By Kristin Palitza
 
NOUAKCHOTT, Feb 10 (IPS) – Mariem Mint Ahmedou sits cross-legged on a worn-out carpet in a basic tent built with mud bricks and layers of sewn-together fabric. Her eight-month-old twins, Hussein and Hassan, lie weakly against her body. Both of them have been malnourished since birth, because Beydar, undernourished herself, cannot produce enough [...]

By Ignatius Banda

The Zambezi River Authority told villagers living downstream on the Zambezi (pictured) to evacuate their homes because of possible flooding. / Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

BULAWAYO, Feb 8 (IPS) – Sibongile Dube knows the devastation heavy rain can leave in its wake. A villager in the lowveld area of Mberengwa in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province, Dube’s [...]

By Ousseini Issa

A young child suffering from malnutrition at a nutritional recovery center in Maradi region in central-east Niger. / UNICEF/Giacomo Pirozzi

BOBOYE, Niger, Feb 4 (IPS) – Women have been left in charge of many of the households in the village of Zamkoye-Koïra, in western Niger, as food shortages have driven male family members [...]

By Kristin Palitza

HIV/AIDS has caused a steady increase in the number of orphans in South Africa. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

CAPE TOWN, Jan 27 (IPS) – If there was no HIV/AIDS, South Africa would have 4.4 million more people than today, the size of a major city. This significant slow-down in population growth is causing [...]

By Jared Ferrie

Members of the Murle ethnic group wait to receive food aid after attacks from a rival tribe that the U.N. says affected at least 120,000 people. / Jared Ferrie/IPS

PIBOR, South Sudan, Jan 24 (IPS) – In the ward of a partially destroyed clinic, Mangiro (who did not give his last name) [...]

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

BPA-free baby bottle. / Photostock

YAOUNDÉ, Jan 6 (IPS) – Maya Stella, a restaurant manager in the capital of Cameroon, no longer uses plastic to wrap the corn-fufu that she sells to her customers. She now uses banana or plantain leaves instead, because these are "natural and it is our African [...]

By Amanda Fortier* – Street News Service

Alassane Balde, the chief of medical staff at Camp Penal, says condoms will not be distributed to the inmates. / Amanda Fortier

DAKAR, Jan 5 (IPS) – Amadou* takes in a long, deep breath, clears his throat and steps to the front of the room. He turns to look [...]

By David Njagi

Many waste collectors at the Dandora dump on the outskirts of Nairobi are unaware of the dangers posed by medical waste. / David Njagi/IPS

NAIROBI, Dec 28 (IPS) – For Collins Otieno, the onset of a new day ushers in mixed fortunes that can either earn him some money or expose him [...]

By Jorrit Meulenbeek* – IPS/Street News Service

AIDS patient Geoffrey Mwila, with palliative care nurse Mercy Ng’andwe by his bedside at the Mother of Mercy hospice in Chilanga, Zambia. / Jorrit Meulenbeek

LUSAKA, Dec 26 (IPS) – "I had no power, I could not even walk. I just had to be lifted by someone. When bathing, [...]

By Abdul Samba Brima and Jessica McDiarmid

Elizabeth Zainab Kargbo suffers from epileptic seizures. Suffers in Sierra Leone are often undiagnosed and unaware that their condition is treatable. / Jessica McDiarmid/IPS

FREETOWN, DEC 23 (IPS) – Elizabeth Zainab Kargbo was a successful young woman, eight months pregnant and working in Sierra Leone’s civil service, when she [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

A pregnant woman in Kenya's North Eastern Province with one of her children. Overpopulation in the area contributes to poor maternal health. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

GARISSA, Kenya, Dec 19 (IPS) – The Garissa Maternal Shelter in North Eastern Province, Kenya is the only such facility in an area with the country’s highest [...]

By Cam McGrath

Demonstrators in Cairo hold up used tear gas shells. / Cam McGrath/IPS.

CAIRO, Dec 18 (IPS) – Activists across the Middle East are reporting a mysterious toxin, possibly a banned nerve agent, in the thick clouds of tear gas used by security forces to suppress anti-government protests in recent months.

"I felt weak and [...]

By Amanda Wilson

Davidica Ikai Grasiano Ayahu of the ITWAK Organisation addresses a working group on the specific medical needs of women in South Sudan. / Shereen Hall, courtesy of the Centre for Inclusive Security

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (IPS) – As South Sudan maps out its economic future at the South Sudan International Engagement Conference (IEC) [...]

By Elizabeth Whitman

The proposed law banning same-sex marriages and civil unions is just the tip of the iceberg, activists say. / Elizabeth Whitman/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 7 (IPS) – "The prospect of arriving home… being arrested at the airport – that's kind of scary," said Osazeme O., a dual citizen of Nigeria and the UK, [...]

By Anselm Nkinsi
KINSHASA, Dec 1 (IPS) – Nadine Mbwol suffers from konzo, an epidemic paralytic disease that affects the lower body. "I lost my marriage because of this disability," she says sadly.

Many people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) believe that this disease, which affects many young, female victims like 20-year-old Mbwol, is caused [...]