Crucial elections in Ivory Coast are unlikely to happen soon, but players in the protracted negotiations are drawing inspiration from the fighting spirit of the Elephants, the national soccer team. Critical prerequisites for elections have not taken place. Disarmament of rebels and militias has not started, and just over 3000 citizens have been registered. Only once this is completed can a voters roll be drawn up.

South Africa says it is ready to send an observer mission of about 120 personnel to the Democratic Republic of Congo's national elections scheduled for next month. "This is a massive task, considering that the DRC would be hosting this election for the first time...with bad infrastructure and many other challenges," said Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad.

Given China’s growing hunger for natural resources and Africa’s persistent need for economic aid, the world’s most populous country and the globe’s poorest continent appear to be nurturing a perfect symbiotic relationship. Or is it? Human rights groups caution that China’s quest for raw materials could undermine respect for human rights and efforts at political reform in Africa.

Improving security in parts of northern Uganda is encouraging an increasing number of people displaced by conflict to move from camps to villages closer to their original homes where they now cultivate their own fields, a famine early warning agency reported. However, the majority of the nearly two million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the region, mainly children, the elderly and women, remained in camps.

Africa's abundant natural resources hold the key to poverty eradication on the continent, but only if they are used carefully and managed creatively to improve people's living standards, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).