Participants at the Sierra Leone Conference on Development and Transformation outlining recommendations on how to develop of the country. / Damon van der Linde/IPS

FREETOWN, Feb 8 (IPS) – Fifty years ago when Sierra Leone gained independence after 150 years of colonial rule, with it came a feeling of optimism that along with a newfound control of its governance, the country would profit from its ample endowment of natural resources, like timber, fish, minerals and oil. Instead, in the last 50 years, the country has had 13 military coups and an 11-year civil war that left the economy in ruins and the country heavily reliant on foreign donor funding.

Following the Sierra Leone Conference on Development and Transformation in Freetown, a communiqué is being submitted to parliament outlining recommendations on how to develop of the country over the next 50 years.

"We were celebrating 50 years of independence, and in those 50 years, we have seen the economy and society go down to the point where we were in conflict. We had all the elements to become prosperous, but we did not become prosperous," said Herbert McLeod, the Conference’s national coordinator. The country gained independence on from Britain on Apr. 27, 1951. "Though we emerged from conflict, we are still struggling to get our foothold. The question is: if we continue to do what we did before, is there any guarantee we will not go down the same road?"

And in spite of the country’s mineral wealth, Sierra Leone remains nearly at the bottom of the Human Development Index, ranking 180 of 187 countries in providing its citizens with a long and healthy life, education and a decent standard of living.

Many of the communiqué’s recommendations for improving the economy differ from the growing push towards increased foreign investment in mining, instead focusing on the long-term benefits of health, education and infrastructure. In fact, it suggests that no new mineral extraction agreements should be made by the government without first conducting a public comprehensive analysis of the quantity and amount of the resources to be exploited.

"We’ve had a system that was not set up for a rapidly growing economy that would be prosperous, it was a system set up to ensure we have a quite country where resources could be extracted with us saying very little," said McLeod. "The exploitation of these resources could continue to have dangerous consequences if they are not managed well. You could have an already unequal society become more unequal as the benefits accrue to only a small section of the population."

The recommendations give specific attention to women, who continue to be under represented in politics and other positions of power. These include a mandatory 30 percent representation of women in political office, a review of Sierra Leone’s 1991 constitution, and the creation of an autonomous "Women’s Commission" in government.

"Women in Sierra Leone suffer from low literacy, low status, sexual exploitation and harassment," said Nasu Fofana, the United Nations Population Fund programme manager for Gender and Advocacy in Sierra Leone. "Women are one of the core natural resources we have as a country, but we do not have the capacity to address issues that deal specifically with women and girls."

This communiqué advocates the creation of a "citizen’s committee," headed by the President of the Republic. Questions have been raised by the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), suggesting that this is a political tool for President Ernest Bai Koroma and the ruling All People’s Congress (APC). Though elections will not be held until November 2012, several violent clashes between supporters of the APC and opposition SLPP have already left some feeling like the country is at risk of being divided along partisan lines.

"The conference was a venture worth taking, but we have to have all political parties vet the documents, give their input and sign off on them," said Thomas Babadi, who works for the Forum of Sierra Leonean Youth Network. "This should be a people’s manifesto that neither political parties nor elected representatives deviate from."

McLeod insists that while governments have a responsibility to work in the best interest of the people, changes that lead to development will have to come from the citizens themselves.

"We have blamed politicians but we should have been blaming ourselves," said McLeod. "This is not a recommendation for the government; this is for the people of Sierra Leone."

From here, organisers say a draft of the communiqué will be finalised before being submitted to parliament, where an implementation strategy can be put in place. This, however, is not an aspect that has yet been addressed in these recommendations.

"Everything they’ve said is good on paper, but I’m not sure of the effectiveness of this conference," said Hawanatu Sheriff, an 18-year-old secondary school student who attended the conference as the winner of a national essay-writing competition. "If we want to change in this country we all have to change our attitude and be accountable for everything we do."

(END/2012)

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 home is one of many that were washed away by flash floods last year.

"I am still rebuilding my home," Dube told IPS, pointing to where she has erected a hut that she says serves as her bedroom.

Across the small yard stands a shaky-looking grain storage bin, which has become symbolic of the devastation that swept away thousands of tonnes of grain in last year’s floods.

Hundreds of schools and villages were washed away amid criticism of Zimbabwe’s disaster preparedness and effective early warning systems. This was despite earlier warnings that the floods, which had already left a trail of destruction in their wake in countries that lie along the Zambezi River in Southern Africa, were headed for some parts of the country.

"We were never told that the water would be that bad. We lost livestock and the grain we had harvested," Dube said, highlighting the plight of thousands of villagers who remain victims not only of natural disasters but also poor early warning and disaster monitoring systems in Zimbabwe.

While rains have only begun to fall in some parts of the country, the Zimbabwe Meteorological Services have given conflicting reports of when to expect it to reach its peak. Initially the service first said December 2011, but then revised this to early January, then again to late January.

Zimbabwe Meteorological Services chief, Tich Zinyemba, has also reversed an adverse forecast issued that warned of imminent floods. He said in late January that the cyclone, which had been expected to reach Zimbabwe last month, had since moved back to Mozambique.

