Huge reserves of underground water in some of the driest parts of Africa could provide a buffer against the effects of climate change for years to come, scientists said on Friday.

Researchers from the British Geological Survey and University College London have for the first time mapped the aquifers, or groundwater, across the continent and the amount they hold.

"The largest groundwater volumes are found in the large sedimentary aquifers in the North African countries Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan," the scientists said in their paper.

Ahead of the World Bank's Spring Meetings here this week, government ministers from almost 40 developing countries are meeting with UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, UK International Development Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell, Chair of the United Nations Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation HRH the Prince of Orange, and major donors and water and sanitation sector organizations, to discuss speeding up global access to water and sanitation.

Huge reserves of underground water in some of the driest parts of Africa could provide a buffer against the effects of climate change for years to come, scientists said on Friday.

Researchers from the British Geological Survey and University College London have for the first time mapped the aquifers, or groundwater, across the continent and the amount they hold.

"The largest groundwater volumes are found in the large sedimentary aquifers in the North African countries Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan," the scientists said in their paper.

New Delhi: While admitting that the decision to send a special envoy to South Sudan and Sudan to broker peace between the two nations was a policy departure for India, the government said on Wednesday that this had become unavoidable not just to advance the nation’s larger strategic interests in Africa, but also because Juba’s decision to halt oil production was resulting in a loss of $400,000 to New Delhi every day.

New Delhi: Responding to the ongoing conflict between Sudan and less than oneyear-old South Sudan, India has appointed a special envoy to broker peace between the two countries that hold the key to India’s pursuit of oil and other hydrocarbon resources in Africa. The foreign ministry’s decision to send a special envoy to these countries last week came three months after China, with whom New Delhi is locked in a fierce geopolitical battle to tap energy resources in Africa, sent its special envoy to handle the crisis and protect Beijing’s oil interests.

Cameroon's military has been called in to Bouba Ndjida National Park to take on foreign poachers that have slaughtered hundreds of elephants for their ivory, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Reports vary, but between 200-480 elephants have been killed in recent weeks in the park by what is widely assumed to be poachers from Sudan.

"We saw this situation coming," Basile Yapo Monssan, WWF-Cameroon's Country Director, said. "We have consistently alerted the government on the alarming growing rate of poaching in Cameroon. This is their wake-up call."

Poachers have killed more than 200 elephants in Cameroon in just six weeks, in a "massacre" fuelled by Asian demand for ivory.

A local government official said heavily armed poachers from Chad and Sudan had decimated the elephant population of Bouba Ndjida National Park in Cameroon's far north in a dry season killing spree.

Poachers have killed more than 200 elephants in Cameroon in just six weeks, in a "massacre" fuelled by Asian demand for ivory.

A local government official said heavily armed poachers from Chad and Sudan had decimated the elephant population of Bouba Ndjida National Park in Cameroon's far north in a dry season killing spree.

Wildlife activists said on Thursday that poachers had slaughtered at least 200 elephants in the past five weeks in Bouba Ndjida National Park. The International Fund for Animal Welfare called the scale of the killings unprecedented, and urged the government to take action. The group said that many orphaned elephant calves had been spotted in the park, and it feared they would soon die. The organization blamed poachers from Sudan; it says the elephants are killed for their ivory tusks, which are smuggled to Asia and Europe.

Low-cost solar panels and solar batteries will be provided to poor communities in 14 countries in Africa and Asia in the next four years, the UN Development Programme said Thursday.

A total of 33 million people in the 14 countries will be able to make use of solar energy for commercial businesses and economic development, using the solar panels to be developed by a Mauritius-based company called ToughStuff, UNDP said.