African ministers of finance, planning and economic development have scheduled a meeting in Cairo, Egypt, 6-7 June to discuss measures required to deal with the global economic crisis, a UN think-tank said here. The Addis Ababa-based UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said on Thursday the meeting would explore ways of dealing with the effects of the global economic crisis through enhanced fiscal planning and ways of raising funds internally with in Africa.

Nigeria's oil militants, routed from some of their key bases in the oil producing Niger Delta, have vowed to strike back at the military as well as the oil industry as the military offensive in the region continued Thursday. Against allegations that the offensive, launched on Friday, has targeted innocent civilians and razed palaces and traditional shrines, the region's largest militant group - Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) - said: ''We promise to pay back the oil industry and the government the same measure of destruction that was meted out to the innocent civilians by this cowardly act.''

The Malawi Electoral Commission on Wednesday said declaration of results of the general elections had delayed because of confusion about where to send the final results, according to its chairman, Supreme Court judge, Justice Anastazia Msosa. She said returning officers from the constituency levels were sending the results directly to the Commission's tally centre instead of the constituency centres.

The UN refugee agency says the number of people fleeing the Somali capital in the last 12 days has now risen to 45,000 despite the lull in fighting in the war-ravaged nation. A statement from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday said a significant proportion of the displaced are heading towards the Afgooye corridor, southwest of Mogadishu.

Zimbabwe's power-sharing government has resolved most disagreements but remains deadlocked on the appointments of the central bank governor and the attorney general, the Prime Minster said on Thursday. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) would be approached to mediate over the disputed posts.

Dadaab, in north-eastern Kenya, is the world's biggest refugee camp, home to 260,000 people. It was built in 1991 for Somalis fleeing the fighting that erupted with the collapse of Siad Barre's military regime. Eighteen years on, conflict is still raging and Somalis continue to seek safety there.

Sudan's Government of National Unity should act to prevent a recurrence of clashes by military units and ensure justice for abuses committed in the Southern Sudanese town of Malakal in February 2009, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to President Omar al-Bashir and First Vice President Salva Kiir. The government's Joint Defense Board, which commands the military units that clashed in Malakal, is scheduled to meet in the last week of May.

As funds begin trickling in for Zimbabwe"s reconstruction efforts, the rebuilding of infrastructure battered by years of neglect is set to gobble a huge chunk. As Zimbabwe's national unity government approaches 100 days in office, Finance Minister Tendai Biti - tasked with wooing donors to pour resources into support for the fragile coalition - has said it will take some time for the country to return to 1996 standards, before what was once southern Africa"s second largest economy went into a tailspin.

Sanusha Naidu compiles a list of the top stories on Sino-African relations.

Every day, almost everywhere around the world, Transexual, Transgender, Intersex people face violence, abuse, rape, torture and hate crimes. The only motive : they are not conforming to social stereotypes about the way they should appear and behave in society as men or women. Be it out of ignorance, prejudice, fear or hate, Trans people overwhelmingly face daily discrimination, which results in social exclusion, poverty and poor health care, with little prospects for employment.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the arrest of two senior independent journalists by police in Harare over a story about the alleged involvement of state security agents in the abduction and torture last year of human rights activists, journalists and members of the opposition.

The United Nations humanitarian wing is urging greater protection for civilians in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has witnessed a surge in sexual violence since the beginning of this year. Some 463 women were raped in the first quarter of 2009, more than half of the total number of violations registered for the whole of last year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has for the first time bought food from small-scale farmers in Kenya under a new initiative aimed at boosting agriculture by connecting farmers to markets. Under ‘Purchase for Progress’ (P4P), WFP has a committed policy to buy from low-income farmers, allowing them to invest profits to boost production and increase food security, according to a news release issued by the agency.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has declared in Abuja that about $450 million out of the over $3 billion alleged to have been stolen by the late Head of State of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha, could not be traced.

The controversial Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono wrote a blistering letter to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week, in which he accused Finance Minister Tendai Biti of victimising him and of corruption. Gono claims, in the letter which was leaked to the media this week, that Honey and Blankenberg, a law firm in which the Minister was a senior partner, externalised more than US$1 million in foreign currency in contravention of Exchange Control regulations. Gono said this happened between October 2005 and May 2006.

2009 is the year of the Big Change. Cheaper and more abundant international fibre capacity will come to East Africa and 2010 will see the same happen in West Africa. New cross-border fibre connections will tie more countries together: two announcements are in the news sections below. But Africa is in danger of getting all the pipes and hardware in place and missing out on thinking about the user and the services and applications they might use.

Many HIV-positive women in Rwanda are infected with strains of human papilloma virus associated with a high risk of cervical cancer, investigators report in an article published in the online edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Their study also showed that women with cancer-associated strains of human papilloma virus who had a low CD4 cell count were more likely to have cancerous or pre-cancerous cell changes in the cervix.

Months have passed since Hoda's husband paid smugglers to take him from this port town in northern Somalia across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, but she has not heard a word from him. She now believes he probably drowned at sea. Despite such a vivid lesson in the risks of the Gulf crossing, Hoda plans to make the journey herself, leaving her youngest children in the care of her eldest daughter, who is just ten.

A health centre in one of Lesotho’s poorest districts has scored significant success in implementing a prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programme, but health experts warn that a number of factors, including cultural beliefs and stigma, threaten to derail it. "It was the most difficult decision to make in my life, but I knew that I had to do it for the sake of my unborn child. The pre-testing counselling we received also helped a great deal," recalled 24-year-old Nthabiseng Rannyali who decided to undergo HIV testing to protect her unborn child.

