Ongoing clashes that have displaced more than 100,000 people in Mt Elgon District near the Kenya-Uganda border have disrupted farming and trading activities, sources said. "Those who had planted potatoes on their farms need to pay police escorts to go to their farms and to go to the market to sell the produce," Sokwony Laikong, a teacher in the affected areas, said.

‘‘We are selling everything in this country: from our bodies to our land and now our sea and lagoons. Is there anything left for us?’’ asked Jack Bizlall, spokesperson for a nongovernmental network of organisations called Kalipso. Together with local fishermen and others who earn their living from the sea and the lagoon, they are struggling to stop the government from implementing the Aquatic Business Activities Bill, presently being circulated.

Kompienga, in eastern Burkina Faso, is the country's most verdant province -- but for how long? Research conducted over the past three years has shown that forests there have receded by 1,600 square kilometres in 15 years, while shrublands extended their reach by some 31 percent between 1984 and 2007. "We have found that the degradation of soils is significant in the Kompienga region because of human activity, notably migration (and) agriculture…" says Ardjouma Ouattara, co-ordinator of a team that studied the situation in the province from 2004 to 2007.

Malagasy authorities have destroyed 137 houses and expect to knock down more ahead of next month's Indian Ocean Games, an official said on Tuesday. The structures were built illegally on land set aside for the August 9 to 19 competition, said Elyse Razafimahefa, a senior official in the capital, Antananarivo's, city council.

Arabs from Chad and Niger are crossing into Darfur in "unprecedented" numbers, prompting claims that the Sudanese government is trying systematically to repopulate the war- ravaged region. An internal UN report, obtained by The Independent, shows that up to 30,000 Arabs have crossed the border in the past two months. Most arrived with all their belongings and large flocks.

Felix Matsebula, a subsistence farmer in Swaziland's eastern Lubombo region, near the Mozambique border, always suspected that the columns of smoke rising from the surrounding sugarcane plantations and blackening the sky were harmful to his crops, and a reason his harvests have been declining for years.

A water channel running through the centre of the bustling Senegalese capital, Dakar, may have been intended as a public recreation area and amenity, but the reality is different. Knee-level rubbish and stagnant water mean the channel, known locally as Canal 4, is generally considered to be a large, open sewer, and potentially poses a health hazard.

Floods that have already left thousands of families homeless in Sudan have reached a critical stage in several states, an official from the government’s emergency response committee said. "The river levels have exceeded those of previous years, especially in the Nile River state [northern Sudan]," said General Awad Widatallah Hussein, spokesman for the committee, on 26 July.

The 94 Ivorian victims of the toxic waste have been denied justice in their country, but they continue the battle for justice and have now filed a case to that effect in the French judiciary. The toxic waste resulted to the death of 16 people, hospitalised 76 and forced over 100,000 to seek for medical attention.

Water resources are unevenly distributed throughout the countries of Southern Africa. The region boasts of some of the world’s largest lakes and rivers, but is also a land of vast deserts. However, in spite of the overall regional availability of water and substantial international aid efforts to ensure the safe provision of water, there are still many rural people and urban poor who do not have sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today in Addis Ababa agreed to deepen their collaboration by working together on various environment-related issues in Africa, including the economic costs of climate change and how to finance the transition to a low-carbon economy.

African environmental experts meet in South Africa in August to strategise on a continental position to incorporate climate change adaptation programmes in national development policies. The Climate Change Action Africa 2007 conference will be hosted by the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC) in Midrand from 28 to 30 August.

Equatorial Guinea is basking in its new found oil wealth. It is diversifying its economy, modernising its infrastructure and investing in public health and education. But underneath the increased transparency in financial practices, the government is guilty of serious human rights abuses particularly against children and young people.

