Hundreds of residents of Ratanda, Heidelberg gathered on the streets on Tuesday 20 March to continue their protest over power cuts and the cost of electricity, Gauteng police said. On Monday, violent service delivery protests in Ratanda were met with police water cannons, stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas. In the Western Cape, meanwhile, residents in Grabouw protested over school infrastructure.

We, members of the Feminist Activist Coalition, comprising of over 40 civil society organisations promoting gender equity, social justice, human rights and the transformative feminist movement are outraged over the arrest of 16 activists on 9 February 2012 in Dar es Salaam and their subsequent indictment, purportedly for holding an unlawful assembly.

With the World Water Forum (WWF) convening representatives of the water industry, other major corporations and government officials in Marseilles to shape international water policy such that it to prioritizes for-profit models of water delivery, and profit-oriented allocation of the world’s most essential resource, a statement from Corporate Accountability International has noted that while water for domestic purposes is a recognized human right, today nearly 900 million people lack consistent, safe access. Corporate control and management has proven a failure in addressing this tragic shortfall, instead diverting the investment dollars and political will required to reverse this global crisis.

During part I of this two-part special from SOAS radio, presenter Robtel Pailey deconstructs and dissects the conventional story told about Somalia with studio guests: Quman Jibril, a Somali independent research consultant who has a special interest in international refugee protection and advocacy; Mary Harper, BBC Africa Editor and author of the new book, Getting Somalia Wrong? published by Zed Books; and Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, a Somali researcher currently pursuing a Masters degree at the London Metropolitan University.

'The German Bundestag is requested to adopt the following motion:
1. The German Bundestag remembers the crimes perpetrated by the colonial troops of the German Empire in the former colony of German South-West Africa, and bows down in memory of the victims of expulsions, expropriation, forced labour, massacres, rape, medical experiments, deportations to other German colonies, and inhuman confinement in internment camps. Academic studies estimate that the war of extermination between 1904 and 1908 resulted in the deaths of up to 80 per cent of the Herero, over 50 per cent of the Nama and a large part of the Damara and San.'

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Environmental Politics Institute is an interdisciplinary forum which brings together African scholars undertaking innovative research on topics related to the broad theme of environmental politics. The aim of the Institute is to promote and sustain the development of coherent social sciences engagement with environmental issues in Africa. The Institute will promote research and debates on issues related to environmental politics especially as they relate to democratic decision making in climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and programs on the continent. The Institute will be launched in 2012 and subsequently held annually in Dakar, Senegal.

NATO has not sufficiently investigated the air raids it conducted on Libya that killed at least 60 civilians and wounded 55 more during the conflict there, according to a new United Nations report. Nor has Libya’s interim government done enough to halt the disturbing violence perpetrated by revolutionary militias seeking to exact revenge on loyalists, real or perceived, to the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the report concluded.

'Defanging' - that’s what one observer has called it. 'Wrecking' might be another term for what CIDA is doing to Canada’s once vibrant, once independent NGO sector. A survey of 158 organizations just released by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) and its seven provincial/regional counterparts has confirmed what many already suspected: that CIDA’s new rules of engagement have weakened the credibility and the capacities of NGOs, added to their costs, damaged or disrupted their overseas programs and put a chill on the advocacy work of those that were so inclined.

As investors turn to land-based assets and commodities, large areas of fertile land are being acquired around the world to produce biofuels, food commodity crops, timber and develop extractive industries. Where land governance is weak, new risks are being created. These include, on one hand, the security of local people, their access to food and water, and conflicts associated with forced evictions. A report, 'The Land Security Agenda', from the Earth Security Initiative, outlines the security and risk implications of the growing wave of investments in farmland and commodities.

On Monday 12 March, the water justice movement met with United Nations special rapporteur Catarina de Alburquerque, as well as eight national governments and the deputy mayor of Paris, outside the corporate World Water Forum in Marseille, France to highlight the need to implement the right to water and sanitation worldwide. Later that afternoon, eight governments - the United States, Germany, Spain, Nigeria, Uruguay, Panama, Colombia and Bolivia - met with 60-75 civil society activists at a meeting organized by numerous groups. Speakers presented on the problematic nature of the World Water Forum, the negative experiences with water privatization, challenges related to the implementation of the right to water and sanitation, how the green economy would undermine these rights, and much more.

The Sixth World Water Forum taking place between 12-17 March in Marseille, France costs $1,000 for participants from wealthy nations, and about $450 for participants from the ‘under-developed countries,’ making the the forum inaccesible to those who come from the countries of the Global South, writes Marcela Olivera for Climate Connections. 'And so it is that every three years those of us who believe this Forum to be illegitimate gather together to denounce it. And every three years, over the course of many months, organizations and movements from around the World come together to hold the Alternative World Water Forum.'

Thousands of people in the Sudanese border region of South Kordofan have fled their homes to the nearby mountains, fearing attacks by Sudanese forces that have left entire villages devastated. Al Jazeera's Peter Greste gained access to the remote region and documented evidence of villages and crops destroyed and spoke to people who said they had abandoned their homes out of fear that they would be killed if they stayed. Sudan's army has been accused of deliberately targeting civilians in South Kordofan during a months-long military campaign that has included air raids and allegations of soldiers razing villagers.

