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By Paul Ndiho
February 14, 2012

A new rice variety is transforming agriculture in Ivory Coast, benefiting hundreds of farmers – mostly women. Its harvest time in Ivory Coast, but this rice is not destined for the dinner table. It’s a new, more hardy breed of rice, and this woman’s cooperative is producing high quality seeds for sale to a seed bank. In a country reeling from civil war, these farmers are helping to reduce poverty, according to Gnandia Fofana, president of Boundiali’s Women’s Cooperative.
“Before it was only suffering, suffering, suffering we couldn’t find any food to eat. But now selling these rice seeds we can buy food and we are doing well.”

Some 800 farmers in Ivory Coast have been trained to grow a more productive and pest resilient breed of rice, and with it have almost doubled their yield and profits. Gnandia is a widow with three children, and her group is growing Wita 9 rice. She says the new rice has meant more earnings and independence in a country where women grow over half the food but rely on men for access to land.
“Thanks to this rice I can build a house, rent a tractor and can do what men can do. Now we are the same as men.”
To ensure the seeds are of high quality, Gnandia needs a government certificate and must adhere to strict regulations, from the choice of terrain to the correct way of drying the seeds.
At least 30 rice producers attended an intensive training course and had the opportunity to share experiences with fellow rice growers. All seeds are sent to a government warehouse. Here, machines separate the good grains from the bad.
After a final quality check they are stored until next planting season, when they will be distributed to thousands of farmers.
“For almost 10 years now bad quality seeds have been used. This training has enabled farmers to get good quality seeds and has meant that their yield has increased greatly.”
It is not only rice; maize, yams and cassava cultivations are all being improved through this project financed by the European Union and managed by the UN’s agency dedicated to rural development.
Analysts say that for Ivorian rice farmers to reach their full potential political stability must continue in the country and the government should continue to invest in agriculture research.

By Paul Ndiho
February 14, 2012

A United Nations voluntary campaign in Cote D’lvoire is calling on civilians with illegal weapons still in circulation to hand them over. The West African nation is still recovering from the post-election turmoil that killed more than 1,000 people and rekindled the country’s 2002 civil war.
Ivory Coast is still emerging from the violence that sprang from the 2010 election dispute between former president Laurent Gbagbo and current President Alassane Ouattara.
The U.N. weapons return operation is part of a wider national campaign that began in June of last year.
Last week in a suburb of Abidjan, those who brought in their weapons stressed that they no longer need them now that violence has ended.

“We have deposited weapons because it was becoming cumbersome. The war is over. We fought for a cause that has been acquired.”
“Not every call has to be for the military life. We must deposit the arms to return to our civil life.”
Ivorians say that their nation now has more pressing concerns than political infighting.
“We had taken up arms for a cause: freedom, justice and equality. All of that has been restored, so we decided to disarm. Yet, I ask the Government to think of us. We need to eat.”
Since the weapons collection program began in Ivory Coast, more than 1,000 arms have been turned in. The program is supported by the Ivorian police in cooperation with the United Nations Operation in Cote D’Ivoire.

By Paul Ndiho
February 7, 2012
In January, the Africa Union expanded its peacekeeping force in Somalia and called on the U.N. Security Council to endorse a force of close to 18,000 troops to fight al Shabaab rebels. Analysts say that the AU should focus more on development and job creation for the country.
Since Dictator Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, Somalia has descended into chaos, civil war, famine, and piracy off its coast.
In this environment, a hardline Islamist group with links to al Qaida has risen from obscurity to international prominence in less than two years. Mwangi Kimenyi of the Brookings Institution suggests that the militants will continue to pose a threat in the region if the international community does not change its focus for Somalia.

“There needs to be a development program. We cannot just focus on military options. There has to be a strategy and this is where even African countries need to get together and say, you know, we are talking about terrorism but let’s think about economic programs, let’s think about opportunities for the young people. If these young people don’t get opportunities, Al Shabaab is very attractive option and they will continue joining.”
The African Union extended the mandate of Amisom, the U.N.-backed force supporting the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia. Kenya and Ethiopia have joined Amisom forces in the fight against al Shabaab. Last month, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki thanked Uganda and Burundi for providing troops for the AU Mission in Somalia.
“The success of our community is directly related to peace and stability in our neighboring states, our engagement in bringing law and order in Somalia is driven by the desire to bring about peace and development in this region,”
The new mandate allows Burundi and Uganda to deploy additional troops; Djibouti will also send a contingent, while Kenyan soldiers are already battling al Shabaab in the south of Somalia. Mr. Kimenyi says that Amisom forces in Somalia should not be seen as invaders:
“I think Somalis hate, or they resent intervention from outside. You have seen what has happened even when the U.S. has been involved in Somalia. First of all, there is no aid strategy in Somalia. What we have seen donors doing is responding to the crisis. If there is a famine, you start getting a lot of people, you know, involved in food and dealing with the refugees and so on. That’s not a development strategy. It’s a crisis, dealing with a crisis. And we tend to waste a lot of time just dealing with the crisis.”
Mr. Kimenyi says that the international community should work for the empowerment of the Somali people.
“we need to go beyond just focusing on the crisis, and looking at what we can do that is longer term, so that it’s attractive for the youth to be in school, to be working, rather than going for the piracy, which is a very attractive undertaking, or joining Al Shabab, or any other war groups.”
Somali has not had an effective central government for two decades, and experts say that events in Somalia are difficult to predict. But they say one thing is sure: Al-Shabaab is losing momentum.