Zinyemba’s latest forecast came despite a warning issued by the Zambezi River Authority that parts of the Zambezi River, which flows through Zimbabwe, would experience floods and advised villagers to prepare for evacuation to higher ground.

This week, experts from the government’s weather services department announced the cyclone from neighbouring Mozambique was no longer headed for Zimbabwe. While villagers are no longer being prepared for the possibility of heavy downpours, for Dube and many others, the threat of rain destroying their homes remains a real threat.

These conflicting weather reports have exposed the country’s lack of preparedness for possible floods.

"We do not know anymore when the rains would fall and how bad it would be," Dube told IPS, expressing a popular sentiment here as many have lost faith in the reliability of weather forecasts from the meteorological services.

The Civil Protection Unit, a government department responsible for, among other things, evacuating of communities from flood areas, also issued a flood warning last month. The unit has been severely criticised for failing to respond in time to the distress of villagers like Dube, last year.

"There is lack of adequate expertise and the usual lack of resources that is why we even fail to have such things as helicopters to assist our people during floods," Tymon Ruzende, a disaster preparedness expert who worked with the Red Cross during last year’s floods, told IPS.

"But I also think there is little in terms of preparing communities deal with the prospect of flooding. For example when it is already known the waters will rise, communities must be told to move to higher ground, yet others always resist this," Ruzende told IPS.

This year, communities that lie along the giant Zambezi basin once again find themselves at the centre of rising waters.

It is here in the Zambezi basin in areas such as Binga, an inaccessible and remote district in northern Zimbabwe, where communities have previously been victim of flooding despite clear signs that the banks would burst.

Jairos Lubimbi, a local councillor, said not much is being done to prepare villagers in the eventuality of floods.

"People here have always lived with floods and it is something which the authorities think is natural and they cannot do anything about saving lives, grain and livestock," Lubimbi told IPS.

Last month, the Zambezi River Authority told villagers living downstream on the Zambezi to evacuate their homes, but villagers who spoke to IPS said they were still in their homes because "they had nowhere to go."

"They tell us to move to higher ground, but do not provide alternative homes for us," said distraught Taboka Sibanda, a villager.

Floods have already moved from Mozambique into South Africa and according to some media reports, the rising waters have claimed up to 20 lives. Concerns remain about possible localised flooding in Zimbabwe.

Experts say Zimbabwe’s shifting climate patterns that have moved the rain season further into the New Year. They say that this has made it difficult to prepare for possible floods as the country lacks state of the art weather tracking systems. This comes amid calls by the United Nations for all early warning systems to be community centred.

(END/2012)

Many Swazi’s prefer to put their hard-earn money into cooperatives rather than banks. / Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

MBABANE, Feb 8 (IPS) – Nomsa Tsabedze is one of the many people at the Bunye Betfu, Buhle Betfu Credit and Savings Cooperatives waiting to apply for a loan to pay for her children’s school fees.

"Unlike banks, there is no collateral required before you get a loan from a cooperative," said Tsabedze, adding: "If you’re a member of a cooperative, you’re guaranteed a loan depending on how much you’ve saved."

For the past five years, ever since she started working as a clerk in the public service, Tsabedze has been saving and obtaining loans from the cooperative.

But while Tsabedze and thousands like her have chosen to put their money in cooperatives as opposed to banks, many in this Southern African nation feel that this poses no risk to the banking industry.

This is despite concerns by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the country’s increasingly popular 230 savings and cooperatives pose a threat to commercial banks.

In a recent assessment, the IMF said that it was concerned that people are shunning commercial banks in favour of cooperatives.

"This is because loans from cooperatives are more accessible to the Swazi population and do not have appropriate risk weighted safeguards," reads the report released in December.

While commercial banks are viewed as risk averse and reluctant to lend, cooperatives have become the preferred lender for civil servants, in particular. There are four commercial banks in the country and one building society, which operates as a bank.

However, Central Bank of Swaziland deputy governor Sibongile Mdluli said that despite the pending economic crisis that started in 2010 when Swaziland lost up to 60 percent of its national budget because of a cut in revenue from the Southern African Customs Union, banks remain stable.

"Emerging risks and pressure from the macroeconomic environment are being closely monitored and there is no reason to believe that the financial sector stability is under threat," said Mdluli.

While the deputy commissioner of Cooperatives and Development, Mike Gama, said that banks have nothing to fear from cooperatives, he told IPS that his society was forming its own bank and this would pose a threat to the banking industry.

"Banks are charging cooperatives exorbitant fees in respect of bank charges," said Gama. "As a result, we’re in the process of establishing our own bank. For sure this is going to cripple the banks."

Meanwhile, the IMF argues that cooperatives are not currently regulated and supervised, therefore, it is possible for people to fall into serious debt because one person might get loans from different institutions at the same time.

But Gama disagreed arguing that a person is eligible to join only one cooperative and that these institutions still subject those who want to borrow to the same regulations expected from banks and micro-lenders.

