From Uganda's "New Vision"... [via Passion of the Present - with thanks]:
Sudanese First Vice- President 1st Lt. Gen. John Garang has given Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels an ultimatum to to leave southern Sudan.
Until Wednesday evening, Garang was a colonel, a rank he has held since 1983 when he deserted the Sudan army.
In an exclusive interview with the New Vision, Garang said he was going to deal firmly with the militias operating in southern Sudan, in order to rebuild the war-ravaged region.
"Kony won't be hiding there for long. It is not only Kony, but also all the militias who have been operating in the area. We need to provide peace, security and stability, so the militias including those that were formerly supported by the government, must be disbanded."
Garang flew into the country aboard a chartered plane yesterday for a meeting with president Yoweri Museveni. The meeting took place at Rwakitura in Mbarara.
Garang was met at Entebbe Airport by Vice-President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya and the Minister for Regional Cooperation, Nshimye Sebuturo. He flew to Rwakitura aboard President Museveni's helicopter.
The former Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader, who controlled southern Sudan before the peace deal with the Khartoum Government, said the priority of his government was to resettle displaced people and remove camps of the internally displaced people and return the Sudanese refugees.
He said there were between three to four million Sudanese refugees outside the country who need to be returned and resettled.
He said his government had started rebuilding the infrastructure in the devastated region, which is home to over 12 million people.
Garang said in the next week, the 10 Supervisors for the 10 southern Sudanese states would have taken office to oversee the building of the infrastructure.
The infrastructure to be rebuilt includes roads and railways in southern Sudan and those linking it with Uganda and Kenya, water facilities and financial institutions.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Spiegel interview with African economics expert James Shikwati: "For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"
Not sure what to think about Der Spiegel Interview July 4, 2005 with African Economics Expert: 'For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!'
The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.
[via INCITE: Aid to Africa: Please Stop - with thanks]
The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.
[via INCITE: Aid to Africa: Please Stop - with thanks]
Africa's digital future - Kenya pilots Pocket PC education: The Eduvision pilot project
Note this copy of a BBC report today about an extraordinary experiment aimed at using technology to deliver education across the continent.
Kenya pilots Pocket PC education
By Richard Taylor
Editor, BBC Click Online
In the final report of Click Online's Africa season, we visit Kenya where a trial project using handheld Pocket PCs could help reduce the costs of education in poor communities.
Mbita Point, on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria, hosts a small rural community.
A few minutes walk from the main town lies the local primary school, housed on the campus of a renowned research institute.
As the only school in the area with access to electricity, Mbita Primary enjoys a relatively privileged location.
This aside, it suffers from the same problems encountered by other public schools.
Since the Kenyan government introduced free primary school education two years ago, the resulting influx of kids has meant that resources are spread as thinly as ever.
In the future the students will be able to complete their assignments on these books and send them to the teacher.
Classrooms are crowded, and the all-too-familiar scenario of children sharing outdated textbooks is still very much in evidence.
However, in Class Five, things are just a little bit different. Fifty-four 11-year-old students are willing guinea pigs in an extraordinary experiment aimed at using technology to deliver education across the continent.
In the Eduvision pilot project, textbooks are out, customised Pocket PCs, referred to as e-slates, are very much in.
They are wi-fi enabled and run on licence-free open source software to keep costs down.
"The e-slates contain all the sorts of information you'd find in a textbook and a lot more," said Eduvision co-founder Maciej Sudra.
"They contain textual information, visual information and questions. Within visual information we can have audio files, we can have video clips, we can have animations.
"At the moment the e-slates only contain digitised textbooks, but we're hoping that in the future the students will be able to complete their assignments on these books and send them to the teacher, and the teacher will be able to grade them and send them back to the student."
Pocket PCs were chosen in place of desktops because they are more portable, so the children can take them home at night, and also because they're also cheaper, making them cost-effective alternatives to traditional methods of learning.
Eduvision co-founder Matthew Herren says families pay upwards of $100 a year for textbooks.
"Our system is something that we hope will be sustainable, and the money that they use towards textbooks could be used to buy e-slates instead, which can last more than a year, thereby reducing the cost of education."
