Ag amharc ar Afraic

On mining, irregulated business and human rights...

2006-07-19T10:53:00.000+01:00

The BBC's File on Four programme investigated (download)the activities Ashanti Goldfields Company owned by the part UK company Anglo Gold. It has a substantial Social Responsibility programme most of which appears to be aimed at building capacity and skills in the industry in South Africa where its corporate headquarters are.

Anglo Gold came to the notice of the US based Human Rights watch in 2003, when it alleged (The Curse of Gold) the company had paid the Front National Integrationniste (FNI) in the Democratic Republic of Congo for access to mining in their area of influence. The company replied that it was unavoidable for any business working in the area not to come into contact with the militias.

In Ghana, only last week the company boasted of new jobs it would bring that country. But the File on Four programme unearthed a number of human rights and enviromental abuses: the leaking of cyanide into local rivers; and a cover up of the shooting of a Galamsey (illegal) miner called Awudu Mohammed who appears to have involved police and security guards in lying about it.

Particularly chilling is an interview with Y B Amponsah, AGC's human resources general manager, in which he appears to blatantly be selecting evidence, and then subtle changing his story. He finally chases the journalists out, when they continue to ask for the material he is trying to hide.

There is clearly Ministerial concern about the general effects of Galamsay mining on the environment. But as the programme points out the shift from deep mine to open cast mining in the last ten years is wrecking havoc on the traditional livelihoods of those in the communities affected.

And a government decision three years ago promises to further eat into Ghana's environmentally sensitive rain forest.

Christian woman stoned to death in Izom, Nigeria

2006-07-12T18:56:00.000+01:00

Michelle Malkin points to a disturbing story from in Izom in Gawu Babangida. It seems the life of a 20 year old woman was 'prematurely terminated'. Although Malkin points to another report that has her age as 14.

Sassou-Nguesso new Chair of AU

2006-01-24T17:24:00.000Z

President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), scene of substantial World Bank investment, in a peace process has been elected chairman of the African Union for the next year.

Real news from Zimbabwe...

2005-06-16T14:15:00.000+01:00

Kevin Breathnach on the relative scarcity of real news from Africa. And in particular from Zimbabwe points to the This is Zimbabwe blog as an outstanding exception to the rule.

Mobile technology can bridge the divide

2005-03-12T10:41:00.000Z

In Europe the biggest issue for the mobile phone companies is the semi-permanent distrust of civic watchdogs over the rollout of masts. In Africa however, the Economist leads this week by arguing that mobile technology is the only viable way for ordinary Africans to bridge the digital divide. The School Net Nigeria is one such example.

Botswana: an African success story?

2005-03-11T19:10:00.000Z

Interesting BBC report on Botswana, which Transparency International has down as Africa's least corrupt country.

Commission report: Our Common Interest

2005-03-11T19:00:00.000Z

The Commission for Africa launched its report in the historic Africa Hall in Addis today. According to the BBC the jury is out. The challenge will be corruption (endemic in many African countries) on one hand and the closed attitude of the west such as:

...subsidising Western farmers to compete against African ones; selling arms
into war zones; demanding repayment of dubious mega-debts and warehousing
stolen state funds in Western banks. And calls for an extra $25bn a year in
aid to Africa by 2010, more so at calls for a further $25bn a year by 2015.
Bob Geldoff believes the onus is now on Blair and Brown to sell the report to the richest nation on earth:

Tony and Gordon have to prepare to ring up George [Bush] and say 'do this, George, do this one thing for me, it’s going to cost you f***-all, do it for me'. Hopefully with the relationship that exists between Blair and Bush he will be able to go to the president and ask for this to bo done.

End of conflict in Darfur?

2004-12-07T11:24:00.000Z

The Sudanese government appears keen to bring the conflict with rebels in Darfur to an end. Since conflict erupted in February 2003, more than 70,000 people have been killed or have died from hunger and disease in the area, according to the UN, and another 1.5 million were displaced.

Refugees pour into Liberia

2004-11-22T16:12:00.000Z

19,000 refugees have crossed into Liberia after a civil war in Ivory Coast was re-ignited on 4th November.

Oil and the small country...

2004-11-22T15:46:00.000Z

John Vidal on the likely struggle ahead of the small island of Sao Tome, to make the new oil industry work for them. He contrasts the postive possiblities, with the relative instability that face Equatorial Guinea ten years after the discovery of oil there, and following an investment of more than $3bn in a country of about 500,000 people, and an economic growth rate of 65%:

"Oil has brought attempted coups, massive corruption, xenophobia and paranoia. There have been frequent coup attempts in Equatorial Guinea, but the most serious was last March, when 25 men, including South Africans and Germans, were arrested in Malabo for allegedly plotting to overthrow the president. The next day, a further 70 men, including Old Etonian Simon Mann, were arrested on a plane at Harare airport in Zimbabwe, en route, it was claimed, to Equatorial Guinea from South Africa. The men said they were going to act as guards for a mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo".

Two enemies talk about reconciliation...

2004-11-22T15:44:00.000Z

Fascinating conversation between to former enemies from northern Nigeria, interviewed (sound file) on the BBC's Today programme.

AU heading for Darfur

2004-10-16T01:04:00.000+01:00

The African Union is to raise five battalions of peacekeeping troops to send to Darfur. 70,000 people displaced by the fighting have died since March.

Nigeria: whose globalisation is it anyway?

2004-10-12T13:22:00.000+01:00

Interesting opinion piece from Morenike Taire in the Vanguard, which argues that the Nigerian government's top down messages are finding it hard to gain purchase with the wider populace. There are a range of questions that remain to be asked, not simply of the government and the Labour Movement.

