Call to end neglect of emergency education in Mali

DAKAR, 15 March 2013 (IRIN) - Aid workers and experts are calling for more attention to education in Mali, where 200,000 children are out of school due to the crisis but where money for emergency education has yet to come forward. full report

Chadian migrants rue Libyan detention, ill-treatment, deportation

DAKAR, 8 March 2013 (IRIN) - In the violence immediately before and after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in October 2011, thousands of sub-Saharan migrants were forced to flee. Since then, however, the authorities have detained in harsh conditions, and subsequently deported, hundreds more, according to former Chadian migrant workers. full report

Analysis: The R-word - Rhetoric versus reality in the Sahel

DAKAR, 4 March 2013 (IRIN) - The annual gearing-up of humanitarian programmes to treat the chronic problems of vulnerable Sahelians is a clear sign that development there is not working. As a result, the Sahel is at the centre of the debate on the need to boost vulnerable people's resilience to shocks. full report

African migrants pay high prices to send money home

JOHANNESBURG, 27 February 2013 (IRIN) - New data from the World Bank has revealed that African migrants pay more to send money home to their families than any other migrant group in the world. full report

Why the Sahel needs $1.6 billion again this year

DAKAR, 19 February 2013 (IRIN) - The 2013 Sahel Regional Strategy calls for US$1.66 billion to help meet humanitarian needs and build up resilience among vulnerable groups - an identical figure to the 2012 crisis appeal - even though aid agencies estimate the number of Sahelians at risk of going hungry this year has dropped 44 percent to 10.3 million. IRIN spoke to aid agency representatives to find out why the ask has remained constant. full report

SENEGAL: Habré investigations mark turning point for African justice

DAKAR, 9 February 2013 (IRIN) - The special court set up to try ex-Chadian President Hissène Habré officially opened its investigations on 8 February in Senegal, making it the first time a former African leader faces trial in another African country. full report

Call for humanitarian access after clashes in North Darfur

KHARTOUM, 8 February 2013 (IRIN) - The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is calling for better access to tens of thousands of people displaced by recent inter-tribal fighting in gold-mining areas of Sudan's North Darfur State. full report

In Brief: Chad averts locust threat

N’DJAMENA, 30 January 2013 (IRIN) - Chad has eliminated the threat of a full-scale locust invasion in its northern region, a pastoralist zone dotted with oases that provide water for small-scale farming, says the National Locust Control Agency (ANLA). full report

Difficult recovery after Chad floods

N’DJAMENA, 29 January 2013 (IRIN) - A scattering of utensils, a pile of clothes and a small bag of millet flour lay on the floor of Amne Abakar’s roofless cloth-and-sticks shelter in Toukra camp on the outskirts of Chad’s capital N’Djamena. The camp hosts more than 6,000 people who lost their homes to floods in 2012. full report