It is the Western powers’ strategy of training, funding, and arming ‘moderate’ jihadists to fight against the ‘radicals’ that is now backfiring with deadly consequences, writes Brahma Chellaney

Irish Examiner reporter, Caroline O'Doherty, travelled to Burkino Faso with Christian Aid staff and in her report reveals the work they are doing and the challenges they, and other aid agencies, face in the growing global fight against famine and drought. 

Michael Werz and Max Hoffman say the effects of climate change, such as drought, flooding and the undermining of agriculture, are among the drivers of migration and policymakers need to face up to that.

The slaying of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent Nigerians has not garnered the sort of outrage the Paris attacks did. Why is this so, asks Áine Carroll

The head of Burkina Faso’s armed forces has taken power after President Blaise Compaore resigned amid mass demonstrations against an attempt to extend his 27-year rule in the West African country.

The whitethroats numbers have been affected by climate change in its winter home in the Sahel.

The EU has given over €100m to Mali during the recent conflict there. This support must continue, writes Joe Costello

French and Malian troops retook control of Timbuktu, a Unesco World Heritage site, yesterday after Islamist rebel occupiers fled the ancient Sahara trading town and torched several buildings, including a priceless manuscript library.

Radical Islamists have fled a key Malian town on foot following French air strikes.

West African leaders met in the Ivory Coast today for a special summit to discuss how to step up their role in Mali as the French-led military intervention to oust Islamic extremists from power entered its second week.

French troops in Mali concentrated on containing al Qaeda linked rebels in a town near the capital while the EU and African states rushed to support their action with troops and strategic supplies.

Islamist guerrillas are turning the vast Sahara into a new theatre of war against the West, writes Alex Diaz

France is ready to prevent new terror attacks after its military operation to push back al-Qaida-linked insurgents grabbing territory in Mali, the country’s top security official said today.

The crisis that is looming in the Sahel region of Africa threatens millions with hunger, and comes as world leaders convened this week for their Rio + 20 UN Summit to review how sustainable development can achieve poverty eradication in the world.

The heads of three UN agencies are appealing for urgent funds to deal with the growing humanitarian crisis in Africa’s Sahel region.

UNICEF Ireland has raised €75,000 for the Sahel Food Crisis following Mia Farrow's visit to Dublin.

Ireland is providing €5m in funding for emergency relief in the Sahel region of West Africa.

Five children around the world die every minute because of chronic malnutrition, according to a report that also said almost half a billion children are at risk of permanent damage over the next 15 years.

The EU is doubling humanitarian aid to Africa’s Sahel area to €95 million in a “race against time” to lift two million people facing food shortages out of danger.

Gunmen murdered a German man in Mali’s most famous city and seized three men from the Netherlands, South Africa and Sweden, as officials ordered a plane to evacuate foreigners from the tourist destination.

LIBYAN provisional government forces backed by NATO warplanes raced into the eastern outskirts of Sirte yesterday and fought street battles with Muammar Gaddafi loyalists.

William Maclean on why the manhunt for Gaddafi cannot be prolonged

PRODUCING food to combat world hunger and under-nutrition among children was the focus of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation forum yesterday in Rome, Italy, as part of the UN’s World Food Day initiative.

A US citizen of Algerian origin suspected of financing al-Qaida’s North African offshoot has been arrested in Spain, officials said today.

Drought-stricken Niger has been struck by devastating flooding, aid agencies said today.

THE weekend before last I was in Lanesborough for the annual Lough Ree environmental summer school. I had the pleasant job of guiding boatloads of people on the lake and the river and showing off their beauty.

THE area of North County Dublin where I live used to be farmed.

BIRDWATCH Ireland needs your help; they want you to report any cuckoos, swallows or swifts which you see during the next few weeks. These three bird species are easy to identify, even without binoculars, so you don’t have to be a regular birdwatcher to do your bit.

I RINGED four blackcaps in the last month. What’s so remarkable about that you may ask; blackcaps are common birds nowadays.

THE WORD for May, Bealtine, originally meant bright fire. “During the May festival, a great fire was lit to encourage the sun, and greenery was brought into the house symbolising the desire for future prosperity...”; so begins a press release for a new book, The Lore of the Land, an encyclopaedia of Myth, Legend and Romance, by Dáithí Ó hOgáin, associate professor of Folklore at UCD.

Niger’s president played down the food crisis ravaging his desert nation, saying that people in the impoverished West African country “look well-fed”.

THE United Nations’ food aid agency urged donors not to forget the other hard-hit countries in Africa’s Sahel region, saying they face similar hunger crises to the one in neighbouring Niger.

Two more cargo planes have been chartered to bring vital supplies to Niger.

A mammoth locust infestation that destroyed crops throughout West Africa this year has not seriously affected food production in most of the region, according to the United Nations.

An invasion of locusts that has destroyed millions of acres of crops in North Africa is heading toward Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, a UN agency warned today.

Squeezed out of sanctuaries elsewhere in the world, Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror group may be looking to the deserts and jungles of Africa as a haven to train recruits and plan new attacks, the deputy head of US forces in Europe says.

A STUDY says pollution from industrial nations was one of the possible causes of a devastating African famine that left 1.2 million people dead.