Pambazuka News 485: Remembering Walter Rodney 30 years on
Pambazuka News 485: Remembering Walter Rodney 30 years on
The entry of a Swedish-led oil consortium into southern Sudan in 1997 triggered civil war and crimes against humanity, claims a European coalition of aid agencies. The European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) has called on the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate into the possible complicity of the consortium in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The estimates are at best approximate on both sides on the equation, but six weeks after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the cumulative oil spill has now reached a bit more than 3 times that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez. It is still dwarfed, however, by the estimated equivalent of 30 Exxon Valdez spills discharged into Ecuador's Amazon by Chevron/Texaco over 3 decades, or more than 50 Exxon Valdez spills into the Niger Delta by Shell, Chevron, and other companies over 5 decades.
A recent march by over a thousand Ghanian Muslims against “the growing activities of gays and lesbians” in this West-African country, could hamper initiatives that target Men having sex with Men (MSM), such as HIV and Aids interventions, activists have warned. Mac-Darling Cobbinahof the Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana, an organisation that also caters for the MSM community said, following a march that went through principal streets of the Metropolis against homosexuality, after an alleged report that close to 60 gays and lesbians from eastern
Ethiopian rebels said on Friday the military had killed 71 civilians in the last month as part of a growing crackdown in a region where international oil and gas companies are exploring. "The Ethiopian army combed the countryside, summarily executing men in front of their families while beating, raping or killing the women," the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) said in a statement.
On World Day Against Child Labour 2010 on Saturday 12th June, leading NGO Plan International is concerned the problem is on the increase in Niger where children are being forced to work because of the food crisis. Children are being pulled out of school and sent to work for money or food to supplement their family's income.
Several rebel groups and bandits are spreading fear and chaos in many parts of the Central African Republic. Regular attacks on civilians are resulting in killings, abductions, rapes and looting. They are forcing people to flee their homes to find a safe haven. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, putting pressure on already impoverished host communities.
“I would like to thank everybody for the support that I have been given since Friday and before that,” The Post editor Fred M’membe told Reporters Without Borders as he was released this afternoon from Lusaka prison, where he had just spent three days. “I am very grateful to my fellow journalists,” said M’membe, who was sentenced to four months in prison with hard labour on 4 June on a contempt of court charge. “I have received more than the support I thought I would get and I deserve.”
Reporters Without Borders regrets the Cameroonian government’s foot-dragging in the investigation into journalist “Bibi” Ngota Ngota’s death in Yaoundé’s Kodengui prison on 22 April. See previous release. At the end of April, President Paul Biya called for an investigation into the circumstances of Ngota’s death but a report on its findings has yet to be published.
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) celebrated 10 years of empowering women and women organizations through the use of ICTs on 1st and 2nd June 2010 at Hotel Africana in Kampala, Uganda. Among the activities to mark the celebrations, was a one week SMS awareness campaign which took place from 24th to 29th May 2010, a two day exhibition and a one day symposium.
Desertification is the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by human activities and climatic variations. Because of its toll on human well-being and on the environment, it ranks among the greatest development challenges of our times. The World Day to Combat Desertification focuses international attention on this growing problem. It has been observed each 17 June since 1995, the same year the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was iimplemented
An experimental treatment for Ebola that could potentially save human lives has been shown to be completely effective in monkeys. If approved for human use it would be the first treatment for the deadly disease, according to Thomas Geisbert, a microbiologist at the US-based National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories Institute.
In colonial times, Senegal's metropolis Dakar was famous for its open and tolerated homosexual prostitution market, and as late as in the 1970s, as many as 17 percent of Senegalese men admitted having had homosexual experiences.
Alpha Condé, the "eternal opposition leader" of Guinea who is widely believed to have won the 1993 presidential election, is gathering the largest crowds as Guinea's first truly democratic poll has kicked off.
The corruption case against South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, which was dropped by the prosecution before he became President, still haunts national politics. The opposition fights for documents in the Zuma prosecution case.
Allegations of massive fraud during May’s local elections in Burundi have cast a shadow over the country's democratic transition, prompting international calls for compromise rather than confrontation. Attributing the ruling CNDD-FDD’s landslide victory to ballot-box stuffing, vote-buying with state resources, the illegal use of proxies and a lack of secrecy in some polling stations, 13 opposition parties have announced a boycott of the 28 June presidential race, leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the only runner.
