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Photo: Tomas de Mul/IRIN

Kwass-kwassa lie on a littered beach

MRAMANI, 16 January 2008 (IRIN) - At night, you can clearly see the lights of Mayotte, a French island in the Indian Ocean, from Mramani, a rundown coastal village without electricity on the neighbouring Comoran island of Anjouan. For most, the view across the water promises a brighter future.

Comoros is one of the poorest countries in the world while Mayotte, 70km away, is part of the European Union (EU) and is rich. With the economic disparity between the two islands widening, an increasing number of impoverished Comoran migrants are braving the ocean swells in search of a better life.

The voyage in rickety wooden vessels, known as kwassa-kwassa, is not without risk: Although there are no reliable statistics, most estimates put fatalities at between 200 and 500 a year.

Classroom shortages threaten primary education targets

Photo: IRIN

KANO, 15 January 2008 (IRIN) - The success of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme which aims to provide free education to every child in Nigeria caused the number of primary school leavers to more than double in 2007, creating a backlog that the secondary education system is struggling to cope with.

Over 49,000 children in the northern Nigeria city of Kano who completed primary school in 2006 and wish to attend secondary school may not be admitted due to a severe shortage of trained teachers and classrooms, Kano government officials told IRIN.

In the past year the number of children leaving primary school in Kano city has increased from 46,460 in 2006 to 116,205 in 2007. In 2006, 42,000 of these students went on to junior secondary school, while in 2007 66,900 were admitted, according to local government statistics.

Fund launched for poor countries struggling with high food prices

Photo: Nicholas Reader/IRIN

World food prices have hit record highs as supply has been curbed and demand increased, creating serious risks for people who live in least developed poor countries

OUAGADOUGOU, 14 January 2008 (IRIN) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched a multi-million dollar fund for import-dependent poor countries to help adapt their farming industries quickly to cope with galloping global food prices.

Concern is mounting at the FAO that poor countries’ food needs will not be met by outside production this year as prices for basic commodities such as wheat are rising and supply is limited, FAO director general Jacques Diouf said in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou on 12 January.

The US$17 million fund will help fifty least developed countries - poor countries that are most heavily dependent on food imports - access fertilisers and seeds for corn, rice and sorghum to boost domestic food production and insulate them from price shocks when they fluctuate, Diouf told journalists.

Even simple tech helps reduce poverty

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Mobile phones are helping the poor access cheap financial services in some developing countries

JOHANNESBURG, 13 January 2008 (IRIN) - Asia's "green revolution" is a dramatic example of how even modest technological advances in developing countries have helped boost incomes and reduce the number of people living in poverty, according to the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects 2008 report, subtitled Technology Diffusion in the Developing World.

The principal technologies involved in the green revolution, which doubled cereal production between 1970 and 1995, were pesticides, irrigation and synthetic nitrogen fertiliser - which had long been available in industrial countries - along with the development of high-yielding varieties of maize, wheat and rice.

"Even though the impact of the green revolution on the poor was initially a source of controversy, by the late 1990s it was clear that poor people had reaped substantial benefits from higher incomes, less expensive food, and increased demand for their labour," said the report.

Displaced people still on the move despite peace conference

Photo: Gratien Ira/IRIN

Displaced people on the move during an earlier outbreak of violence in North Kivu

GOMA, 11 January 2008 (IRIN) - Thousands of people have continued to flee their homes in strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) because of sporadic clashes, despite parties to the conflict promising not to fight during a conference on peace, security and development in the Kivus, an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

"Following the escalation of armed conflict in December 2007, thousands of civilians have found themselves caught up between the various belligerent forces and forced to flee the combat zones, despite the declared truce and prospects for the Goma peace conference of January 2008," said Gabriel Wolde Saugeron, ICRC's communications coordinator.

Post-poll violence a ‘national disaster’, says Red Cross

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

A barber shop burns in Nairobi's Mathare slum

NAIROBI, 1 January 2008 (IRIN) -

Kenya is in the throes of a humanitarian “national disaster” amid post-election violence that has left scores dead, tens of thousands displaced beyond reach of immediate assistance and many more destined to be dependent on aid for several months to come, according to the Red Cross.

“The country has been riddled with insecurity over the last few days and there are many areas we cannot access,” Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet told reporters in Nairobi on 1 January after conducting an assessment by helicopter to western parts of the country.

Video footage shot during this mission showed smoke billowing from homes and farms, crowds of displaced civilians seeking sanctuary in churches and police stations, and usually busy main arteries empty of traffic and dotted with roadblocks manned by gangs.