By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Feb 27 (IPS) – Legal advice stating that European vessels have no justification to fish off Western Sahara – a territory occupied by Morocco – has provoked a row between the main political institutions in Brussels.

Under the terms of a 2005 fishing agreement between the European Union (EU) and Morocco, boats may [...]

By Ousseini Issa*
NIAMEY, Feb 26 (IPS) – As its promised transition to democratic rule begins, the military junta that overthrew Nigerien president Mamadou Tandja on February 18 has named a former information minister, Mahamadou Danda, as the new prime minister while retaining legislative and executive powers for itself.

Danda, 59, is seen as unaffiliated to any [...]

By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW, Feb 26 (IPS) – Russian efforts to acquire oil and gas fields in Africa and prospect for minerals on the resource-rich continent have yielded little success over the past decade due to lack of a coherent national strategy, experts say.

Questions are being asked as to how China has scored in Africa [...]

By Charles Mpaka
BLANTYRE, Feb 25 (IPS) – Maize farmer Anita Yunus has lived near the Mulanje Mountain in southern Malawi for over 30 years. And she does not remember there ever being a drought in the area.

While there have been four severe droughts in Malawi in the past 25 years, the Mulanje region [...]

By Mantoe Phakathi

Most of Swaziland's caregivers have no formal training. / Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MBABANE, Feb 24 (IPS) – Every Tuesday you will find 70-year-old Precious Dlamini under a tree, weighing children and babies from her local community as she monitors their health and nutrition.

Though she may not have any official qualifications to do so, Dlamini [...]

By Cam McGrath

Luxor resident evicted to make way for tourism. / Cam McGrath/IPS

LUXOR, Feb 24 (IPS) – Hajj Khodari lifts a defiant fist at the demolition machinery now just meters away from his front door.

"I will not be forced out of my home without fair compensation," the village elder vows as a hydraulic hammer [...]

By Claire Ngozo

Mgona township, Lilongwe: water-borne diseases strike the young especially hard; fitting that children play a key role in community-led sanitation. / Karl Mueller/Wikicommons

LILONGWE, Feb 23 (IPS) – By this time last year, Mkanda had recorded 14 cholera cases as rainy season descended on central Malawi. This year, there has not been a [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

Primary health care in Uganda is increasingly entrusted to community-based workers: is the strategy safe? / Charles Akena/IRIN

KAMPALA, Feb 22 (IPS) – A severe shortage of highly-trained medical personnel is one of the many challenges to providing health care at a local level across Africa. Task shifting – permitting less-specialised people to [...]

By Omer Redi

The promise of Africa's Decade for Women is action on the various declarations and conventions which have not yet delivered gender equality. / Mercedes Sayagues/PlusNews

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 22 (IPS) – Fears that the impact of the global economic meltdown would affect funding to various development areas have been rife. Already, several governments [...]

By Adam Morrow and Khaled al-Omrani
CAIRO, Feb 22 (IPS) – Activists and opposition groups are stepping up pressure on the Egyptian government to stop constructing a barrier along the border with the Gaza Strip. Officials say the barrier will prevent cross-border smuggling, but critics say it will seal the fate of the people on the [...]

By Fulgence Zamblé*

Preparing for elections in 2006: the Ivorian poll has now been postponed six times. / Pauline Bax/IRIN

ABIDJAN, Feb 20 (IPS) – A week after President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the government and the electoral commission, thousands marched in the city of Bouaké, damaging cars and shops. There have been almost daily demonstrations in [...]

By Servaas van den Bosch

Zimbabwe's Kariba dam: Africa has tapped relatively little of its potential hydroelectric power potential. / Ben Bird/Wikicommons

WINDHOEK, Feb 20 (IPS) – Independent power producers argue that small hydroelectric plants have a key role to play in avoiding an energy shortfall in the Southern African region.

Cheap power from South Africa – [...]

Ignatius Banda interviews FARID ABDULKADIR, Red Cross disaster management coordinator

People like these fishermen in Mozambique are aware of the risk of flooding, but to leave the river is to leave their livelihoods behind. / Tomas de Mul/IRIN

BULAWAYO, Feb 19 (IPS) – Southern Africa is entering flood season. Governments and policy makers have been challenged [...]

By Kristin Palitza

About 2.4 million more South African children will benefit from the Child Support Grant. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

CAPE TOWN, Feb 19 (IPS) – South Africa’s children, the country’s most vulnerable population group, will benefit through the increase in social grants recently outlined in the national budget.

South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan’s national [...]