Somalia: Piracy and the Policy Vacuum

AfricaFocus Bulletin
Nov 22, 2008 (081122)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor’s Note
“While the responsibility for this crisis [in Somalia] lies first and foremost with the Somali leadership, the international community, principally the U.S. government and members of the UN Security Council, has also failed … They have failed repeatedly to take a principled engagement to solve [...]

Pirates or Disempowered Somalis?

AFJN
If you’ve been following the news recently, you’ve probably heard a lot about pirates. Not the swashbuckling, patch-over-the-eye, ruthless robber kind, but the disempowered, poverty-stricken Somali kind.

NEWS from AEFJN

April 2009 N. 32

GENDER AND CLIMATE CHANGE: A PRESENT DANGER
http://www.africafiles.org/atissueezine.asp
By Anene Ejikeme
Resource scarcity and conflict in Africa are both caused and exacerbated by climate change. As the author shows in examples from Sudan and Chad, where these are present the burden on women and the violence they suffer clearly increase. Positive examples from Kenya and [...]

Another 36 Trafficked Children Rescued by IOM and its Partners

IOM
Posted on Tuesday, 14-04-2009
Ghana – Since 2002, IOM has rescued 684 children who had been trafficked to work with fishermen in Ghana, West Africa.
The children, trafficked for forced or bonded labour into fishing communities in Kete-Krachi and Yeji along the shores of Ghana’s Lake Volta had been sold for little money by impoverished parents in [...]

No Quick Fix for Malnutrition and Hunger

Common Dreams
by Kristin Palitza
ROME – Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid – which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates – does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition.
Humanitarian relief organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is therefore [...]

IOM Rome, UISG Continue Cooperation in Fight against Human Trafficking

International Organization for Migration
Posted on Tuesday, 07-04-2009
Italy – The IOM Mission in Rome and the International Union of Superiors General (UISG by its Italian acronym) are this week starting a new phase of their joint programme: “Counter-Trafficking Training for Religious Personnel”.

Action Alert: Call and/or write Congress and Tell Them to Support the DREAM Act

USCCB/MRS
Background:  On March 26, 2009, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) (S.729).  A nearly identical bill (H.R. 1751) was introduced in the House by Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA).  The DREAM Act permits certain immigrant [...]

Congo’s bishops welcome cease-fire but warn about country’s future

KINSHASA, Congo (CNS) — The Congolese bishops’ conference welcomed a fragile cease-fire in northeastern Congo but warned that the future of the country still hangs in the balance.

Three Million Customers and Still Counting: The Bank Getting Rich by Helping the Poor

Homegrown lender draws in customers shunned for decades by multinationals
The Guardian
by Xan Rice
NAIROBI – In his 14th floor corner office overlooking the city, James Mwangi sits at the very top of Kenyan society. He got there by understanding the needs of those at the bottom.

DR Congo doctor is ‘top African’

BBC
A doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo who treats women raped by combatants in the war-torn country has been named “African of the Year”.
Denis Mukwege, 53, who runs a clinic in Bukavu, has said all sides have “declared women their common enemy”.