Category: Africa News

HARARE/MASVINGO,(IRIN) – The Zimbabwean government has appealed to the international community for nearly US$20 million to help evacuate and assist 60,000 people at risk of being swept away by rapidly rising water in a partially constructed dam, following heavy rainfall in the normally drought-prone Masvingo province in the southeast. The region has received 850mm of…

DAKAR,  (IRIN) – Guinea-Bissau will hold elections on 16 March to end yet another post-coup regime, with many hoping the polls will help calm an internecine and drawn-out instability. Observers believe that a political coalition and deeper commitment by the international community after the polls can shore up the country’s recovery. Multiple coups and assassinations…

KAMPALA, 31 October 2013 (IRIN) – The apparent imminent demise of the 18-month-old M23 rebellion is unlikely, on its own, to deliver peace to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where, in the absence of a significant presence of the state, at least 40 armed groups operate, and a chronic humanitarian crisis…

MAPEL, (IRIN) – Wounded in battle and a former prisoner of war, Kuot Manyok, 33, is trading the military skills gleaned from his service with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) for the life of a welder. He is one of the first batch of 290 former SPLA combatants, including 18 women, who recently graduated…

JOHANNESBURG, (IRIN) – Namibia, already the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, is experiencing a severe drought, with some regions receiving the lowest seasonal rainfall in three decades, according to figures released by the country’s meteorological service this week. President Hifikepunye Pohamba declared the drought a national emergency on 17 May, following an Emergency Food Security…