ADDIS ABABA, 30 August 2010 (IRIN) - Kibrom Sebhatu, 45, is among hundreds of Eritreans expected to benefit from a recent Ethiopian government ruling allowing Eritrean refugees to live outside the camps. "I am happy that UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency] and the government of Ethiopia agreed to ...
DIFFA, 26 August 2010 (IRIN) - The population of Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, is growing at an unsustainable rate, according to the authorities and civil society groups. If current growth rates of 3.3 percent per year remain unchanged, by 2050 Niger"s population will have ...
DAKAR, 20 August 2010 (IRIN) - Aid agencies in Niger and Chad have begun giving tens of thousands of malnourished children a product called Plumpy"doz to save them from sliding into often-fatal severe malnutrition. Another ready-to-eat food, the nutrient-dense Plumpy"nut to treat severe acute malnutrition, has been widely ...
GARBATULLA, 13 August 2010 (IRIN) - Response to disasters and emergencies in northern Kenya continues to be hampered by lack of infrastructure - airstrips, communication, health facilities and personnel " with aid workers and disaster response experts calling for more preparedness. Prepositioning more emergency supplies in "rescue centres" ...
NAIROBI, 3 August 2010 (IRIN) - In a nondescript room on the 14th floor of a Nairobi office block, the words "hate speech" appear on a computer screen next to the name of a prominent politician, with location, a telephone number and buttons marked "Not verified" and "Follow-up". ...
JUBA, 7 July 2010 (IRIN) - Tension over the future of Abyei, a flashpoint region roughly the size Lebanon on Sudan"s north-south border, erupted into armed violence and street demonstrations this week. On 5 July, gunmen mounted an attack near the village of Tajalei, about 30km northeast of ...
LIRA, 28 June 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of children injured during years of conflict in northern Uganda have been unable to obtain the specialist treatment they need for lack of funds or suitable facilities, according to a local advocacy group. "We have registered up to 1,500 cases that ...
WASHINGTON, 13 June 2010 (IRIN) - Progress in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity is still "tragically slow". Now, the United Nations has unveiled a global initiative based on government, civil society and private sector cooperation that could save the lives of up to one million women during pregnancy and childbirth. ...
JOS, 25 May 2010 (IRIN) - The angry mobs that terrorized the central Nigerian city of Jos at the beginning of the year have returned to their neighbourhoods, but it is hard to find many people who believe the peace will hold. A military taskforce has kept a lid ...
NEW YORK, 20 May 2010 (IRIN) - A five-year campaign to boost the number of UN female peacekeepers is progressing steadily in police units, but "seems to be stuck" at a minuscule percentage in military contingents, Lt-Col Alejandro Alvarez of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), told IRIN. ...
DONGO-BRAZZAVILLE, 11 May 2010 (IRIN) - Security is improving in Democratic Republic of Congo"s (DRC) Equateur province, where an insurgency rooted in a resource conflict pushed some 200,000 people in the marginalized region to flee their homes last year. But it will require more than an end to the violence ...
BUJUMBURA, 26 April 2010 (IRIN) - Just 2km from the Tanzanian border, the "integrated" rural village of Nyakazi in Kibago commune, Makamba Province, houses 198 families, 80 percent of whom are landless returnees. The village is one of several set up in the southern region of Burundi to ...
Eight faith-based organisations have set up a pilot project in the Democratic Republic of Congo to support the fight against malaria.The initiative, dubbed the Coalition of Religious Organisations for Health (CORESA, after its French acronym) will receive some money from the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, as well ...
An HIV vaccine is possible if the world works together as a global community with the objective of finding one, but it will take some years to develop.This is according to Dr Alan Bernstein of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. The 2009 results of an HIV vaccine trial in ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
As African countries continue their relentless battle against the spread of malaria, a global fund to fight the deadly tropical disease has fallen short of expectations.In a report released Monday, the U.N. children"s agency UNICEF said that total annual global funding reached about 2.0 billion dollars from external sources by ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
Experts from around the world are trying to attract attention to deadly but little-known illnesses, such as Chagas disease, visceral leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness, that have been neglected by the pharmaceutical industry.So-called neglected tropical diseases, which also include malaria, dengue fever and schistosomiasis, in conjunction with tuberculosis are responsible for ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
When there are water cuts in Bulawayo, the plants in 59-year-old Ntombizodwa Makati"s vegetable garden are still watered - but she and her family go thirsty.Small scale farmers in Bulawayo are able to use recycled waste water for their crops as lack of adequate rainfall affects the region, thanks to ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
LONDON, 13 April 2010 (IRIN) - A so-called Vulture Funds bill - to stop finance companies using British courts to extort excessive debt repayments from some of the world"s poorest countries - was passed in the frantic scramble to finish outstanding parliamentary business before Britain"s general election in May. ...