African Union members have adopted plans to implement the Kampala convention on the protection of internally displaced people, including increasing their contributions to refugee and IDP funding and accelerating the convention’s ratification, signature and domestication, the AU said. Signed by 26 countries since it was endorsed in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on 23 October 2009, the convention obliges governments to recognize that IDPs have specific vulnerabilities and must be supported, according to Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.
BET, the acronym for the three northern regions of Chad – Borkou, Ennedi and Tibesti – comes up regularly in meetings of international aid agencies frustrated by the lack of information and difficulty of access to the remote territory. Drought in 2009 triggered the government’s call for international assistance, but no one really knows the full extent of the problem, according to a local NGO.
Civil society activists are protesting the closure of a factory that produces the only UN World Health Organization-pre-qualified version of a life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drug for infants. Pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), which owns the French factory that produces didanosine, a second-line ARV for babies weighing less than 10kg, will shut down the plant in June 2010, stopping production of the drug until at least February 2011, when regulatory approval of a new United States-based manufacturing site is expected.
There is intense lobbying for the finalisation of a formal trade agreement on agricultural products between Namibia and China. The general mood in government corridors is explicitly clear that as of next year trade flows from Namibia to China should add tangible value to the local economy, instead of comprising minerals exports, as is the present case.
It is a sign of the times that the second-largest cross-border acquisition by an Indian company involves Africa. The Bharti Airtel deal of $10.7 billion to acquire most of Zain Africa is, first, a measure of the changing footprint of global finance. Second, given that the African continent is being heralded as the global economy’s next frontier, the deal is an important chapter in the evolutionary narrative of India and Africa, which has lately been getting overshadowed by China’s presence in the continent.
South Africa sees growing opportunities for trade with other developing countries as new economic powerhouses emerge and Europe is engulfed by economic and currency weakness, its trade chief said on Wednesday. Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the changing world economy meant South Africa could intensify trade ties with countries such as Brazil, India and China at the expense of links with traditional partners such as the European Union.
MTN Group Ltd. ended talks with Weather Investments S.p.A to acquire $10 billion of assets of Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, abandoning a potential deal for the fourth time in two years. The discussions “have been terminated,” Johannesburg- based MTN said in a statement, without giving a reason. The talks failed after Algeria’s government blocked a possible sale to MTN of Orascom’s largest and most profitable unit, Djezzy.
Outrun by large Chinese state corporations, now India is making ground in its fastest growing sector - telecommunications. The $10.7bn acquisition by Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile network, of the African assets of Kuwait’s Zain is a long awaited foray across the Indian Ocean.
The Chinese government will fund the construction of a new science university in Malawi as part of the country’s ambitious initiative to open five new institutions of higher learning in the next decade, according to President Bingu wa Mutharika. China is funding major development projects in Africa, in a diplomatic initiative aimed at building good relations on the continent and averting criticism that it is only after Africa’s rich natural resources.
This year’s edition of the AEO finds Africa’s economies weakened by the global recession and at the same time under pressure to make additional efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The world economic crisis brought a period of high growth in Africa to a sudden end. Average economic growth was slashed from about 6% in 2006-2008 to 2.5% in 2009 with per capita GDP growth coming to a near standstill. The global crisis of 2009 had its strongest effect on southern Africa, where growth was slashed (from the average over the preceding three years) by almost 8 percentage points to negative growth of around 1%.
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The ICHRP is pleased to announce the publication of its new report Irregular Migration, Migrant Smuggling and Human Rights: Towards Coherence. Migration policies across the world are driven by three core concerns: border and law enforcement, economic interest, and protection. The report argues that official policies are failing partly because protection has been marginalised. Intensified efforts to suppress migration have not deterred people from seeking security or opportunity abroad but drive many into clandestinity, while the promotion of open economic markets has attracted millions of people to centres of prosperity but tolerated widespread exploitation. As a political consequence, discussion of migration is widely polarised and distorted by xenophobia and racism.
