Media News

Africa this week - 6 December 2009


Cameroon
More than one third of websites in the West African country of Cameroon pose a security risk to surfers according to a new report by security expert McAfee. Web addresses for Cameroon end “.cm” - attracting careless web users who wrongly type “.com.” Fraudsters take advantage of spelling mistakes and typing errors to set up false sites that may look similar to those the surfer intended to visit. But they can contain spyware, adware and malicious downloads instead. Last year’s survey put Hong Kong (.hk) at the top of the riskiest domain names. However a clampdown on domain registration has made it safer in 2009. (BBC)

Chad
Increased banditry, kidnappings of relief workers and attacks on humanitarian compounds in eastern Chad are threatening crucial aid for nearly 100,000 people, many of them refugees or IDPs, the UN reported Dec. 1. Some 70 humanitarian organizations in eastern Chad are assisting 256,700 Sudanese refugees from the strife-torn Darfur conflict, 168,000 Chadian IDPs and around 150,000 people in host villages, and several have temporarily suspended or reduced their activities due to the insecurity in the Assoungha and the Dar Sila areas. The kidnapping of relief workers is a new element in bandits operations in eastern Chad, Darfur and northern CAR (Central African Republic), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest update, citing the recent kidnapping of an international Red Cross staff member, attacks on NGOs and the abduction of two French nationals. (UN News Service)

Congo (DRC)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has reversed its own decision to award bail to Congolese war crimes suspect Jean-Pierre Bemba. Judges at The Hague decided Bemba, Democratic Republic of Congo’s ex-vice-president, might flee if set free. Bemba, who has not entered a plea, is accused of leading militias who murdered and raped civilians in Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. He was arrested in Belgium last year and extradited to The Hague. The court had granted him bail in August, but said he would not be freed until it could be decided which country would host him. But appeals judge Akua Kuenyehia ruled that there was a risk he would flee, and revoked the bail. (BBC)

Ethiopia
The Ethiopian government has vehemently rejected accusations that it has excluded some opposition supporters from a food-for-work program, charges that are the focus of growing international concern in the run-up to elections in 2010. “Such complaints are totally baseless! Totally baseless, said State Minister for Disaster Management and Food Security Mitiku Kasa, adding that he had investigated the matter. “Government has no intention to discriminate [against] the poor based on such grounds. After all, it is the community [that] is mandated to select who should be involved in the [productive safety net, or food-for-work] program, he said. One of the governments chief accusers is Medrek Gebru Asrat, spokesman for a coalition of eight parties that analysts say is well placed to challenge the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front. (IRIN)

Liberia
With 45 percent of Liberians chronically or acutely malnourished, experts say nutrition is a burning health problem, but NGOs feel the Ministry of Health is not as worried as it should be, and lacks the capacity to provide leadership in bringing about solutions. Action Contre la Faim (ACF), an NGO supporting therapeutic feeding centers for malnourished children in the capital, Monrovia, said 45 percent of children who died before reaching the age of five were underweight. Chronic malnutrition also known as stunting affects 39 percent of all Liberians, and 6.2 percent are acutely malnourished or “wasted”, according to Ministry of Health figures. Kinday Samba, a nutrition adviser at UNICEF in Monrovia, told IRIN: “Thirty-nine percent stunting is a serious problem. It causes learning ability problems and will affect the future production of this country.” If nothing is done to address stunting, UNICEF estimates that Liberia stands to lose USD 130 million in economic development between 2007 and 2015. (IRIN)

Mali
Mali has approved long-term leases for outside investors to help develop more than 160,000 hectares of land, but local farmers say they fear being squeezed out by large-scale agro businesses. The government argues the country cannot develop its agricultural potential without foreign investment, but rice producer Siaka Daou from Niono, 300km north of the capital Bamako, is among those farmers concerned that they will be reduced to being day laborers for foreign-owned concerns. The way the government is parceling out land from Office of Niger [region] is worrisome. This will stamp out small producers. We will no longer have land to cultivate and will be forced to work for industrial agriculture producers. The region, 300km northeast of Bamako, contains some of the most fertile rain-fed land in Mali. (IRIN)

Nigeria
More than 50 Nigerian public figures have called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to resign, saying ill health has impaired his judgment. Several Nigerian newspapers carried a statement asking him to step down that was signed by senior political figures and democracy activists, among others. But ministers dismissed the statement, saying there was “no basis” for the president to leave office. Yar’Adua is currently being treated in Saudi Arabia for a heart problem. In a statement, Information Minister Dora Akunyili said the cabinet had met and had “unanimously resolved” that the president “has not been found incapable of discharging his functions.” She said: “Council wishes to inform all Nigerians that all organs of government are functioning and that government will continue to deliver.” (BBC)

Rwanda
Rwanda has been declared free of landmines - the first country to achieve this status. The announcement was made at the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World in Colombia. Hundreds of people have been killed and horrifically injured by landmines in Rwanda. Landmines were laid between 1990 and 1994 in Rwanda and over the past three years more than over 9,000 have been destroyed by Rwandan soldiers. Ben Remfrey of the Mines Awareness Trust, which supervised the clearance, says although other countries have had far more mines laid, this is a significant step. Landmines have been devastating for Rwanda since their existence prevented many people from being able to live from their land. (BBC)

Somalia
In Somalia’s main pirate lair of Haradheere, the sea gangs have set up a cooperative to fund their hijackings offshore, a sort of stock exchange meets criminal syndicate. Heavily armed pirates from the lawless Horn of Africa nation have terrorized shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia through the Red Sea. The gangs have made tens of millions of dollars from ransoms and a deployment by foreign navies in the area has only appeared to drive the attackers to hunt further from shore. It is a lucrative business that has drawn financiers from the Somali Diaspora and other nations -- and now the gangs in Haradheere have set up an exchange to manage their investments. (Reuters)

South Africa
All South African babies under the age of one will be treated if they test HIV-positive, President Jacob Zuma has announced in a major policy overhaul. In a widely welcomed speech to mark World Aids Day, he promised more anti-retrovirals - drugs which the previous government said were too costly. And he announced he was preparing to take an HIV test himself. Each year 59,000 babies are born with HIV in a country where 5.2 million people live with the virus. Zuma’s speech is a marked departure from Mbeki, whose government denied the link between HIV and AIDS. Mbeki’s critics have accused him of causing about 300,000 deaths by not rolling out anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to people with HIV quickly enough. (BBC)

Zambia
The World Bank has said it is waiting for a response from the Zambian government on a report it submitted on the proposed development of Kafue Gorge Lower Power Station. The IFC, the financing arm of the World Bank, recently completed the first phase of its due diligence and analytical work on the proposed development of the power station which is expected to add 750 megawatts of electricity to the southern African country’s power grid, local newspaper the Times of Zambia reported. World Bank Manager for Zambia Kapil Kapoor said the IFC has submitted its report which contains various proposals on the seize, financing needs and options and institutional arrangements to the Zambian government last month, adding that once the government takes certain steps, the next step would be to identify a sponsor for the project. (Xinhua)

Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s first budget since its unity government began sharing power 10 months ago predicts a healthy economic future for the country. Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the economy would grow by 7 percent next year, after 10 years of sharp contraction. He said growth would come from key sectors such as agriculture and mining. Zimbabwe’s biggest economic problem, stratospheric inflation, has been all but halted since hard currencies, such as the US dollar, were allowed. Biti said there was no return in sight for the Zimbawean dollar - despite calls from President Mugabe and the central bank for its return. He said he could not see it coming back before 2012. (BBC)

Compiled by developmentex.com