By Jonathan Migneault and Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

Gladys Otabil holds her son Gabriel as he receives the pneumoccocal vaccine at La General Hospital in Accra. / Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

ACCRA, May 10 (IPS) – Ghana has taken a major step towards reducing its under-five mortality rate by becoming the first African country to introduce two [...]

By Travis Lupick*

Malawi President Joyce Banda (left) and Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at a women's rights event in Liberia. / Travis Lupick/IPS

MONROVIA, May 9 (IPS) – The only two female heads of state in Africa, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Malawian President Joyce Banda, have just committed to using their positions to [...]

Siphosethu Stuurman interviews PHERA RAMOELI, Senior Programme Officer at the Southern Africa Development Community Secretariat

Getting water is a daily chore for this woman in Swaziland. / Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

JOHANNESBURG, May 9 (IPS) – The cost of maintaining and expanding water infrastructure in southern Africa is high. And while South Africa may be in a [...]

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

The banners at this Cairo demonstration say: 'No to gas exports to the Zionist enemy'. / Khaled Moussa al-Omrani/IPS.

CAIRO, May 9 (IPS) – The two weeks since Egypt's abrupt cancellation of a Mubarak-era gas-export deal with Israel have seen an exchange of indirect threats and warnings between the [...]

By Giuliana Sgrena

In the popular neighbourhood of Bab al Oued, a former Islamist stronghold in Algeria, most election propaganda has been scratched off the walls / Magharebia/CC-BY-2.0

ALGIERS, May 8 (IPS) – "Is that your photo on the poster?" a policeman asked a woman standing in front of an electoral campaign board in Algiers. "Why [...]

Kristin Palitza interviews GABRIELLE GAUTHEY, executive vice president of global telecommunications provider Alcatel Lucent

In Mauritania mobile phones are used in rural areas. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, May 8 (IPS) – On a continent of over one billion people, where half the population have mobile phones, the use of mobile communication and internet [...]

By Cam McGrath
CAIRO, May 8 (IPS) – More than a year since president Hosni Mubarak was removed from power, the money he allegedly syphoned from Egypt during his 29-year rule remains beyond the reach of authorities attempting to recover it.

Mubarak amassed a fortune by carving up Egypt as if it were his own private estate. [...]

By Fabíola Ortiz
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 7 (IPS) – The Brazilian government of Dilma Rousseff is taking firm steps towards stronger relations with Africa, such as the creation of a special fund to finance development projects together with multilateral lenders like the World Bank.

South America’s giant is keen on establishing a strategic association with Africa, [...]

By Brahima Ouédraogo
OUAGADOUGOU, May 7 (IPS) – It's called "the bearing of the body" in Burkina Faso: when a death is deemed suspicious and a group of men carry the corpse through the community, believing the deceased will guide them towards the person responsible for the death. The accused – almost always women – are [...]

By Souleymane Gano
DAKAR, May 5 (IPS) – Regional leaders meeting in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on May 3 appeared to slightly retreat from their positions against coup leaders in Guinea-Bissau and Mali, but the Economic Community of West African States continues to press for a speedy return to constitutional rule in both countries.

The Ivorian president, [...]

By Kristin Palitza

Encouraging business in Africa will help reach the MDGs. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, May 5 (IPS) – African countries need more support from the private sector in order to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which include important development targets like poverty reduction, and improved health [...]

By William Lloyd-George

Child combatants had been seen in the ranks of the Tuareg rebels in Mali. / William Lloyd-George/IPS

NIAMEY, May 4 (IPS) – It was tough for Hassan Toure to decide to stay in his small town on the outskirts of Kidal, in northern Mali. The government troops had withdrawn on Mar. 30, [...]

By Jared Ferrie
 

Members of the Murle group displaced by ethnic violence await food distribution in Gumuruk, Pibor county, in South Sudan's Jonglie state. / Jared Ferrie/IPS

JUBA, May 3 (IPS) – Civil society groups are calling on the United Nations peacekeeping mission to withdraw support from a disarmament programme they say could spark further violence in [...]

By Koffigan E. Adigbli
ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal, May 3 (IPS) – Cashew nut growers in the southern Senegalese region of Casamance are complaining bitterly that intermediaries are cutting them out of a fair share of the profits.

The Casamance region produced 40 million dollars worth of cashews in 2011 – 40,000 tonnes – and employed more than 220,000 [...]

By William Lloyd-George

Malian rebels do not have the support of most ethnic groups in the north of the country. / William Lloyd-George/IPS

NIAMEY, Apr 30 (IPS) – Since January, various groups of Tuareg rebels in Mali have come together in an attempt to administer a new northern state called Azawad.

While this was announced on Apr. [...]