BT says $23m circuit linking US hub with base for unmanned craft in Djibouti is general purpose, not a special military system The government has been asked to investigate whether BT is aiding drone strikes with a specially built military internet cable connecting US air force facilities in Northamptonshire to a base for unmanned craft in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. Evidence is mounting that the...
Tom Watson MP and rights group express concern as MoD admits presence of UK personnel in Djibouti but denies involvement in plotting strikes on al-Qaida British liaison staff are embedded with US forces in the Horn of Africa, the Ministry of Defence has revealed, as concern grows about redeployment of the UK squadron of 10 armed Reaper drones. Although three British officers are based at Camp Lemonnier...
UN says that more than 10 million people are affected in areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the United Nations has said. More than 10 million people are now affected in drought-stricken areas of Djibouti,...
The deadline was set two weeks ago when Djibouti said it would expel more than 100,000 aliens, many of whom had sought higher wages than offered in their impoverished and volatile homelands, mostly Somalia and Ethiopia. An estimated 80,000 left voluntarily. Residents of the capital, Djibouti Town, said troops had moved in force on to the streets early yesterday to arrest the remainder. ...
The ship was believed to be sailing from the town of Tadjoura in the north-west of the country towards the Djibouti capital and was understood to be carrying over 300 people. Ismael Tani, an adviser to the Djiboutian president, said many more people were feared missing or dead. ...
The ferry was transporting up to 300 people to the northern town of Tadjourah when it overturned and sank in the Red Sea shortly after midday. Ismael Tani, an adviser to Djibouti's president, told the Associated Press that the death toll was expected to rise. The victims were taken to Tapelletier hospital, where officials said that 36 people had been admitted with injuries. More than 70 were reported...
Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series Jim Powell ...
s experience reflects broader tensions that affect communities and activists involved in FGM around the world, and her story has now been documented in Dirie's latest book, Safa: The Rescue of the Little Desert Flower , first published in German and due out in translation in the UK later this year. The book also provides compelling evidence of the pressures within particular groups, including those...
s rural regions, as high food prices and unemployment rates afflict the country's urban areas. These factors are increasing vulnerability to food insecurity and spurring migration. The area of Balbala, about 10km outside Djibouti City, has become home to families fleeing both harsh conditions in the countryside and dwindling livelihood opportunities in the city. "What we need most is food" Awale Farah,...
freedom, but without success. The timing of the raid may have been made more urgent by a medical condition. "One of the hostages has a disease that was very serious and that had to be solved," the Danish foreign minister, Villy Soevndal, told Denmark's TV2 channel. Soevndal, who had been informed of the action, congratulated the Americans. Panetta visited Camp Lemonnier just over a month ago. A key...
t immediately addressed. If the humanitarian response is not quickly and comprehensively scaled up and if access to those most affected is not secured, the UN expects famine to spread across all regions of southern Somalia. But there are no final figures here – not for the number of people who might be affected or for the amount of funding required or delivered. And tracking aid for the Horn of Africa...
s rural communities isolated Perhaps because of its small size, Djibouti has received scant attention in media coverage of the current crisis in the Horn of Africa. The former French colony, bordered by Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, has a population of only 820,000 people, but also faces significant problems. The fourth consecutive year of drought has led to massive loss of livestock, the destruction...
Some 12 million people are at risk in the Horn of Africa as two years of drought have forced food prices beyond the reach of most families Paddy Allen ...
s emergency meeting in Rome to discuss the crisis in east Africa, where, according to the UN, an estimated 11.6 million people need humanitarian assistance in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. Nwanze drew a sharp contrast between Gansu province, in northwest China, and parts of Africa that cannot feed itself. He said like many parts of the world, Gansu suffers from frequent drought, limited water...
s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), warns that in the next one or two months famine will become widespread throughout southern Somalia unless help arrives. It says the crisis represents the most serious food insecurity situation in the world today and that the current humanitarian response is inadequate. Although Somalia is the worst-affected country, the crisis affects a much wider region,...
North Africa and the Middle East have witnessed a string of uprisings and attempted revolutions but will the unrest threaten any of sub-Saharan Africa's long-lasting autocratic leaders? Take a look at our guide to the countries facing civil upheaval Paddy Allen David Smith Nicky Rojas ...
North Africa and the Middle East have undergone a string of uprisings and attempted revolutions – but will the unrest spread to sub-Saharan Africa? Trouble has already flared in many of the countries in the spotlight, as our pictures show ...
s people aged under 24 will be from this region. Sub-Saharan Africa's population has increased from 100 million in 1900 to 800 million today, and should reach 1.5-2 billion by 2050. And, as witnessed across north Africa, it is urban youth who have driven the revolutions. This also highlights a second challenge: the imperative to create formal sector jobs. At independence in 1964, Zambia had 3 million...
AFFAIRES, A.I. 1. (S) SUMMARY. On April 20, senior Djiboutian officials--including Djibouti's defense minister, intelligence chief, and deputy CHOD--were involved in talks with Eritrean military officials in an attempt to defuse tensions arising from Eritrea's establishment of a military outpost on disputed territory at Ras Doumeira, along the Bab al Mandab strait. According to Djibouti's foreign minister,...
s father gets work in a nearby quarry when he can while his mother has occasional work on a local, privately owned irrigated farm, where crops thrive but are exclusively for export, a galling sight for the hungry locals. But their wages are less than £1 a day, not enough to feed them all. When Joseph-Mulwa is at school, he is guaranteed one meal a day, most likely ugali, maize dish of little nutritional...