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22nd December 2005 - Programme Number 79

Liberia Faces Some Problems As It Prepares to Form a New Government:
LRA Makes Humanitarian Access Difficult in Northern Uganda:
African Cotton Farmers Seek Fairness in International Trade:

The head of the United Nations mission in Liberia, Alan Doss, says that following the presidential elections, the country is set to make the transition to political stability. Mr. Doss says the UN is determined to help Liberia so that it does not relapse into turmoil. "This is a country that is emerging from twenty-five years of instability and wars. It's not all going to be done in a few short months. It is going to take time. We have to stay the course. We have to invest."

The Lord's Resistance Army has increased its attacks on civilians and relief workers in Northern Uganda. The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland says these attacks are making it difficult for humanitarian workers to assist millions of displaced people in the country. "While the overall number of LRA combatants may not have increased, they have spread over a larger area and now constitute a significant threat to regional security, with appalling consequences for several million people."

An agreement reached at the end of the World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong on Sunday includes ending export subsidies to cotton farmers by the end of 2006. Mohammed Adam Nashiru, a cotton farmer from Ghana, says subsiding cotton farmers in the developed countries is putting African farmers at a disadvantage.

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