International


South Sudan: South Sudan’s Loan Requests to Oil Companies Rebuffed

Aug 25, 2015 | Radio Tamazuj

South Sudan’s government has been unsuccessfully seeking $200 million in loans from oil companies since June 2014, according to officials. Officials in both the ministry…


China/Vietnam/South China Sea: China Oil Rig to Keep Drilling in Waters Disputed with Vietnam

Aug 25, 2015 | Reuters

A Chinese oil rig at the center of last year's standoff between China and Vietnam will continue drilling not far from Vietnam's coast, China's maritime…


Water Wars: "Water Wars Are a Myth" - Expert Says Many Govts Eager to Cooperate

Aug 24, 2015 | Magdalena Mis, Thomson Reuters Foundation

The doom and gloom predictions of increasing battles around the world over water are a myth, with only a handful of disagreements over shared waters…


China/Vietnam/South China Sea: Controversial China Rig Completes Drilling Well Near Vietnam Coast

Aug 24, 2015 | Reuters

The Chinese oil rig at the center of last year's standoff between China and Vietnam over oil exploration in the South China Sea has completed…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Israel turns to Kurds for Three-Quarters of its Oil Supplies

Aug 23, 2015 | David Sheppard, John Reed, and Anjli Raval, Financial Times

Israel has bought as much as three-quarters of its oil from Iraqi Kurdistan in recent months, the Financial Times reported Sunday. According to the report,…


Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone Gold and Diamond Exports Plummet Due to Ebola

Aug 22, 2015 | AFP

Sierra Leone said Saturday gold exports had plunged three-fold and diamond exports nearly halved in the first half of 2015, a sign of the devastation…


Liberia: Shake-Up at Liberia Oil Firm Leaves Managers, Scores out of Job

Aug 22, 2015 | Rodney D. Sieh, FrontPageAfrica

Weeks after a FrontPageAfrica investigative report pointed to looming bankruptcy at the National Oil Company of Liberia, a decision has reportedly been reached to downsize…


Sierra Leone: H1 Diamond Exports Drop after Peak in April

Aug 21, 2015 | Awoko

Diamond exports for the first half (H1) of 2015 have dropped from a high of 64.5 thousand carats in April to 35.6 thousand carats in…


Zimbabwe: Housing Co-operative Sues Chikwinya for Land ‘Grabbing’

Aug 20, 2015 | Xolisani Ncube, NewsDay

Woman Affairs minister Nyasha Chikwinya has been taken to court for allegedly falsifying documents to claim ownership of land occupied by a housing co-operative in…


Food Security: Peace is Good for Food Security - Sasu

Aug 19, 2015 | Samuel Hinneh, GhanaWeb

Born into a farming family where Lydia Sasu, a farmer and the executive director of Development Action Association (DAA) witnessed her mother struggle to make…


DRC: SEC’s Disclosure Requirement on Conflict Minerals Again Ruled Unconstitutional — What Now?

Aug 19, 2015 | Jessica S. Lochmann, Frank S. Murray, and Mark T. Plichta, National Law Review

In a long-awaited decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (DC Circuit) reaffirmed its prior decision,…


Cambodia: Cambodian Government Takes Umbrage at US Congressman’s Comments on Land Grabs

Aug 18, 2015 | Radio Free Asia

Cambodia’s Ministry of Land Management is acting in accordance with the country’s laws and making an effort to respect citizens’ rights, a ministry official said…


DRC: D.C. Court Unleashes Conflict by Throwing out Conflict-Minerals Rule

Aug 18, 2015 | Daniel Fisher, Forbes

A federal appeals court in Washington threw out a regulation under the Dodd-Frank Act requiring public companies to state whether they use “conflict minerals” in…


Iraq: Iraq's Economy in Trouble

Aug 18, 2015 | Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press

As of July, Iraq's oil revenues stood at $31.5 billion, according to Oil Ministry figures, with an average daily export capacity less than a 3.3…


Iraq/Kurdistan/Turkey: Iraqi Kurdistan Says Oil Pipeline Sabotage Cost It $501 mln

Aug 18, 2015 | Reuters

Repeated sabotage by "organised gangs" of the oil pipeline from northern Iraq to Turkey has cost the autonomous Kurdistan region $501 million since July 1,…


Sudan: Volume of Sudanese Exports of Gum Arabic Reached 34.000 Tons

Aug 18, 2015 | Shadia Basheri, Sudan Vision

Gum Arabic is one of the important commodities that comes on the top of the Sudanese exports, especially after the outage of oil revenues because…


Liberia: Can New Minister Break Liberia’s Agriculture Curse?

