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Africa in Transition » Maybe Better News on Ebola?

November 1, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Africa, Ebola, John Campbell, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

Africa in Transition » Maybe Better News on Ebola?.

The New York Times and other media are reporting a drop in Ebola infection rates and empty beds in the emergency field hospitals set up by the U.S. military in Monrovia. While there is Ebola all along the border between Liberia and Ivory Coast, Abidjan has not reported any cases. The World Health Organization has stated that Nigeria and Senegal are Ebola free. Perhaps even more important, no new Nigerian cases have been announced since the WHO’s declaration. Especially in Liberia, a public communications campaign on Ebola has taken off.

But, it is too soon to break out the champagne…

Ebola takes toll on the Gambia from beyond its borders | World news | The Guardian

October 19, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, Ebola, Gambia, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, tourism Leave a comment

Ebola takes toll on the Gambia from beyond its borders | World news | The Guardian.

Omar Jarju looks out across a row of empty sunbeds around the Djeliba hotel’s perfectly maintained pool, a few steps from the palm-fringed Kololi beach on the Gambia’s Atlantic coast. “Every day in my inbox I get emails from clients, who tell me they’ve been warned not to come,” he says, despondently. “They say ‘Omar do you have Ebola?’ and I say ‘Oh for God’s sake, no!’. Ebola is killing us, whether we have it or not.”

This week is only the start of the Gambia’s tourist season but Jarju, manager at the Djeliba, says the hotel is only 47% full, compared with 67% last year. Headlines about the rapid spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are having a serious knock-on effect for other countries in the continent, according to the Gambia’s ministry of tourism…

Pambazuka – Russian markets attracting African exporters

October 10, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, EU Sanctions, Exports, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Russia 1 Comment

Pambazuka – Russian markets attracting African exporters.

The Russian market has always been attractive for many Western and European countries, which have exported their agricultural products including fruits and vegetables for high profits. But that has changed recently as the United States, Western and European Union members have slapped Russia with sanctions for the political developments in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.

Russia has also imposed reciprocal sanctions and introduced restrictions on the import of certain food and agricultural products from the European Union (EU), the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway. The products include meat, fish, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, oils and other commodities.

In their recent remarks, the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov and Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev have pointed to the possibility of finding alternative sources for the aforesaid commodities by replacing European markets with markets in other countries. Russian authorities have been looking for potential agricultural products exporters in Latin American, Asian and African regions.

South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco have shown their preparedness to cooperate and are still looking at the possibility to boost exports of agricultural products especially fruits and vegetables to the Russian food market to help fill in the gap after sanctions have severely limited food imports from those foreign countries…

Get your Africa facts right: websites seek to stem flow of misinformation | World news | The Guardian

September 30, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Africa, Gambia, misinformation, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Responsible Journalism, West Africa Leave a comment

Get your Africa facts right: websites seek to stem flow of misinformation | World news | The Guardian.

Inaccurate media reports are hardly limited to Africa, but there’s a greater chance of international newspapers getting things wrong – and not admitting so – when it comes to the continent, Seay said.

“When most western outlets have just two or three people covering a continent of 11 million square miles, it very easy to make mistakes, even unintentionally. It’s a recipe for disaster in terms of quality of coverage.”

Around half of Africa Check’s investigations are triggered by readers wanting to know anything from the veracity of claims made by pop stars to supposed disease-busting local herbs. Operating out of Lagos and Johannesburg, the not-for-profit organisation funded by grants and individual donations has a team of five full-timers working alongside volunteers and freelancers, and hopes to expand to Kenya and Senegal next.

Anton Harber, a highly-regarded South African former investigative journalist and co-founder of the project, explained its ultimate aim. “I imagine a situation in which every public figure and journalist feels nervous about what they say or write because Africa Check might just catch them out.”

′Deadliest year′ for migrants crossing the Mediterranean: IOM | News | DW.DE | 29.09.2014

September 30, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, Gambia, Illegal Migrants, Migrant deaths, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

′Deadliest year′ for migrants crossing the Mediterranean: IOM | News | DW.DE | 29.09.2014.

More than 3,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. A report has been released showing more than 40,000 migrant deaths since 2000.

Plight of the migrant one of most critical issues of our time

September 30, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Africa, Gambia, Illegal Migrants, People & Society, peter singhateh Leave a comment

Plight of the migrant one of most critical issues of our time.

“…In the space of a week 150,000 refugees from Syria streamed into Turkey, adding to the million-plus refugees Turkey has accommodated in the three-and-a-half years since the devastating conflict in Syria began. In one 48-hour period more than 60,000 Syrians came over the border. In 2014 the number of people seeking asylum will hit a 20-year high, according to the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. That 20-year anniversary relates to April 28th and 29th, 1994 on the Rwandan-Tanzanian border, when 250,000 people walked across the bridge at Rusumo Falls, as victims of genocide floated past in the river below.

As Syrian Kurds carried what little they had left into Turkey, the sea that borders the west of the country was in the midst of its own nightmare. The New York Times reported this month that at a funeral in Sicily of 18 migrants who died trying to reach Europe from Africa, Msgr Angelo Giurdanella said in his homily: “The opposite of love is not hatred, but indifference.” Around 120,000 migrants have been rescued by Italian ships in the Mediterranean this year. More than 2,200 have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year. In a few days in mid-September, at least 750 migrants were feared to have died trying to make the crossing. To put those deaths in context in terms of media coverage, the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster in January, 2012 claimed 32 lives. Nearly 70 times that number of migrants have died in the Mediterranean area trying to reach Europe so far this year…”

Hundreds feared dead as boat sinks off Libya – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

September 30, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Africa, Gambia, Illegal Migrants, People & Society, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey 1 Comment

Hundreds feared dead as boat sinks off Libya – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

A boat filled with up to 250 migrants heading for Europe has sunk off the Libyan coast and many passengers have died, a spokesman for the Libyan navy has said.

Only 36 people, including three women, have been rescued after the boat sunk near Tajoura, east of the capital Tripoli, said navy spokesman Ayub Qassem.

“There are so many dead bodies floating in the sea,” Qassem told the Reuters news agency, adding that the under-equipped coastguard had few resources to search for survivors.

Migrants have been streaming out of Libya in boats in rising numbers for years, on their way to Europe.

So far in 2014, more than 100,000 have reached Italy’s shores, the Italian government said this week…

ISS Africa | THINK AGAIN: In defence of the African Union

September 10, 2014

Peter Singhatey African Center for Strategic Studies Africa, Gambia, People & Society, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

ISS Africa | THINK AGAIN: In defence of the African Union.

The African Union (AU) gets a lot of flak. Critics often argue that it is slow to respond to security threats; that it prioritises power over justice; and that it fails to adequately represent the needs of this continent’s 1,11 billion citizens.

The continental organisation is often dismissed as a talk shop for tyrants, or depicted as an ineffectual, lumbering bureaucracy that worries more about per diems than it does about Africa’s most pressing political problems.

There is merit to some of these critiques. But they don’t tell the whole story, and they leave out the good bits. It is time to give credit where credit is due, and to recognise that – as imperfect as it may be – Africa is in much better shape with the AU than without it…