I take back what I said in my previous post, as the Turkish army has announced it bombed 31 targets inside northern Iraq since October 4. I guess I was too busy packing to check the news properly. The seventh air raid took place yesterday, although, as a caveat, I must note that many believe […]

EUFOR on patrol in Farchana
When the sun comes up in eastern Chad, the dawn of a new day brings with it a host of daunting challenges. Soon the temperatures will rise to 50 degrees Celsius. A patch of shade will be the only mercy one can find in these parts, and the quest for resources […]

Camp Iridimi, Eastern Chad
I spent a month wandering around eastern Chad, along the border with Sudan, where some 250,000 Darfuris fled a genocidal conflict to settle in massive refugee camps tended to by the UNHCR and a complex sub-network of international and local aid agencies. It has been more than four years now since the […]

A downed Chadian army helicopter lies in the desert sands just outside Abeche.
In Abeche now, the day was very calm. After checking with various people about the security situation, we took a drive up north to Biltin to have a chat with the governor and get his authorization to work as journalists in the area. […]

Arrival in N’djamena, Chad June 17, 2008.
Things are calm in the capital after a series of rebel attacks in the east destabilized regular proceedings and raised the alert levels considerably. The rebels have apparently passed back over the border into Sudan now. Things seem to be relatively under control according to reports, but it’s still […]

Here is a good place to donate for Burmese victims of Cyclone Nargis.
Friends have been streaming in with various reports from Burma. Most of us have been denied visas. The situation is not good for the Burmese, and the junta’s comportment is, in my opinion, tantamount to genocide. The world’s dumbfounded silence and the media […]

For those of you who have been keeping up with my regular posts, thanks for stopping in. I will be taking a break from my reporting on Kenya and shall return in a month’s time. To view the multimedia slideshow I put together about the Kenyan crisis, click here.

Nairobi, Nakuru, Naivasha, Nyieri and Eldoret were all affected by yesterday’s Mungiki demonstrations. A day after President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga named the cabinet, one would have expected Kenya to be celebrating. Instead, the capital city was completely paralyzed by road blocks set up by the Mungiki at key strategic points around […]

A young man hacks at bolts holding the railway line together in Kibera slums. © Anne Holmes
Residents of Nairobi’s Kibera slum continued to pull up the railway line late into the evening and all morning until an agreement was struck with police. Community leaders came into the slum to discuss an end to the operation, […]