Moreover, the potential offered by e-slates is enormous. The content stored on them can be dynamically updated wirelessly, hence the need for wi-fi.
This means that they could include anything from new textbooks which have just come on stream, to other content like local information or even pages from the web.
The team have also devised a rather neat system for getting the information onto the devices.
First off, content is created and formatted for use on the e-slate.
A central operations centre distributes the material over a cheap satellite radio downlink to a satellite radio receiver in the school.
The information passes through a base station which beams it out wirelessly to the students. And so a new and enjoyable way of learning is born.
"I like using [the] e-slate because I can take it home to use it at night and I can use it because it has [a] battery," said Viola, a pupil at Mbita Primary.
Fellow pupil Felix had a few problems: "At first I found it difficult, but when our teacher, Maureen, told me to go in early to teach me, I went. The next day I found it easy."
Potential pitfalls
Although the kids are certainly enthralled by the novelty of the hi-tech gadgetry, their teachers are a little more realistic.
"There are too many drawbacks," said Robert Odero, a teacher at the school.
"One is the lack of electric power in most of our schools, and since the machine needs constant recharging for it to be effectively used this would affect the users as well as the teachers.
"Another thing is the delicate nature of the machine. Given the rugged terrain of our country and the paths our kids use on their way to school, these things could easily fall on the way."
According to Eduvision co-founder Matthew Herren, the e-slates are fragile because the project is in a pilot stage.
"In any implementation in the future that's on a larger scale we will have them custom made to our specifications and coated in rubber and made much hardier," he said.
"At the same time, with textbooks there's no reason why a student couldn't drop all of their books into a pail of water and damage them as well."
There are plenty of concerns which have given pause for thought during the 18 months the pilot's been running.
The Eduvision team says all the issues can be solved and that the technology could be rolled out across countries and even extended beyond education.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of sceptics who believe it will never make it off this campus.
Kenya's Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technology believes the project's flawed not just in design, but in its very conception.
"We need to be careful that we don't bring about too many experiments, and this is another such experiment being done without ensuring that we have the right environment for it to be assured of success," said Kilemi Mwiria.
"I think it's a big leap, a big giant leap for schools, students and communities that don't even know what a desktop computer is, as well as what you can use computers for.
"I think to suddenly bring even more advanced technology is being a bit unrealistic."
Few people could deny that this project is both novel and enterprising, and even while it's still in testing, Eduvision concede that they themselves have still got a lot to learn.
But they are convinced it will play a part in Africa's digital future.
Kenya pilots Pocket PC education
By Richard Taylor
Editor, BBC Click Online
In the final report of Click Online's Africa season, we visit Kenya where a trial project using handheld Pocket PCs could help reduce the costs of education in poor communities.
Mbita Point, on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria, hosts a small rural community.
A few minutes walk from the main town lies the local primary school, housed on the campus of a renowned research institute.
As the only school in the area with access to electricity, Mbita Primary enjoys a relatively privileged location.
This aside, it suffers from the same problems encountered by other public schools.
Since the Kenyan government introduced free primary school education two years ago, the resulting influx of kids has meant that resources are spread as thinly as ever.
In the future the students will be able to complete their assignments on these books and send them to the teacher.
Classrooms are crowded, and the all-too-familiar scenario of children sharing outdated textbooks is still very much in evidence.
However, in Class Five, things are just a little bit different. Fifty-four 11-year-old students are willing guinea pigs in an extraordinary experiment aimed at using technology to deliver education across the continent.
In the Eduvision pilot project, textbooks are out, customised Pocket PCs, referred to as e-slates, are very much in.
They are wi-fi enabled and run on licence-free open source software to keep costs down.
"The e-slates contain all the sorts of information you'd find in a textbook and a lot more," said Eduvision co-founder Maciej Sudra.
"They contain textual information, visual information and questions. Within visual information we can have audio files, we can have video clips, we can have animations.
"At the moment the e-slates only contain digitised textbooks, but we're hoping that in the future the students will be able to complete their assignments on these books and send them to the teacher, and the teacher will be able to grade them and send them back to the student."
