In The News

Action or Sanctions

Dina Ezzat August 13, 2004
Jan Pronk, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to Darfur, has the responsibility of reporting to the Security Council on Aug 30 about the progress, if any, that the Sudanese government is making in its crisis-ridden Darfur region. If Pronk’s report is favorable, then no punitive action will be taken and the Council will wait until the next month for another progress report....

German Firms Applaud Libya Deal

Aaron Kirchfeld August 13, 2004
Though Germany and Libya already enjoyed “consistently good to very good economic relations,” the door to increased bilateral trade opened wider recently when Tripoli agreed to pay $35 million to the non-American victims of a 1985 Berlin discotheque bombing. Germany has responded by guaranteeing credits for German exports to Libya. The prospect of increased trade has piqued the interest of...

Darfur Rebels not Aware of Talks, Welcome Nigeria

August 10, 2004
To address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, the Sudanese government and black African rebel groups have agreed to peace negotiations mediated by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. The meeting, set to take place in Abuja, Nigeria on Aug. 23, will hopefully end the turmoil that has far claimed 50,000 lives since February 2003. Rebel groups set to participate include the...

To Save Lives in Darfur, Back African Peacekeepers and Demand War Crimes Accountability, Says ICG's Prendergast

August 4, 2004
According to John Prendergast, special aid to the president of The International Crisis Group (ICG), the United States and other world actors such as the European Union, the Arab League, Japan, and China, need to back the deployment of an African Union-led force to protect civilians in Sudan’s Darfur region. Though he acknowledges that genocide is difficult to prove, Prendergast believes that...

Rwanda Savors the Rewards of Coffee Production

Carter Dougherty July 27, 2004
In the mid-1990’s global coffee production skyrocketed, leading to falling prices and the impoverishment of many of the world’s coffee growers. At the same time, however, specialty coffee began capturing a larger share of the American market and created great wealth for growers in countries like Rwanda, where high altitude and rich soil allow for the growth of quality coffee. Beyond fortuitous...

In Africa, an Exodus of Nurses

Celia W. Dugger July 12, 2004
Thousands of African nurses have migrated in recent years due to a combination of low pay and difficult working conditions in Africa and increased demand in developed countries with aging populations. Unfortunately, the exodus of African nurses has further deteriorated the already low quality of African health care systems that are strapped by insufficient funding and an AIDS epidemic. African...

Fresh Water Talks

Gamal Nkrumah June 11, 2004
In parts of North Africa, fresh water is a scarce commodity. Although the region's main pipeline – the mighty Nile River – is perhaps most often associated with Egypt, it actually runs through a host of countries further upstream. In order to map out use rights in an equitable fashion, the ten-country Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) hopes to bring all parties to the negotiation table. But the...