Many Tunisians feel their revolution was hijacked and the current ruling party has not improved their lifestyles. There are many who will not rest until their demands are finally met. From the tenth floor restaurant of the El Hana Hotel overlooking Bourguiba Street, the stage of the Tunisian revolution, some of its intellectuals peer down. 'Don’t be too impressed by the city’s lights,' advises one. 'They’re deceptive. The alleyways aren’t so pretty.'
Tagged under Violence & Peace TunisiaThe 65-year old Yvonne Ntacyobatabara was living quietly with her husband in the southern Dutch province of Limburg when, in 2010, she was arrested on suspicion of genocide. She is accused of leading a group of young men in the mass murder of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. Her trial begins today (22 October) in a court in The Hague.
Tagged under Violence & Peace RwandaA gay Nigerian asylum seeker who was living in Bradford has been deported from the UK. Olamiekan Ayelokun had argued that he could not return to Nigeria because he was at risk of homophobic persecution. He had been trying to stay in the UK ever since his visa expired in 2003.
Tagged under Violence & Peace NigeriaPresidential aspirants have embraced the digital platform as they step up campaigns ahead of the General Election. They are reaching out to voters directly through social media signalling their determination to use digital technology as a new frontier in consolidating their support among voters, reports the Daily Nation.
Tagged under Governance KenyaOn October 2 2012, Zambia's Finance Deputy Minister Miles Sampa and Minister in Charge of Chiefs Nkandu Luo were caught on camera during a Lusaka Council meeting browsing the online news website Zambian Watchdog. The online publication, known for its investigative reporting, was this month threatened with de-registration by the Registrar of Societies. In this post, Global Voices reports on how the Zambian blogosphere has responded.
Tagged under Artificial Intelligence & Technologies ZambiaIn a major endorsement for investment in women – the bulk of food growers in the developing world – United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said food security could not be achieved without women, and that the world’s hungry also needed leaders to prioritise actions. 'Girls and women are society’s best chance to overcome hunger,' Ban told a gathering of world leaders, researchers, farmers and policy-makers at the presentation of the 2012 World Food Prize. Global leaders meeting in the midwest U.S. state of Iowa to discuss strategies to boost food production worldwide say the particularly challenging food security situation in Africa will require mobilising the continent’s best scientific minds, including those of African women.
Tagged under Food, Health & WellbeingA research team at Oxford University in the UK is very close to determining the efficacy of their new tuberculosis (TB) vaccine. If current clinical trials are successful, it will be the first new TB vaccine in almost a century. The urgent need for a new vaccine is emphasised by research showing that extensively drug-resistant (XDR) forms of the disease are rapidly spreading. Today, most babies in the world are immunized with the old Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, first used in 1921. The leader of the Oxford research team, Helen McShane, says it saves children's lives, but beyond infancy its effects are limited.
Tagged under Global South & Transnational StrugglesThe Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and INTERIGHTS have initiated a case against Egypt following its failure to address violations by army personnel against female detainees, in what has come to be known as the 'virginity tests' incident. The case, brought to the African Commission, alleges violations of the African Charter, to which Egypt is a signatory. The Commission, which sits twice a year, is expected to consider the NGOs’ request to hear the case during its upcoming session in October in Côte d’Ivoire.
Tagged under Violence & Peace EgyptFor decades Nigeria has failed to fix chronic electricity shortages that stifle growth and help keep millions in poverty. That is about to change, the government says, when most of the power sector is privatised by the end of the year. Its target is to increase electricity output tenfold to 40,000 megawatts by 2020, reports Reuters. Turning on the lights in a country where power cuts are a daily ordeal could push Nigeria's growth into double digits and help diversify its economy away from oil, which in 50 years has created a super-rich elite but has done little to reduce mass poverty.
Tagged under Governance Nigeria'Although the government of Uganda has made significant efforts to put in place fairly elaborate policy, legal and institutional mechanisms to address the environment[al] challenges of the gas and oil sector, the lack of capacity to implement these policies and enforce the corresponding laws has grossly undermined their effectiveness,' according to a recent Capacity Needs Assessment for the Environmental Pillar Institutions in Uganda conducted on behalf of the National Environment Management Authority by an independent consulting company with funding from the US government aid agency, USAID. Inadequate staffing levels, lack of knowledge and skills among existing staff, the absence of appropriate training institutions and chronic shortages of equipment and funds are highlighted as key weaknesses.
