News: When Green goes Commercial: the new colonization of Africa

More than a century after the last “scramble for Africa”, when European powers fought to colonise the continent, there is a new stampede into one of the world’s biggest areas of uncultivated terrain.

Last year, by one estimate, the government of Mozambique received bids from foreign investors to buy 110,000 square kilometres of land, more than an eighth of the entire country.

In neighbouring Tanzania, a Swedish company, is bidding for 50,000 hectares on the banks of a lake in the Rufiji province. And that is just one example.

Why? A rush from European companies to grow biofuel.(Full)

It begs to think if agrable land can not be used for better purposes. Using the same two examples: Tanzania has more than 40 percent of the population in chronic food-deficit regions where irregular rainfall causes recurring food shortages. Mozambique has 660,000 vulnerable people in need food assistance, and suffers from yearly flooding displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

More about biofuel on The Road.

Source: International Aid Workers Today
Picture courtesy Robert Maas/WFP

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News: Mozambique Cyclone Jokwe Flooding

Mozambique continues to suffer from excessive rain fall this season. Last month, it was Cyclone Ivan, last week it was Cyclone Jokwe.

It looks like the prediction we made early January unfortunately came true. In an earlier post, I showed pictures of the flooding from January.

Here is a pictorial update from the relief operation on the ground, by Joakim Kembro, one of our colleagues who just returned from Caia in Mozambique.

This is why we do this work:




Moving food relief by barges and by air:





Anyone who thinks we live and work in poshy offices, think again...:




Actual food distributions:




Nice sunsets are an added bonus:



Click on the collage for the slide show:


Pictures courtesy Joakim Kembro

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News: Zambezi Floods in Mozambique

At work, a team just came back from Mozambique where we provide assistance with the floods, caused by the Zambezi river, due to excessive rain.

They brought these pictures with them. They show clearly the size of the devestation, the amount of farm land that was flooded, and the isolation of the villages in the Zambezi flood water.
(click on the collage to see the slide show)


Pictures courtesy Francesca Erdelmann and Jeronimo Tovela, with thanks to Eva-Kristin Urestad Pedersen.

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News: Floods At Start of Southern Africa's Rainy Season

Floods in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia are affecting at least 16,000 people, possibly of thousands more. We are only at the start of Southern Africa's rainy season, which typically lasts from November to April. This year, as happened in 2007, floods are occurring earlier than usual in some countries. Let's hope we are not heading for a new regional emergency as happened one year ago. (full report and news article)

Picture (2007 Mozambique floods) courtesy BBC. Source: The Other World News

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