According to a report by the UN Country Team in Swaziland, released on 16 March, a fiscal crisis which started early in 2011 has put an additional strain on poor households like Thwala’s and worsened poverty in a country which already had high rates of unemployment and food insecurity and the highest HIV rate in the world. The report, based on a November 2011 survey of 1,334 households, found that poor households have had to adopt extreme measures to cope with reduced incomes resulting from job losses and wage cuts, as well as higher food and fuel prices and reduced access to social services.

Malawi's leading rights activist John Kapito, who was detained by police for possession of foreign currency, has been released on bail, a spokesman for the country's rights body said. Kapito was charged with two counts of carrying seditious material and illegal possession of foreign exchange, he said.

Almost a year after the West African nation was shaken by six months of violence and terror when former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to Alassane Ouattara who won the November 2010 presidential elections, Ivorian children are still trying to recover from the psychological and social trauma the unrest caused them. 'Children were major victims of the post-electoral violence. Many heard gunfire and shelling, saw people running, saw adults afraid and witnessed brutalities, fighting and killings,' says Désiré Koukoui, the director of the International Catholic Children’s Office (BICE) in Abidjan, an organisation protecting children’s rights.

Ethiopian troops have carried out more attacks on what they say are rebel bases inside neighbouring Eritrea, a government official said. The attacks are the first on Eritrean soil that Ethiopia has admitted to since the end of a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people and left a border dispute unresolved. Eritrea says there have been others.

Former law lecturer and socialist party leader Munyaradzi Gwisai, and five other activists arrested for watching videos of the Egyptian uprisings last year, have filed a $300,000 law suit against the police and both Home Affairs co-Ministers. A total of 46 activists were arrested when police raided Gwisai’s home, where the activists were watching videos of the uprisings in Egypt and North Africa. They were charged with plotting to destabilize the government. The majority were released, but six who remained in custody say they were tortured.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of women around the world die during childbirth because they lack access to the medical assistance they need. On International Women’s Day, 8 March, MSF released a report, 'Maternal Death: The Avoidable Crisis', that details the profound, life-saving impact quality emergency obstetric care can have for pregnant women who are trying to endure acute and chronic humanitarian crises. Download the report from the website.

Moroccan police on Wednesday beat up protesters who were seeking to stage a demonstration in the capital Rabat in solidarity to anti-government protests in the north. A Reuters reporter and photographer saw at least three people injured after dozens of truncheon-wielding policemen chased a few hundred protesters around the streets of downtown Rabat. The demonstrators had been seeking to gather in front of a local government office.

This report identifies Norway’s loans to Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain, and discusses the legitimacy of this debt. Norway has lent money to these countries through bilateral debt and through investments in government bonds. Should a new regime, when it has been established, inherit the debt from the previous regime?

Comparisons between Israel’s control over the Palestinians and apartheid South Africa can yield crucial clues on how to move towards the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Submission of the Unemployed People’s Movement to the SAHRC public hearings on the right to sanitation and basic services.

Africa is being recolonised. American interventionist activities in the continent’s Great Lakes region provide a perfect example. African peoples must rise up to protect their own interests by demanding a new relationship with the West.

It has been reported frequently that clandestine homosexual groups exist in Addis Abeba, many of whom lead double lives, since being openly gay or lesbian could cost them their lives.

A year has passed since the military assumed power after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted. But is Egypt any closer to the freedom and justice it sought when its people rose up against the Mubarak regime?

New book uncovers private failures leading cities to take back control of water worldwide.

A mother is not easily convinced that her daughter is okay in the head when she admits to being gay. She thinks that there must be some underlying psychological and emotional problems.

‘We’ve agreed to so many things before – but it’s always in the implementation that we get bogged down.’

A 30-minute

On 9 March, the Committee on Word Food Security (CFS) completed the intergovernmental negotiations of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests in the context of national food security. The guidelines contain valuable points that will provide backing to organizations in their long struggle to ensure the care and use of resources and natural goods in order to produce more nourishing food, so helping to eliminate hunger from the world by addressing its root causes, says this press release from a coalition of civil society organisations.

Western companies should guard against high risks involved in doing business as usual with African countries that have recently discovered offshore oil. A new report asks them to be prepared to manage the perils stemming from 'resource nationalism' in institutionally fragile and politically volatile nations. The warning by UK-based Maplecroft risk analysts refers particularly to countries 'where we see a disenchanted poorly educated youth, many of whom following war torn years out of school, are finding reintegration back into society particularly challenging.' New oil frontiers which the risk analysts have in mind include Equatorial Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon, and the Congo, all of which are classified in the index as 'high risk' countries.

The need for the adoption of a West African regional legal framework on Freedom of Expression (FOE) and Right to Information (RTI) received a significant endorsement on 5 March 2012, when Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, urged his colleagues from ECOWAS member countries to work towards bequeathing such a legal framework for the regional group, ECOWAS.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has found the Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, guilty of recruiting and using child soldiers. It is the court's first verdict since it was set up 10 years ago. He will be sentenced at a later hearing. The charges relate to a conflict in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between 2002 and 2003.

