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Aug-15-2010 23:16printcomments

Africa: Faces in Words

New weekly update on the breaking stories in the African nations.

Salem-News.com
Courtesy: susanne430.blogspot.com

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Unseen, unheard; no one should be the bearer of these two words. Unfortunately, Africa is often in the forefront of this association.

Our common humanity should change this; we should never look away because it is too distant. Our commitment to one another, to human rights, and the ability to learn should always keep us connected no matter the severity and complexity of problems.

Important insights from last week, not to be missed:

Police: the new face of violence - Drifrance Musisi, a supporter of the National Alliance for Free and Fair Elections (NAFFE), was excited as he left the school where he teaches in Kampala on July 26 and headed to the city centre to hang up posters announcing the next day’s demonstrations. His conviction is that next year’s general elections must be free and fair. Along with three other NAFFE activists, Musisi was ready to participate in the countrywide demonstrations calling for the overhaul of the Electoral Commission (EC). He did not suspect his day would end in a police cell where he would spend a day being tortured: Police: the new face of violence - independent.co.ug

Somalia: Ban on Aid Agencies Condemned - Government officials, aid beneficiaries and humanitarian workers in south-central Somalia have condemned a ban imposed on three aid organizations by the Islamist group, Al Shabab, which controls most of the region: Somalia: Ban on Aid Agencies Condemned - allafrica.com

Lack of funds and logistical delays leave hundreds of thousands starving as food crisis hit peak in West Africa - Millions of hungry people across the Sahel likely to receive no aid. Insufficient funding and delays in food delivery threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands in the Sahel belt of West Africa, warns the international agency Oxfam. The relief group said there was little excuse for the lack of adequate funding and delays when the international community had been warned of the magnitude of the unfolding crisis for months: Thousands left starving - oxfam.org

CAR/DR Congo: LRA Conducts Massive Abduction Campaign - The Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted more than 697 adults and children in a largely unreported campaign in the Central African Republic and the neighboring Bas Uele district of northern Democratic Republic of Congo over the past 18 months, Human Rights Watch said today. Nearly one-third of those abducted have been children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or are being used for sex by the group's fighters: LRA Conducts Massive Abduction Campaign - Human Rights Watch Emergency assistance to victims of floods in Chad - Floods have affected large areas of Chad since mid-July, following the heaviest rainfall recorded in forty years. Up to 9000 people are believed affected. UNHCR is currently distributing essential survival items including blankets, plastic sheeting, and bed mats to around 2,500 families. This emergency help comes as a contribution to the ongoing national effort, under the coordination of the Chadian government, to which other UN agencies and NGOs are also participating: Emergency assistance to victims in Chad - unhcr.org Cameroon and Nigeria Face Cholera Outbreak - Government figures show a cholera outbreak has killed at least 200 people in Cameroon and 40 people in neighboring Nigeria. A Nigerian official said Thursday that at least 100 people have been infected in the northern Borno state where the outbreak surfaced last week: Cholera Outbreaks in Cameroon and Nigeria

Zimbabwe: Chiadzwa’s Forcibly Relocated Families - FAMILIES forcibly relocated from Marange have been dumped in an abandoned farm house 60 km from the diamond rich fields whose early proceeds netted government and its private partners US$72 million on Wednesday. Disused tobacco barns also provide a home to families residing at the farm. The sales are just a fraction of the 6 million carat stockpile Mines minister Obert Mpofu says are waiting for clearance from diamond regulator, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS): Chiadzwa’s Forcibly Relocated Families - allafrica.com

Puntland court jails journalist for six years for interviewing Islamist rebel - Abdifatah Jama Mire, the deputy director of a radio station based in Bosaso, in the semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland, was sentenced to six years in prison in a summary trial in Bosaso today for interviewing a local rebel chief linked to Al-Qaeda: Journalist gets six years for interviewing Islamist rebel - Reporters Without Borders

UN Peacekeepers Kidnapped in Darfur - The United Nations says two police advisors working with the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur have been kidnapped. The peacekeeping mission, known as UNAMID, issued a statement saying the incident occurred early Saturday in the South Darfur state capital, Nyla: UN Peacekeepers Kidnapped - Voice of Africa

“My children lay on the ground writhing pain because of Hunger” - The pain of a mother in Somalia during the Holy month of Ramadan. Barely days after Muslims around the world ushered in the Holy month of Ramadan this August, one mother contemplates worryingly about her future, especially that of her children. She fled from the capital city Mogadishu in Suga Holaha village in 2007: “My children lay on the ground writhing pain because of Hunger” - ch16.org


Alysha Atma spends many hours working on projects that support and benefit the beleaguered people of African nations who spend way too much time off the western media's radar. This writer explains that she is a culmination of all her experiences, most importantly knowledge she says, and all that she still needs to learn; lessons of love, laughter and the extraordinary giving of both young and old. She says she has the enormous fortune of learning from the best; every person around her, and the amazing strength and fortitude of those she has never met but will always strive to listen to. "I continue to work and write because I believe in the power of community and the power of one, both contradictory to each other and yet can move together in a very powerful way. I feel a responsibility to use my place, freedoms and connections here in the US to stand up and yell for those who need my voice and actions. I have seen such strength in my fellow humans that I cannot even begin to comprehend, they have traveled distances, have gone without food, water, shelter and safety for days and weeks at a time. I have a responsibility as a fellow human to put our common humanity before anything else. Everyone deserves to look towards tomorrow, to dream of a safe future and to have a peaceful present." You can write to Alysha Atma at: alyshann78@comcast.net




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