Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

The blog of the Association of Friends of Children (AMIC) reported [fr] that 20 ‘talib’ children from Guinea-Bissau who had been caught in a raging fire at an Islamic school in the capital of Senegal, Dakar, in early March, have now been handed back to their families. As Rising Voices reported back in June 2011, families from Guinea-Bissau often entrust the care of their children to Koranic teachers from neighboring Senegal, where they are promised to receive religious education.

Dapa Arnaud gives a list of the 10 most active african presidents [fr] on social media. At the top of the list is  president Paul Kagame in Rwanda:

In place since 2003, the president of Rwanda is the most active on the internet.  According to the Ecofin agency, Paul Kagame interacts with many users on Twitter through his account @PaulKagame. His personal website named “The Journey Continues, Dukomeze Imihigo” is also one of the most visited websites in the country. His presence is also quite strong on other social media sites such as Facebook, Google+, Flickr or YouTube.

Jacqueline Moudeina writes on Pambazuka.org about the inauguration of a special tribunal in Senegal, to bring Hissene Habre, former dictator of Chad, before the courts [fr]:

“Being a victim, is a condition in which we languish without the ability to recover, as long as justice has not been served. The suffering is endless and what occurs, is a loss of dignity. The legal battle, so that an authority may take charge and judge the crimes of the victims’ former torturers, was for them a long and painful road. Each new development, each new delay, every error and politico-judicial farce carried out by the former Senegalese government, was but a fresh wound for the victims. After 22 years, more than two decades after the fall of the Habre regime, it continues to rub salt in their wounds”.

We are told that miners do everything to waterproof the soil and ensure that waste does not contaminate subterranean water. But it must be recognized that there is always a risk, as they can never be completely sure that they are not contaminating subterranean pools. Moreover, with the impact of climate change, people will increasingly rely on subterranean water to supply towns

Alain Tossounon, reporting comments [fr] from a meeting with Dam Mogbanté, Executive Secretary of the Global Water Patnership West Africa

Aliou Fama reveals [fr] that Macky Sall, President of Senegal, has decided to put the members of his goverment on a strict regime, in order to reduce government telephone bills:

Ministers’ telephone credit is now capped at 500 000 FCFA (EUR 762,25), with that of technical advisers limited to 150 000 FCFA. Beyond this point, costs must be covered out of the officials’ own pockets. As a result, after the 15th of each month, certain advisers have found themselves scratching away at top-up cards to get their phones back on line.

The cover of Moroccan Weekly “Maroc Hebdo” lists the peril of black immigration in Morocco – posted on twitter by @atourabi -Public Domain

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