Pocket PCs were chosen in place of desktops because they are more portable, so the children can take them home at night, and also because they're also cheaper, making them cost-effective alternatives to traditional methods of learning.
Eduvision co-founder Matthew Herren says families pay upwards of $100 a year for textbooks.
"Our system is something that we hope will be sustainable, and the money that they use towards textbooks could be used to buy e-slates instead, which can last more than a year, thereby reducing the cost of education."
Moreover, the potential offered by e-slates is enormous. The content stored on them can be dynamically updated wirelessly, hence the need for wi-fi.
This means that they could include anything from new textbooks which have just come on stream, to other content like local information or even pages from the web.
The team have also devised a rather neat system for getting the information onto the devices.
First off, content is created and formatted for use on the e-slate.
A central operations centre distributes the material over a cheap satellite radio downlink to a satellite radio receiver in the school.
The information passes through a base station which beams it out wirelessly to the students. And so a new and enjoyable way of learning is born.
"I like using [the] e-slate because I can take it home to use it at night and I can use it because it has [a] battery," said Viola, a pupil at Mbita Primary.
Fellow pupil Felix had a few problems: "At first I found it difficult, but when our teacher, Maureen, told me to go in early to teach me, I went. The next day I found it easy."
Potential pitfalls
Although the kids are certainly enthralled by the novelty of the hi-tech gadgetry, their teachers are a little more realistic.
"There are too many drawbacks," said Robert Odero, a teacher at the school.
"One is the lack of electric power in most of our schools, and since the machine needs constant recharging for it to be effectively used this would affect the users as well as the teachers.
"Another thing is the delicate nature of the machine. Given the rugged terrain of our country and the paths our kids use on their way to school, these things could easily fall on the way."
According to Eduvision co-founder Matthew Herren, the e-slates are fragile because the project is in a pilot stage.
"In any implementation in the future that's on a larger scale we will have them custom made to our specifications and coated in rubber and made much hardier," he said.
"At the same time, with textbooks there's no reason why a student couldn't drop all of their books into a pail of water and damage them as well."
There are plenty of concerns which have given pause for thought during the 18 months the pilot's been running.
The Eduvision team says all the issues can be solved and that the technology could be rolled out across countries and even extended beyond education.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of sceptics who believe it will never make it off this campus.
Kenya's Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technology believes the project's flawed not just in design, but in its very conception.
"We need to be careful that we don't bring about too many experiments, and this is another such experiment being done without ensuring that we have the right environment for it to be assured of success," said Kilemi Mwiria.
"I think it's a big leap, a big giant leap for schools, students and communities that don't even know what a desktop computer is, as well as what you can use computers for.
"I think to suddenly bring even more advanced technology is being a bit unrealistic."
Few people could deny that this project is both novel and enterprising, and even while it's still in testing, Eduvision concede that they themselves have still got a lot to learn.
But they are convinced it will play a part in Africa's digital future.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Resurrection of multi-party politics wins Uganda's vote
From the Financial Times by Andrew England 30 July 2005:
- - -
Photo uploaded by Yendor in Uganda 26 July 2005:
A DP rally in Kampala - one of many happening before the referendum.
Tags: Uganda
After nearly two decades of what has effectively been one-party rule, Ugandans voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to return to multi-party politics, according to provisional results released yesterday."Full Story.
- - -
Photo uploaded by Yendor in Uganda 26 July 2005:
A DP rally in Kampala - one of many happening before the referendum.
Tags: Uganda
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Jim Moore on Uganda-CAN; Blake Lambert's Sub-Saharan African Blues
Jim 'Second Superpower' Moore's excellent post on the Uganda Conflict Action Network, or "Uganda-CAN", is a breath of fresh air at Passion of the Present. It's great to see Jim, my favourite blogger, who sad to say has not posted much this year, back on track reminding us about the great free tools that help us forge bonds and foster friendships and discussions through links and feeds that make the blogosphere.
Sorry I cannot link to Peter's response as the links in his sidebar at Uganda-CAN are not 'live' - can't access archive to find the post Peter wrote in response to Jim's post. If I recall correctly, Peter criticised Passion of the Present for not having comments switched on. I can vouch for the reason on that, as I was the instigator on getting them turned off.
