22 March 2021
Niger: Another at least 40 died in attacks – probably by the Islamic State – on Sunday targeting the villages of Intazayene and Bakorate, the well at Wirstane and camps near Akifakif, all near the Malian border in Tahoua region.
BBC Africa Live 22 March 2021. 7:10
Eritrea: The EU has imposed sanctions on Eritrea’s National Security Office (NSO) because of extra-judicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances. No details were given about the type of sanctions or why now.
BBC Africa Live 22 March 2021. 14:42
Water: Collection must be safe, not only the water itself. “Water carriage is associated with pain, fatigue, problems accessing perinatal health care and violence against vulnerable people.” In comparison with households that have access to water on their premises, maternal and child health are poorer where water needs to be fetched. “There’s a clear need for water supply systems that prioritise personal safety alongside the traditional goals of improving water quality and quantity.”
https://theconversation.com/safe-drinking-water-should-mean-safe-collection-too-how-to-reduce-the-risks-150880
Zambia: “(O)nly one in five rural households in sub-Saharan Africa has water supply at home, compared to one out of two households living in urban areas.” “Beyond harming both physical and mental health, fetching water also takes time away from activities such as education, caregiving, gardening and employment. It’s no surprise that households that depend on distant water sources are at increased risk of child diarrhoeal disease and stunting, maternal stress and violence against women.” No wonder that the experiment conducted for the study that this article is about, providing safe water on premises, showed positive results – with, on average, 4 hours a day being liberated that could be used by the concerned women and girls for productive activities or, in some cases, for leisure.
https://theconversation.com/what-its-really-worth-to-pipe-water-to-homes-in-rural-zambia-155149
Egypt/Sudan/Ethiopia: A historical overview over (also the politics of) dam construction – Aswan et al. – on the Nile.
https://theconversation.com/the-imperialist-past-that-started-dam-politics-between-egypt-sudan-and-ethiopia-156760
Nile water: “The history of the Nile has demonstrated that water management infrastructure can provide resilience to climate challenges.” The Renaissance Dam could produce clean energy. Meanwhile, the “360km Jonglei canal (could) divert some of the river around the Sudd swamps in Southern Sudan where half of it is lost to evaporation (and which also emits huge amounts of the greenhouse gas methane)”. But riparian states need to agree…
https://theconversation.com/innovations-on-the-nile-over-millennia-offer-lessons-in-engineering-sustainable-futures-156801
Ghana: Problems around hydro-electric dams, for example the relatively small Bui Dam in Ghana.
https://theconversation.com/ghanas-bui-dam-raises-concerns-again-about-hydro-power-projects-155788
21 March 2021
Egypt/Feminism: “When BBC presenter Zeinab Badawi suggested during an interview in 2018 that she tone down her criticism, El Saadawi replied: «No. I should be more outspoken, I should be more aggressive, because the world is becoming more aggressive, and we need people to speak loudly against injustices. I speak loudly because I am angry.»” Egyptian doctor, feminist, presidential candidate, writer – her books were translated into more than 40 languages – has died today, Sunday 21st, aged 89. “Her brutal honesty and unwavering dedication to improving the political and sexual rights of women inspired generations.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55048245