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 …
WHO's 60th anniversary celebrations have left Africa in the cold. Across the continent countries face high mortality rates and deep misery, and the regional office of the UN's specialised health organisation
>> Virgin Airlines owner Richard Branson recently claimed to have made history by launching the first biofuel-powered commercial flight from London to Amsterdam. The debatable point is: it took 150,000 coconuts and some babassu palm oil from the Amazon rainforest to power 20 per cent of one of four tanks …
At the end of 2000, WHO declared that leprosy had been eliminated as a global public-health problem. Elimination is defi ned as a prevalence, per 10 000 population, of less than one patient diagnosed with leprosy and registered for treatment. The global prevalence fell from 5
>> South Australian authorities have found a cane toad in the capital city, Adelaide. They say the toad is a stray case and not an indication that cane toads have migrated to the state. They are carrying out intensive night-time surveillance and trapping programme to determine if other cane toads …
Only 720 mountain gorillas remain in the wild, all of them in the misty hills of central Africa. Efforts to protect the critically endangered mountain gorilla received a big boost on Wednesday when Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo agreed to cooperate on a 10-year conservation plan …
The government of Uganda has confirmed the outbreak of the deadly meningitis bacterium in the country. On January 16, health officials said that 121 people are suffering from the disease in Arua and Nebbi districts alone; three have already succumbed to it. Meanwhile, who has confirmed similar outbreaks in three …
>> The World Food Programme is working with the Ethiopian government to extend drought insurance. The US $230 million insurance will cover about 6.7 million people, which will be disbursed in case of a severe drought comparable to 2002-2003. >> The Democratic Republic of Congo closed its lake and land …
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has ordered residents of Likasi town to stay away from the local river Mura following reports that a large consignment of radioactive material has been illegally dumped in it. Likasi is a large town in the mineral-rich Katanga province and home to …
Many in Rwanda are incensed at the bbc for allowing genocide revisionists to use the network's programme to "mock' victims of their crimes. The bitter reactions follow a 30-minute interview in which the president of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, Ignace Murwanashyaka, claimed there was no genocide. The …
At least 60 people in northern Democratic Republic Congo have been infected with a rare viral disease, monkeypox. There is no treatment available for the disease characterized by high fever, intense fatigue and lesions. "Rapid laboratory tests have confirmed the infection in 62 registered cases from the northern department of …
A pan-African music festival held in the Congolese capital of Brazzaville has aroused much outrage from civil rights groups for making 22 pygmy musicians stay in a zoo. Organisers of the week-long music festival, which ended on July 14, told the media that they had hoped to recreate the natural …
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has threatened to seize foreign-owned mining and other companies in the country to check their "dirty tricks' that kept prices of basic goods high in spite of rampant inflation. Mugabe held manufacturers and retailers responsible for the country's high inflation rate (around 5,000 per cent) and …
Congo rebel troops blamed for the recent slaughter of critically endangered mountain gorillas in Central Africa have agreed to stop further ape killings. The agreement was reached under the mediation by the un, conservationists and the Congolese army. Dismembered remains of two gorillas were discovered in the Virunga region of …
A new pact signed in Nairobi recently by the Great Lakes countries of Africa aims to protect and assist the displaced in the region. This is the first legally binding regional instrument specifically dealing with internally displaced persons. The pact signed by the three lake countries
With Burundi, a small east African country, emerging from a 13-year-long civil war, more than 400,000 refugees have started returning home. Its newly elected government now faces the daunting task of land allocation, which could plunge the country back into civil war. Burundi experienced a mass exodus in 1972, following …
• China plans to invest US $175 billion (more than 1.5 per cent of its national GDP) towards protecting the environment during its 11 th five-year plan. The money will be spent on water pollution control, improving air quality in cities, disposing of solid waste, harnessing soil erosion and improving …
This term was first coined in 2001 by a UN panel of experts investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 1998, timber there has helped fund a conflict that has killed around 4 million people. The volume of wood removed by rebel factions, …
