AFRICA :NEWS,CULTURE, SPORT.

Acergy reports the award of a contract valued at approximately $1.3 billion for the engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of a significant deepwater development, offshore West Africa.

Engineering will commence with immediate effect with offshore installation scheduled to commence Q4 2012, using the Acergy Borealis, the company’s new state of the art pipelay ship, the Acergy Eagle and Acergy LegendAcergy lands USD1.3bn deal offshore West Africa

By Phaedra Friend Troy

Acergy (NASDAQ:ACGY) has been awarded a $1.3 billion contract to supply engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of a significant deepwater development offshore West Africa.

Acergy will commence engineering immediately on the contract, and offshore installation is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of 2012. The pipelay vessel Acergy Borealis and the Acergy Eagle and Acergy Legen vessels will be used for the installation.

While the company statement did not reveal the project, in its quarterly report earlier this month Acergy hinted that the next big contract it would be awarded is Total’s (NYSE:TOT) CLOV project in Angola.

CLOV is a project based on the Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta discoveries on deepwater Block 17 offshore Angola. Development is expected to include an FPSO with production capacity of 160,000 barrels of oil a day.

Tags: ACERGY, WEST AFRICA

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Tuesday his dream of a United States of Africa was still alive and this week’s African Union summit was another step toward that objective.

Tags: AFRICAN UNION, KADAFFI, UNITED STATES OF AFRICA

Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 73% of the population living on less than a dollar a day. Only 46% of the people are literate.

America Ferrera, Save the Children’s education ambassador, remembers her first visit to a rural village in Africa. “Their school was made of sticks and mud,” she says. “There were four kids to a desk. The walls were coming down. Termites were eating the school.”

Before she left, Ferrera promised to return to build a new school. “These young children burst into applause. And as this mother of eight talked to me about the challenges of sending a daughter to school versus a son, she started to tear up,” she says.

That experience galvanized the “Ugly Betty” star’s commitment to Save the Children and its mission to create positive change in the lives of children in need both in the U.S. and around the world. She even launched her Build a School campaign on Facebook last December, quickly raising the $44,000 necessary to construct a the new school in the village of Dassadeni, Mali. Scheduled to open in October, the facility includes several classrooms, new textbooks, a library, water well and bathrooms.

Save the Children has other success stories.

“We did not have enough books for the 87 children who range in age from 6 to 14 years old,” says Aminata Bayago, a schoolmaster in Mounkoro, Mali. “We had many difficulties like lack of classrooms, benches and desks. We now have six new rooms thanks to Save the Children. And our children are happier. They often go to play in the school even on days off. And the children’s performances have improved because of the books.”

For more information. vistit savethechildren.org.

At least 21 people have been killed and 45 others injured in gun battle and mortars exchanged by Somali government troops backed by AMISOM and Al-Shabaab extremist militias since Tuesday, Radio Garowe reports.

The clashes broke out at Hodan district of Mogadishu and mortars were later landed in Bakaro Market and Hawlwadaag in the war-scared capital of Somalia.

“Most of the mortars hit Bakaro Market, Hodan and Howlwadaag districts and left dozens dead and others injured” witnesses told Garowe Online.

Somali insurgent groups now control large swaths of land in the country’s south-central regions over which the weak, Western-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has limited authority.

Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991 and the insurgent groups control large parts of its territory.

GAROWE ONLINE

Tags: Fresh Fighting Leaves 17 Dead In Somali Capital

SADTU President Thobile Ntola  Photograph by: Tyrone Arthur

More than 900,000 South African government workers will go on strike starting on Aug. 10 to demand an 8.6 percent wage increase.

It’s now official: More than 900,000 South African government employees will go on a strike beginning Aug. 10.

The strike will include teachers, nurses, immigration officers, Home Affairs ministry clerks, and customs officials in an industrial action that some worry could be as bad as the 2007 strike, which brought all government departments to a standstill.

“We have now come to a firm conclusion that we will go on strike,” said Fikile Slovo Majola, the secretary-general of the National Education, Health, & Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU). “As part of the preparations, we will start with a build-up program of pickets, marches, and demonstrations. We will have two national marches in Pretoria and Cape Town on Tuesday the 10th of August.”

The government workers are demanding an 8.6 percent wage increase and a 1,000 rand ($137) housing subsidy while the government is insisting their 6.5 percent offer is enough.

Speaking at the same function, South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) secretary-general, Mugwena Maluleke, said the 245,000-member group would join the strike.

“SADTU has resolved to embark on a strike,” said Maluleke. “All the provinces overwhelmingly rejected the 6.5 percent offer … and showed strong support for the strike.”

He said the teachers tried their best to avert the strike by looking for an amicable solution.

“We are committing ourselves to being available to engage with the employer for 24 hours and seven days a week but our pleas were not taken seriously,” said Maluleke.

The impact of the strikes will be “severe,” says South African businessman and former World Bank economist, Mutumwa Mawere. “Imagine what would happen if a teacher stops going to school? Children will be sidelined. This is a very unfortunate scenario.”

Tags: South Africa, STRIKE