Jim and I were posting at Passion of the Present but for my part it was taking too much time and effort monitoring comments which were pretty heavy at times. An eloquent attention seeking troll had something to say against most of the material on the site and posted hundreds of comments hijacking the site. The troll was argumentative and aggressive which stifled other commenters and intimidated newcomers. It was hard going and unpleasant especially since it was during the height of the genocide. Tracking the news, reading reports and posting on the death toll growing from 10,000 to 400,000 was gruelling and emotionally draining. Jim is a gentleman and went out of his way to write polite, considerate, well thought out replies to comments that always made interesting reading. But the troll was never satisfied - the type who if you give an inch, they take a mile. Jim's kind nature was taken advantage of and a complete waste of his time so I requested for comments to be closed. Peter's right, comments are part of connectivity. Perhaps now that the news on Sudan is not so controversial, they should be opened again.
- - -
Blake Lambert's blog from Kampala, Uganda
The following item was part of a post at Uganda Watch on June 21, 2005. I am in the mood for giving it another airing at the top of this page:
Thanks to a reader here who left a comment pointing out Blake Lambert's blog Sub-Saharan African Blues.
Note, the commenter responded to a Reuters report by asking what kind of bs is this? Heh. I don't know. You tell me. I am not African and live in England. Many of us bloggers know that Reuters often gets things wrong. The reports get copied without giving them any thought and so rubbish gets churned around in the blogosphere, like man-made garbage floating around in outer space.
Photo from the profile of Blake Lambert in Kampala, Uganda who says of himself: "I'm not Lansana Conte, the 90-something president of Guinea. However, maybe when I grow up, I could be."
Good for him. His post Beware of good intentions was music to my ears. Here's hoping he heads up something in Africa - soon.
Tags: Uganda Sudan Congo DR Congo Blake Lambert Reuters Kampala Blake Lambert Africa
Sorry I cannot link to Peter's response as the links in his sidebar at Uganda-CAN are not 'live' - can't access archive to find the post Peter wrote in response to Jim's post. If I recall correctly, Peter criticised Passion of the Present for not having comments switched on. I can vouch for the reason on that, as I was the instigator on getting them turned off.
Jim and I were posting at Passion of the Present but for my part it was taking too much time and effort monitoring comments which were pretty heavy at times. An eloquent attention seeking troll had something to say against most of the material on the site and posted hundreds of comments hijacking the site. The troll was argumentative and aggressive which stifled other commenters and intimidated newcomers. It was hard going and unpleasant especially since it was during the height of the genocide. Tracking the news, reading reports and posting on the death toll growing from 10,000 to 400,000 was gruelling and emotionally draining. Jim is a gentleman and went out of his way to write polite, considerate, well thought out replies to comments that always made interesting reading. But the troll was never satisfied - the type who if you give an inch, they take a mile. Jim's kind nature was taken advantage of and a complete waste of his time so I requested for comments to be closed. Peter's right, comments are part of connectivity. Perhaps now that the news on Sudan is not so controversial, they should be opened again.
- - -
Blake Lambert's blog from Kampala, Uganda
The following item was part of a post at Uganda Watch on June 21, 2005. I am in the mood for giving it another airing at the top of this page:
Thanks to a reader here who left a comment pointing out Blake Lambert's blog Sub-Saharan African Blues.
Note, the commenter responded to a Reuters report by asking what kind of bs is this? Heh. I don't know. You tell me. I am not African and live in England. Many of us bloggers know that Reuters often gets things wrong. The reports get copied without giving them any thought and so rubbish gets churned around in the blogosphere, like man-made garbage floating around in outer space.
Photo from the profile of Blake Lambert in Kampala, Uganda who says of himself: "I'm not Lansana Conte, the 90-something president of Guinea. However, maybe when I grow up, I could be."
Good for him. His post Beware of good intentions was music to my ears. Here's hoping he heads up something in Africa - soon.
