BONO - BONO TO TOUR AFRICA

Rock activist BONO will begin a ten-day tour of Africa next week (16MAY06) to examine the achievements of his Make Poverty History campaign. The U2 frontman plans to visit Lesotho, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana, kicking off on Tuesday. The WITH OR WITHOUT YOU singer will scrutinise the effect of his campaign to make G8 companies cancel debts accrued by low income countries, in order to divert funds towards tackling poverty. JAMIE DRUMMOND, executive director of Bono's advocacy group Debt Aids Trade Africa (DATA), says, "We're going to look at foreign assistance working on the ground in Africa and see what is working and what is not. "Effective aid backing good African leadership can get results, so let's do more of it. Why would you not do more of it? "The timing of this is extremely important, not just because you can see all the results on the ground, but because at this very moment top policymakers in all of the G8 countries are looking at whether they can afford to keep their promises - whether in Germany, Canada, Italy, or France, and above all in the US Congress."