Britain has declared that the development of Africa will be a priority at the G8 summit, but little agreement is in sight over the preferred aid route. British officials say that support for the International Finance Facility (IFF) proposed by Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Gordon Brown is rising. But there is no sign that the United States will abandon or amend the aid programme under its Millennium Challenge Account to adopt the IFF.

A year after the Malawian government launched its HIV/AIDS treatment programme, the numbers of people awaiting treatment are stretching hospitals to their limits. In May 2004 the government began providing free antiretroviral (ARV) medication at public health facilities, hoping to reach 44,000 people living with the virus by June 2005.

Ethiopia's main opposition party on Monday threatened to boycott the next parliament unless its complaints of alleged vote rigging in last week's general elections were resolved. Hailu Shawel, leader of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), said his party would not join any government if it believed that the elections were unfair.

Francois Bozize, the incumbent leader of the Central African Republic (CAR), who came into power through a coup in 2003, was on Tuesday declared the winner of the country's presidential elections. Bozize won the final round of the poll by 64.6 percent of the vote, the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Jean Willybiro Sako, announced at an official ceremony at the National Assembly.

A month to the day after Togo’s disputed presidential election, murder, rape and kidnappings by the security forces are continuing to drive people across the borders in search of shelter, refugees and human rights leaders said on Tuesday. “There have been several hundred victims,” Sidiki Kaba, the president of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) said in an interview on Radio France Internationale. “A man-hunt is on that takes place at nights.”