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 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 The government troops had withdrawn on Mar. 30, [...]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. [...]

By Charlton Doki

The conflict in South Sudan has more than doubled the price of basic commodities, making it difficult for many here to afford. / Charlton Doki/IPS

JUBA, Apr 29 (IPS) – As thousands of people flee the conflict in South Sudan’s northern border states, increasing numbers have also been forced to leave their homes [...]

By Fulgence Zamblé
ABIDJAN, Apr 29 (IPS) – Rebel leaders in Guinea-Bissau have released the country's prime minister and interim president, who were arrested in the country's Apr. 12 coup, and have flown them to Côte d'Ivoire.

The release of Carlos Gomes Junior and Raimundo Pereira is an encouraging response by the junta to demands by the [...]

By Mustapha Dumbuya*

Saffa Momoh Lahai lost his father in Sierra Leone’s civil war and said justice prevailed when former Liberian President Charles Taylor was convicted. / Mustapha Dumbuya/IPS

FREETOWN, Apr 27 (IPS) – Saffa Momoh Lahai was just two years old when his father was killed during Sierra Leone’s civil war. Rebels attacked their family [...]

By Badylon Kawanda Bakiman

Farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are embracing a new variety of cassava.
/ Credit: André Thiel/Flickr

KIKWIT, DR Congo, Apr 25 (IPS) – Farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are embracing a new variety of cassava which, in combination with improved agricultural techniques, easily outperforms yields from other popular [...]

By Mustapha Dumbuya

Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier and UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War worries about the country’s former child soldiers. / Mustapha Dumbuya

FREETOWN, Apr 25 (IPS) – When the verdict against Liberia’s former President Charles Taylor for war crimes in Sierra Leone is handed down on Thursday, it will be of [...]

By William Lloyd-George

Several of the children in Abala camp are visibly malnourished, and NGO workers are concerned about potential epidemics. / William Lloyd-George/IPS

ABALA, Niger, Apr 25 (IPS) – It was the middle of the day when Tabisou, 72, suddenly saw people from her town of Amderamboukane in Mali fleeing for their lives. Her family [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

About 60 percent of Kenya’s power is hydroelectric, however, the supply is unsteady. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

NAIROBI, Apr 25 (IPS) – When Kenya’s newly announced geothermal power generation project comes online, it will turn the East African country into an economic powerhouse in the region.

In April, the government launched the Menengai Geothermal [...]