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 Andrew Green*

Southern Sudanese soldiers from the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army. Militia groups affiliated with the army still recruit child soldiers. / Peter Martell/IRIN

JUBA, Apr 15 (IPS) – As the process of reintegrating South Sudan’s child soldiers into their old lives begins soon, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army renewal of its lapsed commitment [...]

By Bari Bates
BRUSSELS, Apr 13 (IPS) – As Western forces step up their military presence in Somalia, locals and experts are worried that the country – struggling under multiple crises from piracy, to drought – is doomed to churn in a cycle of violence that fails to acknowledge root causes of the problems.

Making bold moves [...]

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 Correspondents* – IPS/Al Jazeera

Tuaregs on the road between Mali and Burkina Faso. / Marco Bellucci/CC BY 2.0

DOHA, Apr 5 (IPS) – A spokesman for the main Tuareg rebel group, which recently seized the three largest areas in Mali's north, says it has declared a ceasefire, one day after the United Nations Security Council [...]

By Soumaila T. Diarra
BAMAKO, Mar 30 (IPS) – West African heads of state meeting in Côte d’Ivoire have given Mali’s military junta three days to restore constitutional order and step down – or face a range of diplomatic and economic sanctions.

Captain Amadou Sanogo, leader of the Mar. 22 coup which sent President Amadou Toumani Touré [...]

By Souleymane Gano
DAKAR, Mar 28 (IPS) – Analysts say that Senegal’s outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade was made to pay for his failure to respond to popular demands, particularly arising from the high cost of basic commodities, a lengthy strike by teachers, and high youth unemployment, by loosing his bid for a third term of office.

Fifty-one-year [...]

By Jared Ferrie

Dozens of women and children were digging into the earth in a dried out watering hole, in the Jamam refugee camp in South Sudan,in search of water. / Jared Ferrie/IPS

JAMAM, South Sudan, Mar 28 (IPS) – Hamid Yussef Bashir said he walked for 17 days with his wife and five children to [...]

By Soumaila T. Diarra
BAMAKO, Mar 23 (IPS) – A majority of political representatives have so far maintained their distance from the leaders of a coup that toppled the government earlier this week, but several religious and political personalities have already shown a willingness to work with the new regime.

After their successful move against President Amadou [...]

By Emmanuel Chaco
KINSHASA, Mar 23 (IPS) – A report by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office has slammed the government and security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, condemning electoral violence linked to the Nov. 30 elections which led to at least 33 deaths in the capital, Kinshasa.

The report, looking into serious rights [...]

By correspondents* – IPS/Al Jazeera
DOHA, Mar 22 (IPS) – Renegade Malian soldiers say they have ended the rule of President Amadou Toumani Toure after seizing control of the presidential palace and the state television station in the West African nation.

In a statement read out on state television Thursday, the mutineers said the newly formed National [...]

By Kristin Palitza

Maternal health is not a priority in Africa. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

ABIDJAN, Mar 21 (IPS) – Political instability, civil strife and humanitarian crises in Africa have over the past decades reversed countless maternal health development gains on the continent, health experts warn.

"African countries with good maternal health statistics are generally those that [...]

By Kristin Palitza
 

Thousands of Ivorian children were separated from their parents during the post-election violence in 2011. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

ABIDJAN, Mar 19 (IPS) – The group of children playing in a shaded courtyard in Cote d’Ivoire’s economic capital Abidjan seem carefree. But when a car exhaust blasts, they tremble. When a soldier walks past, [...]

By Emmanuel Chaco
KINSHASA, Mar 14 (IPS) – The International Criminal Court delivered its first verdict Wednesday: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was found guilty of recruiting children under the age of 15 to fight in a militia group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ICC, based in the Hague, found that in his capacity as leader [...]

By Louise Redvers

An anti-government demonstration photo. / Louise Redvers

LUANDA, Mar 13 (IPS) – Rights groups and activists are warning of a rapidly deteriorating political climate in Angola following a police raid on a private newspaper and a violent crackdown on anti-government protests.
 

On the morning of Mar. 12, 20 computers were seized from the offices of [...]