ARTICLE 19 and the Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) submitted a joint oral statement at the UN Human Rights Council's 14th session welcoming the annual report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Mr Frank La Rue. In the statement to the Human Rights Council on 4 June, ARTICLE 19 and CIHRS expressed their strong support for the Special Rapporteur's opinion that laws on "defamation of religions" are incompatible with international human rights law on freedom of expression.
Last month, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a division of the State Department, recommended that the US deter foreign mining in Eritrea following allegations of religious oppression taking place in the small African nation. "The U.S. government should...prohibit any foreign company's raising capital or listing its securities in the United States while engaged in developing Eritrea's mineral resources," the report read.
Pambazuka News 484: Israel and the Flotilla: Piracy on the high seas
Pambazuka News 484: Israel and the Flotilla: Piracy on the high seas
Gaza-based Palestinian Civil Society Organisations and international activists called on the international community and civil society to pressure their governments and Israel to cease the abductions and killings in Israel’s attacks against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla sailing for Gaza, and begin a global response to hold Israel accountable for the murder of foreign civilians at sea and illegal piracy of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.
International Human Rights Advocates join the Erlinder family in condemning Rwanda's arrest of US Attorney Peter Erlinder and demanding his immediate release. Professor Erlinder, a faculty member at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States and president of the Association des Avocats de la Defense (ADAD), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Defense Lawyers Association, was arrested by the government of Rwanda under the leadership of President Paul Kagame. Peter Erlinder has been arrested in the course of his representation of Rwanda’s opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire.
On Thursday 27 May 2010, Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Mhambi were released on bail until a trial set for Thursday 10 June 2010, on allegations of possessing indecent material and displaying a placard seen as insulting to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe. GALZ is now calling on organisations to send statements in support of GALZ, highlighting the raid of the GALZ offices, the arrest Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Mhambi, the torture of Ignatius while in custody, the continued harassment of GALZ staff and the police saying that they want to question all staff members.
The World People's Movement demands that United Nations climate change negotiations be inclusive, transparent, and equitable, and include the proposal expressed by the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 20–22).
In this paper, Adams Bodomo looks at how Africans are received in Yiwu and in Guangzhou, which contains the largest community of Africans in China. Bodomo argues that because of the relatively negative reception of Africans in Guangzhou compared to the more efficient and civil treatment of Africans in Yiwu, Yiwu is fast overtaking Guangzhou as the best place for Africans to thrive in China.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Indonesia is working alongside its partner organisations to ensure the wellbeing of African refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia, write Savitri Taylor and Brynna Rafferty-Brown. But do the displaced receive the support they need and do they have reason to be optimistic about their future stability?
Like many people around the world, Sokari Ekine is ‘elated’ by the news that Malawian couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, have been pardoned and freed. But, asks Ekine, ‘How can we claim justice has been done when the law used to convict the couple has not been successfully challenged?’ In this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, Ekine finds her sentiments echoed by others across the continent.
South Africans appear to have had their constitutional right to protest suspended during the 2010 World Cup, writes Jane Duncan, following a directive from the country’s police service (SAPS) to municipalities hosting matches. Sceptical of claims that the country does not have the capacity to police marches and the World Cup simultaneously, Duncan asks whether SAPS decision is motivated by ‘the need to remake South Africa's brand in the international media as a land of peace, reconciliation and stability’, or if it reflects, more seriously, ‘an intensification of a recent trend towards suppressing the waves of protest action’ by the Zuma administration.
Israel’s military attack on Gaza-bound humanitarian ships, the Freedom Flotilla, on 30 May, brings questions of piracy and the violation of international laws into sharp focus, writes Horace Campell. But the incident is only the latest example of the Israeli government’s policies to ‘dehumanise the Palestinian people and those in solidarity with them’, observes Campbell, as he calls for ‘peace-loving citizens all over the world’ to join forces with ‘peace-loving Israeli citizens and Palestinians who stand for peaceful coexistence to change the present apartheid leadership in Israel’.
Uncertainty around food and fuel supply globally has sparked investor interest in the acquisition of large parcels of productive land around the world, for commercial production or long-term investment, writes Nidhi Tandon. But these developments, which effectively take land away from local farmers and in many cases perpetuate ‘environmentally damaging farming methods’, threaten to have ‘serious negative impacts for small farmers, in particular women, who have no say in the political and trade decisions around their lands,’ Tandon warns.
