Disaster

No stranger to the world of missions, Caroline has built up a wealth of experience in the field of humanitarian aid. After an initial posting in Haiti, where she worked on our schools health education project, she decided to specialise in this field and took a Masters in public health. In 2005, after completing her course, Caroline began her first mission in Mali, where she spent two years as the maternal health project manager. Conscious that Handicap International’s mission was making a difference, she decided to return to Mali as health coordinator in 2009.

BAMAKO, 25 mai 2012 (AFP) - Les principaux chefs d'Al-Qaïda au Maghreb islamique (Aqmi) et d'Ansar Dine, les deux groupes islamistes dominants dans le nord du Mali, sont réunis depuis jeudi dans la ville de Tombouctou pour évoquer leurs relations, a-t-on appris vendredi de sources concordantes.

"Les responsables d'Aqmi et d'Ansar Dine ont commencé jeudi une rencontre à Tombouctou pour parler de leurs relations futures", a affirmé à l'AFP un responsable du Haut Conseil islamique (HCI) à Tombouctou.

DAKAR/OUAGADOUGOU, 25 May 2012 (IRIN) - Unexpectedly sharp price rises in April for local cereals like millet, rice and maize in parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad mean many vulnerable people in the drought-hit Sahel could find it even harder to get enough to eat.

05/24/2012 22:17 GMT

OUAGADOUGOU, 24 mai 2012 (AFP) - Au moins 25 Burkinabè ont été tués entre mardi et jeudi lors d'affrontements intercommunautaires à la frontière entre le Mali et le Burkina Faso, a-t-on appris auprès du gouvernement burkinabè.

"Un conflit intercommunautaire entre Peuls originaires du Burkina Faso et des Dogons maliens" survenu dans le village malien de Sari (centre), à quelques kilomètres de la frontière, "a fait 25 morts au moins côté burkinabè", a déclaré à l'AFP le ministre burkinabè de l'Administration territoriale, Jérôme Bougouma.

Aid agencies have warned that the West African country of Niger will fall into famine unless the world takes immediate action.

More than 15 million people across West Africa are affected by a hunger crisis. Agencies have been pleading for early intervention in the land-locked region of Niger for six months.

But as previous famines show, help usually arrives late, and only after the world has been shocked by pictures of starving children.

Denise Brown from the World Food Program fears mass starvation is now inevitable.

DSG/SM/617
AFR/2394

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks to the African Ambassadors’ Group on “Building on Africa’s Recent Progress”, in Washington, D.C., 23 May:

I am honoured to address this distinguished group. I feel very much at home. Every year on Africa Day, we recognize the people and promise of Africa.