How to be a political journo in SudanA Reuters journo offers a quick guide to reporting in Sudan: add two hours on to any official press conference time and realise that politicians will constantly contradict themselves.
Africa
Looking at Africa through a new lens
Photography and politics expert David Campbell looks at how the world’s view of Africa has been shaped by media images of devastation and despair. Is it time for photographers to stop offering up the same “old” visions of Africa?
Something’s rotten in the UN’s World Food Programme
News that half of the food aid sent to Somalia ends up in the hands of contractors, militants and UN staffers is just the latest scandal in a long history of corruption in the UN’s World Food Programme.
Meet Kenya’s Chuck Norris
Kenya has its first internet meme — a kung-fu fighting Blaxploitation spoof superhero and bad-ass named Makmende, created by funk band Just a Band.
Wars, rebels and child soldiers: why Africa is a continent of conflict
Africa’s brutal wars seem to never end. And they don’t, and won’t, because there is nothing specific that they are fighting for. Heavily armed banditry has taken over the continent, writes Jeffrey Gettleman.
Somali President: We are not a “failed state”
In an op-ed for the Guardian, Somalia’s President Sharif Ahmed says that although the country may be one of the most dangerous in the world, it has not yet “failed”: there is nothing “Somali” about piracy and extremism.
How rich countries are gobbling up Africa
An investigation by the Guardian’s Observer has found that wealthy countries and companies are farming millions of hectares of African land to sure up their food supplies. Is this colonialism for the 21st century?
Why Africa will be the next big economic boom
You wouldn’t read about it, but Africa is set to become the new China and India, predicts Jerry Guo, with a burgeoning Middle Class and a growing appetite for consumer goods.
Is China’s interest in Africa taking the continent backwards?
China’s rising demand of Africa’s natural resources is boosting African economies. But is it an entirely positive thing? Join the Economist’s interactive live debate, where it’s nearly time for rebuttals to begin.
Calling the world’s poorest
India’s biggest mobile phone company, Bharti Airtel, is moving in on the blossoming African mobile phone market. It’s not always easy to wring out profits from poor countries, so can it replicate its Indian success?
Letter from...: Tunisia: Ben Ali, chairman of the (bill)board
In Tunisia, wedged between Algeria and Libya on Africa’s Mediterranean coast, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s heavily Photoshopped image is everywhere, writes Grant Doyle.
Somalia: the real victim of Bush’s War on Terror
Iraq and Afghanistan may have grabbed the headlines, but Somalia has been the real victim of the War on Terror, with the US inadvertently delivering the country into the arms of Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qaeda., writes Martin Fletcher.
Huzzah! The bomb sniffing hero rats
Giant furry rats who sniff out land mines and also can detect tuberculosis? It may sound like a confusing fairy tale, but these little animals are the next big hope for war torn countries. And relax, they’re too small to let the bombs off themselves.
How Bush’s birth control policies fueled Africa’s baby boom
Experts say Dubbya’s policy of refusing African AIDS-prevention funding to groups promoting family planning services and counseling programs has seen birth-rates swell on the already over-populated continent.
Bob Geldof: How climate change became the new starving Africa
It’s been 25 years since the Ethiopian famines, but Africa is still suffering. Only now the big issue is the environment and climate change, says Bob Geldof.
Letter from...: Namibia: a first for the born-free generation
The results are finally out for last week’s national elections in Namibia, with the South West African People’s Organisation retaining its majority in the National Assembly and the Presidency, writes Robert Johnson from Windhoek.
You want peace in Darfur? Fix Chad.
Many Darfur refugees are stuck in Chad, living in camps alongside Darfur rebels who currently offer them more protection than the Chad government does. Can Chad help reform Darfur? asks Celeste Hicks.
The last lions in Kenya
Wild lions could be extinct in Kenya within 20 years, with 100 dying a year due to poisonings and habitat loss. Could the lion cubs of today be the country’s last?
Letter from...: Zimbabwe
The one non-political word most likely to cause animated, angry outbursts in Zimbabwe is ZESA. Officially the acronym stands for Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, more appropriately it is known as Zimbabwe Electricity Sometimes Available.
Who’s eating Madagascar’s lemurs?
Madagascar’s lemurs are one of the area’s biggest tourist drawcards, but illegal loggers and starving locals are hunting the endangered primates for their meat, whilst corrupt police and politicians turn a blind eye.
Could giant snails end starvation in Africa?
It may sound gross, but the giant snail is more nutritious than beef, rich in protein, iron, calcium, zinc, and essential vitamins, and is widely available in Africa. Could giant snail pies be the starving continent’s saviour?
UN sends Nicolas Cage to fight Somali pirates
Clearly the most qualified candidate for the roll, actor Nicolas has gone to Africa to meet with jailed Somali pirates in his capacity as a “Goodwill Ambassador on Drugs and Crime” for the UN.
Africa’s Middle Class: an untapped goldmine?
Does China know something the West doesn’t? Its leaders have been quietly wooing their African counterparts, hoping to gain a foothold in the continent’s emerging Middle Class market — flogging them cars, clothes, and, more significantly, cheap loans and tax credits .
Why is the US starving Somalia?
Despite sending 40 tons of weaponry to Somalia earlier this year, the United States is withholding humanitarian aid until relief agencies agree to comply with a set of strict conditions. And the country is going to run out of food within weeks.