Tags: Uganda Sudan Congo DR Congo Blake Lambert Reuters Kampala Blake Lambert Africa
Ugandan government attacks Lesbian activists
Light blogging here at the moment because I have spent time on starting up a new blog called Niger Watch.
Just wanted to make sure I logged Black Looks post entitled "Ugandan government attacks Lesbian activists." Sorry I've not yet had time to read the post - and am still behind in writing something featuring Peter's great initiative and work at Uganda-CAN.
Bye for now. Kind regards to all. If anyone can find the time to contribute photos and captions and/or posts on news items and/or any blog round ups or thoughts on what's happening in the Sudan, DR Congo, Northern Uganda, Ethiopia or Niger - please leave a comment at any of my blogs or contact me by email and I will post the material at the relevant watchblog with a link back to your blog. Thanks.
Just wanted to make sure I logged Black Looks post entitled "Ugandan government attacks Lesbian activists." Sorry I've not yet had time to read the post - and am still behind in writing something featuring Peter's great initiative and work at Uganda-CAN.
Bye for now. Kind regards to all. If anyone can find the time to contribute photos and captions and/or posts on news items and/or any blog round ups or thoughts on what's happening in the Sudan, DR Congo, Northern Uganda, Ethiopia or Niger - please leave a comment at any of my blogs or contact me by email and I will post the material at the relevant watchblog with a link back to your blog. Thanks.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Africa: Niger children starving to death
This morning, I received an email from someone together with the following message and link to Hilary Andersson's report at BBC News online:
** Message **
Another one for you to worry over. As we shall increasingly discover, very many people are living in the wrong place, and shouldn't have been born, anyway. The great fear amongst Niger's neighbours is that these starving folk will move across over their borders, in search of food. What is your solution?
** Niger children starving to death **
Children are dying of hunger in feeding centres in Niger where 3.6m people face food shortages, aid agencies warn.
- - -
It is difficult to know what to say. My first reaction to Andersson's news on Niger is that it seems to have come out of the blue. The way the aid agencies sound in the report you would think they had shouted it from the rooftops and nobody responded. I receive daily email alerts on Africa but this is the first I've heard of such a crisis in Niger.
Hilary Andersson, a first class reporter, says little foreign aid has gone into Niger to deal with the crisis so far; aid agencies in the country predict the situation will get worse in the coming months and say the world has responded too late.
Going by what happened in Darfur last April [the UN admitted, when put under to pressure to answer questions later on, that it failed to respond to the world's worst humanitarian crisis quickly enough] one has to conclude the UN is not on the ball and fails to act proactively. The report says "UN bodies and NGOs are appealing for donations through their websites" - when are the African fatcats who were educated in the West going to get a grip and start doing something constructive. We cannot keep going on like this. Even the head of the African Union recently said that if Africa is not sorted within the next 27 years, by which time its population will double, Africa will not be manageable for the rest of the world. It's food and aid needs will be too great.
Sorry to admit it is emotionally draining blogging about African politics and Africa's crises. I'm afraid I cannot take on blogging about Niger right now unless I get some helping hands. If any blogger would like to co-author Sudan Watch, Congo Watch, Uganda Watch, Ethiopia Watch [and possibly Niger Watch], please make contact. In the meantime, if any blogger can put together news items/summaries/round-ups and/or blog round ups for any of those sites, please email me and I will publish them asap with full credit and blog link. Depending on suitability of content, some posts could appear at more than one blog. Thanks.
Note these snippets from Hilary Andersson's report on Niger:
A severe drought last year, combined with a plague of locusts, destroyed much of the crop that was needed to feed the people and the cattle they rely on.
Now, across the windswept plains of the Sahel, carcasses of cattle litter the landscape.
Rains have come - but so late they are now a curse, bringing malaria and other disease.
Families are roaming the parched desert looking for help. One family we came across did not even know where they were going.
"I'm wandering like a madman," the father said. "I'm afraid we'll all starve."
They were hundreds of miles from the nearest food distribution point.
Aid agencies estimate that tens of thousands of children are in the advanced stages of starvation.
Children are dying daily in the few feeding centres there are, where their place in the queue could make the difference between life and death.
Amina is so starved she cannot eat even if she wants to.