Every year billions of dollars of potential development capital are drained from Africa through holes in the continent’s ‘bottomless bucket’ as a result of illicit financial outflows, writes Karley Curcio. Greater transparency and oversight of financial dealings is the only way to curb this monetary drain, which restricts the majority of ordinary people’s access to capital, Curcio argues.
Zapiro’s controversial cartoon featuring the Prophet Mohamed, published in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, prompts Mahmood Mamdani to ‘reflect on times and places when humour turned deadly’. Speaking at the University of Johannesburg, Mamdani explores the relationship between ‘two great liberal objectives, freedom of speech and civil peace’. Zapiro’s cartoon, Mamdani argues, has misread the real challenges we face today: The intellectual challenge of distinguishing between ‘two strands in the history of free speech – blasphemy and bigotry’, and the political challenge of building ‘a local and global coalition against all forms of bigotry’. We need to learn ‘how not to respond to a changing world with fear and anxiety, masked with arrogance, but rather to try a little humility so as to understand,’ Mamdani writes.
Albert Bourgi
Countering Wole Soyinka’s fierce criticism of BBC documentary ‘Welcome to Lagos’, Imruh Bakari, offers a different reading of the three-part series about the lives of marginalised slum-dwellers: Where Soyinka sees people depicted as ‘noble savages’, Bakari is impressed by portraits of ‘self-assured and articulate’ individuals with a sense of social agency that prevents them from being cast as victims.
Egypt’s majestic legacy of civilisation and empire appears to have lost its shine in the light of its current geopolitical positioning as ‘a brutal but glorified US ‘security guard’ at the expense of Egypt's citizens’, writes Khadija Sharife. Sharife explores the interaction between US foreign policy and this ‘draconian state’, which is ‘conveniently located astride both North Africa and the Middle East’.
A reading of Pambazuka Press’s new title, ‘Africa's Liberation: The Legacy of Nyerere’, edited by Chambi Chachage and Annar Cassam, prompts Dauti Kaura to reflect both on the legacy of the late Mwalimu – ‘a towering African leader who will always be remembered and missed for his cracking wisdom, unwavering commitment to African causes’– and the state of leadership on the continent today.
The issues of Kadhi’s courts and abortion are being presented as issues central to the debate on Kenya’s Proposed Constitution, writes Cyprian Nyamwamu, but in reality there are several others. Nyamwamu compiles a list of 36 reasons why Kenyans supported the draft of a new constitution.
In the aftermath of the May 2010 Ethiopian elections, many are left with the question: ‘Where do we go from here?’ writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. Mariam challenges the legitimacy of an election that saw Meles Zenawi reinstated in power with a 99.6 per cent share of the vote, and explores the future direction of the Ethiopian ruling class.
The Egyptian Emergency Supreme State Security Court (ESSSC) convicted and sentenced 26 individuals who Cairo accuses of being part of an active Hizbullah cell in Egypt on 28 April. The case, which ‘continues to arouse strong emotions inside Egypt and the wider region, marks the first time Egypt has prosecuted alleged members of Hizbullah,’ writes Chris Zambelis. But it also ‘showcased an underlying subtext behind the dynamic shaping some of the most important trends in Middle East politics today’, a shift in the Egypt’s pan-Arabian allegiances towards Western powers such as the US and Israel.
As the third phase of East African Community integration takes shape, Edward Oyugi provides an in-depth look at the history of efforts towards regionalisation, the concepts and actors behind them, and the challenges going forwards.
South Africa's 2010 World Cup 'feel good' factor is addictive. At taxi ranks, street bazaars and tea-rooms, South African citizens everywhere are filled with elation - and pride. Just sixteen years ago, within living memory, non-white South Africans were deprived of basic human rights by the brutal apartheid regime. From stadiums – completed in advance to fulfill Fifa's (International Federation of Association Football) insistence on a six month ‘buffer zone', to airports and other infrastructure, South Africa has fulfilled Fifa's requirements to the tee. But, writes Khadija Sharife, all is not well.
Pambazuka Press is pleased to announce the publication of ‘Africa's Liberation: The Legacy of Nyerere’. Edited by Chambi Chachage and Annar Cassam, the book includes contributions from leading commentators, those who worked and fought imperialism alongside Nyerere, members of a younger generation – and Nyerere in his own words.
