Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

The World Bank has approved a US$10 million grant to help the Government of Mauritania provide emergency food and agricultural supplies to rural communities in the face of the country's ongoing drought. The funds are intended to provide fertilizers to rice farmers; veterinary products and livestock vaccines to herders; cereal grains to communities; and alleviate current food and animal feed shortages. Some of this help may be too late: rice farmers needed fertilizer months ago, and promised supplies failed to be delivered on time. As the Mauritania Akhbar blog reports, the farmers announced in May they were suing the government [ar] for US$40,000.

A young man wrongfully arrested on suspicion of theft is experiencing memory loss after being tortured while detained in the Ould Yengé district detention centre in July, 2012. Abderrahmane Demba Diawo, 32 years old, told reporters [fr] that he and the four other suspects were handcuffed, then hung from the ceiling and beaten. Abderrahmane was released without charge, along with one other, while the remaining three were jailed. After bringing him to the capital Nouakchott for treatment, Abderrahmane's father is now concerned that his son has not been given adequate medical care by the neuropsychiatric hospital.