The U.N. Mission monitoring the disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea disclosed Thursday that it has set up a committee to investigate allegations of sexual abuse which Eritrean women have made against Mission peacekeepers and civilian staff. Gail Sainte, spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), said, "UNMEE has established a committee today composed of civilian and military personnel to look into sexual abuse accusations made by Eritrean women, one of which was informally and the other two were formally reported to us.''

Emmanuel Akitani-Bob, an opposition candidate in the presidential election held Sunday in Togo, declared himself winner of the poll Wednesday. This came a day after the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) announced that Faure Gnassingbe, son of deceased head of state Gnassingbe Eyadema, was the provisional winner. Tuesday's announcement was greeted with outrage by opposition supporters, who erected barricades and burned tires in the Togolese capital, Lome, to protest the outcome of the poll.

The war against malaria in Africa can only be won if governments, communities and development partners work together against the parasitic disease that kills more than 800,000 Africans per year, the regional director for Africa of the United Nations health agency said. "Let us re-dedicate ourselves collectively to a more coordinated fight against this public health challenge facing our continent," Dr. Luis Gomes Sambo of the World Health Organization (WHO) said, marking the fifth annual Africa Malaria Day.

"Senior delegations of the ANC, SACP, COSATU and SANCO met in our second Ekurhuleni Alliance Summit from 22-23 April 2005. We have convened in a period that is characterised by important advances and major challenges. On the one hand, as an ANC-led alliance, we have consolidated and expanded our overwhelming electoral majority, we have advanced and deepened democratic governance, we have entrenched extensive social and economic rights and we have rolled out significant social resource transfers. In the recent period, government has shifted to a more expansionary fiscal stance and has begun to implement a programme of significant public investments. As an Alliance we collectively salute and claim these achievements. On the other hand, deeply entrenched poverty and inequality continue to characterise our society and, above all, we have an economy that is not generating nearly sufficient jobs. As we meet, another devastating wave of mass retrenchments is striking the mining and manufacturing sectors."

The leader of Liberia’s one-time main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) Sekou Conneh, told IRIN on Wednesday that under pressure from former fighters, he will stand as president in landmark October polls. “My former fighters in LURD and other supporters from across Liberia have put me under pressure to stand as a presidential candidate. They said they would support me to the fullest, because they want me to be president so as to better cater to them in the future,” Conneh said.

Four senior Nigerian MPs and Senators are embarking on an international mini-tour in May, 2005 to urge western campaigners, politicians and officials to support debt cancellation for Nigeria. They will explain why rising frustration with the finance ministers of major creditor nations has led the National Assembly to call on President Obasanjo to halt debt repayments. The four representatives are Senator Udo Udoma – Chief Whip of the Senate; Senator Patrick Osakwe – Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Debt; the Hon. Farouk Lawan – chair of the House Committee on Finance; and the Hon. Sadiq Sanussi – chair of the House Committee on Aid, Loans and Debt Management.  They will be accompanied by Dr. Mansur Muhtar – Director General of Nigeria's Debt Management Office. The Senators and House Representatives will be visiting Washington, London, Berlin and Rome.  If you live in any of these cities and would like to attend their upcoming meetings, please write to [email protected] for details.

The Zvakwana newsletter reports that in Bob Helvey’s book 'Strategic Non-violent Conflict: The Fundamentals', he compared two elections in 2002 in Serbia and Zimbabwe. In regard to the Zimbabwean example Helvey said of the MDC: “Little attention was given to a “Plan B” that would go into effect should the elections be stolen by the incumbent, robert mugabe.” Helvey went on to say: “With no detailed plan or any capacity to enforce the mandate of the people’s vote, the MDC had no alternative but to limit its response to declaring the election neither fair nor free and to call for another election.” That was in 2002. Sound familiar? In the words of Sokwanele in the South, “the MDC needs to adapt or die”, says Zvakwana.

For Nigeria, a nation long considered one of the world's most unrepentantly corrupt, the last few weeks have been remarkable. First the national police chief, who had recently resigned, was arrested and led away in handcuffs, accused of graft and money laundering. Then the housing minister was fired, charged with selling government houses on the cheap to the well connected. Finally, the head of Nigeria's Senate - the third-highest-ranking official in the beleaguered West African country - resigned after being denounced by the president for bribery.