As debates rage over the proposed new Kenyan constitution, the dichotomy of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ is being forged amongst referendum voters, writes Samuel N. Omwenga. Omwenga critiques the ‘No’ camp’s motivation for rejecting the new proposals – does it have the interest of Kenyan society in mind, or simply that of a select few?
Israel’s raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip has left at least nine dead and several more wounded. On board were activists and aid workers from more than 30 countries, accompanying more than 10,000 tonnes of aid supplies intended for Palestinians in Gaza. Dana Wagner provides a round-up of responses from African governments and civil society groups.
Presentations and readings from his book ‘Selected Pan-African Postcards’ with Dr Ama Biney, editor, and Dr Patricia Daley.
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's Pan-African postcards demonstrate his steadfast commitment to Pan-Africanism and his vociferous belief in the potential of Africa and African people.
Date: Thursday 17 June 2010
Time: 5.30–7pm
Place: Rhodes House, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RG
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We're proud to announce that Sokari Ekine, one of the writers behind Pambazuka News’ weekly ‘Blogging Africa’ column, has been nominated for two awards for her wonderful blog, – ‘Best political blog’ and ‘Best theme’. Join us in supporting her by casting your vote at the Nigerian Blog Awards!
Following the release of gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, who were initially sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in Malawi, the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) has issued a statement celebrating the pardon granted by President Bingu wa Mutharika but demanding greater steps towards the eradication of legislated homophobia and the desire to suppress human rights.
SADC Lawyers Association condemns the conviction and imprisonment of Steven Monjeza Soko and Tiwonge Chimbalanga Kachepa and welcomes the decision of the President of Malawi to pardon the two individuals.
Contraceptives should be taken out to women at their homes. Health Centres should be use to store these contraceptives but not act as distribution centres. Most healthy centres are far located from some people and only access them when there is a very serious illness. Most people even fail to get transport to access these centres when they are sick so image! Can such women access healthy centres for contraceptives which seem to be luxurious?
The MDC has accused ZANU PF supporters of embarking on an orgy of violence against its members, in various parts of the country, including an abduction, an arson attack and a disrupted rally. In Manicaland, Makoni South MP Pishai Muchauraya was also summoned to appear in a Buhera court on Friday, for allegedly making statements that were ‘derogatory to the office of the President’, before the 2008 elections.
A delegation of the Chinese Communist Party officials in Harare for a three-day visit at the invitation of the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe has met with him and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The delegation signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday with ZANU-PF Chairman Simon Khaya Moyo and hailed the close ties between the two countries, sources informed on the meeting said.
In this week's roundup of emerging actors in Africa news, Industrial and Commercial Bank mulls acquisitions in Middle East and North Africa, France pushes for African presence on UN Security Council, presidents of Seychelles and South Africa set to visit India, and Kenya reaps billions from Sudanese separation plan.
African nations are increasingly turning to South Africa to improve their own agricultural production and skills, according to industry group Agri SA. About 20 countries from across Africa have approached Agri SA, South Africa’s largest farmers’ association, seeking to recruit commercial growers or learn skills from their neighbor on the continent’s southern tip.
More than one decade after the International Criminal Court (ICC) was set up, a new “age of accountability” is replacing the “old era of impunity,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has underlined. Twelve years ago when world leaders gathering in Rome for its establishment, “few could have believed, then, that this court would spring so vigourously into life,” Mr. Ban said at the first-ever review conference of the ICC held in Kampala, Uganda.
This year Africa’s economies will generally perform better than in 2009. According to the just-published Economic Report on Africa, the continent’s average growth rate will reach 4.3 per cent, up from less than 2 per cent last year — a period marked by devastatingly bad performances worldwide following the global economic slowdown.
At sundown, Thulani Gama tells his 10-year-old twin siblings to collect firewood while he grinds corn for their supper. At sunrise, he wakes the twins and tells them to wash. Without breakfast, all three children begin their hour-long walk to school in rural Swaziland. Thulani, 13, is the head of his small household. He and his siblings Samkelo and Samkelisiw look after one another since, like many parents, their widowed mother left home to look for work in Mbabane, Swaziland’s capital. Thanks to a new programme supported by UNICEF and the Government of Swaziland, Thulani and his siblings are now able to attend school.
