The training pitches and classrooms are fit for one of Africa´s most illustrious football clubs, but the political battles rife in Democratic Republic of Congo have stopped Tout Puissant Mazembe from using their new academy. The teenagers who are meant to be the future stars of African football are losing weight because food rations have … Read more
Pakistani forces on Sunday said they had killed around a dozen Islamic State militants in a three-day raid prompted by intelligence reports that the group were holding two recently kidnapped Chinese nationals. The operation took place in the rugged Mastung district of southwest Balochistan province and targeted the hideout cave of a group of IS … Read more
A dire lack of aid funds in the strife-torn Central African Republic risks leaving a vacuum that armed groups will fill, dashing hopes of peace, the UN said Thursday. Aid workers have already been forced to scale down their activities and food rations have been cut in half, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the … Read more
Neighbouring countries are struggling to cope with the refugees crossing over from South Sudan UN aid agencies are today appealing for $1.4bn (£1bn) to help refugees who have fled South Sudan to neighbouring countries. South Sudan has been in the grip of a civil war since 2013 and the UN estimates that at least 1.8 … Read more
The United Nations said Monday that $1.4 billion (1.3 billion euros) was needed this year alone to help the nearly two million people who have fled war and famine in South Sudan. The UNHCR refugee agency and the World Food Programme presented an updated response plan to the crisis in appealing for nearly double the … Read more
Ugandan motorbike taxi driver Sadiq Agotre grumbles as he waits for a rare client among thousands of South Sudanese refugees hoping to receive food rations in the outskirts of his town. “Business is not good. These people don’t have money,” he says, gazing out over a vast area that in only eight months has transformed … Read more
At least 200 Indian paramilitary police were hospitalised with suspected food poisoning after eating meals at a training camp in the southern state of Kerala, police said Sunday. Training cadets and security forces belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) complained of diarrhoea and vomiting after eating rice and fish curry for dinner on … Read more
The World Food Programme (WFP) has introduced a biometric electronic-voucher model for girls under its ‘take home rations’ project to eliminate transportation costs borne by government. Mrs Magdalene Owusu Moshi, the Acting Country Director, WFP, indicated that under the e-voucher model, WFP has contracted local businesses to supply the food rations to the girls. She … Read more
Fifteen-year-old Mohammed enthusiastically helps the staff of a makeshift hospital set up in the bullet-scarred school in west Mosul where he himself studied before jihadists seized Iraq’s second city. The Islamic State group used the school as part of its programme of indoctrination until it lost control of the area during a major Iraqi offensive … Read more
Not a single car remains in the town of Dikwa in northeast Nigeria and there’s no way to communicate to the outside world, as all the telephone lines have been blown up. But it is here that humanitarian groups are trying to bring aid to some 57,000 people forced out of their homes by Boko … Read more
The number of people living under siege in Syria has doubled this year to almost one million, the UN says. Emergency Relief Co-ordinator Stephen O’Brien said the figure had jumped from 486,700 to 974,080 in six months. People were being “isolated, starved, bombed and denied medical attention and humanitarian assistance in order to force them … Read more
Nigeria’s military says some officers are selling arms and ammunition to Boko Haram, indicating the corruption bedeviling the country’s fight against the Islamic extremists continues despite government efforts to halt graft. The admission comes three weeks after the Nigerian army said a military tribunal is trying 16 officers and troops accused of offenses related to … Read more