South Africans are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the fraud and corruption trial of Shabir Shaik, the financial adviser to Deputy President Jacob Zuma, which has lasted more than six months. Allegations aired in court have been closely followed, since they involve not only Mr Shaik, but, by implication, the deputy president himself.

Thanks for posting that provocative essay. I had seen a critique of the charity infomercials that are shown frequently on some channels here in the US. The documentarian/director was shooting the charity representative and the little child from the (barrio, refugee camp, remote village). As he began to shoot he called, "More flies!!"

Even though I was aware of this kind of manipulation, the stories in these ads (sometimes an hour long) can be well told and convinced me that this Christian group was doing some good, that the executive director of the NGO really believed in what they were doing, and that it was better than the inaction or inability of the national government to provide a similar kind of assistance.

The way telcom/computing projects are portrayed shows the limits of expressing what really goes on in an effective ICT project: think about all the photos you have seen and how limited is the subject matter.

It's usually users at computers in different variation: smiling kids crowded around one machine; some exotic tribal group gazing at or using the computer; situated in a thatched hut a young person helping an older person; a whole family bonding in front of the screen; some celebrity or bigwig (Gates in a South African township) at the machine, surrounded by locals.

My favorite was the shot of a villager in India with his sick chicken held in front of the webcam so the vet could make a remote diagnosis of the animal's illness.

Many of the photos are set up in hopes of publicizing the project. A friend worked on wireless connectivity in Mongolia, and they made sure to hitch some horses up outside the technology center to remind the outsider that this project was a blend of the traditional Mongolian culture and advanced tech.

What is hard to convey through photos, white papers, and statistics are the changes going on in the minds of the people who have engaged and made useful links to people or information.

What an apt characterisation! I couldn't agree more. As comrade Mugabe has said, colonialism is a crime against humanity. Reparations are in order. African leaders have to realise that paying back the so-called debt to the multi-lateral institutions of the West, is a perpetuation of slavery and subjugation. Africa will not develop for as long as it is led by imperialist lackeys who are falling over each other to reach the HIPC completion point as was the case in my country Zambia.These governments are there to meet the conditionality set by their Western bosses. Not once have they met any expectation of the hapless masses.

I disagree with Patrick Bond and David Moore's conclusions on the Zimbabwe elections. It is condescending to merely allege that the urban poor and working class were cheated while the rural poor were intimidated. Where is the evidence to support these assertions? If Morgan the beloved weren't an ignoble chancer, why did he participate in the elections which he all along dubbed unfree and unfair? Comrade Mugabe is right to have reclaimed our peoples birth right. Their land. Savagely stolen by the ancestors of Morgan's current financiers. Aluta continua!

The Ugandan authorities have arrested two key opposition members of parliament on what appear to be politically motivated charges, chilling the political climate ahead of next year's elections, Human Rights Watch said. Two MPs from the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, Ronald Reagan Okumu and Michael Nyeko Ocula, were arrested on April 20 by the Criminal Investigations Division of the police. Okumu is the party's deputy executive coordinator and MP for Aswa County, Gulu district; Ocula is MP for Kilak County, also in Gulu.

At least 10 brigades of the new Congolese army are being prepared to help with the country's reunification process, especially during elections planned for later this year, the army's chief of general staff, Lt-Gen Kisempia Kisungilanga, told IRIN on Monday. "Those being trained will participate in peacekeeping operations during the electoral process," he said.

I am soooooooo pleased that someone is now talking of the images potraying Africa as a dead continent needing help. I have visited many developed countries and am so saddened by the images used to solicite for funds by bigger institutions. From a very small voice, I have made my feelings and disagreements known, which have not gone down very well with many.
 
I was very surprised by what I found out during my visit to some of the learning institutions in the "developed world". When I interacted with the pupils and students, they had a very, very negative picture of Africa. To them, Africa is so poor that they cannot imagine there are airports, cars, big buildings, planes, good clothes etc. One of my friends cannot come to Africa because she has a phobia of animals. From when she was a child, she was made to believe that Africans live in forests with animals, eat dirty foods with flies, don't shower, don't wear clothes, etc etc.
 
