| LIBERIA: Disease rife as more people squeeze into fewer toilets |
 MONROVIA, 19 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Water and sanitation services in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, are getting worse as a growing urban population tries to squeeze more out of already skeletal services. On 19 November, World Toilet Day, NGOs are calling on the government to up its allocation, and on international donors to reprioritize funding to stamp out cholera and cut child mortality.
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SOMALIA: Galkayo threatened by rising insecurity |  NAIROBI, 18 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Escalating violence in the Somali town of Galkayo, Mudug region, is creating a climate of fear, which in turn has adversely affected livelihoods, residents say.
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GLOBAL: Food aid that gets you two for the price of one |  JOHANNESBURG, 18 November 2009 (IRIN Global) - Good quality food aid can save billions of dollars that would otherwise be spent on saving lives, says a major report from the World Bank, one of two new studies that uncover some unsettling facts about food aid and malnutrition.
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SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE: More than 2,000 Zimbabweans flee, fearing attacks |  JOHANNESBURG, 17 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official.
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SOMALIA: Saudi livestock move boosts Somaliland economy |  HARGEISA, 10 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Days after Saudi Arabia lifted a nine-year ban on livestock imports from Somalia, the market in Hargeisa, Somaliland, has seen a 10-fold increase in sales, according to local traders.
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LESOTHO: A mountain of challenges |  JOHANNESBURG, 6 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been feeding people in Lesotho since 1965, yet the tiny mountain kingdom is still not much closer to achieving food self-sufficiency. Time to overhaul the approach, aid agencies say.
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GUINEA: Political crisis only sharpens daily hardship |  DAKAR, 6 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.
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In Brief: Nine million Afghans living on less than a dollar a day - survey |  KABUL, 5 November 2009 (IRIN Global) - The average per capita monthly expenditure of nine million Afghans is less than 66 US cents a day, and millions of other Afghans spend about $42 a month, according to a summary of Afghanistan’s new National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA).
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ZIMBABWE: Kimberley Process ignores its own advice |  JOHANNESBURG, 5 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems.
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ZIMBABWE: Donors uneasy about Mugabe's threat |  HARARE, 4 November 2009 (IRIN Africa) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN.
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