With regard to the fuel price crisis: "Should Labour, as the petroleum marketers claim, be more interested in getting government to channel subsidy monies as well as excess crude incomes into infra structural development than in getting the subsidies to remain?"

Rather the Labour movement Taire argues that despite the government's best efforts, the fuel subsidy is the best way to side-step endemic corruption in the government system. But what's really eating ordinary people is:

"In Nigeria where our minimum 7,500naira minimum wage is 5% of Australia's, we are expected to compete in a global economy buying petrol at the same price. What kind of economics is that?"

Ireland's is aid focused on Africa

2004-10-11T13:54:00.000+01:00

Interesting pdf document from the OECD, which shows much of Ireland's overseas aid in 2002 was focused mainly on African countries, with Uganda heading the list at $30 million. Ireland contributes .4% of its Gross National Income. This is just under the average country effort for the OECD's Development Assistence Committee's countries; a figure which is exaggerated somewhat by the five big 'payers' of the Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Luxmenburg and Sweden.

Management of resources is key to peace?

2004-10-11T13:44:00.000+01:00

"Sustainable management of our natural resources will promote peace". That's the message from Kenya's latest Nobel Lauriate, Wangari Maathai.

Fuel: foreign or national interest?

2004-10-11T11:54:00.000+01:00

It looks like the fuel protest in Nigeria is bringing a lot of buried sentiment to the surface, particularly in some quarters of the press, who warn against the danger of taking the action further into a coup against President Obasanjo's civil administration, which was only recently returned for a second term by popular vote.

The action was prompted by a 22 per cent price hike on 23rd September, which itself an attempt to reduce high levels of rate fuel subsidy.

There is some evidence that the tax take from oil is growing. But the perception inside the country is that this is simply a response to pressure from foreign investors in the country's oil dominated economy. However, there are other reasons for a staged withdrawal of subsidy:

"...so much cheap fuel has been smuggled out of Nigeria, for sale at a handsome profit in neighbouring countries, that the government is forced to import more at a higher rate - another drain on the government finances".

Zimbabwe: pricing women out of contraception

2004-10-11T11:37:00.001+01:00

Africa Woman carries a report on the enormous price differential between male and female condoms in Zimbabwe:

...a pack of three male condoms sells for ZM$100 (two US cents) while a box of two female condoms costs ZM$7,600, the equivalent of US$1.43.

Terrorism and poverty are linked

2004-10-11T11:22:00.000+01:00

As plans were announced at a Microcredit Summit in Jordan for a scheme to provide small loans to individuals, Saudi Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, warned that tackling terrorism was key to unlocking poverty:

"Unemployment leads to terrorism. A poor person who cannot eat or earn his bread and butter blows himself up," he said. "The world must combat terrorism (but first) the reasons for terrorism must be understood."

Well meaning, but inept...

2004-10-06T15:25:00.000+01:00

Abiola Lapite with a particularly eloquent dismissal of a standard form of western intervention in African agriculture:

Western know-it-all flies in, tells the locals that they're doing it all wrong, suggests new-fangled techniques, is paid no attention, gets the government to push the ignorant locals to obey, crop yields rise for a while, expert flies out in glory, then disaster strikes, as commodity prices plunge, soil yields deteriorate, pests run rampant on introduced monocultures, government-subsidised fertilizer is cut back as deficits mount, etc, etc.

Price of medicine in Swaziland

2004-10-06T13:58:00.000+01:00

Mark Weston with a price list of cures.

Geldof meets Blair on Africa's medicine drought

2004-10-06T13:22:00.000+01:00

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is meeing Bob Geldof in Ethiopia tomorrow to discuss the chronic shortage of medicines in the second meeting of Blair's Commission for Africa. Other pressing issues will include corruption.

But there's some scepticism as to how effective such initiatives are at hitting the bottom line:

Possible solutions to poverty have been well-enough rehearsed since the Brandt Report first framed the terms of the debate in 1977. Only a handful of countries have reached the target of 0.7% of GDP transferred in aid to the developing world every year which was recommended in that report.

Despite a doubling of the budget for the Department for International Development since Labour were elected to power in 1997, Britain's contribution is still only at around 0.4% of GDP, while America is at the bottom of the table, at just above 0.1%.

Science of sporting success...

2004-07-31T00:47:00.000+01:00

Constance Holden investigates some of the reasons why Kenyan atheletes run harder and faster than Scandinavians, and asks why West Africans dominate short distance races. Link: http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=040730000361&query=black+west+african&vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form

The bribe culture...

2004-07-30T20:09:00.000+01:00

My colleague Mark Weston with two apparently commonplace instances of bribery in health and security in Ghana. One woman had to pay to get out of hospital:

...beds in the city's maternity wards are often occupied by perfectly healthy women, detained while their families scrape together the money to get them out.

West African nations back anti-polio campaign

2004-07-30T19:57:00.000+01:00

Seven West African nations have agreed to co-ordinate in future immunization campaigns against polio. The Nigerian site of Kano is reported to be preparing to vaccinate 4 million children in in five days - the campaign was delayed after objections from radical Islamic objections to a previous US funded programme. Nigeria currently has 80% of the world's polio outbreaks.

Nigerian president to head African Union

2004-07-07T11:44:00.000+01:00

Olusegun Obasanjo succeeds Joaquim Alberto Chissano as Chair of the African Union at its third summit in Addis Ababa. He outlined his backing for the Union's vision and strategy documents, which amongst other things commend the work of NEPAD for its work in helping to integrate regional markets. Meanwhile Lybia and Ethiopia compete to host the AU's permanent headquarters.

Weston in Africa

2004-07-07T11:24:00.000+01:00

My colleague Mark Weston is in Africa at the moment. No doubt it's having a profound effect on the old curmudgeon.