The Tunisian journalists union (SNJT) on Tuesday called a general strike for 17 October over several issues, including demands for freedom of speech. The decision for the journalists to carry out their first ever strike was taken at a meeting held by the SNJT executive board following the breakdown of negotiations with the government on their demands. Differences between the government and the journalists centre on 'arbitrary' appointments in the state media, especially the two state television stations 'Watanya 1', 'Watanya 2' and 'Dar Assabah'.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s office has expressed frustration over the slow pace at which the government has adopted in cooperating with The Hague based court. The prosecutor’s office wrote to Attorney General Githu Muigai asking the State to hasten its promise to deliver certain information to the ICC. 'The slow pace of processing these requests is a source of frustration,' Mr Phakiso Mochochoko, Head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation said in the letter.

Oumar Tely Diallo, a trainee-reporter of the privately-owned satirical Lynx-Lance newspaper, was on September 21, 2012 physically assaulted by a group of angry pro-government militants while covering a political riot. The attack on the journalist left him with torn clothes while his attackers made away with his camera, pen-drive, mobile telephone and some cash. According to the Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent, Diallo was covering a riot which pitted opposition militants against supporters of the ruling People’s Rally of Guinea (RPG) when he was suddenly surrounded and beaten by his assailants.

While some parts of Africa are reporting floods this year, others are suffering for lack of water. Lake Chilwa in Malawi supports 70,000 families who depend on it for fish and water. But over the last two years the lake has been shrinking. Read this Farm Radio Weekly article about what effect this is having on fishers and farmers like Oscar Wemba and Yohane Chikosa and their families.

Lawlessness is reigning in the Somali port city of Kismayu, where gunmen have killed at least three people since the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab abandoned their last bastion there, residents said Sunday. After Kenyan and Somali troops' advances towards the strategic port forced the Islamists to abandon it Saturday, the Kenyan army said helicopter gunships were attacking Shabaab bases outside the city to clear the way for a final ground assault to occupy the city.

Former residents of the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban are pursuing damages claims against the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, three years after the police failed to protect them from an armed gang that invaded the settlement in September 2009. This is an important case because it holds the police responsible to prevent violence perpetuated by others when it is in a position to do so, says this press release from the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa.

Ethiopia has announced plans to lease 100,000 hectares of land both to local and foreign investors, despite recent reports that foreign investors were grabbing large chunks of land. The Ethiopian Ministry of Agricultures said details on the leases will be provided in this year's budget. The ministry indicated that it had prepared large fertile tracts of land in Gambella, Benshangul-Gumuz, Oromia and Amhara states to be offered to investors.

After assuming the presidency following the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika, Joyce Banda said she had hoped Malawi's Parliament would support the repeal of the nation's indecency and unnatural acts laws. But she has told The Associated Press that national debate had shown a lack of public support so far for the change, reports Identity Kenya.

Maxwell Dlamini, president of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), has been denied his university scholarship by the government because of his political activity, he said. Dlamini was called to the scholarship selection board today (27 September 2012), where he hoped to be allowed to continue his law studies at the University of Swaziland, but he said he was denied for being a ‘progressive’. Writing on Facebook, Dlamini, said he was questioned about his activities in SNUS and ‘why I cause all the noise in the tertiary institutions [and] why I want to overthrow the government.’

Sudan has told the United Nations General Assembly that its debts must be cancelled and its economy supported as it struggles to recover from losing three-quarters of its critical oil revenue to South Sudan when it seceded a year ago. 'Sudan requires assistance to go through this very sensitive stage towards better horizons. For that we believe that debts must be cancelled and its economy supported,' Ali Ahmed Karti, the Sudanese foreign minister, said on Saturday. The International Monetary Fund this week urged Sudan to meet donors to discuss debt relief and some IMF board members called for exceptional efforts from the IMF and the global community to help Sudan reduce its debt of about $40bn.

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda has called on the United Nations General Assembly to ensure that an ambitious programme adopted last year to spur development and economic growth in the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) be fully and speedily implemented. 'In particular, duty-free quota-free market access and supply side capacity must be ensured to the least developed countries,' President Banda told the Assembly on the second day of its annual General Debate, adding that implementation must be 'in its entirety and in an effective and timely manner'.