An armed group ambushed a public bus and killed 19 people in western Ethiopia region of Gambela, officials have confirmed. The Monday 12 March incident occurred some 20 kilometres from the regional capital, Gambela town. According to an eye witness, people armed with machine-guns, abducted five female passengers out of the 34, who were in the bus. Seven other people were severely wounded.

Strategies that worked well to drive up men's willingness to participate included the use of peer educators, community events and incentives tied to project phases. Less popular were the use of mobile-phone messaging due to frequent phone number changes, and treatment buddies, which sparked privacy concerns among actual trial participants. This was one of the things researchers found out in the world's largest study of preventative tuberculosis therapy.

‘Beyond the all-too-familiar message of violence against women, Amadi's epigram-clad poem is like the very best straight out of a Holy Book.’

Media Release
March 13, 2012

Translations are not neutral; they are products of history and are highly charged politically. Yet despite this, Fanon’s thought in his translated works has remained clear, inspiring people from Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Africa’s greedy rulers have looted the immense resources of their own countries, leaving the people poor and desperate. The continent’s people must rise up and hold the rulers to account through proper governance mechanisms that will ensure transparent management of national resources.

Gunshots rocked Amuru District as the police tried to disperse about 100 people who had crossed from Adjumani District to the disputed border area of Elegu, to reportedly distribute plots of land among themselves. Although Atiak residents in Amuru District claim legitimacy over the land, the Ofodro clan members in Arinyapi Sub-county district claim the land, that has since become lucrative, belongs to their grandparents and that they only abandoned it during insecurity.

Khayelitsha NGO Equal Education has announced it will take basic education minister Angie Motshekga, finance minister Pravin Gordhan and the nine provincial MECs to court for their collective failures on school infrastructure. EE claims it’ll be the most far-reaching case about basic education in post-apartheid South Africa. In its 582-page founding affidavit, Equal Education, a movement made up of pupils, teachers and parents, says Motshekga has failed to exercise the powers section 5A of the SA Schools Act gives her to prescribe minima for school infrastructure.

Thousands of members of the Democratic Opposition Coordinatioon (COD) in Mauritania, grouping 12 opposition political parties, mounted a massive demonstration here Monday 12 March, to press for an end to military rule. They also denounced 'the increasingly difficult and harsh living conditions, the exclusion of some tribes in the country and the inability of the government to manage a crisis-ridden Mauritania.'

Defence Minister Stephen Smith insists Australian soldiers and spies overseas always act within legal restraints, but he has refused to comment on the secret operations of Australian commandos in Africa. Fairfax Media revealed the previously classified operations of Special Air Service 4 Squadron, raised in secret in 2005 and deployed to at least three African nations for covert intelligence collection. The troops have operated out of uniform in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Ten months after the West African country started to emerge from a presidential election crisis during which almost all hospitals and clinics had to shut down for a good six months because they had been vandalised, looted and occupied, the new government under President Alassane Ouattara is trying to make public health care a priority. But in a country recovering from 12 years of political instability since a military coup in December 1999 that was followed by 10 years of Gbagbo’s autocratic rule, rebuilding a crumbling public health care system takes time.

For over five years, thousands of displaced people have been living in camps in North Kivu. This report analyses the camps of Bihito, Kalinga, Kilimani, and Lushebere, located in Masisi, a territory especially affected by displacement. In order to gain a better understanding of durable solutions that are suitable for the IDPs living in the camps, this report investigates the causes behind their displacement, as well as their living conditions and their prospects for the future. Finally, it offers concrete suggestions to the actors involved, such as authorities in DRC, as well as international and Congolese organisations that provide assistance and protection to IDPs in the camps and support durable solutions to their displacement.

Tanzanian doctors have suspended a nationwide strike after the country's president met union representatives to defuse a row with government, the doctors association said. The more than 1,000-strong Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) is demanding better pay and conditions and the sacking of Health Minister Hadji Mponda and his deputy, whom they accuse of being 'enemies of doctors and the health sector as a whole'.

The country’s Ministry for Coordination of Environmental Affairs (MICOA), has canceled 146 investment projects in various economic activities because they failed to meet the requirements of the country’s environmental laws. The canceled proposals include the activities of some major Western firms. Permanent Secretary Samuel Xirinda told journalists that the 146 projects canceled because of environmental legislation strictures constituted a third of the 437 projects audited by the government in 2011.

The Secretary-General of Angolan opposition party Democratic Bloc (BD), Mr Filomeno Vieira Lopes, said he was brutalised by the police during a weekend protest demonstration. Mr Lopes told the Portuguese news agency Lusa that he had received medical treatment for three fractures on his left arm, a severe blow to the head, which required three stitches and for several bruises all over his body. He accused Angolan police of orchestrating the attack during a demonstration against the appointment of Ms Susan Inglês as the National Electoral Commission boss.