African Media Coverage

November 1-15, 2008

Rwanda: The New Times
“News from Darfur encouraging”
Published: November 4, 2022

On Sunday, the last batch of the 51st battalion returned home from the troubled Sudan region of Darfur, where it has gallantly tried to restore some peace.

It was heartening to learn from the battalion’s commander, Lt. Col. Ludovick Mugisha that the troops were effective in their mission in Darfur and that security there was improving.

“There is a visible improvement in terms of security in Darfur compared to what was on the ground a year ago when we had just been deployed,” he said.

The last batch of the 680-strong 51 battalion operated under the auspices of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

Rwanda and Africa as a whole should celebrate this great news. In 2003, when trouble brewed in Darfur, there was fear of a possible Genocide – to date hundreds of lives have been lost, with thousands displaced.

Rwanda was among the first countries to respond by volunteering to stop the suffering of the Sudanese people and contribute to efforts to find peace and stability while checking further loss of human life. 

Read the full article here.

Angola: Angola Press
“Sudan journalists on mass hunger strike”
Published: November 4, 2022

Sudanese journalists launched a mass hunger strike on Tuesday, and three independent newspapers stopped work for three days in the country's biggest organised media protest against draconian censorship.

Between 150 and 300 journalists began a 24-hour hunger strike and the Ajras Al-Hurriya, Al-Maidan and Rayal Al-Shab newspapers halted production, saying they could no longer accept government restrictions over editorial content.

"We are going to stop for three days as a start. We are going on a food strike for a minimum of 24 hours," said Salah Ahmed Alkagam, head of the board of directors of Ajras Al-Hurriya and one of the protest organisers.

"We are going to protest against this sad practice against freedoms. We just want our constitutional rights," he added.

Sudan's interim constitution, which is supposed to guide the country through a six-year phased implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended two decades of civil war, upholds freedom of the press and expression.

But laws guaranteeing press freedom have yet to be passed, and security officials inspect the editions of every newspaper nightly.

Editors who resist censorship risk their publications being banned outright or confiscated from distribution offices.

Read the article here.

South Africa: News 24
“Doctor in the desert”
Published: November 6, 2022

In a make-shift hospital in a dusty rural town in Africa's unforgiving Sahara desert a Johannesburg-born doctor, Prinitha Pillay (35) worked tirelessly to aid a community ravaged by decades of conflict.

Sudan and its war-stricken region Darfur have dominated the headlines since 2003 when fresh conflict erupted, shortly after two devastating decades of civil war. The UN believes that this latest conflict has left 2 million people displaced, and another 200 000 dead.

Although a peace agreement was signed in 2005, rumours of ethnic cleansing and reports of clashes endure - with no end to the carnage in sight.

On assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières, (MSF or "Doctors without Borders") a humanitarian medical organisation that provides medical assistance to all in need, Prinitha found herself in Serif Umra, a rural village in the north-west region of war-torn Sudan.

The hospital comprised of a few brick buildings and some tents - no electricity, no running water – from which she, and her medical team (a nurse and midwife) served a community of around 135 000 people. "We also had national staff that kept the dispensary going – five medical assistants who were able to prescribe drugs with some, but limited, training," explains Prinitha.

Read the full article here.