Tunisian civil society is rallying in support of a young woman who was raped by police officers in what they say is part of a broader assault on women's rights by religious conservatives. There is widespread outrage after 27-year-old victim was summoned by the investigating judge on Wednesday to face chargers of 'indecency' from the two men accused of raping her, in what many argue is an attempt by the authorities to intimidate her.

A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Goodluck Jonathan’s government to mark the country’s 52nd independence anniversary by 'urgently committing itself to socio-economic rights reform and end systemic poverty that has remained the bane of millions of Nigerians for decades'. The organization in a public statement dated 30 September 2012 and signed by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni stated that, 'The struggle for political freedom and independence from colonization was widely applauded by our people but over five decades after Nigeria gained independence the country’s enormous natural resources and wealth have not been utilized for the prosperity of the country and its peoples. Rather, socio-economic conditions in post-independent Nigeria have remained precarious, and consequently millions of our citizens embarrassingly remain in poverty and misery. For such people, the promises of independence remain unfulfilled.'

The recent arrests of three union officers and the editor of N’Djamena Bi-Hebdo (an independent, bi-weekly newspaper) are symptomatic of a disintegration of freedom of expression in Chad. These arrests are the result of protest movements against the impoverishment of Chad’s population and the privatization of the country’s resources, reports Global Vocies Online.

Tanzania has encouraged Morocco to rejoin the AU so that together they can find a durable solution to the conflict of Western Sahara, calling on the UN Security Council to continue mediation efforts in the Territory. Addressing 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania, Mr. Bernard Kamillius Membe, said that his delegation 'encourages Morocco to rejoin the AU.

Women are pioneering Mauritania’s fledgling dairy industry and trying to get Mauritanians to support local small producers, but they face steep competition from the heavily subsidized European milk sector. The Mauritanian market is flooded with cheap milk products imported from Europe. Sixty per cent of the population depends on the livestock sector in some form for income, and the sector contributes almost eight per cent to the country's GDP, yet the country imports 65 per cent of its milk requirements, a joint report produced by the NGOs Intermon Oxfam , ACORD and AMAD noted.

A media rights watchdog said Monday it is concerned freedom of information is under threat in Libya due to visa refusals for foreign journalists, bans on films and arbitrary arrests. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was 'very worried by the signs of a decline in respect for freedom of information… since the election of the General National Congress on 7 July.'

The United Nations described South Sudan’s refugee crisis as 'critical'. Unless the political tension in Sudan is resolved, experts warn the outlook will sharply deteriorate.

The commission's in loco inspection, set up to investigate the August shooting at Marikana, has revealed that the bodies of miners were not limited to a specific area as video footage led many to believe, but were in fact spread out over a vast area. On Monday, crime scene experts led the commission and those involved in the inquiry on an inspection of the area near Marikana where 44 people lost their lives. They were accompanied by a host of national and international media.

An outbreak of Ebola fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo may have killed up to 36 people, out of 81 suspected cases, according to a new death toll released by the health ministry. The ministry said that 20 confirmed cases have been recorded, as well as 32 likely and 29 suspected as of 29 September.

A Dutch 'abortion boat' has set sail for Morocco, its first trip to a Muslim country, to provide abortions to women who are exposed to grave health risks if treated domestically, its organiser said on Monday. The group says that, according to figures published by the Moroccan government, between 600 and 800 abortions take place every day in the north African kingdom, where the procedure is illegal and taboo.

The restoration of term limits will return citizens' authority in the constitution as stated in article 1 of the 1995 constitution

The Segeju, a minority community at the Kenyan coast, has undergone forced assimilation perpetrated by the government over the years and is now in serious danger of losing its culture and language. The political consequences are there for all to see.

Capitalist agriculture is in crisis, as it marginalizes and brutalizes millions of farm workers who produce our food. The horrible accidents that claimed lives of farm workers in South Africa and Canada are markers of this crisis.

The voice of Bob Marley is needed now more than ever. His lyrics may well have given inspiration and solace to as many as did Martin Luther King’s speeches, and he has come to symbolize resistance to oppression.

Dear Editor

I have just read the article by Ebiem. While, of course, many people died during both the political riots before the war and during the war there is certainly another way of looking at these deaths.

I don't think he mentions the massacre in the North? I believe the final tally at the morgues there was around 7,000. The myth went up to 53,000.

I worked in both UCH Ibadan during the war where some Igbo soldiers were treated alongside Federal soldiers and in Port Harcourt after the war.

