- A new accord between Senegal and Mauritania sets down the rules for the passage of animal herders across the shared border, a problem that once erupted into a deadly war.
Each year in the lean season before the rains of May and June, at least a million head of Mauritanian cattle, or between 5 and 10 percent of the country’s livestock, cross the border into Senegal and Mali to get water and pasture before the rainy season replenishes Mauritania’s arid plains.
“This agreement is important because the competition is getting stronger and stronger between agriculturalists and cattle breeders” said Moktar Fall, director of cattle breeding at the Ministry of Rural and Environmental Development.
According to the new agreement, which was signed in Nouakachott on 25 April 2006, herdsmen will have to apply for official permits to allow them to cross the frontier. Crossings will be allowed only during daylight and at fixed points.
In a nod to mounting health concerns in the region, the agreement also stipulates that the two countries will exchange information on health and sanitation issues, and obliges the herders to give information on the vaccination of their cattle.
“In the coming days this text will be sent to all the Mauritanian authorities and translated into the different languages of the country”, said Fall.
When a dispute over flows of cattle across the shared border reached boiling point in 1989 it sparked a brief bloody border war between Mauritania and Senegal, in which hundreds of people died on both sides of the border and tens of thousands fled.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.