by Joe Brock
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| In this Dec. 22, 2005 file photo, people evacuate their homes by boat, as they pass smoke and flames billowing from a burning oil pipeline belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company, across the Opobo Channel in Asagba Okwan Asarama, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. (AP Photo/George Osodi, File) |
LONDON – Oil gushing from an undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico has damaged BP’s reputation and share price but accidents involving other companies in less scrutinized parts of the world have avoided the media glare.
Investors have knocked around $30 billion off BP’s value since an explosion at a drilling rig killed 11 people and began an oil spill the London-based major is struggling to plug nearly a month after the accident happened. Continue reading Africa’s Oil Spills Are Far From U.S. Media Glare
With celebrations of the 50th anniversary of independence coming up in June this year, as well as important elections next year, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government is keen for the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission, known as MONUC, to start withdrawing within the next few months. They want MONUC out of the mission area by September 2011. 
Gao, in northeastern Mali, is closer to Algeria than to the capital Bamako, 1250km to the south. On a journey from Bamako to Gao – an uninterrupted 22 hours on a bus – I meet Mohamed (21) and Camara (26), two young men determined to reach the Algerian capital Algiers and from there travel on to Europe – their imagined Eldorado. While the stories of these two young men cannot be generalised, they are largely representative of the motives and conditions of many young Africans who embark on perilous journeys to try and reach Europe illegally. 