By William Lloyd-George

Increasing numbers of Malian women are being raped by Tuareg rebels and armed groups that have swept across the north of Mali since January. / William Lloyd-George/IPS

NIAMEY, Apr 24 (IPS) – Increasing numbers of Malian women are being raped by Tuareg rebels and armed groups that have swept across the north of [...]

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

Olivier Forgha Koumbou’s son waters his thriving farm in Santa, in Cameroon’s North West region. / Ngala Killian Chimtom/IPS

SANTA, Cameroon, Apr 23 (IPS) – Olivier Forgha Koumbou washes some freshly picked carrots in a small brook and eats them with relish. His thriving farm in Santa, in Cameroon’s North West [...]

By Isolda Agazzi

Rail networks in Africa remain under-developed, proving a major obstacle to intra-continental trade. / Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

GENEVA, Apr 23 (IPS) – Though the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has long held that trade between African countries is too low, experts at the South Centre, an inter-governmental think tank of developing countries, [...]

By Souleymane Gano
DAKAR, Apr 21 (IPS) – Six West African heads of state will attend a regional summit in Guinea on Monday, to discuss the situation in neighbouring Guinea and Cape Verde, where an Apr. 12 coup d'état aborted presidential elections. The Economic Community of West African States sent a delegation to Bissau, the capital, [...]

By Jessica McDiarmid

Thomas Essuman says Ghanaian fisherfolk know that using poison, dynamite and illegal nets to catch fish is doing long-term damage. / Jessica McDiarmid/IPS

TAKORADI-SEKONDI, Ghana, Apr 19 (IPS) – Explosives, high-watt light bulbs, monofilament nets, and poison: these are a few methods fisherfolk are using to catch ever-dwindling fish stocks off Ghana’s [...]

By Soumaila T. Diarra

Timbuktu is one of the northern Malian cities seized by Tuareg and Islamist rebels. / Emilio Labrador/CC BY 2.0

BAMAKO, Apr 19 (IPS) – Cheick Modibo Diarra has been named interim prime minister of Mali as a transitional administration takes shape, to guide the country back to full constitutional government. But despite [...]

By Damon Van der Linde

Emmanuel Kargbo, a 26-year-old farmer, pushes a motorised soil tiller recently given to his farming cooperative. / Damon Van der Linde/IPS

LAMBAYAMA, Sierra Leone, Apr 19 (IPS) – In the eastern Sierra Leonean community of Lambayama, rice paddies are carved far into the landscape before being abruptly halted by distant hills. Aside [...]

By Jessica McDiarmid
BEYIN, Ghana, Apr 18 (IPS) – Sam Kojo stands in a thigh-high pile of brown seaweed that blankets a beach in western Ghana. Behind him, a decomposing mound of Sargassum stretches down the shore past the fishing village of Beyin.

"Ever since I was born, I have not seen this," says Kojo, holding a [...]

By Jessica McDiarmid

Sam Kojo, chief fisherman of a village in western Ghana, says an influx of seaweed has crippled the fishing industry for months. / Jessica McDiarmid/IPS

BEYIN, Ghana, Apr 18 (IPS) – Sam Kojo stands in a thigh-high pile of brown seaweed that blankets a beach in western Ghana. Behind him, a decomposing mound [...]

By Noël Kokou Tadégnon
LOME, Apr 17 (IPS) – Awuissa Walla has no regrets over choosing farming as a profession. He earned a degree in agronomy a decade ago, and borrowing money from friends, set himself up on an 18-hectare plot at Badja, some 50 kilometres from Lomé, the Togolese capital.

"We often say here that you [...]

By Moustapha Keita
CONAKRY, Apr 16 (IPS) – Like many rural youth, Abdoulaye Soumah spent a few years in Conakry, trying his hand at various jobs in the big city. But he has since returned to his home village, transforming a seven-hectare plot of land inherited from his parents into a model of success.

"I produce about [...]

By Damon Van der Linde

Emmanuel Kargbo, a 26-year-old farmer, pushes a motorised soil tiller recently given to his farming cooperative. / Damon Van der Linde/IPS

LAMBAYAMA, Sierra Leone, Apr 12 (IPS) – In the eastern Sierra Leonean community of Lambayama, rice paddies are carved far into the landscape before being abruptly halted by distant hills. [...]

By Ousseini Issa

Onion producers in Niger face huge problems selling their crop because the market is saturated. / Sustainable Sanitation/CC BY 2.0

NIAMEY, Apr 10 (IPS) – Bitterness is written all over Boureïma Hamado's face as he prepares to return home after selling his onion crop at the Katako market in the Nigerien capital, [...]

By Soumaila T. Diarra

Tuareg rebels have seized Timbuktu and other northern cities in Mali. / Emilio Labrador/CC BY 2.0

BAMAKO, Apr 6 (IPS) – As armed groups have captured Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, the three largest cities in northern Mali, the differences within the alliance have begun to emerge. There are reports of rape and [...]

By Fulgence Zamblé
ABIDJAN, Apr 6 (IPS) – Mathieu Djessan looks over the four-hectare expanse of fish ponds with satisfaction. The aquaculture enterprise the 29-year-old runs here near the town of Tiassalé in southern Côte d'Ivoire is quickly proving profitable.

"When we harvest them in May, it will be our third batch of fish in 13 months. [...]