LONDON, 13 April 2010 (IRIN) - A so-called Vulture Funds bill " to stop finance companies using British courts to extort excessive debt repayments from some of the world"s poorest countries - was passed in the frantic scramble to finish outstanding parliamentary business before Britain"s general election in May. ...
As the World Bank approved a controversial three-billion-dollar loan for a coal-fired power plant in South Africa Thursday, both the details and the broader impacts of the loan continue to be criticised by community and environmental groups.The U.S., Britain, Netherlands, Norway and Italy abstained from voting on the loan, thus ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
As the heavy rains subside, signifying the end of the rainy season, a cholera outbreak is sweeping through the Zambian capital, Lusaka.Humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), issued an alert on Apr. 9 concerning a cholera epidemic that has swept the city. "Over the last five weeks, the number ...
DAKAR, 9 April 2010 (IRIN) - As established standards of humanitarian response are being put to the test in Haiti, aid experts say safeguarding the dignity of those affected by January"s earthquake requires agencies to think beyond mere numerical benchmarks. Most commonly cited standards are enshrined in the Sphere ...
East African countries risk not attaining the millennium development goal (MDG) on universal treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases if the region"s parliament adopts the anti-counterfeits policy and bill currently under consideration.Civil society representatives, government officials and intellectual property experts warn that the region ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
Lying forgotten in the bush somewhere is a sign declaring "Ogoo Farm is an open defecation-free community."This peri-urban community of roughly 3000 people was one of the villages where UNICEF and the Sierra Leone ministry of health implemented the pilot phase of a Community-Led Total Sanitation Programme in 2008. ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
Pregnant mothers who are HIV-positive could soon find it challenging to access life-saving HIV drugs because Kenya was denied 270 million dollars in funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.The Global Fund cited the existence of two ministries of health and the jostling between them over ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
NEW YORK, 1 April 2010 (IRIN) - Women"s civil society groups were noticeable by their absence from the landmark Haiti donor conference on 31 March, which secured pledges of US$5.3 billion over the next two years to support the country"s post-quake recovery. Their lack of a presence at the ...
Experts from around the world are trying to attract attention to deadly but little-known illnesses, such as Chagas disease, visceral leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness, that have been neglected by the pharmaceutical industry.So-called neglected tropical diseases, which also include malaria, dengue fever and schistosomiasis, in conjunction with tuberculosis are responsible for ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
They endure stigma, discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but Ugandan women living with disabilities say the greatest challenge facing them centres on their reproductive health."In addition to the impacts of physical, mental, intellectual and sensor impairments, we are double discriminated (against), first as women, and then as disabled," said Beatrice ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
When there are water cuts in Bulawayo, the plants in 59-year-old Ntombizodwa Makati"s vegetable garden are still watered - but she and her family go thirsty.Small scale farmers in Bulawayo are able to use recycled waste water for their crops as lack of adequate rainfall affects the region, thanks to ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
After torrential rains and floods claimed lives in Kenya"s North Rift region, hundreds of displaced people are now in dire need of relief aid.In Turkana, one of the worst affected areas, hundreds of homes have been washed away by floods or buried under landslides. Access to clean water and sanitation ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
"At home we have a bar," says grade seven learner David Bravo* (14). "When my mother puts on the music I cannot concentrate on (my) schoolwork anymore. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I just sit there and watch the people."Bravo is one the learners who attends the Aids ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
Poverty is on the rise in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and various forms of corruption threaten to undermine the impact of investments made to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the continent, said the World Bank in a report released Monday on Africa"s development.The report says the number of people ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
KYAKA II, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - A project using papyrus and waste paper to make sanitary pads has changed the life of Evelyne Banyamisa, who fled rebel violence in Bunia, north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2003 when she was only 13. After leaving the DRC, ...
BOSASSO, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - The number of people seeking mental health treatment has increased in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia"s autonomous region of Puntland, despite the existence of only one small health unit, officials said. "We have only two rooms; one for males and one ...
