Earlier this week, the Nigerian government removed a fuel subsidy that had kept gas prices in Nigeria artificially low. Because of this action, gas prices doubled basically overnight. As you could imagine, many people in Nigeria are not happy with this development (from CNN):
Furious Nigerians have since taken to the streets, staging ‘Occupy Nigeria’ protests and mass demonstrations across the country.
Police have responded forcefully with many arrests. At least one person has died amid the unrest: 23-year-old student Muyideen Mustafa was allegedly hit by a police bullet in Ilorin, Kwara State.
A police spokesman in Kano State also confirmed to CNN that they fired teargas into a crowd staging a midnight protest Wednesday in order to disperse a largely peaceful demonstration by Muslims and Christians.
For more information on the clashes, CNN has been following this story pretty closely and up-to-the-minute. And for a digestible rundown on the background leading up to the Nigerian government’s decision to eliminate the fuel subsidy, I’d recommend this useful Wikipedia entry.
ONE member and Peace Corps volunteer Brandon Green will be sharing his experiences in Burkina Faso with ONE Blog readers in the series, “Back to Africa” over the next few months. We look forward to hearing about all his adventures!
Brandon Green in Burkina Faso
I was born in Texas but because my parents are missionaries, and as a result, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to travel the world. We actually spent a lot of time in Senegal when I was a child, but I don’t have many memories of living there. I do, however, remember falling out of a swing and having the wind knocked out of me. And I remember watching a lizard climb up a tree. But even with a lack of memories, I’ve always felt as if Africa was my true home. And after having been away for more than 17 years, I’m finally back.
Agriculture Griot Ofosu Asamoah talks about National Farmers Day, Ghana’s national holiday which commemorates the agriculture sector, an important part of the country’s economy.
Ignatius Agbo national best farmer receiving his awards from vice president John Mahama
Every year, on the first Friday of December, Ghanaians celebrate National Farmers Day in honor of the gallant farmers who feed the growing population and contributing to the nation’s GDP.
This piece was originally published on our Africa Blog.
The 2011 ONE Africa Award finalists continue with the announcement of our third finalist, a model for social entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector. If you are already familiar with ONE’s recent activities then you will know that we recently launched our campaign to address the famine in the Horn of Africa. Hunger and malnutrition continue to be important issues on the continent and that’s why the work that our next finalist, Sylva Food Solutions (SFS), is doing is so important.
Sylvia Banda, the founder of SFS, is a very well known personality in Zambia and speaks regularly on the most popular private radio station in the country, Radio Phoenix, about the importance of using local foods, nutrition, and maintaining a healthy life style. With 10 employees, Sylvia started SFS in 2005 building on her successful catering business that had been around for about 25 years.
It’s time to announce our second finalist in the 2011 ONE Africa Award.
After our piece on a project in Togo, we went on to Accra, Ghana to meet the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR). The alliance was established by a group of NGOs in 2004 and evolved from a defunct Save the Children program on sexual and reproductive health. ARHR Executive Director, Ms. Vicky Okine, is the former Save the Children program manager, and recognized the importance of the continuation of this program. It builds on the potential of community health organizations to empower their communities and drive the demand for better access to sexual and reproductive health care.
More common than deafness or Down’s syndrome, hydrocephalus, or “water on the brain,” is a completely treatable condition diagnosed in 400,000 babies worldwide each year, including 250,000 in sub-Saharan Africa. Usually caused by complications from an infection at birth or in infancy, babies provided with proper medical assistance are expected to make full recoveries and to go on to lead perfectly normal, healthy lives. But, like many preventable diseases and disabilities prevalent in the developing world, almost 90 percent of hydrocephalus cases found in African children turn out to be fatal.
There has been an unprecedented show of unity in Uganda’s parliament, as opposition and pro-government ministers of parliament (MPs) have joined together to demand a temporary halt in the completion of oil agreements until an independent regulator is established. This move was prompted by a collective sense of suspicion about Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) signed between the Ugandan government and two oil companies, the Italian firm ENI and the Irish company Tullow Oil. Ugandans had hoped that the emerging oil sector would help to create jobs, improve infrastructure and boost the economy. However,as the government continuously refused to make public the details of PSAs, suspicions grew that ordinary Ugandans were not going to benefit from the emerging oil sector.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
