¤ AFRICA: High cost of child trafficking
 POINTE NOIRE 25 January 2012 (IRIN) - Forced child labour remains rampant in Central Africa, where poverty fuels the trafficking of children from poorer countries to oil-rich states such as Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo, according to experts. |
¤ DRC-CONGO: Refugee returns to start in April
 BRAZZAVILLE 24 January 2012 (IRIN) - Up to 120,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be helped to return home from the north of neighbouring Republic of Congo after more than two years. |
¤ AFRICA: AU wants peace, security and bigger global role in 2012
 WASHINGTON 12 January 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union (AU) has unveiled an ambitious wish-list of priorities for Africa that would give the continent a stronger global voice, boost democracy and encourage peace and security. |
¤ HEALTH: Yaws treatment study prompts WHO review
 BANGKOK 11 January 2012 (IRIN) - Findings that a one-time oral treatment to cure yaws, a neglected tropical disease, is as effective as the currently recommended penicillin injection have prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to convene a meeting on how the disease may be wiped out. |
¤ DRC-CONGO: Thousands flee election tension
 BRAZZAVILLE 06 December 2011 (IRIN) - At least 3,500 people have arrived by boat in recent days in Congo’s capital, fearing violence in the run-up to the announcement, due before midnight on 6 December, of the outcome of the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to an official. |
¤ CLIMATE CHANGE: Durban or bust - the Trans-African Caravan of Hope
 KAMPALA 02 December 2011 (IRIN) - Brandishing a plea for developed countries to make good their promises to reduce carbon emissions, 300 farmers, youths and activists took the scenic route to the COP17 conference in Durban, travelling more than 7,000km from Burundi in 17 days, through 10 eastern and southern African countries, aboard a convoy of buses draped in various national flags. |
¤ FOOD: Rumpus over GM food aid
 JOHANNESBURG 18 October 2011 (IRIN) - Genetically modified (GM) food aid bound for Africa has long been a bone of contention among governments, scientists, activists, consumers and aid workers. |
¤ WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA: Cholera thriving two years on
 DAKAR 12 October 2011 (IRIN) - Three simultaneous cholera epidemics have affected 24 countries in West and Central Africa, with 85,000 infections and 2,466 deaths since the beginning of 2011, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). |
¤ BENIN-CONGO: Deal to stem child trafficking
 POINTE-NOIRE 21 September 2011 (IRIN) - Benin and the Republic of Congo have signed an accord aimed at stemming the trafficking of children between the two countries. |
¤ CONGO-GABON: Former refugees unwilling to return home
 BRAZZAVILLE 16 September 2011 (IRIN) - The refugee status of 9,500 people from the Republic of Congo, who have been in neighbouring Gabon since the late 1990s, expired on 31 July, but many are still reluctant to return home. |
