Author Archive

Togo Women Go Sex Strike to Unseat President

LOME, Togo (AP) — The female wing of a civil rights group is urging women in Togo to stage a week-long sex strike to demand the resignation of the country’s president.

Women are being asked to start withholding sex from their husbands or partners as of Monday, said Isabelle Ameganvi, leader of the women’s wing of the group Let’s Save Togo. She said the strike will put pressure on Togo’s men to take action against President Faure Gnassingbe.

Ameganvi, a lawyer, told The Associated Press that her group is following the example of Liberia’s women, who used a sex strike in 2003 to campaign for peace.

“We have many means to oblige men to understand what women want in Togo,” Ameganvi said.

The sex strike was announced at a rally Saturday of several thousand in the capital city, Lome. The demonstration was organized by a coalition that is protesting recent electoral reforms, which they say will make it easier for Gnassingbe’s party to win re-election in the parliamentary polls set for October. Continue reading “Togo Women Go Sex Strike to Unseat President” »

Togo Women Call Sex Strike Against President Gnassingbe

Women in Togo have been urged to abstain from sex for a week from Monday to push their demand for reform.

The ban has been called by opposition coalition Let’s Save Togo, made up of nine civil society groups and seven opposition parties and movements.

Opposition leader Isabelle Ameganvi said that sex could be a “weapon of the battle” to achieve political change.

The coalition wants President Faure Gnassingbe, whose family has held power for decades, to stand down.

“We have many means to oblige men to understand what women want in Togo,” Ms Ameganvi, leader of the women’s wing of the coalition, told the BBC.

She said she had been inspired by a similar strike by Liberian women in 2003, who used a sex strike to campaign for peace.

“If men refuse to hear our cries we will hold another demonstration that will be more powerful than a sex strike,” she added.

Continue reading “Togo Women Call Sex Strike Against President Gnassingbe” »

Ghana is Most Religious Nations on Earth

A new survey conducted by the Gallup International Association has ranked citizens of 57 countries by their religiosity.

Overall, 59% of those surveyed described themselves as religious, 23% said they are not religious, and 13% said they are convinced atheists.

The nations with the highest percentages of self-described religious persons are Ghana, Nigeria, Armenia, Fiji, Macedonia, Romania, Iraq, Kenya, Peru, and Brazil.

The nations with the highest percentages of self-described “convinced atheists” are China, Japan, the Czech Republic, France, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland, Australia, and Ireland.

Ghanaweb

Zambian Miners kill Chinese Manager During Pay Dispute

Zambian miners have killed a Chinese manager by pushing a mine trolley at him during a riot at a coal mine in the south of the country.

A second Chinese was injured, as were several Zambians, during the riot on Saturday.

The workers were on strike at the mine in protest against delays in implementing a new minimum wage.

They were angry their wages were lower than a new minimum of $220 (£140) a month paid to shop workers.

Zambia’s minister of labour has gone to the Chinese-owned Collum coal mine in Sinazongwe, 325km (200 miles) south of the capital, Lusaka. Continue reading “Zambian Miners kill Chinese Manager During Pay Dispute” »

South Sudan Has the World’s Worst Maternal mortality Rate

South Sudan has the worst reported maternal mortality rate in the world.

“More women die in child birth, per capita, in South Sudan, than in any country in the world,” says Caroline Delany, a health specialist with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in South Sudan which is funding a raft of maternal health programmes.

A 2012 report entitled Women’s Security in South Sudan: Threats in the Home by Geneva-based think-tank Small Arms Survey (SAS) says a national survey carried out in 2006 indicating 2,054 deaths per 100,000 live births may have been an underestimation.

“Many deaths are not reported, in part because 90 percent of women give birth away from formal medical facilities and without the help of professionally trained assistants,” it said.

Childbirth and pregnancy, rather than conflict, are the nation’s biggest killers of girls and women. Continue reading “South Sudan Has the World’s Worst Maternal mortality Rate” »

South Sudan:The Most Dangerous Country to Give Birth

Decades of conflict and marginalization have left South Sudan the most dangerous country on earth in which to give birth.
For every 100,000 births in South Sudan, more than 2,000 mothers die. Ninety percent of women give birth away from formal medical facilities and without the help of professionally trained assistants.

One of the main causes of South Sudan’s high maternal mortality rate is a dearth of qualified birth attendants: during the civil wars that raged since the mid-1950s conducting the necessary formal medical training was all but impossible.

Now, seven years after a peace accord was signed, and a year after South Sudan gained independence from Sudan, things are beginning to change.

IRIN’s latest film, South Sudan – Birth of Nation, focuses on Juba Teaching Hospital’s new college of nursing and midwifery. Students here, drawn from all of the country’s 17 states, speak of their determination to take their new skills back to their villages to reduce the scourge of maternal mortality.

UN IRIN News

Africa Domestic Investment in HIV Goes Up But It’s Uneven

NAIROBI, 19 July 2012 (PlusNews) – Many sub-Saharan African nations – traditionally the beneficiaries of international HIV funding – are gradually increasing their financial contributions to the fight against the virus, boosting the number of people on treatment to record highs according to a new UNAIDS report, Together We Will End AIDS, released on 18 July.

Low- and middle-income countries invested US$8.6 billion in the response in 2011, an increase of 11 percent compared to 2010, whereas the international community contributed $8.2 billion, a figure that has remained flat since 2008. The United States contributed nearly half of all international assistance for HIV/AIDS.

“This is an era of global solidarity and mutual accountability,” Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, said in a statement. “Countries most affected by the epidemic are taking ownership and demonstrating leadership in responding to HIV.”

Increased local funding

In several African countries, including Kenya, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Uganda, domestic spending on HIV/AIDS rose by more than 100 percent between 2006 and 2011. In Botswana, Comoros, Mauritania, Mauritius, the Seychelles and South Africa, domestic investment accounted for more than 70 percent of AIDS funding.

The increases in funding allowed a record 6.2 million Africans to access life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment in 2011, compared to 5.1 million in 2010. The most impressive numbers in 2011 were seen in South Africa, which initiated 300,000 people on treatment, Zimbabwe (150,000) and Kenya (100,000). The recently released 2012 UN Millennium Development Goals report notes that Botswana, Namibia and Rwanda have achieved universal access to ARVs. Continue reading “Africa Domestic Investment in HIV Goes Up But It’s Uneven” »

Romney Booed By NAACP Over Obamacare Speech

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been booed in a speech to a US civil rights group’s convention.

He was jeered as he vowed to “kill” the Obama healthcare overhaul, and when he said he would be a better president for African Americans.

Despite his hostile reception at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Mr Romney also received polite applause.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers planned another vote to repeal the health law.

“I will kill every expensive and unnecessary programme I can find, and that includes Obamacare,” Mr Romney told the convention in Houston, Texas, pausing with a smile as he waited for the catcalls to fade. Continue reading “Romney Booed By NAACP Over Obamacare Speech” »