By Abderrahim El Ouali

Demonstrators outside the court in Taza. / Abderrahim El Ouali/IPS.

CASABLANCA, Feb 10 (IPS) – Deadly clashes between police and youth in the Northeastern town of Taza last week suggest that, far from bringing change and stability, Morocco’s new government is simply repeating mistakes of the past, stoking tensions and fuelling a [...]

By Tamba Tengbeh and Damon van der Linde

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 [...]

By Jedi Ramalapa

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 [...]

By NAKURU, Kenya
 

Francis Muriu (c) explains to the chief (brown checked shirt) how a resident saved him when thugs raided his home and locked him in a house. / Daniel Sitole/IPS

Daniel Sitole, Feb 2 (IPS) – Using 140 characters or less, Chief Francis Kariuki in Kenya, has tweeted his way to reducing crime in his [...]

By Koffigan E. Adigbli

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade' has been validated by the country's Constitutional Court to run for a third term, sparking protests. / Paul Morse/Wikicommons

DAKAR, Feb 1 (IPS) – It was stones against tear gas in the Senegalese capital this morning as students protested the killing of one of their own on Tuesday [...]

By Sandra Ferrari*

Radio advocates believe there are barriers for community radio stations in Ghana, which are detrimental to press freedom. / Sandra Ferrari

ACCRA, Feb 1 (IPS) – There is a tension resonating through Ghana’s airwaves, an electric current fueled by rivaling interests between community radio advocates and Ghana’s National Communications Authority.

Recently, community radio [...]

By Mustapha Dumbuya and Damon Van der Linde
 

Sierra Leone’s mining industry has a long history of unregulated operations. / USAID

FREETOWN, Jan 31 (IPS) – The launch of Sierra Leone’s first online mining database in West Africa comes with a promise to increase transparency and accountability in the country’s rich natural resource sector.
 

“This system will stamp out [...]

By A.D.McKenzie

Louisamène Joseph Alionat. / A.D.McKenzie/IPS.

PARIS, Jan 27 (IPS) – When Louisamène Joseph Alionat unexpectedly began singing in a packed hall at the United Nations cultural agency here this week, it was an attempt to give encouragement to her peers engaged in the uphill battle of trying to end extreme poverty.

"I work with families [...]

By A.D.McKenzie

Louisamène Joseph Alionat. / A.D.McKenzie/IPS.

PARIS, Jan 27 (IPS) – When Louisamène Joseph Alionat unexpectedly began singing in a packed hall at the United Nations cultural agency here this week, it was an attempt to give encouragement to her peers engaged in the uphill battle of trying to end extreme poverty.

"I work with families [...]

By Claire Ngozo

Vice President Joyce Banda (r) and Minister of Gender Reen Kachere (l) at a meeting to condemn the abuse of women by the vendors. / Claire Ngozo/IPS

LILONGWE, Jan 25 (IPS) – A campaign to stop people buying merchandise from street vendors is gaining momentum in Malawi’s main cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre [...]

By Stanley Kwenda

Francis Tachirev, a fruit seller in Zimbabwe lives in fear of the local police confiscating his goods. / Stanley Kwenda/IPS

HARARE, Jan 19 (IPS) – There are some unlikely comparisons between the work lives of Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit seller who sparked the Arab revolution, and Francis Tachirev, a fruit seller in [...]

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 Correspondents* – IPS/Al Jazeera
DOHA, Jan 5 (IPS) – Police fired tear gas and beat protesters to force them out of a square they had occupied in an overnight sit-in in Nigeria's northern city of Kano as part of demonstrations over soaring fuel prices, an organiser said.

Audu Bulama, one of the organisers of protests on [...]

By Protus Onyango

Women from the Kadokoi community water project show how they use drip irrigation to grow vegetables with water from their borehole. / Protus Onyango/IPS

NAIROBI, Jan 3 (IPS) – The acute lack of water in Kenya means families have to trek long distances every day to fetch water. In both rural and [...]

By Busani Bafana

Cassava is Africa's main staple crop. / Eurapart/CC BY-ND 2.0

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Dec 30 (IPS) – Using hybridisation and selective breeding, researchers in Nigeria have developed three new yellow varieties of cassava, a staple crop in much of Africa, which they say will help fight malnutrition caused by vitamin A deficiency in the [...]