WHEN terrorists in Nigeria organized a secret attack last month, they didn’t target an army barracks, a police department or a drone base. No, Boko Haram militants attacked what is even scarier to a fanatic: a girls’ school.
Leaders have opposed attempts to amend the law to reduce the number of women representation in Parliament and in county assemblies. Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro admitted that the country was agonising over how to achieve the two-third gender rule by 2015, but said women’s rights must be protected.
WOMEN from South Africa's ruling African National Congress outlined actions to mobilise civil society and government organisations to explore ways of ensuring the release of the schoolgirls Boko Haram members kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State recently.
Source: The Point
The first Gambian female governor in the history of the country, Siffai Hydara, has reaffirmed her allegiance and loyalty to the APRC party under the leadership of President Yahya Jammeh, adding that she would do her utmost best to live up to expectations in raising the flag of the Gambian women.
Source: South Sudan News Agency
PRESS RELEASE
The South Sudan Women Cry for Peace Group have been following the unfortunate events that unfolded on the 15th of December 2013 with sadness. To that effect the group was established in January 2014 and thereafter released two statements dated the 7th of January and the 21st of February 2014 respectively.
Source: Angola Press
Ngonguembo — At least 947 women from Ngonguembo municipality, northern Cuanza Norte province, were immunised against tetanus in April, under the vaccination campaign promoted by the local health authorities, aiming to prevent the referred disease in ladies in fertile age.
Source: Daily Trust
Lagos — All Progressive Congress (APC) women leader, Barrister Sharon Ikeazor, has urged the first lady, Patience Jonathan, to visit the women whose children were abducted in Chibok, Borno State.
Source: Leadership
The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria by Boko Haram insurgents is more than just an act of terrorism against the federal government; it is a direct attack on the right of women to an education, said Donald Kaberuka, President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Tunis. The kidnapping also puts the very future of the country in danger as school learners represent that future, he added.
Source: The Reporter
I never considered my mother a gambler, but looking back to my earliest days in Ethiopia, I realize that the likelihood of my mother and me both dying during childbirth was alarmingly high. When I was born, the lifetime risk of a mother dying during pregnancy or childbirth in Ethiopia was about 1 in 14.
Source: The Star
Recent reports that a 13-year-old girl died after excessive bleeding due to botched female circumcision in Kajiado county and the subsequent arrest of a chief who aided the circumcision of four girls including his two daughters in Narok county shows that the war against female genital mutilation is far from being won.
Source: Daily Trust
Lagos — Women from various Non-Governmental Organisations will today embark on a nationwide protest to demand release of the abducted Chibok school girls.
Source: Daily Independent
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has condemned the impression being created by a section of the press that the military lacks the capacity to rescue the girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok.
Source: News24
Abuja — THE kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria by Boko Haram insurgents is more than an act of terrorism against the federal government but a direct attack on the rights of women to an education.
Source: This Day Live
A human rights organisation, for Women BAOBAB yesterday demanded an apology from the First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan, for parents of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls for expressing doubts that the abduction ever took place.
Source: The New Times
Even the healthiest pregnancy can pose serious health consequences such as infection, obstructed labour, high blood pressure, and severe bleeding. The use of a midwife is key to a healthy and safe pregnancy and childbirth but they often work in decrepit health facilities and lack required resources, supplies and equipment.
Source: Daily Trust
Eminent figures like Desmond Tutu, Bill and Melinda Gates, Aliko Dangote, Rupert Murdoch, Mo Ibrahim, Ted Turner and François-Henri Pinault among global business, civil society and religious leaders are calling for urgent action and resources to rescue the abducted schoolgirls of Chibok, Borno state.
Source: NPR
As Rwanda began to rebuild itself from the ashes of the 1994 genocide, something unexpected happened: Women began playing a much more influential role on many fronts, including politics.
Source: Vanguard
OPINION
ON Monday, April 14, 2014 over 200 young female students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State were abducted by Boko Haram members, sending shock waves across the globe. It is believed that the gunmen took the girls to the Sambisa forest near the Cameroonian border.
Source: Times of Zambia
GOVERNMENT will revise pieces of legislation and the administration strategy to ensure women have access to economic resources including rights to ownership of land.
Source: The New Times
INTERVIEW
Jeni Klugman is the Director of Gender and Development at the World Bank. Last week she was in Rwanda to attend the Oxford Human Rights Conference on Women and Poverty. She also visited adolescent girls and women empowerment projects around Kigali.