Tagged under Land & Environment UgandaTwo top Muslim Brotherhood officials are being investigated by Egypt’s Attorney General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud over their role in allegedly inciting President Mohamed Morsi supporters to attack female protesters around Tahrir Square. Mohamed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian are under investigation, Mahmoud said. Mahmoud himself had only the day before defied an order to step down from his position after President Morsi attempted to push him out after a court acquitted former top Hosni Mubarak officials of their role in the infamous 'Camel Battle' during the 18 days of protests that ousted his rule.
Tagged under Gender & Social Justice EgyptThe Ethiopian government on Friday said its peace talks with the Ogaden National liberation Front (ONLF) rebel group had collapsed. The two sides started negotiations in September and further talks had been scheduled to be held in Kenya. But government representatives at the talks said the ONLF had refused to recognise the Horn of Africa country's constitution, after they demanded the rebels to adhere to Ethiopian rules.
Tagged under Violence & Peace EthiopiaEast African Environment Ministers have ended a meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, to discuss a set of radical policy proposals to deal with environmental pollution, including the introduction of a pay-as-you-pollute taxes, according to a statement from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Saturday. The Ministers for Environment and Natural Resources from the IGAD region met to adopt the regional environment policy and strategy as well as the environmental assessment policy framework.
Tagged under Governance UgandaWith newspapers forced to close, journalists banned and reporters persecuted, Sudanese media professionals say that their nation’s press is in a worse state than ever. Sudan’s press has a turbulent history, with periods of rapid development interspersed with stints of harsh official repression. But, according to media professionals, the sector is currently in a dismal state, with rampant censorship and readers who have lost faith in journalists.
Tagged under Violence & PeaceWelfare Systems are rapidly evolving in Sub-Saharan Africa, with some countries having implemented systems allowing evaluation of measures taken several decades ago. Students and researchers from Cameroon have closely examined social public policies and private sector initiatives in their country, as reports Global Voices.
Ten years after the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened its doors in The Hague, the United Nations Security Council held its first open discussion on the role of the court, with some nations reiterating complaints that its docket is highly politicised and has unfairly singled out African nations for censure. The ICC is the only permanent international court with a mandate to prosecute individuals accused of the most heinous crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Tagged under Violence & PeaceAn outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Uganda has spread to the capital Kampala after an infected woman travelled to the city and the death toll from the disease, a cousin of Ebola, climbed to five, a health official said on Monday. The latest outbreak of another haemorrhagic fever, first confirmed on Friday in Kabale district, 430 km (270 miles) southwest of Kampala, has rattled a country that only two weeks ago declared itself free of Ebola after it claimed at least 16 lives.
Tagged under Food, Health & Wellbeing UgandaPolice authorities have admitted that they may have been at fault in the Marikana mine shooting, with some officers either overreacting or mistakenly shooting at protesters in response to 'friendly-fire'. In an opening statement to the inquiry into the deaths of 34 workers at South Africa's Marikana mine, police officials said that 'the response of some police officers may have been disproportionate to the danger they faced from the group of more than 200 armed protesters'.
Tagged under Violence & Peace South AfricaHundreds of residents of a northeastern Nigerian city were fleeing Sunday after three days of Islamist attacks that left at least 31 dead and many buildings and properties razed, witnesses said. The troubled city of Potiskum had been under security lockdown since Thursday with troops patrolling the streets and residents keeping in-doors for fear of new attacks.
Tagged under Violence & Peace NigeriaA new report by the World Bank's Africa's Pulse records that citizens in some African states are enduring greater extreme poverty than they were before - citing Angola, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon. At the same time, it says, other countries on the continent, such as Guinea, Zambia, DR Congo, Ghana and Mali, are already accounting for a significant proportion of global mineral output. The report claims that, excluding South Africa (a notable exception, since it's historically been Africa's mining 'melting pot'), sub-Saharan growth is forecast soon to rise to 6% from 4.8%.
Tagged under Governance
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