I know that the strafing of Awka and other parts of Igboland was very serious but in PH there was only one house damaged. Also the number of civilian injuries were very few indeed unlike the wars that came later elsewhere in the world.

Another thing, he mentions Biafrans as if they were different from Igbo people. Does he refer to other people from the South East? If so I doubt if they would want to be included. And finally who started the war?

In general I challenge his figures and I would like to hear other comments about this sad event in the past.

President Zuma has appointed Judge Ian Farlam to head up a Commission of Inquiry into the massacre at Marikana. But is it the appropriate mechanism for dealing with the most pressing issue that needs to be addressed about Marikana: the fact that more than 34 people were killed by police on 16 August in circumstances that were, to put it in the mildest terms, highly questionable?

An organisation known as the South Sudan Land Alliance has been formed to realise the land rights for all the people of South Sudan.

A suspected cholera outbreak has killed about a dozen people in the southern Somali village of Hoosingo, in the district of Badade in Lower Juba, say government and health officials. 'One of the biggest problems we have is that we do not what this disease is,' Adan Ibrahim Dhaqane, the Hoosingo Village commissioner, told IRIN by telephone. Dhaqane said that at least 19 people had died since the outbreak started on 5 September, with 12 others sick.

The controversy over 'The Innocence Of Muslims' rumbles on, with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah calling on supporters to demonstrate throughout Lebanon this week. Has this particular incident been different from previous blasphemy rows? In some ways, yes. Perhaps the most interesting was Google's removal of the video from YouTube Egypt and Libya, independent of any court order. This should be of real concern to anyone concerned with freedom on the web. While Google-owned YouTube is not the only video sharing site, its dominance is such that it can severely restrict free speech should it wish.

This study analyses the political, economic and social impacts of the land and ‘virtual water’ grab in Southern Sudan. The ‘virtual water’ concept, which explains the absence of water wars through water embedded in agricultural imports, has been a major breakthrough in the study of the Middle Eastern water question. This paper shows how agricultural commodities in the form of virtual water are at the heart of Middle Eastern investors’ interests.

The Economic Justice Network (EJN), a national coalition of civil society organisations working for socio-economic justice and equitable national development, was recently re-launched to deal with new policy threats affecting Ghanaian livelihoods. Speaking at the launch, Mr Tetteh Hormeku of Third World Network, said governments over the years had sought to deal with economic challenges confronting the country through reliance on foreign investors instead of building local capacities. He said this common policy of successive governments to provide incentives to foreign investors had led to the abuse of the rights of Ghanaians and denial of their livelihoods.

This International Organisation of Migration (IOM) research newsletter provides a comprehensive update on IOM’s migration research activities, institutional partnerships and research events for IOM colleagues and interested external readers. This edition focuses on 'The Arab Spring: Reflections on the international response one year later'.

From mid-June to early August this year, Sudan has witnessed nationwide protests directly calling for regime change, sparked by an alarming increase in prices. The protests were met with a massive crackdown on civil liberties, and a wave of arrests by National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), Sudan’s security apparatus. While journalists were not disproportionately impacted by the crackdown, what they have experienced during the past few weeks helps paint a picture of a country on the brink of economic collapse and escalating political turmoil.

Thirty-five years after his death, marked on 12 September, Steve Biko's legacy remains. In this lecture, celebrated novelist Ben Okri reflects on the meaning of Biko's life and writings for Africa. He concludes that there are three Africas: the one that we see every day; the one that they write about and the real magical Africa that we don’t see unfolding through all the difficulties of our time. The full transcript is available and a podcast of the lecture can be listened to here.

Following the announcement on 21 August 2012 of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s death, Ethiopia’s new leadership should recommit the State to the full respect of its population’s human rights, especially the freedoms of association, assembly and expression, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) said in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council. The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has expressed serious alarm about the 'climate of intimidation' against human rights defenders and journalists in Ethiopia.

Uganda’s former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ezra Suruma, has expressed doubt that the government will have the capacity to appropriately utilise expected oil revenues, given problems of corruption, weak budgertary control and lack of ability to absorb an injection of cash. 'I must say that oil frightens me as a possible source of instability if it is not carefully managed. We have had severe political instability since independence. Some of us who still carry or bear the scars of that instability are careful when looking at these issues to ensure that this instability does not come back,' he told a conference.

High Court orders eThekwini Mayor, City Manager and Director of Housing responsible for ensuring compliance with court order, to provide houses to evicted Siyanda occupiers