Bududa, Uganda | AFP | Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni visited eastern Bududa Sunday after 43 people died when a landslide caused a river to burst its banks, sending water and boulders cascading downhill. Wearing military uniform and carrying a cleft stick Museveni looked across the Sume river at the remains …
Read More »Boulders litter Uganda villages crushed by deadly landslide
Bududa, Uganda | AFP – Michael O’HAGAN | On a muddy outcrop on the banks of the Sume river, grief-stricken families gaze at enormous boulders that stand testimony to the force of the deluge which engulfed their homes. Hundreds of newly-deposited rocks, each the size of a van, litter the …
Read More »BUDUDA: At least 41 dead in Uganda landslide
Bududa, Uganda | AFP | At least 41 people were killed after a river in eastern Uganda burst its banks, sending a torrent of mud and rocks barrelling into homes, disaster officials and survivors said Friday. Rescue teams continued picking through the rubble late Friday, searching for survivors and victims …
Read More »Under-threat DR Congo national park bans tree-felling
Beni, DR Congo | AFP | The threatened Virunga National Park in DR Congo announced on Thursday it has banned the felling of trees throughout the nature reserve. “The management of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature wishes to bring to the attention of the resident of Beni …
Read More »Tackle Lake Chad environment to stop Boko Haram: experts
Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | Revitalising Lake Chad will stop Boko Haram from gaining a long-term foothold in the region, experts said on Wednesday, as four countries wrapped up talks aimed at ending in the conflict. The insurgency began in 2009 and has killed at least 20,000 in northeast Nigeria …
Read More »S.African film-maker killed by giraffe
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A South African film-maker was killed by a giraffe while filming on a reserve outside Johannesburg, the game lodge’s owner has said, adding that he died after being air-lifted to hospital. The giraffe hit Carlos Carvalho in the head at the Glen Afric Country …
Read More »DR Congo planning to allow oil exploration in national parks: NGO
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Democratic Republic of Congo’s government is seeking to reclassify swathes of two UNESCO-listed parks so that oil exploration can be carried out there, an investigative group said. The London-based NGO Global Witness said it had seen documents about a scheme to “redraw the boundaries” …
Read More »Six endangered black rhinos flown from S. Africa to Chad
Addo, South Africa | AFP | Six critically endangered black rhinos were flown from South Africa to Chad on Thursday in a pioneering project to re-introduce the animals to a country where they were wiped out by poaching nearly 50 years ago. The wild black rhinos were loaded onto a …
Read More »After the gold rush: Mining boom in Cameroon leaves ‘open tombs’
Bétaré Oya, Cameroon | AFP | For a time, the land around the village of Longa Mali in eastern Cameroon was one of the most prized in Africa, and powerful machines gnawed greedily into its soil to extract precious gold. Today, abandoned with almost the same speed as it was …
Read More »Lake Victoria biodiversity being ‘decimated’
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Three quarters of freshwater species endemic to East Africa’s Lake Victoria basin face the threat of extinction, conservationists said Monday, warning the biodiversity there was being “decimated”. A fresh report backed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessed the extinction risk of …
Read More »