KENYA

The Kenyan government on Monday blamed increasing incidents of poaching and illegal trade in bush meat in the country on a searing drought that has put millions of people across East Africa at risk of famine. As the government and relief agencies scramble to save human populations from starvation, wildlife authorities have warned that poachers are targeting weakened wildlife.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health has announced that it will provide free anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for 58 000 HIV-positive people until the beginning of July. The ministry said on Friday that some 23 000 people had already benefited from free ART provision since January 2005.

Dozens of armed men raided a leading Kenyan media house on Thursday morning and shut down its operations, three days after police arrested several reporters from the same organisation. The raid targeted The Standard newspaper’s editorial offices, printing plant and the transmission centre of its affiliate company, the Kenya Television Network.

Kenyan police said on Wednesday they had arrested three journalists over an article alleging that President Mwai Kibaki held secret talks with a lawmaker who had successfully rallied opposition to constitutional reform last year. After recording statements, the men were locked in the capital’s Kileleshwa police post, said Danson Diru, a police’s criminal police investigations officer.

The Eritrean government has rejected a proposal by the United Nations Security Council to hold talks with an independent commission to resolve its ongoing border dispute with Ethiopia. ”The final and binding decision of the boundary commission marks the legal conclusion of the Eritrea-Ethiopia issue once and for all,” said the Eritrean foreign ministry on Monday.

A searing drought that has put at least 11-million people across East Africa on the brink of starvation risks turning into a catastrophe if donors fail to respond quickly to the situation, an aid agency warned on Thursday. With drought-related human deaths already reported in Kenya and Somalia, cattle, camels and donkeys are also dying at an alarming rate in some areas.

A cholera outbreak has killed at least 45 people and infected about 1 860 others in the past two weeks in the southern Sudan capital, an international medical charity said on Wednesday. Médecins sans Frontières said ”a large outbreak can be expected” in Juba, a town with more than 250 000 people.

The Seychelles has banned foreign ships licensed to fish in its territorial waters from removing fins of captured sharks, in a move to conserve marine life. The fins are highly prized by gourmets in many parts of East Asia, particularly southern China, and attract high prices.

Livestock across East Africa are facing complete ”decimation” from a drought that has already killed tens of thousands of animals across the region, a British veterinary charity said on Thursday. With drought-related human deaths already reported in Kenya and Somalia, cattle, camels and donkeys are dying at alarming rates in some areas.

The United Nations and the European Commission are seeking -million to meet the needs of 30-million vulnerable people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday. The DRC’s 2006 humanitarian action plan has been launched in Belgium.

A hot-air balloon carrying safari-goers over Kenya’s famed wildlife-rich Maasai Mara National Reserve crashed on Friday, killing the British pilot and a female Belgian tourist, officials said. The 11 other passengers in the balloon — eight Canadians and three Belgians — were injured in the crash, according to police.

Kenyan police have arrested the owner of an unfinished Nairobi building whose collapse last month is thought to have killed at least 14 people and injured more than 100, officials said on Wednesday. Nganga Kihonge faces manslaughter charges in connection with the January 23 collapse.

At least 12 people have died in the past two weeks from an outbreak of meningitis in drought-stricken northern Kenya, officials said on Tuesday, warning of an epidemic of the fatal disease. Kenya’s health ministry reported 57 cases of meningitis, 12 of them fatal, since late January.

Thousands of Kenyans turned up with food donations for a weekend benefit concert in aid of millions threatened by a searing drought that has ravaged vast swathes of East Africa. The entry fee was the equivalent of a dollar or a packet of maize meal flour and the audience was mostly composed of youths who danced energetically.

Tanzanian authorities on Thursday began rationing electricity because of water shortages at hydroelectric plants caused by a drought that has placed millions at risk of famine across East Africa. Minister of Energy and Minerals Ibrahim Msabaha said power will be cut during the day from 8am to about 5pm local time.

Officials in drought-stricken Kenya reacted with outrage on Tuesday to a plan by a New Zealand woman to send dog food to feed starving children threatened by famine in the East African nation. Kenyan officials vehemently rejected the donation and said they would put measures in place to prevent any similar assistance.

The World Bank has delayed the release of about -million in loans to Kenya over corruption concerns amid new graft allegations that have rocked the East African nation, officials said on Tuesday. The money was earmarked for education, banking reform, budget support and HIV/Aids programmes.

Rescuers suspended work at the site of a collapsed building in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Thursday as officials conceded there was virtually no chance of finding any more survivors and an Israeli military team that had been leading the effort prepared to leave.