He added that a person could only borrow money from the cooperative they belong to.

"Cooperatives also ensure that the person’s debts do not exceed 33 percent of one’s gross salary as the law stipulates," said Gama, adding: "Every cooperative has a policy on lending, saving and repayment. I guess the IMF was just generalising on this issue."

He admitted that savings and credit cooperatives are gaining popularity among workers because they have flexible lending conditions and people have a sense of ownership.

Tsabedze told IPS that an appealing aspect of cooperatives was that the interest generated from the loan is also shared among members at the end of the year.

"You don’t generate a profit for somebody else but make money for yourself," said Tsabedze. She said even the interest on a loan is lower than that charged by commercial banks – at eight percent for a three-year loan.

The IMF assessed the situation again during its visit to Swaziland From Jan. 26 to Feb. 1 where IMF head of mission Johannes Mongardini requested the government put in place a regulatory authority for non- bank financial institutions while shifting the regulation of cooperatives to the Central Bank in the meantime.

In the December report, the IMF revealed that Swaziland’s banks are more vulnerable than they ever were before owing to the fact that government owes them directly and indirectly through suppliers who have loans with the financial institutions.

In fact, this is not the first time that the IMF has sounded a warning on financial institutions. In November it noted that Swaziland’s commercial banks were under threat because people were withdrawing their deposits and taking them to South Africa.

Central Bank governor Martin Dlamini, however, dismissed the IMF’s assertion saying depositors were withdrawing their money to invest in unit trusts.

But the IMF through the Macroeconomic Vulnerabilities Stemming from the Global Economic Crisis: The Case of Swaziland report, emphasised that banks have more to worry about under the pending economic downturn.

"Although commercial banks have tried to reduce their direct exposure to government in 2011, the accumulation of arrears has led them to provide bridge financing to suppliers, increasing indirect exposure," reads the report.

Government owed suppliers about 200 million dollars as of June last year and the IMF said if the financial crisis persists, loan portfolios of banks would also weaken.

Government’s dominance in the economy is also another risk factor to the banking sector because a number of state-owned enterprises and small and medium enterprises are heavily dependent on government for business.

So far the banks have experienced a marginal increase in non-performing loans as a consequence of the fiscal crisis.

"However, when the private sector does reach a point where the non-payment of arrears results in bankruptcies, not only will banks be affected but the whole economy may face a significant recession," said the IMF.

And for now, there is nothing stopping people like Tsabedze from accessing loans while making money for themselves.

(END/2012)

An injured man awaits treatment at the Murtala Muhammed General Hospital in Kano after the Jan. 20 bombings. / Mustapha Muhammad/IPS

KANO, Nigeria, Feb 8 (IPS) – "I can no longer stay here in Kano as it rains bombs. The gun battles rattle us… Kano is no longer safe," said pregnant Funke Nweke of her decision to flee Nigeria’s northern state with her five-year-old daughter.

Nweke grimaced as she held her daughter, Nnenna, while they waited at Kano’s most popular motor park to board a bus headed to Nigeria’s south. She and her daughter are fleeing the state, as they fear being attacked by the Islamist extremists Boko Haram.

Kano witnessed the worst series of suicide bombings, bombs blasts and gun battles on Jan. 20. According to the president of the Civil Rights Congress, a human rights organisation based in the northern city of Kaduna, 256 people were killed in the fighting. However, the local police authority puts this figure at 184 dead.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks saying they did so because their members in Kano have been arrested and were being persecuted and maltreated.

"We are responsible for the attack. I am the person who commanded our people to rain sporadic attacks, because we have sent an open letter to the Kano leaders to release our members arrested for no offence, but they refused," the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said on a YouTube video, speaking in the local Hausa dialect.

Shekau denied killing civilians in the attacks: "We are killing the police, the military and any other person who connives with them. We are not after civilians. And I enjoy killing a person, like I kill a ram and a chicken, provided that God ordains me to kill him."

Back at Kano, despite her mother’s grim mood, Nnenna is happy to be leaving. "We are travelling. Bye," she told IPS happily.

Nweke and her daughter were among several others who converged at New Road in Kano, and queued as they waited patiently to board luxury busses.

"Hundreds of our people, largely women and children, have left because they are traumatised with the attacks recently," the leader of the Igbo ethnic group in Kano, Dr. Boniface Ibekwe, told IPS by phone.

"I cannot tell you the exact figures of the people that left but we are compiling names. Some have left, some are in hospital receiving treatment and some are still missing…Our men are largely here, we are not leaving," Ibekwe said.

However, the security of the area remains uncertain. Just two days after the attacks on Kano, the country’s security services recovered more than 300 different explosive devices at various locations around the state.

Police bomb experts said that if the explosives had been detonated, it could have been disastrous for Africa’s most populous state and top oil producer.

While President Goodluck Jonathan said on Jan. 8 that the country would bring the perpetrators to justice, the country’s north faces an economic decline because of the attacks.

Kano is Nigeria’s second-largest city and the country’s centre of commerce. The Igbo community, which is being targeted in the attacks, own many of the businesses here.