A senior Catholic bishop has denounced homosexuality, stating that it is against both African culture and biblical teaching.Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth of Kisumu, who is also the chairman of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, made the remarks while addressing an international seminar on the role of universities in peace building at the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) last week. The conference was organised by CUEA’s Centre for Social Justice and Ethics.

Reporters Without Borders expressed its concern after the closure of privately owned opposition Joy Radio and the arrest of four staff, two of them journalists, accused of breaking election rules. The director of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), James Chimera, ruled that satirical programme, Chilungamo Chili Kuti? (Is there any justice?), broadcast at 2am after the closure of the official election campaign, had violated the law banning endorsement or ridicule of a candidate.

The Map-the-World and Map-Maker teams at Google have been making some major, and much needed, additions for Africa. With a large data push yesterday, Google Maps has one of the most impressive sets of maps on Africa that you can find. There are now 27 more African countries that now have detailed maps.

While Asia and Latin America are seeing a boom in the use of free software, now taking the global lead, Africa is still lagging behind, depending largely on expensive programmes and pirate copies. Researchers from the University of Seville, Spain, have carried out a report mapping the use of free software around the world, concluding that the use of free software in South America and Asia will be around 70 percent in 2010, with a special relevance in the education sector.

Several large African cities are at risk from rising sea levels and intense storms, experts warn. Poor neighbourhoods and slums in Bugama and Okrika in Nigeria, Freetown in Sierra Leone, Bathurst in the Gambia and Tanga in Tanzania, are especially vulnerable.

Ugandan HIV activists have expressed concern over a recommendation by parliament's budget committee that the allocation for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs be cut. The national budget for 2008/09 allocated 76 billion shillings (US$38 million) to purchasing ARVs, the first such allocation in the country's history, but this week the house standing committee recommended that the amount be cut to 40 billion shillings in the 2009/2010 budget.

There is an African saying that when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. In South Africa lately, the elephants have been the two biggest winners in the April elections-the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA). The grass is democracy and women’s rights.

cc It's true that Congo is a disappointment, says Ali M. Malau, responding to

Phanuel Akubueze Egejuru is awed by Kenyan poet Shailja Patel’s ‘eye-popping phraseology’ in , a volume of work around the theme of migration and its impact on human relationships. ‘Too delicate and too good to be touched’, Egejuru warns that the book may make painful reading for those who experienced direct colonisation, as Patel takes the reader ‘through years of exploitation…in Africa and Asia’. It is however ‘a must-read’, devoured by Ejeguru in one sitting, which ‘forges fresh expressions that invigorate and inspire budding poets to take risks and experiment’.

cc State-sanctioned witch-hunts in March have triggered growing popular criticism of Gambia’s repressive Jammeh government on the ground as well as internationally, writes Abena Ampofoa Asare. Detailing the failure of regional and continental mechanisms from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to respond effectively to human-rights abuses in a deteriorating political situation, Asare calls for the issue to be addressed at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights annual meeting on 13 May.

Mike Rainy writes to thank Pambazuka for its and to forward us an update from Pakuo, who attended a community meeting about the issue at the end of April.

In an interview with , Courttia Newland talks about the influences behind his writing and giving a voice to those left outside of mainstream fiction.

cc As Kenyans struggle to find meaning in the protracted troubles surrounding their body politic, Njonjo Mue challenges the nation’s youth to join an army of ordinary people to fight the good fight and to defend Kenyans’ freedom, dignity, heritage and their children’s future by engaging in brutal self-appraisal and refusing to permit decay. Mue’s article is a call to arms, for men to leave the bars long enough to know what their children will eat for supper, for women to cease their escapism and confront the problems facing Kenya’s communities, and for all Kenyans to individually take responsibility for the future of their country.

cc Following UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter's comments at the 17th session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), Vía Campesina and Friends of the Earth International give their response to the special rapporteur's comments. While highlighting the recommendations and broad understanding that they share with De Schutter, the authors' statement emphasises the centrality of 'food sovereignty', namely, the right of different communities and peoples to control their own territories. This the authors contend is a process that goes beyond producers' mere 'participation' in high-level decision-making; it is one which actively positions farmers and peasants at the centre of agricultural production and control.

The need for to build alliances, and

South Africa’s new president Jacob Zuma did his best to follow the footsteps of his nemesis Thabo Mbeki when he announced a cabinet edging towards gender parity on 10 May. But gender advocates note with concern the lack of parity in top structures of government; the declining proportion of women deputy ministers; questionable credentials of some women ministers and the establishment of a women’s ministry.

Despite the international regulations to prevent electronic waste from being dumped in developing countries, mountains of western e-waste are rising higher in Africa. Especially Ghana and Nigeria have emerged as new target countries for our used electronics. The implications of this waste industry are shocking for both environment and human health.

This latest report from the International Crisis Group, analyses the situation on the ground in the wake of the five-week joint military operation between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda against Rwandan Hutu rebels, the Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), in the Kivus. That effort did not produce significant results and highlights the need for a new tack. The report presents a five-point strategy to drive a renewed process forward.

In 2008, Tanzania, along with the rest of the world, celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. During this celebration, Tanzania had the opportunity to consider the improvements and failures in its efforts to achieve the goal of realizing justice, liberty and human rights for all. While Tanzania is committed to upholding the rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, this commitment does not always seem to translate into reality.