Top Stories from DAWNS Digest
Kidnapped MSF Aid Workers Released in Somalia after Nearly Two Years
Two Spanish women captured by Al Shabab have been set free. “Somali militants entered the world’s largest refugee camp — Dadaab, in eastern Kenya — in October 2011 and took the two women after shooting and wounding their Kenyan driver. The attack was the third kidnapping of Europeans in Kenya in six weeks and was one of the reasons Kenya gave for sending troops into Somalia days later. Kenya’s military deployed troops and six helicopters to hunt for the kidnapped women. Security forces found their vehicle abandoned and mired in the desert, meaning the women were forced to march on foot into their captors’ lawless country.” (AP http://yhoo.it/18nLLsj)
Drop in Cashew Prices Leads to Dire Hunger Warning in Guinea-Bissau
The plummeting prices of the vital cash crop are imperilling livelihoods. “The 63 percent drop is due to plummeting international prices, reduced demand from Guinea-Bissau’s main cashew importer (India), the April 2012 coup, disagreements between the government and traders on benchmark price as well as banks’ decision to reduce loans to traders. ‘The result is a significant decrease of [people’s] food security which obliges them to revert to coping mechanisms such as skipping meals, reducing food intake, selling animals and so on,’ Ussama Osman, the World Food Programme (WFP) country director in Guinea-Bissau, told IRIN.” (IRIN http://bit.ly/1dHDXlR)