"The Igbo dominate automobile, building materials, stationeries and electrical appliances businesses. They occupy 90 percent of these businesses. (If they flee Kano) it would not (be) good for Kano’s economy and that of other northern states," an economics lecturer at Bayero University in Kano, Dr. Garba Ibrahim Shekau, told IPS by phone.

Shekau said goods being sold by the Igbo people in Kano would become scarce and a larger demand for these goods would see prices skyrocketing.

After the attacks in Kano more than 200 members of the group were arrested, though 80 percent of those arrested are believed to be foreign nationals.

"We have made arrested using intelligence gathering of more than 200 Boko Haram members, and we discovered that 80 percent of them are Chadians," a senior police officer told IPS on the condition of anonymity.

The Nigerian State Security Service announced the capture of Boko Haram’s purported spokesman Abu Qaqa on Feb. 2.

(END/2012)

A farmer in Cameroon. The closure of Nigeria's border with northern Cameroon has had a negative economic impact on this region. / Fanny Pigeaud/IRIN

YAOUNDE, Feb 7 (IPS) – Ahmadou Lamine has been forced to close his business selling fuel imported from Nigeria, known locally as "zoa-zoa", because of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

Lamine, from Maroua, the capital of Cameroon’s Far North Region, ran out of stock after Nigeria temporarily closed its border with Cameroon’s northern region. The move came after the Christmas Day bombings of Nigeria’s churches by Boko Haram, which killed dozens of people.

"Motor bike riders who used to supply us with zoa-zoa from neighbouring Nigeria couldn’t do so anymore. I was forced to shut my business premises," Lamine told IPS. "I don’t know how I am going to cope with paying the rent on my house, let alone feed my family and pay my children’s school fees," he added.

The closure of the border has had a negative economic impact on this region. Fuel prices here have doubled, jumping from fifty cents a litre to about one dollar. And a similar trend is recorded with other imports from Nigeria like sugar, milk, flour, beverages, sweets and oranges.

"It’s difficult," Alima Aissatou, a housewife in Maroua told IPS. She pointed to her near-empty basket that would have previously been filled with food purchased from Maroua’s main market. "How do you feed a family with this?" she asked.

The closure of the border is not only affecting businesses and households, it has also led to a reduction in customs revenue. The interim Customs Bureau Chief for Maroua, Philemon Tamfu, told IPS that the impact of the border closure was most felt "in Limani, Fotokol, Kolofata and Kouseri, all border towns in the Far North Region where all (customs) entries and exits are recorded."

Speaking to IPS by phone, the Customs Bureau Chief for Limani, Alain Symphorien Nzie, said that the area used to receive 239,000 dollars every 10 days in customs revenue, averaging 718,000 dollars a month. But a few weeks after the border was closed, it could barely manage to generate 50,000 dollars. Limani, a border town, is home to citizens of Cameroon and Nigeria.

"I had to improvise all means possible to come up with the 50,000 dollars. This amount is likely to keep on dropping if the blockage continues," he said of the minimum quota that customs departments need to meet.

A similar trend has been noticed in the border town of Fotokol. Instead of the 40,000 dollars that is usually collects over the first 10 days of January, only 4,000 dollars was received.

International news agency CNN quoted trade and customs officials in Maroua as saying that nearly 80 percent of its regional economy has shrunk since the closure of the borders.

Nigeria’s borders with Cameroon remain sealed as Africa’s most populous nation fears that the extremist group Boko Haram might be using the northern parts of Cameroon as a base.

This comes after the unearthing of a cache of arms, suspected to have been smuggled in from Cameroon, in Borno State, Nigeria. The arms included AK47 rifles, pistols, rocket launchers, bombs, and detonating bomb cables.

Cameroon’s government is concerned that the extremist group could be infiltrating and establishing itself in the country. Wikileaks revealed that President Paul Biya raised the concerns in a conversation with United States Ambassador to Cameroon, Janet Garvey.

"Biya was concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism …He was beginning to worry about Islamic extremists infiltrating Cameroon from Nigeria through Cameroon’s mosques," Wikileaks stated.

The former minister for Territorial Administration and Decentralization, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, also expressed similar fears to the ambassador. He reportedly said: "there were a lot of desperate people among the Muslim communities in the North, and Douala in particular, and some of them had unexplained money." Douala is the country’s economic capital.

Evidence on the ground suggests that Boko Haram has already infiltrated Cameroon. In Lagdo, a locality in the Far North Region, villagers have reported that people with long beads and red or black headscarves have been combing the area and spreading the group’s extremist doctrine.

"They came here and told me that all our problems are caused by western education and western ideas," a resident of Lagdo told IPS, as he cast a furtive glance around. "They also said they will give me a lot of money if I joined their group. They looked dangerous, so I lied that I would consider their proposal. I am afraid that they may come again."

The threat of the group’s infiltration of Cameroon has put security, political and traditional authorities on the alert.

