COLOMBO , 02 August 2007 (IRIN) - When a massive mine-clearing programme began in 2002, with the signing of the ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), mine awareness was low, despite more than two decades of conflict and 1.5 million mines and other unexploded ordnance (UXOs) littering 10 districts in the northeast.

HARARE, 02 August 2007 (IRIN) - The lifestyle normally associated with an urban society is fast disappearing from Zimbabwe's once bustling capital, Harare.

BOUAKE, 02 August 2007 (IRIN) - Harassment, extortion and physical assault are rampant at Côte d’Ivoire’s ubiquitous roadblocks and unless stopped the scourge will make true peace and stability impossible, Ivorians say.

BUKAVU, 01 August 2007 (IRIN) - Thousands of internally displaced persons in eastern Congo, who spend nights in areas they consider safer, such as settlements close to UN peacekeepers, but return to their home farms during the day, have become known as 'pendulum' displaced. As a consequence of their constant movement, however, humanitarian workers struggle to determine the exact number of IDPs and how to effectively deliver aid to them.

LASHKARGAH, 01 August 2007 (IRIN) - Immediately after the Taliban were removed from power in October 2001, the international aid community pledged to help rebuild Afghanistan. While over US$10 billion in aid money has reportedly been spent in the country since 2002, the Afghan government has been unable to establish a meaningful presence in large swaths of its territory.

MBABANE, 01 August 2007 (IRIN) - Pamela moves lethargically down the queue of trucks waiting for customs clearance at the Lavumisa border post between southern Swaziland and South Africa; an unlikely place for a 13-year-old but, hungry and hopeless, she says selling herself for food to truckers is her only alternative.

MANSEHRA, 30 July 2007 (IRIN) - More than two weeks after the government’s recent storming of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, tensions in Mansehra district, home to just over one million inhabitants and where many of the mosque students hail from, remain high - seriously slowing quake reconstruction efforts in several areas.

NAIROBI, 31 July 2007 (IRIN) - Malaria is the most common disease in Africa’s largest slum, Kibera, in Nairobi, say health workers, but at a cool altitude of about 1,700m, the capital city has long been considered a non-malarial zone.