Meanwhile in Nigeria, the government continues to battle against violent attacks and killings by the radical Islamic group, Nigerians are expressing concern about the state of the nation’s security. Mwangi Kimenyi, a senior fellow and director, Africa Growth Initiative,at the Brookings Institution, says Boko Haram needs to be taken seriously because its influence is expanding.

By Paul Ndiho
February 1, 2012

Amid the violence, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the National Ballet of Congo is using music and dance to inspire hope.
In a large open theatre, a dance group is determined to spread a message of peace and tolerance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s just a few days before the premiere.
This production fuses traditional African rhythms with modern choreography. Its movement, music and story are designed to express the harsh reality of sexual violence in the DRC. Carmen Smith is a US State Department Cultural Ambassador.
“Dance is a strong vehicle for relaying messages like this because there’s something about movement that is older than language.”
Carmen Smith spent a month in Kinshasa learning about the culture of the DRC and creating a new ballet.

“I started reading some history and tried to learn about what kinds of issues were facing women there. We hear a lot about civil war and you hear a lot about the rapes in the Congo.”
The United Nations estimates that since 1998, more than 5 million people have died from fighting, disease and starvation in the DRC. Rape has been used as weapon of war. Margot Wallström is the U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
“I think it has to do with the attitudes that this is inevitable as one of the weapons or tactics of war.”
Mugolomi Solange is one of the dancers with the National Ballet.
“The gender violence that’s inflicted on women disturbs us because before we never spoke about this in Kinshasa. So it was kept in…”
Solange and dancer Akim Tsimba say there are painful inequalities between men and women in their country.
“Here in the DRC, women don’t have the same status as men. Women are people who have nothing. Their role is in the home. They don’t have the right to speak.”
This dancer, Kititoi Assina, says the ballet is a way to encourage women in the DRC to see themselves as equal and important.
“What we would really like to portray with this show is that the woman complements the man and that she is not his slave, not his inferior.”
“I asked the National Ballet dancers – I just talked to them for the first two days. No dancing, no rehearsal, just talking. It was these kinds of personal conversations and…hearing women talk about their lives that helped me direct the project.”
On the night of the premiere at the Hall de la Gombe in Kinshasa – as people arrive, the audience is not quite sure what to expect.
The storyline centers on a village where the men rule – and the women do as their told – at least in the beginning. But eventually the relationship between men and women begin to change, as the village women learn to stand up for themselves and gain the respect of the village.

By Paul Ndiho
January 26, 2012

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled that four prominent Kenyans are to stand trial for the inciting the violence that followed general elections there. The International Criminal Court says that Kenyan presidential contenders Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto should face trial, along with Francis Muthaura, the head of the civil service, and radio journalist Joshua Sang. The men are suspected of orchestrating Kenya’s post-election violence of 2007 and 2008.

Two others, the former Police Commissioner and an opposition politician were found not guilty of charges.
Mwangi Kimenyi of the Brookings Institution says the ICC’s decision is a milestone for Kenya.
“All of them are going to appeal which means it will be a long process before we go to the full trial. So we have key people particularly politicians whose charges were confirmed and that’s significant for the country’s politics and as we move forward it will be important.”
The ICC’s top prosecutor says that he is considering whether the four Kenyans should be tried together or in separate cases, an idea that would have to be approved by the judges.
“We are discussing in my office if we put together the two cases or not, so is it better to have one case together with four suspects, or have two different parallel cases.”
More than 11-hundred people were killed, thousands injured, and many more forcibly displaced in the violence that followed Kenya’s December 2007 elections. There were also hundreds of rapes, and many properties were destroyed.
The two cases involving the politicians are split between the ethnic Kalenjin and Kikuyu camps, as Ruto is a Kalenjin and Kenyatta is a Kikuyu:
“To me what I’d have liked to see is that we move fast with whether it’s a trial or the appeals process get the issues done. Then if there are implicated then they don’t run for office or serve in public office. But at this point, I think it’s tricky because you have these coalitions and people think that there communities are being targeted and that’s where like I have said before, the president or the Prime Minister must go above these tribal or ethnic royalties and look at what is important for the country to focus on.”
The decision by the court – whose proceedings have been closely followed in Kenya – is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the biggest economy in east Africa. Mr. Kimenyi says that President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga must go above ethnic royalties and look at what’s important for the country.
“We are not talking about issues yet; we’re talking about which tribe, which people to join. I’d have liked somebody to come and talk about the youth unemployment, talk about issues of agriculture, talk about our infrastructure issues but we haven’t seen those issues.”
Analysts say both Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the son of the country’s founding president, and William Ruto, a former higher education minister, want to run for president next year. The ICC’s decision that they must face trial will no doubt affect those plans.