On. Jan 19, the governor of the North Region, Gambo Haman, said: "the Boko Haram being chased from Nigeria’s northeast, as well as thousands of runaway Chadian soldiers in irregular situations here, must be closely monitored to avoid unwanted trouble throughout the national territory."

He said surveillance has been reinforced and many Quran learning centres were shut down, and their teachers are being closely monitored by security intelligence.

The Nigerian newspaper, Sunday Tribune, reported on Jan. 29 that Cameroon security forces had recently blocked an attempt by 25 itinerant Arabic teachers to cross into Cameroon. "We stone-walled them," the source reportedly said.

Meanwhile, government authorities are liaising with religious groups to guard against the group. The senior Divisional Officer for Wouri in Douala, Bernard Okalia Bilai, convened a meeting of Imams and Muslim community leaders to jointly come up with strategies to stop the group’s infiltration of Cameroon.

"Their doctrine is anti-social," Bilai said. "It is a doctrine that persuades young graduates to rip up their degrees…It is a doctrine that condemns what today constitutes the values of our society. Top authorities of the country don’t accept that such hateful dogma is established in our communities…we must be vigilant."

But these efforts may be too little, too late. In an exclusive interview with the UK-newspaper The Guardian on Jan. 27, a senior member of Boko Haram disclosed that recruits from Cameroon, Chad and Niger have already joined the group.

(END/2012)

Radio Zibonele began broadcasting under the bed of a shipping container truck in 1995. / Davison Mudzingwa/IPS

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Feb 7 (IPS) – When a financial crisis threatened the existence of Africa’s oldest community station, Bush Radio, an outpouring of sympathy and appeals went viral on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. However, despite this outspoken support that showed that the station is worth saving, its future remains uncertain.

It got the message out there to the decision makers, and because it was in their faces all the time… there has been offers of assistance,” said Adrian Louw, programme integrator at Bush Radio.

The emergence of social media has opened new opportunities for community broadcasters in Cape Town, South Africa. Not only are they able to interact more effectively with their audiences, but they can now do so cheaply.

Bush Radio broadcasts to at least 260 000 listeners, predominantly in the poor Cape Flats, formerly an apartheid housing area for people of colour.

But thanks to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a blog, Bush Radio now maintains a strong presence in the community.

“The use of social media has been important for us because it has allowed us to do stuff without getting a specific designer on board that knows our internet protocols,” said Louw.

The station has a rich history of defiance during the apartheid era. Back then it broadcasted illegally after repeated applications for a licence were turned down. Since the granting of a broadcasting licence in 1994, the station has evolved with the times.

“If blogging works, why do we have to pay thousands of (South African) Rands to get a designer to design a fancy website for news when a free CMS (content management system) works?” asked Louw.

Core to Bush Radio’s programming are issues that affect their audiences. These include HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, poverty and crime. Highlighting these issues through social media is convenient in several ways. “The nice thing about social media is that it really assists community media with its mission, in terms of increasing access to the station and really making people feel that they are owners of the station because they now can communicate with the station quickly,” says Louw

“Even if you are not interested in something you get an alert, like ‘do not forget that Sakhisizwe (radio programme) is going to talk about HIV/AIDS at 12pm.’ In that way, a specialised audience will interact.”

Bush Radio is also renowned for training young people in broadcasting. Social media has enabled them to spread the message quicker. “For instance we had a recruitement for news volunteers. We had a response from over sixty applicants within three days.”

For Bush Radio, social media complements the weaknesses of radio – its immediacy and transient nature. With social media, the station can now relay important messages that have a presence on the internet.

“We seriously believe that technology must be used in bettering people’s lives,” said Louw.

Across town in South Africa’s biggest single township of Khayelitsha, Radio Zibonele has a lot in common with Bush Radio. Radio Zibonele’s listenership has steadily increased with the station’s meteoric rise from its days of broadcasting under the bed of a shipping container truck in 1995.

With over 220 000 listeners, feedback grew and inundated the single studio phone line. The advent of social media has been a welcome development for Radio Zibonele.

Like most community media, Radio Zibonele traditionally interacts with its audiences through outreach programmes such as road shows and other sponsored community activities. However, of late, dwindling sponsorship has been a hindrance. Social media, said Ntebaleng Shete, the station’s programme manager, fills the gap by reconnecting with the community.

Radio Zibonele broadcasts mostly in the local language, isiXhosa. Its flagship programme discusses various social problems, and feedback peaks during this two-hour programme.

The high penetration of mobile phones with internet connectivity has also boosted the number of listeners who log onto social networks. According to latest figures provided by Cellular Online, a mobile portal, South Africa has a growing subscriber base of close to 20 million users.

“I think people are growing with technology…many of the people want to be on Facebook and Twitter,” said Shete.

However, Chris Kabwato, the director of Highway Africa, a Pan-African programme at Rhodes University that focuses on research, education, media and digital technologies, said community media in Africa has a long way to go to utilise social media.

“(There are ) the perennial challenges of lack of internet access… and the general lack of technical knowledge around the use of new media on – mobile, internet, web-based social applications,” said Kabwato of the factors that have hampered the full usage of social media.