Equatorial Guinea, a tiny country of 28,000 square kilometres located in Western Africa, has a GDP of US $25.69 billion (2005 est.) and a GDP growth rate (2004 est. average) of 25.7 per cent. With a population of 540,109 (July 2005 est. - same source), its flourishing economy is based on its main natural resources: petroleum and timber.

Because of this, the country has recently become a target of international attention, including from the main world institutions - World Bank (WB) and several United Nations subsidiary bodies; some international organisations – Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Union (EU); individual state agencies – the United States Department of State; and some big corporations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In recent reports, made public by these observers, the country enjoys 'a spectacular abundance of oil revenues' (OECD); and consequently 'the world’s highest GDP growth between 1995 and 2001' (EU).

According to information provided by governmental sources, 'in 1995, Equatorial Guinea was found to have massive reserves of petroleum. Shortly thereafter, significant reserves of natural gas were also discovered. These findings have generated substantial revenue for Equatorial Guinea (EG), revenue which is being invested in increased transparency in its financial practices, and diversifying its economy, modernising its infrastructure, strengthening its public health system, and promoting education to build a strong foundation for the future of the country'. Impressive as this data appears, the information provided by foreign agencies and country officials should be compared to information provided by locals. Then a clearer picture of the country can be seen.

On February 27, 2007, the website posted a piece of news sent by the news agency EFE with the title: 'Seminar on poverty and conflict resolution opens in EG.' The information says: 'State radio made public today the government’s plan, together with oil companies operating in EG, to organise a seminar to discuss measures to fight poverty and issues related to transparency and technology transfer.'

But not all actions conducted by the government of EG are so public. Many things the government and its ministers get up to receive much less publicity.

For instance, on that very day in the mainland town of Acurenam, a group of children were bathing on the river bank as they always have. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, who accompanies President Teodoro Obiang on his pre-electoral tours around the district, took some time off to swim. He ordered some children to wash his car while he went swimming. Afterwards, he noticed his watch and some clothes were missing. The children did not notice anything was missing, since they do not have watches and bathe with only their shorts on as that is all they have.

The deputy minister conducted himself in private that day the same way he conducts himself in his governmental affairs; he threatened to break all the children’ legs if the watch was not returned. When it wasn’t, he took them all in their wet clothes to the police station where some children were tortured, according to reports of the Comisión Ejecutiva Nacional de Convergencia Para la Democracia Social (CPDS) - press release, February 26, 2007 http://www.asodegue.org/febrero27071.htm.

16 children were detained. Most of the children were 15 years old, others were 17, eight, and the youngest was five. A similar number managed to escape. This means that 30 children were able to share in the spoils of the robbery – as a best case scenario: assuming they actually did take the watch.

Then, they could still count on a good US$60 by selling the watch on the black market. This would work out as US$2 per child. Ironically, two dollars a day is the exact amount which most people who don’t happen to be governmental ministers live on in Africa, as estimated by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) scholarly reports.

In spite of this, these children with US$2 each have more than enough to wander through mud-covered streets, to jump over open-air sewage pipes and to play count the few traffic lights and signs. Those are the only games they can play in a land without libraries, book stores and civic centres, or any real public services.

General conditions in EG have been disastrous for its most vulnerable and young population. 44.2 per cent of the population is aged under 15. According to the UNDP Human Development Report, 56 per cent do not have access to clean water. 47 per cent have no proper sanitation infrastructure. In addition, 19 per cent of children under five are not an acceptable weight for their age (1995-2003). 65 per cent of births are not attended by qualified personnel (1995-2003). The country has 25 physicians per 100,000 inhabitants (1990-2004) to deal with these health problems and many others, such as malaria, other tropical illnesses, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

A day out with the deputy minister is not that expensive for the children of Acurenam, especially if you take into account the free transport to the police station, threats, beatings and torture. All these services are covered by the Minister and President Obiang, a very generous leader as we can see. None of this is news to the US ambassador either.

