people facing starvation in the Horn of Africa drought today is focusing on the Turkish prime minister’s visit to Mogadishu, Somalia, the first visit to the war-torn capital in nearly two decades.

According to a report in Al Jazeera, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit “follows Wednesday’s meeting in Istanbul by members of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), who pledged to donate $350 million to assist the drought- and famine-stricken Somalis.”

Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies continue to rush aid to the region.

Here is an update from Derek Sciba, in Kenya near the Somalia border. Derek is marketing director of World Concern, a Seattle-based, non-profit humanitarian organization providing community development and disaster response:

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FILED UNDER: Health, Africa, aid, famine, Somalia, United Nations
August 18, 2011 | 10:30 AM | By

How insecticide-resistant mosquitoes may be winning the war on malaria

Mike Urban

African child with cerebral malaria

As reported here by Humanospere’s Tom Paulson back in July, the Global Malaria Programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) has long been worried over reports that mosquitoes were increasingly resistant to chemical-treated bed nets, a mainstay in the Gates-led, worldwide campaign against malaria.

Now, a study from Senegal published in The Lancet at the beginning of this month raises doubts over Gates’ plant to beat malaria, blaming mosquitoes’ growing resistance to insecticide and decreased immunity to malaria among the local population.

Voice of America

Malaria net distribution in Niger

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FILED UNDER: Health, Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, malaria, World Health Organization
August 17, 2011 | 10:30 AM | By

Mercy Corps battling famine in Horn of Africa

Erin Gray/Mercy Corps photo

Eighteen-year-old Saadia Farah and her one-year-old daughter Amina

Last week I wrote about IREX, an international, nonprofit agency working in the famine-struck Horn of Africa on long-term projects like education, media and community building. Today I’m focusing on another group that is hard at work providing immediate aid to the region – Mercy Corps.

Tom Paulson recently posted a couple of reports on the work Mercy Corps Communications Director Joy Portella, and others, have been doing in getting out the news on issues in Africa and how they are, basically filling in for news organizations that have dropped the ball on international coverage. But today’s post is not about Mercy Corps’ communications role. It’s about Mercy Corps’ ongoing direct effort to head off starvation for more than 1 million people.

Yesterday, Seattle-based Portella and a colleague, Erin Gray, a communications officer for Mercy Corps’ European headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland, gave me a rundown of the aid agency’s work in the areas facing famine.

Joy Portella/Mercy Corps photo

A traditional herder stands on the withered landscape outside the drought-stricken town of Hadado, Kenya

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FILED UNDER: Health, Justice, Africa, famine, Horn of Africa, Mercy Corps
August 15, 2011 | 10:30 AM | By

How Somalia food aid is stolen as ‘oppressed people are dying’

Wikimedia Commons photo

Girls carry food aid in the port city of Merca on the coast of southern Somalia.

An Associated Press investigation out of Somalia today shows that up to half of all famine aid deliveries there are being stolen. In the best of times, theft of food aid is deplorable. At a time when 3.2 million Somalis — nearly half the population — are in dire need of food, it is also catastrophic. Already some 29,000 Somali children under the age of 5 have died.

Associated Press reporter Katharine Houreld filed a story today saying the United Nations is investigating the stolen aid:

“Thousands of sacks of food aid meant for Somalia’s famine victims have been stolen and are being sold at markets in the same neighborhoods where skeletal children in filthy refugee camps can’t find enough to eat, an Associated Press investigation has found.

“The U.N.’s World Food Program for the first time acknowledged it has been investigating food theft in Somalia for two months. The WFP said that the ‘scale and intensity’ of the famine crisis does not allow for a suspension of assistance, saying that doing so would lead to ‘many unnecessary deaths.’

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FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Africa, famine aid, Somalia, United Nations, World Food Program
August 12, 2011 | 9:37 AM | By

How aid groups work in Somalia and region come famine or violence

Oxfam, Wikimedia Commons photo

Oxfam workers distribute aid in a Kenyan camp near the Somalia border.

Since the ongoing famine across the Horn of Africa has made Somalia, once more, a top news story, I thought, over the next few days, it would be good to take a look at some of the organizations working there.

There are dozens of aid and development type agencies working in Somalia and the region, of course, so this will be just a glimpse of what has been done there and of what work continues even when the region isn’t in the headlines.

At the bottom of this post, I am again running a list of some of the many organizations that are working to help the 12-million plus people currently facing famine across the region.

Today’s post looks at IREX, an international, nonprofit agency that “enables local individuals and institutions to build key elements of a vibrant society: quality education, independent media, and strong communities.”

It was formed in 1968 as the International Research & Exchanges Board by some of the top U.S. universities to administer exchanges with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. IREX now works, or partners with other agencies, in over 100 countries.

The following text and video is taken from the IREX website, and is just one example of its efforts in Somalia:

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FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Africa, clan violence, famine, IREX, Somalia
August 11, 2011 | 10:36 AM | By

Millions still facing starvation in Horn of Africa, some blame U.N.

By Oxfam East Africa, Wikimedia Creative Commons photo

Women and children refugees of the famine waiting to enter Dadaab camp in Kenya.

Today, relief agencies are saying there are some 12 million people in the Horn of Africa in danger of starving as a result of drought, exacerbated by conflict in Somalia.

As the famine crisis continues to worsen, it’s hard to know where to begin with its story. The U.S. today announced $17 million in new U.S. aid for the region, over 1,000 Somali refugees per day continue to arrive at Kenya camps, piracy is hampering delivery of relief supplies to Somalia and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon talked with rock star Bono about the need for increased aid efforts.

Another interesting, and revealing, story angle comes from the Inter Press Service News Agency, pointing much of the blame for the famine at the United Nations for not putting more effort into long-term development programs across the region.

Gustavo Capdevila, writing for IPS, described a bleak situation:

(See ways to donate at end of this story.)

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FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Africa, aid, famine, poverty, Somalia, United Nations
July 11, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

Interactive map: Political history of Africa

Why does Africa seem to have so many political problems?

For starters, imagine if the U.S. had been run by Belgium, then was given to France which in 1960 just packed up and left when colonialism fell out of fashion. With the difficult birth of the world’s newest nation, South Sudan, it’s worth considering Africa’s political history.

The Guardian has made it easy with this interactive map (below is just a screen grab):

The Guardian

FILED UNDER: Basics, Africa, history