LABOUR-NIGERIA: Oil Industry Crisis Worsening

Indigenous oil workers in Nigeria are angry with multinational oil companies operating in the country’s Niger Delta region over the influx of foreign oil workers mainly from the United States and Europe.

ENERGY-RWANDA: No Relief in Sight for Victims of Power Cuts

In recent months, Rwanda has experienced long, daily power cuts because of electricity rationing. This began after two of the country’s hydroelectric plants, Ntaruka and Mukunga, which are responsible for providing half of Rwanda’s power, experienced drops in yield.

ENERGY-DRC: Power Under Uncertain Circumstances

In recent years, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has become a byword for violence and human rights abuse. Now, inhabitants of Butembo in the North Kivu province are seeking renown for something else: entrepreneurial initiative.

ENERGY: Electricity Transforming Rural Senegal Into 21st Century

Large-scale electrification programmes are bringing Senegal's interior villages into the 21st Century and creating a ''technological revolution''.

LABOUR-NIGERIA: “You Do Not Stop Workers Through Laws”

"Leaders come and go, but there will always be workers' unions." This is the philosophical view which Elder Linus Ukamba, Senior Assistant General Secretary of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), has adopted towards plans by President Olusegun Obasanjo to dismantle the union federation.

ENERGY-BURKINA FASO: To Get Electricity, Try People Power

Wendemi Yanogo owns a small dairy just outside Burkina Faso's capital. At present, she earns about 50 cents for every litre of milk that she sells in Ouagadougou. By next month, however, Yanogo hopes to see the profits from her business double - after the small town she lives in, Tanghin Dassouri, gets electricity.

SUSTAINABILITY: Do ‘Water Wars’ Still Loom in Africa?

When water affairs ministers from countries along the Nile met recently to discuss the fate of the river, Boutros Boutros-Ghali was not in the room with them. But the lingering memory of his comment that future wars would be fought over water probably was.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Putting the Oil Industry in Local Hands a Slippery Business

Oil is the undisputed kingpin of Nigeria's economy, contributing over 90 percent of its export earnings. But more than four decades after the start of oil extraction in Nigeria, the industry remains in foreign hands - much to the frustration of local entrepreneurs.

ENERGY-SOUTHERN AFRICA: The Challenges of Getting Malawi Wired

It's a tale of delays, missed deadlines and the grinding problems that can dog large-scale infrastructure projects. Work to connect electricity lines between Malawi and neighbouring Mozambique was scheduled to have been completed by 2002. The deadline has now been shifted to 2005, however - and officials aren't ruling out 2006.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: The Oil Leaks That Yield Vast Profits – and Tragedy

It happens at night, under cover of darkness. Thieves move into the mangrove swamps and creeks of Nigeria's southern Niger Delta region, homing in on the oil pipelines that criss-cross the area.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Nationwide Strike Suspended

The Nigeria Labour Congress announced Wednesday that it was suspending a nationwide stay away that had been called to protest against a fuel price increase.

/UPDATE/ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Emergency Stockpiling as Fuel Strike Looms

A court of appeal in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, has ordered the Nigeria Labour Congress to suspend a proposed strike that had been scheduled to start on Wednesday. It has also ordered authorities to reverse the one cent petrol tax that is at the heart of the labour dispute.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Division of Wealth Smooths Way for Lasting Peace

History was made this week when Sudan's government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army signed an agreement on the thorny issue of how to share the country's wealth.

LABOUR-NIGERIA: Trade Unions Threaten to Resume Strike

Nigeria's trade unions have announced that they would call for mass action to protest government's refusal to revert to the old price of fuel.

LABOUR-NIGERIA: Unions Call Off Strike

If the strike had gone ahead as planned, it would have paralysed Nigeria.

LABOUR: Panic Food Buying as Nigerians Brace for a Long Strike

Past experiences have taught Nigerians an important lesson: always stockpile food before any industrial action.

ENERGY-NIGERIA: Rumours of Price Hike Trigger Fuel Queues

Economic activities in Nigeria's largest city Lagos have been paralysed as rumours of an impending fuel price hike prompted long queues at filling stations.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Minerals to Overtake Oil as Major Foreign Currency Earner

Nigeria's new Minister for Solid Minerals, Odion Ugbesia is hoping that minerals will soon overtake oil as the country's major source of foreign currency.

ENERGY-NIGERIA: Crude Oil Theft Costs Millions of Dollars

Nigeria lost 6.1 million barrels of crude oil, worth about 151 million U.S. dollars, to theft during the first quarter of this year, government officials say.

ENERGY: Laissez Faire Legacy Leaves US, Canada Cursing the Dark

Pundits blaming last week's vast blackout in parts of the United States and Canada on an antiquated "third world" power grid seem to have forgotten that deregulation - which many analysts say spawned the crisis - has been Washington's mantra to developing countries for years.

ENERGY-US: Critics Pan Nuke Plant Safety as Industry Revival Looms

A controversial nuclear power plant just 35 kms north of New York City will remain open despite fears that it is an attractive target for sabotage and reports that its evacuation plans are inadequate.