He, however, believes that vast opportunities to develop more interactive programmes and to generate revenue from social media exist.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

**The story that moved on Feb. 3 incorrectly stated that Bush Radio had received sufficient financial support to save the station.

(END/2012)

Since the start of the Jan. 27 demonstrations, protesting against President Abdoulaye Wade’s bid for a third term of office, four people were killed. / Jedi Ramalapa/IPS

DAKAR, Feb 6 (IPS) – The friends of slain Senegalese student protester, Mamadou Diop, say that the 32-year-old master’s student was against injustice and that is why he was protesting against President Abdoulaye Wade’s bid for a third term of office.

On Jan. 31, the opposition movement and local protestors, including students, gathered at the Place de Obelix to voice their anger at the Constitutional Councils’ validation of Wade’s bid for a third term. The incumbent president is 85 and has ruled Senegal since 2000.

The protests turned violent and one student, Diop, was killed. Diop’s best friend and classmate, 29-year-old Bacary Sejnane, told IPS that he saw his friend’s death on television.

"I saw a very big police car approach where the crowds had gathered, and we saw a man on the floor. He tried to get up but he couldn’t. We saw that the car ran over him," said Sejnane. "When they said his name on television, it was Mamadou Diop, my friend." According to Senegal’s Red Cross, the vehicle that ran over Diop was a water cannon truck.

Diop was completing his Masters in Modern Literature at the Sheik Anta Diop University, and was a devoted disciple of a popular section of the Mauride, a strain of the Muslim brotherhood with many followers in Senegal.

He had a wife and two young daughters. He loved to study and was a leader in his class and worked tirelessly to improve learning conditions at the university.

"He was against injustice," said Sejnane reflectively, "That’s why he was at the Place de Obelix."

Diop was a well-known student at the university, so when students heard of his death, they gathered in a group and marched to the hospital where his body was kept. The police stopped them and clashing ensued.

The avenue on which Sheik Anta Diop University sits saw scenes reminiscent of a civil war during the protest. Students barricaded parts of the avenue using whatever they could find; huge boulders, stones, and even wooden crates used as shop stalls by street traders.

Since the start of the Jan. 27 demonstrations, spearheaded by the June 23 Movement (M23), a movement of youth and civil society, four people including a police man have lost their lives and several others have been injured from clashes with police, Senegal’s Red Cross reported.

"I think that people are angry because they knew that President Abdoulaye Wade cannot take on another mandate," said Chrystelle Ndaya a former student at the university, now an independent journalist. "President Abdoulaye Wade is old and he must go. He doesn’t have the mind of a young person. People want change."

"It’s the first time we start to see students revolting like this," she said almost it disbelief.

The Constitutional Council’s decision, which also invalidated international singer Youssou N’dour’s bid for the top seat in government, has many Senegalese angered.

In addition, during the last three to five years of Wade’s administration life has become progressively harder for many Senegalese. The cost of basic commodities has more than tripled. Bread, oil, gas, petrol, rice and sugar are now very expensive for most Senegalese.

Ndaya said these commodities have become so expensive that some families can only afford one meal a day.

But Mamadou Ba, who is completing his Masters in Sociology at the Sheik Anta Diop University, thinks the issue is beyond bread and butter. "I think it’s a moral issue, it’s about recovering some dignity and respect from a leader who has given us his word."

Ba said that Wade had promised to step down from office, if Senegal’s citizens mandated him to.

"I think the students feel that if they let this one go by, without making sure that their anger is heard, it will be like agreeing to be lied to for the rest of your life," he said.

"These protests were meant to give consciousness to the citizens, it is not calling people to violence," said Ba, who has so far stayed away from the protests. "But I think they know that if they show pictures of the opposition behaving violently, it might change people minds about who to vote for. Senegalese are not violent people, they are very quiet."

M23 has vowed to maintain protests until Wade rescinds his candidacy for the Feb. 26 elections.

But Sjenane does not believe these revolts, as he calls them, can be compared to the Arab Spring protests seen in Egypt and other African countries. Because he says: "Senegalese are not violent, we respect democracy and the rule of law."

But it was the same rule of law that killed his friend. "Police are here to keep order, and it’s good that they do, but sometimes people also need to express themselves," he added in response.

(END/2012)

BENGHAZI, Feb 5 (IPS) – It's been almost a year since Benghazi launched its uprising against former Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi and three months since he was killed, but there is a growing sense of frustration in eastern Libya with the National Transitional Council. Two weeks ago, a group of protesters attacked the Council’s Benghazi headquarters as chairman Mustafa Abdeljalil was inside, forcing him to flee through the back door.

The Libyan economy has not recovered from the revolution. Government workers are not receiving their salaries. Liquidity is in such a dire situation that banks can only give out 2,000 dinars (about 1,500 dollars) per month per account.

The economic pressure has created an atmosphere of mistrust for the once-loved National Transitional Council (NTC), and rumours circulate about corruption and the infiltration of former regime members. Many activists want the NTC and any future government completely free of Gaddafi's men, but others feel that such a break is impossible considering that many Libyans worked for the regime because there was no alternative.