"She vomits as soon as I give her food or water," says her mother.
"As far as I'm concerned, God did not make us all equal - I mean, look at us all here. None of us has enough food."
Tags: Live 8 Niger G8 Sudan Congo Uganda Ethiopia Gleneagles Tony Blair Hilary Andersson Bob Geldof Make Poverty History Corruption Africa malaria starvation One Campaign Joe Trippi BBC Doctors Without Borders World Vision UN NGO
** Message **
Another one for you to worry over. As we shall increasingly discover, very many people are living in the wrong place, and shouldn't have been born, anyway. The great fear amongst Niger's neighbours is that these starving folk will move across over their borders, in search of food. What is your solution?
** Niger children starving to death **
Children are dying of hunger in feeding centres in Niger where 3.6m people face food shortages, aid agencies warn.
- - -
It is difficult to know what to say. My first reaction to Andersson's news on Niger is that it seems to have come out of the blue. The way the aid agencies sound in the report you would think they had shouted it from the rooftops and nobody responded. I receive daily email alerts on Africa but this is the first I've heard of such a crisis in Niger.
Hilary Andersson, a first class reporter, says little foreign aid has gone into Niger to deal with the crisis so far; aid agencies in the country predict the situation will get worse in the coming months and say the world has responded too late.
"The crisis in the south of the country has been caused by a drought and a plague of locusts which destroyed much of last year's harvest. Aid agency World Vision warns that 10% of the children in the worst affected areas could die. Niger is a vast desert country and one of the poorest on earth. Millions of people, a third of the population, face food shortages.Note, the report clearly states
"There are children dying every day in our centres," says Milton Tetonidis of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). 'We're completely overwhelmed, there'd better be other people coming quickly to help us out - I mean, the response has been desperately slow.'"
"the hunger in Niger was predicted months ago - but that did nothing to prevent the present disaster - a severe drought last year, combined with a plague of locusts, destroyed much of the crop that was needed to feed the people and the cattle they rely on".The report says the "international community" has reacted too late to the crisis. I guess the "international community" comprises the UN and donors from 191-member states. What became of all the donations and aid pledged over the past year - not to mention the public outcry on behalf of Africa and intense lobbying on Darfur? Where are all the African voices shouting about Niger? And all those who complained about white-man helping Africa with global campaigns such as Make Poverty History and Live 8? It is sickening to know about Niger at such a late stage. What has the African Union and its neighbours - and massive number of church goers - done to avoid such a terrible crisis in Niger? Once again, the onus appears to be on the West to come to the rescue - when will it end? How much longer do we have to stomach getting criticised by Africans for coming to Africa's aid?
Going by what happened in Darfur last April [the UN admitted, when put under to pressure to answer questions later on, that it failed to respond to the world's worst humanitarian crisis quickly enough] one has to conclude the UN is not on the ball and fails to act proactively. The report says "UN bodies and NGOs are appealing for donations through their websites" - when are the African fatcats who were educated in the West going to get a grip and start doing something constructive. We cannot keep going on like this. Even the head of the African Union recently said that if Africa is not sorted within the next 27 years, by which time its population will double, Africa will not be manageable for the rest of the world. It's food and aid needs will be too great.
Sorry to admit it is emotionally draining blogging about African politics and Africa's crises. I'm afraid I cannot take on blogging about Niger right now unless I get some helping hands. If any blogger would like to co-author Sudan Watch, Congo Watch, Uganda Watch, Ethiopia Watch [and possibly Niger Watch], please make contact. In the meantime, if any blogger can put together news items/summaries/round-ups and/or blog round ups for any of those sites, please email me and I will publish them asap with full credit and blog link. Depending on suitability of content, some posts could appear at more than one blog. Thanks.
Note these snippets from Hilary Andersson's report on Niger:
A severe drought last year, combined with a plague of locusts, destroyed much of the crop that was needed to feed the people and the cattle they rely on.
Now, across the windswept plains of the Sahel, carcasses of cattle litter the landscape.
Rains have come - but so late they are now a curse, bringing malaria and other disease.
Families are roaming the parched desert looking for help. One family we came across did not even know where they were going.