Aug 17, 2015 | Rodney D. Sieh, FrontPageAfrica

In tipping the low-key, Dr. Moses Zinnah, head of the Agriculture Sector Rehabilitation Project, as only her third Minister of Agriculture, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Turkey Plays 'Key Role' in Iraqi Kurdish Oil

Aug 15, 2015 | Anadolu Agency

Turkey played a key role in transferring Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) oil to the international market, Turkey's energy minister said on Saturday. Speaking to reporters…


Afghanistan/Pakistan: Serious Water Wars Gathering Soot in Foreign Ministry

Aug 15, 2015 | Zeeshan Javaid, Pakistan Observer

Lack of communication between foreign office and ministry for water and power seemed to have put Pakistan and Afghanistan into uncertainty over the trans-border water…


Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan/Uzbekistan: World View: With Rise of ISIS, Violence Flares in Central Asia’s Fergana Valley

Aug 15, 2015 | John J. Xenakis, Breitbart

Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have sent troops and officials to a Fergana Valley (or Ferghana Valley) border regions where there are violence is increasing in…


Mining: How Developing Countries Are Paying a High Price for the Global Mineral Boom

Aug 15, 2015 | John Vidal, Guardian

The high price of gold in recent years has also attracted thousands of small-scale miners into fragile ecosystems. Yanomami Indians in northern Brazil and Venezuela…


Myanmar: Myanmar Farmers Need Help Replanting Rice after Floods: U.N.

Aug 15, 2015 | Timothy Mclaughlin, Reuters

Farmers in flood-hit Myanmar face a scramble to replant damaged paddy fields in the next two weeks to avoid food shortages, and aid efforts in…


Sierra Leone: NSAs Demand 25 Years Land Lease to Multinational Investments

Aug 14, 2015 | Awoko

As way to control land use and land lease to multinational foreign companies and ensuring women’s rights to own land, a group of Non-State Actors…


Iraq/Kuwait: Burning Kuwaiti Oil Wells Still Drain Iraqi Budget

Aug 13, 2015 | Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya News

Under a cash-strapped budget, Iraq today has to allocate its funds to a number of other obligations, including the fight against ISIS, contractual payments to…


Iraq: Iraq’s Oil Output Climbs to Record as South Escapes Fighting

Aug 12, 2015 | Nayla Razzouk, Bloomberg

Iraq’s crude production climbed to an all-time high in July with record exports from southern terminals mostly unscathed by Islamic State militants. Output in OPEC’s…


Liberia: 2 Wounded in Land Dispute

Aug 12, 2015 | Abednego Davis, Liberian Observer

A land dispute between Milton Bukeh, administrator of the intestate estate of the late Gbarbour, Kpawee, Flee, Napal and Ballah and his siblings left one…


Guinea: Using UAVs to Map Diamond Mines and Reduce Conflict in Africa

Aug 11, 2015 | Patrick Meier, iRevolutions

In June 2014, a joint USAID and USGS team used a small UAV to map artisanal diamond mining sites in Western Guinea. The purpose of this…


India: Special Court Set Up to Try Land-Grabbing Cases

Aug 11, 2015 | The Hindu

The State government, on Monday, issued a notification to establish a special court in Bengaluru for speedy inquiry and trial of land-grabbing cases. The court…


Liberia: Will Palm Oil Help Liberia? Industry Expansion Has Critics Crying Foul

Aug 11, 2015 | Sara Jerving, Mongabay

Many rural Liberians have had their lives upended as the country becomes a new frontier for the mass production of palm oil – an edible…


Liberia: Nimba Citizens Laud LEITI’s Extractive Education

Aug 11, 2015 | Cholo Brooks, Global News Network

Citizens of Nimba County have lauded the Liberia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (LEITI),for its nationwide dissemination exercise of its 5th report on the extractive sector…