The real culprits, however, are a lack of transparency and communication by the NTC.

"The NTC has lost its credibility with the people," said Abdel Salam El Sherif, 33, a lawyer and political activist. "The council earned its legitimacy from the revolution, but it needs to serve the people.

"Many people joined the NTC in secret because there were still pro-Gaddafi elements around, and the people accepted the secrecy for security reasons. But after the liberation of Tripoli, you still see the NTC not revealing information about its members. So we are asking, 'Who are these people and why hide their names?' This is basic transparency. We don't even know how many there are. Every time we ask we are given different answers."

According to Fathi Baja, a founding member of the NTC who heads the political committee that draws up national and international policies for the council, there are 72 members. But El Sherif's point is valid. The NTC website lists 66 members with their names, positions, hometowns and biographies.

Not only is it incomplete, but this was uploaded only on Jan. 29. On the NTC's Facebook page, it says on Dec. 24 that there were 42 members, and on Dec. 8 there were 61 members.

"We are not opposed to the NTC's existence," El Sherif said, "we just want to know who they are."

Baja, a former political science professor at Benghazi University, admitted the council's communication mistakes, but said measures have been made to improve them. He stressed that the NTC will cease to exist after elections are held in June. In addition, the NTC members all pledged to not run as candidates.

"The attack on the NTC building showed us just how bad things had become," Baja said. "We are now reorganising the state media to use it to communicate better with the people. Maybe if we had done this a month ago we wouldn't have these problems."

He added, however, that the NTC has accomplished a lot considering that Libya lacked any institutions and had to start building a state from scratch. Security, he said, is still a problem. The army and police are absent, and filling the vacuum are local militias – a phenomenon that the NTC is trying to reverse, he said.

Concerning the economy, Baja said that the transitional government the NTC appointed is now preparing a budget that will allot money to different sectors.

"There are a lot of rumours flying about regarding money and the NTC," he said. "The NTC do not receive salaries, but people say we get 5,000 dinars per month. They hear that foreign governments unfreeze Libyan money and they think boxes of money are being sent to the NTC. It's not like this.

"We have money at our disposal, but we have to create a budget first. Not only are the Libyan people watching us, but so is the international community. But we have to change the nature of the economy. Gaddafi spent 17 billion dollars per year on government salaries, and this cannot continue. You cannot run a state with this system. We have to promote the private sector to grow."

The most pressing issue for the NTC is laying the groundwork for the June elections when the country will elect a national congress. This assembly will in turn elect a committee to draft a new constitution. The current plan envisions 200 seats, of which 120 will be reserved for individual candidates and 80 for political parties.

"This is a disaster," El Sherif said. "A national congress needs to include representatives from all parts of society. Using parties may marginalise sections of the country. Political parties can come later on, once the foundations of the new country are written."

(END/2012)

CAIRO, Feb 4 (IPS) – The illegal trade in ivory continues in Egypt, with ivory products sold openly in local tourist markets by traders who operate with impunity, a new study by the conservation group Traffic has found.

The report, published in the group’s journal, suggests that while the volume of elephant ivory seen in Egyptian tourist markets has declined over the past decade, the country remains a major hub in the global ivory trade. Investigators who surveyed two of the country’s main tourist centres found ivory craftsmen and vendors operating with little risk of arrest.

"Egypt is one of the largest illegal markets for elephant ivory in Africa," the study noted. "Tusks are smuggled in, mostly through Sudan, and sold to ivory workshops in Cairo…(where they are) openly carved and displayed without any prosecution ensuing."

Trade in ivory was banned in 1990. An Egyptian ministerial decree issued in 1999 makes it illegal to import, export, or possess ivory products, or to offer them for sale.

"The trade in ivory (in Egypt) is completely illegal without a permit, which has never been given," said endangered wildlife consultant Esmond Martin, the lead author of the report. "Unfortunately, there is absolutely no law enforcement."

While customs officers have occasionally seized elephant tusks at Cairo airport, there have been no documented confiscations of ivory items from retail outlets since 2003. The last spot inspection of Cairo’s main tourist bazaar, carried out in 2010, reportedly turned up only legal camel bone items, leading the study’s authors to suspect "market surveillance is not spontaneous."

Posing as tourists, two Traffic researchers counted more than 8,000 ivory items openly for sale in Cairo’s bazaars, hotel souvenir shops and other tourist outlets. Nearly 1,000 more ivory items were seen in the southern Egyptian tourist city of Luxor.

The survey, conducted in March and April 2011, only counted ivory products on display. The authors did not include ivory items that traders showed to them if they had been concealed from view when they entered the shop.

"We saw many more ivory items in drawers, at the back of shops, and in people’s homes," Martin told IPS. "In keeping with the methodology of earlier studies, and to allow comparison of the data sets, we did not include these items in the count."