As reports warn of an alarming rise in the recruitment of child soldiers in Somalia, UNICEF and the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict are calling on all parties to put an immediate end to this criminal practice.
Fatima Yadik, a mother of 12 and grandmother of 18, recently settled in the Central African Republic town of Yaloké after 60 years with her nomadic community. Her camp of Peuhl nomads was attacked by bandits who killed all the men and stole their cattle. Peuhl people are often targeted by bandits because of the relative wealth of their livestock. Fleeing to safety, Ms. Yadik and her family joined the growing number of nomadic peoples across Africa’s interior who are escaping poverty and insecurity in the countryside in favour of life in towns and cities.
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Thursday that international prices of key food staples dropped in the first five months of this year. The report stated that the development was driven largely by plummeting prices of cereals and sugar. It said: "The FAO Food Price Index' the average of commodity prices, including meat and dairy, averaged 164 points in May, down from 174 in January and subst antially less than its peak of 214, reached in the spring of 2008."
The human rights situation in key parts of DR Congo remains extremely serious, according to a report by UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston. The expert warned that killings, rapes, mutilation, village burnings and displacement would continue to take place unless civilian protection measures are urgently improved.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) opened its 99th annual conference, with a focus on employment issues following the global economic crisis. A statement by the ILO, stated that the conference, ending 18 June, would deliberate on a number of issues affecting employment opportunities and workers' well-being globally.
Four thousand children are exploited sexually every day in Cameroon, according to an investigation by the Coalition, "Let's Protect our Children". The Coalition organizes an advocacy campaign against the exploitation of children for sexual purposes, Pastor Blaise Kemogné, one of the organizers of the campaign, told PANA.
The Indian Ocean Commission (COI) on Tuesday launched the "Agro-ecology" project, which is a regional initiative for the adaptation of small-scale agriculture to climate change in the Islands of the Indian Ocean, PANA reported. The COI is comprised of five member countries -- Mauritius, Madagascar, Reunion, Comoros and the Seychelles.
The voter education on the referendum has received a shot in the arm after the government announced the release of Sh553 million to the Committee of Experts, ending weeks of bickering between the two parties. The money is not in the budget, but has had to be reallocated from other ministries and will be regularised in next week’s budget, which will cater for all constitution review needs.
Clashes between Somali government forces and Islamist militants have killed at least 28 people and wounded about 60 in the capital Mogadishu. The fighting appears to be the start of a government offensive using troops trained in Ethiopia, analysts say.
A leading rights activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been found dead in the capital, Kinshasa. Floribert Chebeya's body was discovered, partially clothed, on the back seat of his own car. Rights group Amnesty International says oppression of activists in DR Congo is growing.
There is growing alarm among Kenyan farmers about a government announcement that 2.3m bags of maize were unfit for human consumption. Health experts say the maize contained high levels of lethal aflatoxins, which have killed at least one child. The government has pledged to buy and destroy the contaminated maize.
Human rights campaigner group Amnesty International has condemned the reported execution of 18 people in Libya. The 18, some from Chad, Egypt and Nigeria, were executed on Sunday in Tripoli and Benghazi, Libyan media reported. Amnesty International said they feared the accused had not had fair trials.
Three women in Namibia are suing the state for allegedly being sterilised without their informed consent after being diagnosed as HIV positive. The women say the doctors and nurses should have informed them properly about what was happening. The rights group representing them, the Legal Assistance Centre, says it has documented 15 cases of alleged HIV sterilisation in hospitals since 2008.
Dutch prosecutors have accused multi-national oil trading firm Trafigura of illegally exporting hazardous waste to Ivory Coast in 2006. The allegations came at the start of a trial in which the firm is accused of breaking Dutch export and environmental laws and forging official documents. Tens of thousands of people in Ivory Coast said the waste made them ill.
Five opposition candidates have withdrawn from presidential polls in Burundi due to take place on 28 June. They include the former rebel leader Agathon Rwasa, who was widely thought to be the key challenger to the current President Pierre Nkurunziza. All had called for the resignation of Burundi's electoral commission following local polls last month, which they say were fraudulent.