On March 8, 2006, the US Department of State Report on Human Rights Practices in EG states that 'Members of the security forces tortured, beat, and otherwise abused suspects, prisoners, and opposition politicians. Further, security forces continued to arrest and detain persons arbitrarily and with impunity. Security forces often detained individuals "on orders from superiors" without any further legal process' http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61567.htm.

In other words, the state department quite accurately predicts the deputy minister’s behaviour a year beforehand. This is not a great mental feat since anyone who has seen or, worse, suffered 'conflict resolution' under Obiang, can similarly predict such things. This is something all embassies accredited to Malabo know only too well. The Department of State tells of other similar abuses of power:

'Policemen violently attacked the young people and those accompanying them, hitting them with the butts of their handguns, causing substantial injury to several of them, and leaving some girls in the group undressed in public. At least 10 were detained on police premises. They were released one week later.'

According to some foreign sources, never mind government’s sources, it seems that Equatorial Guinea is moving in the last years, in particular during the oil boom years, slowly but soundly, to higher standards of social and political development. Without doubt, credit has to be given to meetings held by EG ministers and UN high officials, business done by oil companies and cooperation programmes carried out by Western governments. Obiang is also a strong contributor to the wellbeing of his countrymen, mainly through his trips to the United States, France and Spain, where he always finds support for his policies.

But above all, most of the credit rests with foreign journalists. Their almost constant press coverage, and never ending courage to stand up to the oil companies have helped make Equatorial Guinea the household name around the world it has obviously become.

It is a shame that the children of Acurenam are so ungrateful and spend their time stealing from defenceless deputy ministers. Let us just hope that police station visits and their broken legs help them appreciate all that is done by Obiang, his government, and the international press in their name. Then, maybe in years to come they will be able to live on US$2.10 a day.

* Agustin Velloso, UNED, Facultad de Educacion, Paseo Senda del Rey, nº 728040-Madrid, Spain.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org.

The English translation of the article by the author was reviewed by David Anderson, University of Oxford.

This piece was originally published in Cross Currents: http://www.crosscurrents.org.

An estimated 80 percent of Kenya's land mass is dedicated to pastoralism - a system primarily based on raising livestock in arid and semi-arid areas - yet it remains a much misunderstood way of life, according to participants in a workshop on pastoralism in Africa, held on 9-11 July in the eastern town of Isiolo.

A just-released World Bank case study outlines the difficulties poor communities face in accessing peri-urban land in South Africa that could have implications and lessons for similar communities in other countries facing spatial segregation issues. The study goes further and suggests policy and program reform aimed at improving the situation.

Scientists have announced the success of a biological, pesticide-free method in eradicating the highly invasive water hyacinth from Africa's waterways. James Ogwang, an entomologist specialising in biological control at the Ugandan National Agriculture Research Organisation, and his colleagues presented their work at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists last week (8 July) in Chicago, United States.

An editorial critical of Gabonese President Omar Bongo, Africa's longest-serving head of state, has led authorities in the capital, Libreville, to arrest a publisher and suspend his newspaper, according to news reports and local journalists. Guy-Christian Mavioga, director of the private periodical L'Espoir, has been in police custody since Thursday on accusations of offending the head of state in connection with a June 14 editorial headlined "The last days of Bongo," local journalists told CPJ.

This weekend Uganda joins the growing number of East African countries which have banned the plastic bag in an attempt to clean up cities and prevent environmental damage including blocked drains.

Rising poverty in rural Uganda is linked to increasing landlessness, as the latter drives land degradation and reduces agricultural productivity. A paper published by Uganda's Economic Policy Research Centre examines the complex relationship between owning land and poverty. It identifies effective strategies and land policy guidance to address this concern.

A new policy report from the United Nations University (UNU) urges governments to adopt a more coordinated approach to desertification. The report, 'Rethinking Policies to Cope with Desertification', was presented on 28 June at the United Nations headquarters in New York, United States and is based on the input of 200 experts from 25 countries.