"I'm wandering like a madman," the father said. "I'm afraid we'll all starve."
They were hundreds of miles from the nearest food distribution point.
Aid agencies estimate that tens of thousands of children are in the advanced stages of starvation.
Children are dying daily in the few feeding centres there are, where their place in the queue could make the difference between life and death.
Amina is so starved she cannot eat even if she wants to.
"She vomits as soon as I give her food or water," says her mother.
"As far as I'm concerned, God did not make us all equal - I mean, look at us all here. None of us has enough food."
Tags: Live 8 Niger G8 Sudan Congo Uganda Ethiopia Gleneagles Tony Blair Hilary Andersson Bob Geldof Make Poverty History Corruption Africa malaria starvation One Campaign Joe Trippi BBC Doctors Without Borders World Vision UN NGO
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Live 8 global concerts underway
Concerts are taking place around the world to put pressure on political leaders to tackle poverty in Africa.
Three billion people are watching. So far, 1.5 million people have added their name to the message being delivered to the Group 8 leaders on Wednesday in Scotland, UK. No matter where you are in the world, please add your name to The LIVE 8 List and visit Make Poverty History if you have not already done so.
Japan kicked off the first concert.
Photo: Japanese band Rize started proceedings in Tokyo (Material and photos courtesy BBC)
The biggest concert, in London's Hyde Park, has opened with Sir Paul McCartney singing with U2 in front of an audience of up to 200,000. Bill Gates and Kofi Annan made a surprise appearance on stage to say a few words for the cause. Click here for line-ups of other Live 8 concerts.
Photo: Great performance by Bono and U2
Mariners begin Sail 8 round trip
The first of the boats answering Bob Geldof's call to ferry people from France for the G8 protests has left Portsmouth harbour. Full report.
Photo: Geldof wants protesters to collect their 'French cousins' (BBC)
Thousands flock to poverty march
Thousands of protesters are taking part in a Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh, Scotland as musicians perform in Live 8 concerts around the globe.
Early estimates are of about 100,000 people involved in the event to highlight their message to G8 leaders meeting at Gleneagles on Wednesday.
1.5 million people turned up for Live 8 in Philadelphia.
Tags: Live 8 Sail 8 G8 Technorati Live Aid Italy Tony Blair Gordon Brown Gleneagles Bob Geldof Make Poverty History Germany George W Bush Kyoto Johannesburg Tokyo London Paris Toronto Philadelphia Rome Spain Edinburgh Scotland Georgia Soweto Freetown Senegal CAP AIDS GCAP White Band Uganda Corruption Africa sustainable development environment European Union Sydney Australia Sierra Leone One Campaign One Blog Joe Trippi Nelson Mandela Nick Lezin AOL Music Buzztone U2 Destiny's Child Coldplay Dave Matthews Band Tim McGraw Madonna Sting BBC
Three billion people are watching. So far, 1.5 million people have added their name to the message being delivered to the Group 8 leaders on Wednesday in Scotland, UK. No matter where you are in the world, please add your name to The LIVE 8 List and visit Make Poverty History if you have not already done so.
Japan kicked off the first concert.
Photo: Japanese band Rize started proceedings in Tokyo (Material and photos courtesy BBC)
The biggest concert, in London's Hyde Park, has opened with Sir Paul McCartney singing with U2 in front of an audience of up to 200,000. Bill Gates and Kofi Annan made a surprise appearance on stage to say a few words for the cause. Click here for line-ups of other Live 8 concerts.
Photo: Great performance by Bono and U2
Mariners begin Sail 8 round trip
The first of the boats answering Bob Geldof's call to ferry people from France for the G8 protests has left Portsmouth harbour. Full report.
Photo: Geldof wants protesters to collect their 'French cousins' (BBC)
Thousands flock to poverty march
Thousands of protesters are taking part in a Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh, Scotland as musicians perform in Live 8 concerts around the globe.
Early estimates are of about 100,000 people involved in the event to highlight their message to G8 leaders meeting at Gleneagles on Wednesday.
1.5 million people turned up for Live 8 in Philadelphia.
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