Andrew Cawthorne
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/ 20 August 2007

Africa wages war on scourge of plastic bags

They’ve become as much a symbol of Africa’s landscape as the stereotypical lions and plains. Discarded plastic bags — in the billions — flutter from thorn-bushes across the continent, and clog up cities from Cape Town to Casablanca. South Africa was once producing seven billion bags a year and Kenya not so long ago churned out about 4 000 tonnes of polythene bags a month.

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/ 11 June 2007

Blast in Kenyan capital kills one

A blast in central Nairobi killed at least one person on Monday and police on the scene said they believed it could have been a suicide bombing. Police commissioner Hussein Ali said five or six other people were critically injured after the explosion outside the Ambassadeur hotel in the central business district.

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/ 1 June 2007

UN: 90 000 refugees return to Mogadishu

About a quarter of nearly 400 000 refugees who deserted Mogadishu during fighting earlier this year have returned to the Somali capital, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. But life in the war-scarred city was tough, with shortages of electricity and water, uncollected garbage clogging the streets and many businesses and schools shut, the agency said.

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/ 27 April 2007

US and UK urged to send envoys to Uganda peace talks

Washington and London should appoint envoys to help ensure Uganda’s government and Lord’s Resistance Army rebels do not squander their best hope for peace in 20 years, an influential think-tank said on Friday. Talks resumed in south Sudan on Thursday, with United Nations envoy Joaquim Chissano warning that if squandered, the opportunity may never return.

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/ 24 April 2007

Somalia burns, but does anyone care?

The carnage and suffering in Somalia may be the worst in more than a decade — but you’d hardly know it from your nightly news. For a mix of reasons, from public fatigue at another African conflict to international diplomatic divisions and frustration, a war slaughtering civilians and creating a huge refugee crisis has failed to grab world attention or stir global players.