While full-scale war has resumed in Angola between the government and the Unita rebel movement, landmines continue killing Angolans. Over 10 million of these devices, designed to dismember and disfigure rather than kill, have been laid. The Mines are often deployed in such a way as to terrorise the civilian population in the fields around besieged cities, or near water points. Hidden under the earth, they lie in wait to remove the limb of a farmer or a playing child. Nina Mosen writes about Paula Maria Romaro, a single mother of two and the only woman de-miner in Angola. Demining is a job thought to be a preserve of men. Nina reports on the challenges of being a women working in a male-dominated and risky job.
From Liberia, Hon. T. Q. Harris expresses his strong but bitter sentiments about the current insecurity crisis in the African continent and in particular Liberia. He laments over the ongoing conflict in Sierra Leone blaming the crisis on Liberian President Charles Tylor. All in all he castigates the international community for its attitude towards Africa's well known human rights violators.
The Nuba people living in the Nuba Mountains have for a long time been deprived of their livelihood and the means of protecting and developing their culture. They are currently isolated from the entire world. No access by land has been possible for over ten years. This is in order to weaken their defenses, destroy economy and deprive them of their ancestral land. In the midst of all this, Clement Njoroge reports on a community of local people who work and participate in their community with the poor resources that they have. They are confident in what they are doing, they express their hopes and fears. It is amazing how strong spirited they are. On the same note as reported by Stephen Amin, Nuba Relief Rehabilitation and Development Society (NRRDS), accuses the UN, OAU and other international organisations of not being serious with issues regarding the Nuba people.
Hobbs Gama from Malawi reports on the rising number of rape and defilement cases in the country. Some people have attributed this to the spread of pornography, declining morals among members of society, among other reasons. However legal practitioners cite the law as being inadequate and unclear on this matter.
Father Kizito tells of the danger of the church conforming to the latest fashionable political thinking rather than proclaiming the gospel. He cites the South Africa's churches role during apartheid as a good example of how the church conforms to the world ignoring atrocity because it is convenient to do so. Along with that, he gives the parable of Adaka the old man who has a lifetime lesson for you to interpret.
Africanews staff
