Full Coverage: West Africa

23.06.2006 The Economic Community of West African States announced on June 14 that it had approved a new Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, a legal instrument designed to stop the illegal trafficking of weapons in the region.

23.06.2006 Alcan Inc. announced today that it will support the Government of Ghana's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through a 3-year US$300,000 collaboration, which is aligned with the Company's commitment to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).

23.06.2006 from Ecogeek:
A Nigerian organisation has built a computer than can run on a single small solar panel and requires a fraction of the power most other computers use.

22.06.2006 Story Story is a radio drama set in a busy market in the heart of West Africa. Through its characters - traders, farmers, people with money and power who inhabit the market, we hear the voices of real people.

22.06.2006 With the third largest number of HIV infections in the world, Nigeria is in dire need of improved HIV prevention, care and support services. CEDPA has been awarded a four-year, $12.8 million agreement to do just that, working with local groups to better life for those living with HIV/AIDS.

22.06.2006 Former Liberian head of state Charles Taylor's has been transferred to The Hague for his war crimes trial. The transfer has brought a mixed response, with many feeling safer while others want him publicly tried in Sierra Leone, where he allegedly committed most of his atrocities.

21.06.2006 Ahead of the July African Union Summit on 25 June in Banjul, Faith Cheruiyot looks at contrasting experiences from two largely Islamic west African countries that reveal the importance of the AU Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa.

21.06.2006 Advocates in Nigeria and the US have criticised a major new report from the State Department in Washington for ignoring the trafficking of Nigerian women into the US, and warned that the omission could undermine efforts to draw the huge Nigerian diaspora into the fight against household slavery in the US.

21.06.2006 Former Liberian president of Liberia Charles Taylor has finally been sent to the Netherlands to be tried for war crimes and involvement in the Sierra Leonean civil conflict.

16.06.2006 By agreeing to stringent new controls on the proliferation of small arms that have fuelled years of conflict, west Africa has shown itself to be a global leader in the fight to stop the illegal weapons trade, an international development charity said today.

16.06.2006 As Africa celebrates the Day of the African Child (theme: Protecting children from violence), many children in Africa are faced with a desperate situation of poverty, illiteracy, disease and conflicts. Louise Sackie talks about how Liberia's civil war has affected her life, and her hopes for the future.
+ Harm children no more: Why Africa must rediscover Soweto
+ Soweto 1976

16.06.2006 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the British government’s decision to allow former Liberian President Charles Taylor serve in the UK any prison sentence imposed on him by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a move that makes it possible to transfer the war crimes trial to The Hague.

15.06.2006 The need to enhance information flow to farmers led to the inception of the Information and Communication Support for Agricultural Growth in Nigeria Project (ICS-Nigeria). The hope is that access to information will trigger an increase in farmers’ use of agricultural technologies, which in turn will increase their productive capacity.

15.06.2006 Diaspora Nigerians in Science and Technology (DiNiSAT) has called for strategic partnership with stakeholders in Nigeria to advance the development of science and technology in the country.

15.06.2006 Minister for Labour and Productivity, Dr Hassan Lawal, has advised that migration issues be addressed constructively and dispassionately, with a view to identifying its benefits.

13.06.2006 Serious violations of trade union rights are occurring in Guinea, including death threats against union leaders, warn international union groupings.

12.06.2006 Guss van Kouwenhoven was sentenced to eight years in prison for violating a UN arms embargo on Liberia by trading weapons for timber rights during the Liberian civil war that killed more than 250,000 and lasted 14 years.

12.06.2006 Food aid in Niger arrived too late in 2005, despite widespread predictions that famine was imminent. The world has known for months that famine is also coming to southern Africa but policymakers are still not responding to the warnings. Read more about the importance of early warning in food security in Niger in the latest id21 insights.

09.06.2006 An East German's ambivalence over German success; Ghana's struggle to blend stars with locals; the rise of the US; and a prayer for English failure.

09.06.2006 A former timber trader and arms dealer guilty of breaking the UN arms embargo in Liberia has been sentenced by a judge in The Hague to a maximum of 8 years in prison.