Fourteen-year-old Isaac Wadyegere of Bundesi village in Bududa district woke up to a rainy and chilly Monday morning and went to school as usual. But Mar. 1 was not a usual day in eastern Uganda. When he heard the sound of rocks and soil tumbling down Mountain Elgon on a ...
JOHANNESBURG, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in two South African provinces has killed one person, while five others have tested positive for the disease, which has also caused "extensive livestock deaths", the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said in a statement on ...
CAIRO, 8 March 2010 (IRIN) - Egypt is moving to curb the spread of avian influenza (H5N1) after a recent upsurge in infections, the Egyptian Health Ministry says. The sale of poultry between any of Egypt"s 29 governorates is to be banned, and a major Health Ministry-led awareness ...
Twenty-two-year-old Sara Allen* uses prescription medication to get high."Prescriptions are great," she said. "I recommend Codeine." Codeine is a mild narcotic used to treat mild to moderate pain. One of the warnings on the medication is that it should not be taken with alcohol because of the risk of death. ...
DAKAR, 5 March 2010 (IRIN) - No more needles or special medical training to administer vaccines - that is the hope driving new research in Germany into vaccines that could be sniffed. The "c-di-IMP" molecule being tested on mice might one day be able to bring down vaccination costs, boost ...
DAKAR, 2 March 2010 (IRIN) - The government of Sierra Leone has announced that from Independence Day (27 April) it will abolish user fees for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five, but will this, on its own, improve their lot? IRIN looks at Sierra Leone for ...
KABUL, 1 March 2010 (IRIN) - Up to 25 million tree seedlings will be planted in Afghanistan this year by the government, NGOs and private entities to combat soil erosion and desertification, and help improve air quality in urban environments, says the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL). ...
Every Tuesday you will find 70-year-old Precious Dlamini under a tree, weighing children and babies from her local community as she monitors their health and nutrition.Though she may not have any official qualifications to do so, Dlamini is a retired teacher, she devotes much of her time to caring for ...
DAKAR, 23 February 2010 (IRIN) - US researchers have begun collecting tissue samples from thousands of pregnant women in an effort to learn what causes stillbirths " babies born dead " and preterm deliveries. This is the second of a three-part series on maternal and child health, and the seldom ...
By this time last year, Mkanda had recorded 14 cholera cases as rainy season descended on central Malawi. This year, the area has not been a single report of cholera."There has been a reduction in open defecation. The people of Mkanda have fully adopted the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach ...
DAKAR, 22 February 2010 (IRIN) - Saving a newborn"s life could be as simple as tapping the bottom of its foot, rubbing its back or helping pregnant women in rural communities get to a clinic. In this first part of a three-part series on initiatives to reduce maternal and newborn ...
HARARE, 22 February 2010 (IRIN) - A measles outbreak has hit 28 of Zimbabwe"s 62 districts and is still spreading, but efforts to vaccinate people in some quarters is being hampered by religious convictions. According to the latest World health Organisation (WHO) Epidemiological Bulletin, "Nearly 1,200 suspected cases ...
DAKAR, 18 February 2010 (IRIN) - Researchers in the UK have unveiled a new system of storing vaccines without refrigeration that could cut vaccination costs in poor tropical countries, according to Oxford University. "You could even picture someone with a backpack taking vaccine doses on a bike to ...
With hundreds of thousands of girls and women believed to be at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Europe, rights groups have mounted a campaign to get EU leaders to stop what they see as a barbaric and dangerous procedure.FGM – an umbrella term for procedures involving partial or ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa-Related articles
"I will never have anything to do with women since I have been diagnosed to have a killer disease." It is not clear how Muhammad Jungudo (17) contracted HIV, but he suspects it happened at a local barber shop where the implements used for shaving are rarely sterilised. And knowing ...
Eighteen-year-old David Kimenyi* is sure he infected his girlfriend with HIV. They had unprotected sex many times, even after he discovered he was HIV-positive."I am afraid that I would have infected my girlfriend with HIV/AIDS," he said. "We used to enjoy a good time together and we trusting each ...
JOHANNESBURG, 12 February 2010 (IRIN) - The cause of a measles outbreak sweeping South Africa has not as yet been determined, but initial suspicions point to religious objections and unfounded fears that immunizations against the disease increase the risk of autism in children. The National Institute of Communicable ...
