May 13, 2013.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:    

The African Development Bank says the continent's 'lift-off' is held back by illicit financial drain.

Mali asks international donors for €2-billion to rebuild its country.

And, the United Nations reveals that some 800 000 people will need food aid in Niger in the coming months.

The African Development Bank says Africa's economic development is being held back by a "hemorrhage" of illicit financial flows, which may be getting worse. Calling for reforms to stem the losses, the regional multilateral institution said illicit financial flows were "the main driving force" behind $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion of the three-decade net drain in the continent.

A draft report to be presented at the AfDB's annual meeting in Morocco later this month shows net resource outflows from Africa totalling up to $1.4-trillion over the 30-year period to 2009, far exceeding inflows to the continent. This is about four times Africa's current external debt and almost equivalent to its current GDP.

The illicit outflows between 1980 and 2009 were often linked to the extraction of oil and minerals and covered criminal activities like money-laundering, tax evasion and transfers from corruption, kickbacks and contraband.

The report, by the AfDB and the Washington-based advocacy group Global Financial Integrity made available to newswire Reuters, called for anti-corruption agencies and laws, and mechanisms to combat money-laundering, to be reinforced and for government budget processes to be made more transparent.

Mali will ask international donors for nearly €2-billion to help rebuild the country and try to halt a resurgence of al Qaeda-linked Islamists who were driven out of the major northern towns by a French-led offensive.

In a document drawn up for an international donors' conference in Brussels on Wednesday, the Malian government said it would be able to finance just over half of a €4.34-billion plan for this year and next, but needed help with the rest.

The Mali government said that the international community is greatly needed to finance and implement the plan, up to a level of €1.96-billion. It added that to get out of the crisis and to begin lasting development, Mali needs and depends on the technical and financial support of the international community.

The plan sets out 12 priorities, including keeping the peace, organising credible elections and fighting corruption. Diplomatic sources said a conference organised by France and the European Union next week, will aim to raise at least $600-million to $700-million.

The United Nations says some 800 000 people will require food aid in Niger in the coming months despite a good harvest last year. This is owing to problems supplying cereals to markets, which have pushed up prices, and an influx of Malian refugees.

The UN office for humanitarian coordination (or OCHA) cited problems with supplying food to markets in some areas, such as the northern mining region of Arlit and Tahoua in central Niger and Tillabery in the west, which had driven up cereals prices, adding that the presence of some 60 000 refugees from Mali has exacerbated the food shortages in Tillabery and Tahoua.

Recurrent shortages in recent years have forced pastoralists to sell livestock, including valuable young females normally kept for breeding, reducing their resistance to food shocks.

OCHA said the refugees would need food from now until the start of the rainy season, which is usually in July and August. It also said Niger had appealed to international donors for $354-million in February to tackle this year's food crisis, down from $490-million in 2012, of which only two-thirds was received.

Also making headlines:

Sudan has accused South Sudan of having supported rebels attacking a major town.

Pressure mounts on the White House over accusations that it covered up details of last year's deadly assault on a US mission in Libya.

And, five suicide bombers die in failed attacks in northern Mali.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.