DAKAR, 27 August 2010 (IRIN) – Further heavy rains in Niger have caused the number of people displaced by flooding to soar from 111,000 last week to 198,740 this week, says the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which is calling on donors and aid agencies to urgently send shelter materials, blankets and mosquito nets. “Response in rural areas has been slow thus far,” the head of OCHA in Niger, Modibo Traoré, told IRIN. Flood-displaced families in remote the Diffa region in the southeast, and Agadez in the north, have received no assistance to date. In Agadez... Continue Reading
It is common for sweeping statements to be made by politicians whenever they take to the podium. And when one clinches the ultimate prize of assuming the...
President Jacob Zuma and Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele have conveyed condolences to the families of nine children killed in a collision between a mini-bus taxi and a train in the Western Cape this morning (Wednesday, 25 August 2010). According to preliminary reports, the collision occurred when a mini-bus taxi collided with a train at the Buttskop level crossing between Blackheath and Melton Rose Stations in the Western Cape, which left nine children dead. The mini-bus taxi was transporting 13 children to school. The taxi driver and four children were critically injured and were taken to hospital. No injuries were reported... Continue Reading
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Islamist militants wearing Somali military uniforms stormed a hotel favored by lawmakers in the war-battered capital Tuesday, firing indiscriminately and killing 32 people, including six parliamentarians. A suicide bomber and one of the gunmen was also killed in the brazen attack just a half-mile (1 kilometer) from the presidential palace. The attack showed the insurgent group al-Shabab, which controls wide areas of Somalia, can penetrate even the few blocks of the capital under the control of the government and African Union troops.
HARARE, 23 August 2010 (IRIN) – An auction of Zimbabwean diamonds has created an air of expectation that the country’s economic plight will be eased or even improved, but the stones realized as little as a fifth of their value, and most of the proceeds are expected to benefit controversial mining companies. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme – an initiative to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the multibillion dollar global market – allowed Zimbabwe to sell diamonds from the Chiadzwa area of Marange in Manicaland Province. The diamond fields – reputedly the largest find in a century – have been... Continue Reading
