By Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala; Editing by James Macharia and Alistair Lyon31 October 2012 DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzanian police have seized more than 200 elephant tusks hidden in a coffin and in fertilizer bags, pointing to rising poaching in the east African country, officials said on Wednesday. “This is the biggest seizure of elephant tusks […]
By Jeremy Hance22 October 2012 (mongabay.com) – Hong Kong authorities have confiscated two massive shipments of elephant tusks, totaling 1,209 tusks, stemming from Kenya and Tanzania. Representing over 600 poached elephants, the shipments are estimated to be worth $3.4 million on the black market. African elephants are being decimated for their tusks in recent years […]
22 July 2012 (Daily Nation) – A diplomatic row is simmering after Tanzanians living around the Serengeti Game Reserve allegedly set the area on fire to block the wildebeest migration. The infernos that have lasted for two weeks have delayed hundreds of wildebeest from Serengeti plains gathered on the Mara River ready to cross into […]
By Clar Ni Chonghaile, www.guardian.co.uk25 May 2012 NAIROBI – Even as drought persists in parts of Kenya’s arid north, intense rains are claiming lives in other parts of the country – flooding slums in the capital Nairobi, sweeping away hikers in the Rift Valley, and destroying crops. Many Kenyans shake their heads in dismay at […]
By Katy Migiro; Editing by Rebekah Curtis13 February 2012 NAIROBI (AlertNet) – East Africa, still battling a hunger crisis, should be prepared for another dry spell and further food insecurity due to the persistence of La Niña weather conditions that last year brought severe drought to the region, weather forecasters have warned. “La Niña conditions […]
By Randolph T. Holhut, American Reporter Correspondent11 February 2012 DUMMERSTON, Vermont – There is virtually no doubt that global warming exists. Aside from a few cranks and those heavily invested in the fossil fuel industry, the scientific consensus is that the Earth’s climate is changing, and changing faster than ever before. What happens when the […]
By Abjata Khalif 3 February 2012 MARSABIT – Nomadic communities living off the dry terrain of northern Kenya have relied for generations on the powers of village elders to predict the weather. But the divinations of traditional forecasters were confounded by an unexpectedly severe drought in 2011, threatening herders’ livelihoods. Now pastoralists and meteorological experts […]
[Desdemona’s been following this story since the beginning: Mau forest evictees. It’s a true climate refugee tragedy and emblematic of the kinds of terrible decisions nations will be forced to make as large swaths of the planet become uninhabitable.] By Peter Kahare24 January 2012 RIFT VALLEY, Kenya (IPS) – Six-year-old Victor Muruga points to a […]
By John Vidal, environment editor, www.guardian.co.uk 1 December 2011 We are right on the equator, and Speke, Moebius, Elena, Savoia, and Moore, the five great glaciers of the the Rwenzori, the Mountains of the Moon, glint in the bright Ugandan sun. Usually lost in the mists that cloak these peaks up to 5,100 metres high, […]
By Will Ross BBC East Africa correspondent26 October 2011 A combination of a military build-up in Somalia and heavy rains are making the humanitarian relief effort in the country even harder, the UN has warned. Some four million people in Somalia need food and other assistance because of the drought and famine. Eleven days ago, […]
