Full Coverage: Africa

29.04.2009 The pioneering use of DNA "barcodes" is being used to map menacing mosquito species in West Africa that spread elephantiasis, a disfiguring infection threatening 1 billion people.

27.04.2009 Atrocities are being committed against villagers in remote areas of Eastern Congo, where fighting between the Congolese army and the FDLR rebel group continues, said an international development agency.

24.04.2009 The IMF must urgently reappraise its damaging policies that have worsened poverty in Africa, a development charity said ahead of this weekend's Washington meeting of the Fund and World Bank.

23.04.2009 The plight of Somalis - not piracy - should top the agenda of a donors' meeting this week, says a prominent development charity.

16.04.2009 The use of detention and torture in Eritrea and the government's policy of prolonged military conscription are creating a human rights crisis and prompting increasing numbers of people to flee the country, says a new report.

16.04.2009 Oxfam has formally submitted an appeal against its expulsion from northern Sudan and warned that the humanitarian situation in Darfur is worsening following the expulsion of NGOs, with people facing shortages of water and other aid.

14.04.2009 Sudan has executed nine people who may have been innocent, a leading rights group said today in reaction to the killing of nine men convicted of murder after they were tortured to confess.

13.04.2009 The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region reported that the security situation is now relatively calm despite continuing banditry and carjacking.

11.04.2009 In an effort to save lives and contain the spread of meningitis, a $55 million contribution has been made to the UN Children's Fund and the World Health Organisation to establish a stockpile of meningococcal vaccines and pay for reactive campaigns in the highly endemic African “meningitis belt” countries.
+ MSF to vaccinate over four million people in West Africa

07.04.2009 The humanitarian crisis in DR Congo is as severe as it was in late 2008, an international agency said today as it announced that it was scaling up its emergency response to reach an additional 150,000 displaced people.

06.04.2009 I'm trying to keep an open mind on the potential role of GM technology in global food security. This case study of corporate pressure on small farmers in South Africa illustrates how not to go about it. from IPS