Vienna, Austria, June 17, 2013. The Governing Board of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), meeting in its 143rd Session on June 13, has approved 17 loans and grants totaling over US$234 million to boost socio-economic development in over 44 partner countries. The majority of the public sector funding will co-finance transportation, energy and water supply and sanitation projects.

The approved public sector loans are as follows:

Burkina Faso

Introduction

There has been widespread interest in Sahel violence since the Arab Spring in 2011/2012. This analysis reviews politically violent events from that period and in historical perspective to explain dominant patterns in conflict across Sahel states and the broader African continent in comparative perspective.

DAKAR/NIAMEY, 13 June 2013 (IRIN) - West African and Sahel countries are setting up measures to minimize flood damage as the annual rainy season approaches. The African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) in a seasonal weather outlook says near-average or above-average rainfall is likely over the western Sahel, which stretches across Mauritania, Senegal and western and central Niger.

DAKAR, SENEGAL — As the rainy season begins in West and Central Africa, meteorological experts are warning of above average rainfall, flash floods and overflowing rivers in the western Sahel. Aid agencies say that early preparation is key to reducing the risks associated with such natural disasters, as well as building up people’s resilience to deal with the aftermath.

Experts from the African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) say that rainfall in West and Central Africa could exceed 130 percent of normal precipitation this year.

Despite control operations, adult groups and small swarms formed and are expected to move to the northern Sahel and breed with the onset of the summer rains, causing locust numbers to increase further.

11 juin 2013 – Robert Piper, le Coordonnateur régional des secours humanitaires des Nations Unies pour le Sahel, a lancé mardi un appel à la communauté internationale pour la mobilisation de 1,1 milliard de dollars, afin de faire face à la crise alimentaire et nutritionnelle qui affecte 1,6 million de personnes dans la région du Sahel.