ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Changing Climate, Changing Lives

Marginalised communities attending a United Nations conference on climate change being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have given accounts of how their lives are being altered for the worse - something they blame on climate change.

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Switch On the Sun to Get Cooking

The women in Kajiado were sceptical - unwilling to believe that cardboard containers lined with aluminium foil on the inside could cook food when placed in the sun.

ENERGY-NIGERIA: ‘Solar Power Brings Relief to Villagers’

Bishop Kodji, a small fishing and canoe carving island in the Atlantic Ocean off Nigeria's sprawling commercial hub of Lagos, has become the first village to be electrified under the Lagos State government's pilot solar energy project..

ENVIRONMENT-NIGER: City Takes Step to Protect Forest

As fears of its destruction mount, city authorities have taken steps to protect the forest, or the greenbelt, around Niamey and evict squatters living within its confines. The forest protects the city from encroaching desertification and the extremes of Niger's climate.

AFRICA: Group Slams Janus Face of U.S. Policy

When some 6,000 U.S.-led NATO forces land next June for two weeks of manoeuvres in Cape Verde, will they be rehearsing more for rapid deployment in humanitarian emergencies, as in Darfur, Sudan, or for securing oil supplies and access to other key African resources?

POLITICS-US: Funding Doubled for “Anti-Terror” Forces in Africa

As Washington's dependence on African oil intensifies, some analysts predict the region will increasingly play host to confrontations between U.S. forces deployed there and various insurgent groups, predominantly Islamic extremists.

ENERGY-CAMEROON: A Dam Good Idea, or a Bad One?

With just months to go before construction of a hydroelectric dam gets underway along Cameroon's Lom river, environmentalists are raising concerns about the initiative.

ENERGY-SENEGAL: Theft Casts a Shadow Over Solar Programmes

At a time when concerns about global warming and the need for renewable energy sources are grabbing headlines the world over, it seems particularly regrettable that communities would be afflicted by the theft of solar panels.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: An Assured Power Supply a Distant Dream in Nigeria

At the end of a year that was meant to solve Nigeria's chronic electricity problems, an assured power supply is still a distant dream in this oil-rich nation.

POLITICS-NIGERIA: A Season of Ethnic Discontent

The release and re-arrest of members of a Yoruba organisation this week have marked the latest chapter in Nigeria's bid to contain ethnic unrest in various parts of the country.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Oil Sector Proves a Hard Nut to Crack

For geological engineer Farouq Kam, Sudan's 21-year civil war didn't really end in January when the country's Islamist government signed a peace agreement with rebels from the Christian and animist south. It just took on a more subtle hue.

AFRICA: Fuel Reserves Oil the Wheels of Corruption

Corruption is costing Africa's oil industry billions of dollars annually says Peter Eigen, founder and chairman of Transparency International (TI) - a non-governmental group based in Berlin which monitors and fights graft.

ENVIRONMENT: Pollution Takes a Backseat in Congo

Yellow flames from oil rigs light up the night sky, helping Richard Vuadi guides his boat as he sets out to cast his nets along the Democratic Republic of Congo's coast. Oil rigs that dot the horizon have polluted the water, so much that fishermen say they pose health risks.

ECONOMY-ZIMBABWE: Running on Empty

The sight of cars caked with dust, lined up outside filling stations, has become a common one in Zimbabwe. Some of the vehicles have been there for days, even weeks, as motorists grapple with what many view as the worst episode yet in the country's recurrent fuel crisis.

EGYPT: Gas Deal Cements Rapprochement With Israel

A recent deal to sell Egyptian natural gas to Israel, while unpopular with the general public here, marks steadily improving diplomatic relations between the historical antagonists.

DEVELOPMENT: Oil Booms End Up a Bust, Study Shows

The U.S. strategy to increase oil production from non-Middle Eastern nations in the least developed countries may serve consumers in Western nations, but is likely to add to those poor nations' burdens of debt and economic hardship, according to a new study released Thursday.

DEVELOPMENT-SWAZILAND: Home-Grown Electricity Needed

A media scare in Swaziland about an imminent cut-off of the country's electricity by foreign suppliers has highlighted its near-total dependence on external power sources - and jump-started contingency plans to expand domestic power production.

DEVELOPMENT: Sudan Dam Draws Fresh Fears of Social Unrest

One of Africa's largest dams, now under construction in Sudan, carries a hefty price for the environment and threatens intensified social unrest, project critics say.

ENERGY-NIGERIA: Power Cuts Leave Country in the Dark – And in the Grave

Four days after moving into a new house in Sango Otta, a suburb of Nigeria's commercial hub - Lagos - Soji Alawiye, his pregnant wife, two children and another family member died in their sleep. The cause of death: fumes from a portable generator that was left on overnight after a power cut.

DEVELOPMENT-CHAD: Pipeline Project Off to a Wobbly Start

A high-profile pipeline project in Chad that is backed by the World Bank has come under fire for a lack of transparency, amid rising concerns that oil revenues are being redirected from poverty-fighting efforts.

DEVELOPMENT-CHAD: Pipeline Project Off to a Wobbly Start

A high-profile pipeline project in Chad that is backed by the World Bank has come under fire for a lack of transparency, amid rising concerns that oil revenues are being redirected from poverty-fighting efforts.