Steinunn Gunnsteinsdóttir admits that it took her family more than a few attempts to be able to make leather from fish skins. “The first 200 times we just made smelly fish soups,” she says. Ms Gunnsteinsdóttir is the sales manager of Icelandic company Atlantic Leather, which owns the only fish tannery in Europe. Overlooking a fjord on Iceland’s remote north… Read more »
The Democratic Republic of Congo has some of highest rates of sexual violence in the world. But a new approach is trying to tackle this by encouraging men to confront and question their toxic masculinity. Moises Bagwiza is one of the men who now reflects with regret on his past, and his recollections of how he treated and raped his… Read more »
The World Health Organization says it expects the number of deaths from the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo to pass the 1,000 mark today. WHO Deputy Director General Dr Michael Ryan says all efforts to control the spread of the disease are being hampered by continuing violence in the region. Numerous rebel groups are active in eastern… Read more »
Celebrations to mark World Press Freedom day in South Sudan were postponed for the funeral of former BBC reporter Alfred Taban, who died last weekend in Uganda aged 62. Taban was also the founder and former editor-in-chief of the Khartoum Monitor. It was Sudan’s first independent English-language paper – launched in September 2000 and renamed the Juba Monitor after South… Read more »
Gunmen in the far north-east of Kenya have kidnapped two Cuban doctors and killed an armed policeman travelling with them. They are believed to have been taken to neighbouring Somalia, reports say. The police suspect the attackers were members of the Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabab, a security source told the AFP news agency. Last year, more than 100 Cuban… Read more »
A US tourist and her guide have been rescued after they were kidnapped at gunpoint while on safari in Uganda. Kimberly Endicott, 35, and Jean-Paul Mirenge were set upon as they drove through the Queen Elizabeth National Park on the evening of 2 April. Ugandan Police said then that kidnappers used one of their phones to demand a ransom of… Read more »
The Ebola outbreak is the second biggest in history – infecting 1,206 people and killing 764. It shows no sign of being contained soon. Efforts by healthcare workers have been hampered by conflict and rebel attacks. And experts have warned it will be “very difficult to bring it under control”. But Prof Robert Steffen, chairman of the WHO’s emergency committee… Read more »
Two gorillas have been photographed posing for a relaxed selfie with the rangers who rescued them as babies. The image was taken at a gorilla orphanage in Virunga National Park, DR Congo, where the animals were raised after poachers killed their parents. The park’s deputy director told BBC Newsday that they had learned to imitate their carers, who have looked… Read more »
More than a quarter of people surveyed in Ebola-hit areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo told researchers they do not believe the disease exists. Some 36% of respondents also believed that the disease had been fabricated to destabilise the country. The authors of the study said this mistrust was a factor in prolonging the epidemic. The current outbreak started… Read more »
The Ebola virus has reared its head again, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While it is impossible to predict exactly where and when the next outbreak will occur, we now know much more about how to prevent a crisis. The news of an Ebola outbreak in the town of Bikoro in north-west DR Congo instantly brings to… Read more »