Stories written by Francis Kokutse
Franics Kokutse is a freelance journalist based in Accra. In addition to IPS, he works for other media organisations including Associated Press, Dow Jones Newswires, The Nation Group of Kenya and is also the West Africa Correspondent for the New Delhi-based Indo Asian News Service. Francis is also a published poet on Poemhunters.com.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting currently underway in Accra, Ghana, takes place amid rising global fears that global financial turmoil and economic slowdown in the developed countries would affect economic growth in the developing world.
''Give It To God''. These are the words inscribed on the front of the huge truck that goods transporter David Agbalanyo drives between the Ghanaian capital Accra and its northern neighbour, Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.
Environmental groups have for several years accused mining companies in Ghana of destroying the environment. In a strange twist of events, it now seems that farmers have turned to illegal mining as a result of the devastation of the pollution caused by mining activities.
After almost a decade of poor cocoa production during the 1980s, the Ghanaian government is upbeat about the subsequent growth in output of the product which is the country’s main export, providing more than 60 percent of foreign earnings.
Continued strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has dealt a blow to those hoping for peace in Central Africa. However, Liberata Mulamula, executive director of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), remains optimistic about the future of this part of the continent.
The director of Panorama - the Palestinian Center for the Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development - has condemned those who carry out terrorist acts in the name of Islam, saying they are not representative of the global Muslim community.
The latest conference to be held under the Helsinki Process opened in Tanzania's commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, Tuesday, with calls for the gains of globalisation to be shared fairly amongst nations.
If Ghana’s government used civil society protests as guideline as to which way to go in the negotiations with the European Union (EU) on the economic partnership agreement (EPA), the talks would have been terminated.
"We prayed to God to open the heavens, but this is not what we expected," says Peter Nayoon, a farmer from Gushiegu in the north of Ghana, one of several African countries blighted by floods over recent weeks. "I am finished," he adds, pointing dejectedly towards the area that used to be his yam farm. "Who would give me money to start a new life?"
Ask people to list the causes of tooth discolouration and they may mention tobacco chewing, or one too many cups of coffee a day. Pose the question in Ghana's northern Nayorigo village, however, and someone might answer: desertification.