Full Coverage: East Africa

30.05.2005 In the latest example of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s disregard for international human rights law, former Zimbabwean lawmaker Roy Bennett--being held in the notorious Chikurubi Prison for pushing a Mugabe colleague in Parliament--has lost nearly 60 pounds in six months and is in dangerous health, writes Zimbabwean journalist Wilf Mbanga.

27.05.2005 Zimbabwe has no funds to buy food for its starving population and President Mugabe refuses to accept food aid. Even if he relented, the World Food Programme has already fully allocated its resources for southern Africa.

27.05.2005 For young people living in poverty in coastal Kenya, surfing the internet and learning how to use computers make most sense when these skills mean better economic opportunities and work-readiness.

27.05.2005 In a 17-minute podcast, Si Brindley, a Britisher, can learn the numbers 1-10 and the days of the week in Shona, the main language of Zimbabwe.

25.05.2005 The Rwandan government has mainstreamed ICT in the Vision 2020 through ICT-led Socio-Economic Development Policy and Plan for Rwanda.

25.05.2005 Uganda is in some financial difficulty as donor countries threaten to follow the lead taken by the UK in withholding aid funds in response to insufficient progress towards true democracy - something of a change from the unpopular conditions of privatisation and free trade.

23.05.2005 There may be a chink in the armour of Robert Mugabe's programme of farm seizures. If a dispossessed farmer is a national of a country which has signed formal investment agreements with Zimbabwe, international arbitration procedures could be available.

19.05.2005 Dissatisfied with the attitudes of the state towards their problems, the disabled persons announced a road-block of the Novi Sad-Belgrade highway.

19.05.2005 Tanzania was forced to privatise the water supply in Dar es Salaam by the IMF and other development agencies. The result has been a deterioration in service. The government has had enough and has revoked the contract with UK company Biwater.

18.05.2005 A Canadian authority on genocides of the 20th century is surprised that Israelis and Armenians have not shown greater affinity with the victims of Rwanda.

18.05.2005 Home Office figures published yesterday showing that the rate of deportation of asylum-seekers is below the government's target may draw attention to a recent distressing ruling by the Law Lords. A rape victim now receiving anti-retroviral drugs must be deported to Uganda where such treatment is almost certainly unavailable.

17.05.2005 From children abandoned in the streets to shoeshine boys struggling to find a customer and young girls selling their bodies for food and a few pennies, the effects of the AIDS pandemic are visible everywhere in Ethiopia’s capital. Five years ago, social worker Yewoinshet Masresha founded the Hope for Children organization to provide more than just food and shelter for these orphans.

17.05.2005 Mauritius Prime Minister Paul Raymond Bernger today inaugurates the Government Online Centre and the new Government Portal of the country.

16.05.2005 Although details have not been worked out, Burundi's president and last remaining rebel group, Forces Nationales de Libération (FNL), agreed Sunday to immediately end hostilities and work for sustainable peace in the country. If negotiations succeed, the FNL would join six other rebel movements in the country's transitional government formed to end the civil war between the Tutsi and Hutu, which began in 1993.

16.05.2005 With all its advantages, Europe has failed to protect its citizens against contaminated Syngenta maize. Zambia is not only determined to maintain its controversial policy to keep out genetically modified (GM) food, but is building a laboratory to monitor imports.

13.05.2005 The relations Ethiopia has forged with India in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) is helpful to the ongoing capacity building activities, held Tefera Waluwa, Minister of Capacity Buildingof Ethiopia.

12.05.2005 Interworld Radio realized an interview with Sofia, a Kenyan woman with HIV and her 18-year-old daughter Regina.
When Sofia became ill her daughter was there to help out. For Regina having a mother who is HIV positive is all she's ever known...

12.05.2005 Oxfam continues its seemingly lone campaign to persuade governments and the UN Security Council to wake up to the conflict between Ugandan forces and the Lord's Resistance Army. Current UN policy presumes that peaceful resolution is imminent, apparently unaware of the increase in military action over recent months.

11.05.2005 One of the by-products of the AIDS epidemic sweeping many African nations is the loss of knowledge; for example, with no one to teach them, rural children orphaned at a young age might never learn to farm. But the UN agricultural agency is now taking many of these children under its wings, teaching farming, business, and life skills to ensure another generation is not lost.

11.05.2005 The Zimbabwean SW Radio Africa has been awarded the International Press Institute (IPI) 2005 Free Media Pioneer Award.