The power esteem by the western countries will never change if their children grow up knowing that they have to work to assist Africa. The price Africa is paying due to these images is too big for the benefit of a few. A policy should be developed on what kind of images should be used.
 
Did you know that in the UK, you cannot just take photographs of children and use them in your materials? Why can't this apply in Africa and Asia?
 
You have made my day. Thank you very much.

The first 100 of some 58,000 refugees who had been living in the Republic of Congo (ROC) in the past six years are due to begin returning to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s Equateur Province on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the UN refugees agency, UNHCR, announced. The spokeswoman, Jennifer Pagonis, said on Tuesday in Geneva that the operation would be "one of the most logistically challenging major refugee voluntary repatriation programmes" the agency had undertaken anywhere in the world.

Consider a few facts: The Ghana Stock Exchange regularly tops the list of the world's highest-performing stock markets. Botswana, with its A+ credit rating, boasts one of the highest per capita government savings rates in the world, topped only by Singapore and a handful of other fiscally prudent nations. Cell phones are making phenomenal profits on the continent. Brand-name companies like Coca-Cola, GM, Caterpillar and Citibank have invested in Africa for years and are quite bullish on the future.

Nigeria is heading towards an Argentinian-style default on its $33bn (£17bn) of overseas debt unless western creditors accept a deal to alleviate the country's financial burden, a delegation from west Africa's biggest economy said in London. As part of a four-country visit, the senior politicians warned that public unrest was growing over the hardline approach adopted by the west and that time was running out for negotiations.

I love this article! (Pambazuka News 203: Behind the image: poverty and 'development pornography') I think it is absolutely right on... I visited Cape Verde from 1996 to 1999 as a Peace Corps volunteer and brought with me all kinds of stereotypes and propaganda that was very hard to discard, but I did as the years went by...

I have the hardest time trying to explain what I saw to people here in the western US and to help them understand my commitment to disrupt the status quo and turn things around in Africa. Since returning, I have learned and appreciated the concept of "stealing from the poor." I think it makes sense to spotlight the corporate and government predators when talking about what is happening in Africa, however, people are much more uncomfortable with acknowledging their own complicity in the problem.

If I start to talk about the corporations, then they get uncomfortable because, in America, that's like criticizing God. It's never spoken about, but one isn't supposed to criticize capitalism here. And people feel powerless when they understand who is doing what in Africa. It is so much easier for them to pledge $1 a day to help a "starving child". They get to feel powerful and superior, and they feel like they are addressing the problem. The question is: how do we get people to feel that same sense of personal power if they are going after the source of the problem, not the result? The problem is so huge and complex, it would almost take a documentary to explain it; not a simple television advertisement. Do you have any suggestions or advice for me?

I am finishing a law degree, and before I return to Africa, I want to somehow communicate with people here about Africa; help change the preconceptions and picque their interest in the continent; dare I say help them develop an empathy with Africans not based on pity, but based on respect as valiant and dignified equals?

Thank you so much for the work you do!

As the Government dithers and over housing the urban poor, residents of an informal settlement in Nairobi are showing the way things ought to be done. Up to the year 2003, the residents of Kambi Moto slum village in Huruma, Starehe Division, Nairobi, lived like any other slum dwellers do — in crowded, poorly built shacks, made of any material they could find. Today, all that has changed. Thirty-four residents live in permanent, well-ventilated houses, provided with flush toilets, kitchen, living area and bedroom. And it is expected that in another year or so, 270 more units will have been completed to accommodate residents of Kambi Moto.

Journal of African Elections, vol. 3, no. 2, December 2004, has a special focus on the South African Elections, 2004, and includes:
* Under Strain: The Racial/Ethnic Interpretation of South Africa's 2004
Election by Thabisi Hoeane
* Political Party Funding in the 2004 Election by Dirk Kotze
* Why the IFP Lost the Election in KZN by Shauna Mottiar
* Women's Representation: The South African Electoral System and the
2004 Election by Amanda Gouws
Contact [email protected] Online subscriptions are available via SABINET at
http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_eisa_jae.html and the JAE web page can be visited at
http://www.eisa.org.za/EISA/publications/jae.htm