This publication looks at how sharing technological infrastructure can support gender equality and serve the broad betterment of mining communities. It illustrates how mining companies in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are sharing technological infrastructure with local communities and how partners are collaborating in Peru …
New roads long enough to girdle the Earth 600 times are expected to be built by 2050 and better planning is needed to protect the environment while also raising food production, a study showed on Wednesday. The study in the journal Nature showed that roads can aid farmers, especially in …
The African Development Bank will prepare an additional $150 million in funding for nations stricken by the Ebola virus as the World Health Organization plans to seek more resources and money to fight the outbreak. The worst-affected countries may see 1 percentage point to 1.5 percentage points shaved off economic …
The Democratic Republic of Congo said as many as 13 people have died of Ebola in a separate outbreak from the one raging in three West African nations. It is the sixth reported outbreak in that country since 1976. Laboratory tests in two cases were positive for Ebola in a …
More than $430 million will be needed to bring the worst Ebola outbreak on record under control, according to a draft document laying out the World Health Organization’s battle strategy. The plan sets a goal of reversing the trend in new cases within two months, and stopping all transmission in …
At least 70 people have died in northern Democratic Republic of Congo from an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, denying that the illness was Ebola. A WHO report dated Thursday and seen by Reuters said that 592 people had contracted the disease, of whom …
Democratic Republic of Congo has sent its health minister and a team of experts to the remote northern Equateur province after several people died there from a disease with Ebola-like symptoms, a local official and a professor said on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if there was any connection …
African climate negotiators attending the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington this week said leadership from the United States is critical to finalizing a global deal on measures to address climate change in 2015 after years of deadlock. Officials from Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Ethiopia said they …
In 2013, more than 35,000 elephants across Africa were killed for their ivory, which is often carved and sold as ornaments, jewelry and other gift items. China is a major importer of ivory, where it’s highly prized as a luxury good. Ivory sellers also do a roaring trade in Japan, …
The World Bank will support the Democratic Republic of Congo’s plans to build the Inga 3 hydroelectric dam to narrow the power shortage in Africa’s largest copper producer. “It’s good for growth and good for climate change,” Mahktar Diop, World Bank vice president for Africa, told reporters in Kinshasa yesterday. …
If you want to slow climate change, white meat may be the right meat, according to two studies that tally the environmental effect of the beef industry. Raising cattle in the US requires 28 times as much land and 11 times as much irrigation water, and pumps at least five …
The incidence of poliomyelitis has dropped precipitously over the last decade. However, persistent transmission in three countries and outbreaks elsewhere challenge the end-2014 eradication target. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is considering expanding the age range of vaccination campaigns even in the absence of adult cases, because of concerns about …
THE United Nations reassured west Africa yesterday that the world’s deadliest-ever Ebola epidemic could be stopped in its tracks, telling the region’s health ministers: “We can handle this.” The new toll represented a rise of 129 — or 38 percent — since the UN agency’s last bulletin given just a …
Indonesia lost 840,000 hectares of forest in 2012 compared to 460,000 hectares in Brazil, despite its forest being a quarter the size of the Amazon rainforest Indonesia has greatly under-reported how much primary rainforest it is cutting down, according to the government's former head of forestry data gathering. UN and …
The illicit trade of wildlife worth as much as $213 billion a year that’s partly funding anti-state militias needs a stronger coordinated response, United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Achim Steiner said. “The illegal trade in natural resources is depriving developing economies of billions of dollars in lost revenue and …
The deadliest-ever outbreak of the Ebola virus has surged in West Africa after slowing briefly, and the pandemic is now "out of control," according to Doctors Without Borders. Nearly 600 infections and 340 Ebola-related deaths have been recorded in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the most since the virus was …
Over 20,000 African elephants were poached across the continent in 2013 according to a report released today by the CITES Secretariat. Although the sharp upward trend in illegal elephant killing observed since the mid-2000s, which had peaked in 2011, is levelling off, poaching levels remain alarmingly high and continue to …
Good news from Congo. And perhaps even more unexpectedly, it has come about with the help of users of mobile phones, legislators in Washington and corporate giants such as Apple and Intel. That is the finding of an investigation by the Enough Project, an anti-genocide campaign group, which says Congolese …
British oil company Soco International has agreed not to explore in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park unless its government and UNESCO agree it would not threaten the area’s world heritage status. Soco has been at loggerheads with conservation campaigner WWF for months over its activities in Virunga, Africa’s …
NIGERIANS are now living longer by eight years even as coronary (ischaemic) heart disease, lower respiratory infections (such as pneumonia) and stroke top the list of 20 major causes of premature deaths globally. According to the World Health Statistics 2014 published at the weekend by the World Health Organisation (WHO), …
One of Africa's oldest national parks announced Tuesday that it had been hit by an unusual wave of attacks by armed elephant poachers, with dozens of carcasses found, and three suspected poachers killed. Garamba National Park, a remote 1,900-square-mile park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, issued an urgent …