The most common ivory products seen in Cairo were animal and human figurines, jewellery, and carved scarab beetles. Local craftsmen working with elephant tusks of Central African origin were also found producing ivory walking sticks, chopsticks, and hieroglyphic name seals known as cartouches.

"Traders, usually Sudanese, bring their ivory directly to workshops and retail outlets and sell according to the weight and quality of the tusks," the report said.

It added that large tusks could fetch over 360 dollars per kilogramme, while damaged tusks and fragments were selling for about 150 dollars per kilogramme. Retail prices ranged from about 20 dollars for a simple ring to over 15,000 dollars for a one-metre carved ivory barge.

Earlier Traffic studies, completed in 1998 and 2005, found the biggest buyers of ivory in Egypt were Europeans, particularly Italian and Spanish tourists. Western visitors continue to buy, but the latest study revealed a new consumer with growing spending power and a strong taste for carved elephant tusks: the Chinese.

"In 2005, the Chinese were hardly buying any ivory. Now they account for over half of all sales," said Martin.

The number of Chinese tourists and expatriates in Egypt has grown significantly in the past decade as the two countries increase commercial ties and air links. In 2001, there were only about 100 Chinese expatriates in Egypt. By some estimates, there are now over 60,000 Chinese expatriates and 100,000 tourists a year.

Ivory traders told researchers that Chinese expatriates and tourists were their principal buyers. One vendor said groups of Chinese buyers would often spend 50,000 dollars on ivory during a single bargaining session.

According to Martin, lax enforcement and the influx of heavyweight buyers is reversing gains made against Egypt’s illegal ivory trade in the early 2000s and fuelling the poaching of Africa’s elephants. Tourism was down at least a third in 2011 due to political instability associated with the uprising that led to the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak last February.

"We can only expect the volume of ivory traded to increase as tourist numbers go up," Martin said.

The Traffic report offered a number of recommendations aimed at curtailing the ivory trade in Egypt. It urged local authorities to increase public awareness of the illegal ivory trade and to prosecute those engaged in it. The authors also noted that Egyptian law enforcement officers received extensive training in 2010 to help them identify elephant ivory.

"It is time these newly learned skills were employed to confiscate raw and worked ivory, in order to bring this flagrant trade to an end," they said.

(END/2012)

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 to leave in search of work elsewhere. A national survey of vulnerable households shows that 5.4 million people face food insecurity across Niger.

"The men have gone to look for a way to feed the women and children left behind in the village, because there was no harvest at all this year," 40-year-old Bibata Mounkaïla told IPS.

"We've eaten only once a day for several months," the mother of eight said, in the midst of making a simple porridge out of sorghum that will have to satisfy her family for the whole day. "The situation also means that our children are no longer going to school – the nearest one is in a neighbouring village, three kilometres from here."

Aoudi Adamou, a family head who has chosen to stay, fears the crisis will grow worse if food aid to vulnerable people, announced by the government, arrives late.

"It's only thanks to support from other families that some are still finding something to eat," he told IPS, "but this situation cannot last for long. The authorities have to come quickly with aid if we are to avoid a disaster."

Adamou's distress call is echoed from several parts of the landlocked West African country, which this year faces a serious food crisis following a poor growing season in 2010 to 2011. Poor rains resulted in a deficit of more than half a million tonnes of grain and a shortfall of fodder for livestock of more than 10 million tonnes.

The vulnerability survey, carried out in December 2011, found that more than a third of the population of 15.7 million are in a position of food insecurity – 1.5 million will face severe food shortages.

The government and its partners are trying to mobilise resources to avert this major food crisis – "which is already upon us", according to Eric-Alain Ategbo, the chief nutrition expert for the United Nations Children's Fund office in Niamey, the Nigerien capital.

According to Ategbo, some 330,000 children are facing severe malnutrition presently, and nearly 700,000 more face moderate hunger. "We have seen 20,000 cases of malnourishment across the country, with 5,000 new cases recorded each week (in medical centres)."

Launching an appeal for aid in the western town of Tillabéri on Jan. 17, Nigerien Prime Minister Brigi Rafini said the country needed some 224 million dollars.

These resources would be put towards actions to ease the crisis, such as the launch of a major expansion of irrigated farming, the purchase and distribution of animal fodder, and other efforts against malnutrition, according to Rafini.

But for Hassoumi Sadou, a member of a farmers' cooperative in Niamey, "the success of the operation will depend on the direct involvement of producers in the implementation of the actions. This is still not the case," he told IPS.

The international non-governmental organisation Save the Children, based in London, has spoken out in support of the Nigerien government, calling on the international community to urgently mobilise funds for children threatened by malnutrition.

In a communiqué published on Jan. 27, the NGO said some three million Nigerien children are facing hunger, putting the cost of interventions needed to avoid disaster at 47 million dollars.

N'Dèye Marianne Tounkara, Advocacy Director for the Newborn & Child Survival programme at the Niamey office of Save the Children, says the appeal aims bring international attention to the risk of a major food and nutrition crisis in Niger in the coming weeks.

"We must act quickly to put in place corrective and preventive measures to reduce the threat," she told IPS.

(END/2012)