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Kiamwangi, Kenya — If growing up in an agricultural community were the key to health, the children of Kiamwangi would be thriving. But Jane Hunyu, who farms a quarter-acre plot here, says the children in her region are nearly as frail as their grandparents.

Most of the youth in this central Kenyan village work in the foreign-owned horticultural farms that have sprung up along the highway linking rural Kenya with the capital, Nairobi. Others have either joined extortion gangs, or are in the hawking business, says Hunyu.

David Njagi

Machakos — For a couple that has weathered the dual tests of early retirement and repeated crop failures, it might have seemed an impossible dream to former primary-school teacher Philip Ngolania and his farmer wife that their three quarters of an acre farm could one day yield enough staple food to last an entire season.

Emma Johnson and Anthony Awunor in Lagos

Abuja — THE bloody Islamic sect, Boko Haram, yesterday issued an ultimatum to Christians living in the Northern part of the country to leave.

The sect threatened to confront soldiers following President Goodluck Jonathan's declaration of state of emergency in troubled areas in the country.

Pretoria — Help is on the way for the thousands of Somalis affected by the drought that is ravaging that country. Today, an aircraft carrying 264 tons of food aid will leave South Africa for Mogadishu via Nairobi.

The help is organized by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional leaders, following the declaration passed at their 31st Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government in August 2011.

The declaration encouraged SADC member states to assist the government and people of Somalia affected by the drought in the Horn of Africa.

Wacui Makori

Coastal Province — Among members of the Mijikenda community of Kenya's Coastal Province, it is taboo for a father-in-law's faeces to mix with those of his daughter-in-law.

Gender-separated open defecation spots are designated to ensure that this taboo is not broken. With such strong cultural edicts, the idea of a pit latrine - or a toilet of any kind for that matter - simply is not acceptable.

Nina Papachristou

The streets of Gatwekera village in Nairobi's Kibera slum throng with people on a recent Sunday afternoon. Small shops and kiosks line the dirt paths separating brightly colored shacks with tin roofs that extend as far as the eye can see. Gaggles of children chatter among themselves as they gather outside a local water kiosk, distinguished from the other tin structures by a sign proclaiming: "Life Force Kiosks: Take Water with Confidence."

Liberia is recovering from a 14-year civil conflict and quarter century of instability that killed an estimated 250,000 people and displaced three-quarters of the population.

The war decimated the west African nation, leaving it dependent on agricultural imports, largely food aid. While the agricultural sector still faces enormous infrastructural and capacity constraints, agriculture minister Dr. Florence Chenoweth is optimistic that the country can feed itself within five years. AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana and Tami Hultman talked to her in Monrovia.

Excerpts:

Cindy Shiner

Interview

There has been a dramatic drop in the number of cases of meningitis A in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso following the vaccination of nearly 20 million people against the disease, according to the Meningitis Vaccine Project.

Robert B. Zoellick and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

We have encouraging news out of Africa this week of World Malaria Day, as we take stock of the illnesses and deaths caused by this longtime scourge.

Eleven countries in Africa had slashed the number of confirmed malaria cases, malaria-related hospital admissions or deaths by more than 50 percent by end 2009. When 2010 data becomes available we expect it to show that even more countries have shown similar progress.