Colleagues of a radio journalist who was attacked by unknown assailants on 16 July 2010 are suspecting the military of being behind the attack. "Mansaré must have been a victim of an action carried out by persons hostile to his reports possibly, it is a settlement of scores," according to a colleague of Mansaré who spoke to the Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent in Guinea on condition of anonymity.

Three journalists were formally charged after refusing to reveal to Ivory Coast's state prosecutor their sources for a corruption story based on a document leaked from the prosecutor's office. The journalists could face up to 10 years in prison. Managing Editor Stéphane Guédé, News Editor Théophile Kouamouo, and Editor-in-Chief Saint-Claver Oula of the daily Le Nouveau Courrier were charged with "theft of administrative documents," defense lawyer Désiré Gueu told CPJ. The three are expected to be transferred from police custody to a prison in the commercial city of Abidjan pending trial, he said.

‘Given the context of blood diamonds, the real conflict rests not with militias mining diamonds’, but with ‘the battle to control markets and pricing’, argues Khadija Sharife, in an assessment of the structure of the international diamond industry. For developing country governments ‘at the helm of diamond-producing economies, corporate control over diamond markets means limited choices and fewer opportunities to collect equitable revenue from diamond resources’, says Sharife.

With a focus on the role of ‘free and fair elections’ in promoting democracy, Zaya Yeebo takes a look at how electoral politics are shaping up across the continent. ‘The important consideration for the state, the media, civil society and political parties,’ says Yeebo, ‘is to work within an African framework, and for international supporters and interlopers to recognise the local reality, and not impose conditions based on geopolitical and economic interest.’

Stephen looks to ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu to explain the structure of justice in Africa.

On Monday, August 30th, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) at Columbia University will welcome as the 22nd cohort of the Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP). The intensive HRAP curriculum is defined by academic coursework, skills-building workshops and networking opportunities with the human rights communities in New York and Washington, DC. By the time the advocates complete the program in mid-December, they will have acquired the knowledge, skills and connections necessary to further develop themselves as human rights professionals and their organizations back home.

The UN refugee agency apologized Tuesday to the Uganda government after it claimed it was involved in the forced repatriation of some 1700 Rwandan refugees last week, RNA reports. Uganda’s minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, Tarsis Kabwegyere, said Tuesday afternoon that UNHCR has privately apologised for its inaccurate statements.

The January 2011 referendum in Southern Sudan will mark a turning point for the region and could see the formation of Africa's newest state, but how will the south fare after the vote? A report commissioned by the non-profit organization Pact Sudan and conducted by the London School of Economics in several of Southern Sudan's states (Eastern Equatoria, Greater Bahr el-Ghazal and Upper Nile), highlights issues that pose a threat to peace and security in Southern Sudan.

It seems the concern for the liberation of the oppressed injected into US foreign policy is merely a muted growl from a seemingly ‘toothless and clawless (paper) tiger’, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. Mariam voices the frustrations of those in Ethiopia who lay witness to the empty human rights rhetoric of US foreign policy makers, and urges the US to back up its big human rights talk with big human rights action in the country so to avoid its descent as a silent witness to the crimes of dictatorship.

Algeria has adopted a law which will allow private firms for the first time to lease state-owned farmland but it also imposed restrictions on foreign investment. Gulf investors have shown an interest in Algerian farmland, part of a global trend for countries with large cash reserves to try to secure food supplies by targeting farmland abroad.

Defence chiefs of staff of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have finalized a detailed plan on the deployment of 2,000 troops to Somalia, according to a press release issued in Addis Ababa. It said at the end of their three-day meeting, the military chiefs and architects from member countries of the East African grouping deliberated on the creation of a central command for Somali security forces; who should contribute what and how many of the troops; when they should be ready for deployment; how and when the African Union (AU) should provide the logistics the forces need; and the establishment of a Joint Command.

Participants at the on-going Fifth African Agriculture Science week, which entered its third day on Wednesday, want all the stakeholders including political leaders to develop func tional policies that will encourage more intra-Africa trade. The participants, who include civil society groups from within and outside Afric a involved in agriculture, farmers group and non-governmental organizations, said existing protocol on free movement of goods and persons, particularly in ECOWAS countries and other Regional Economic Communities (REC), needed to be fully implemented.

For African countries to achieve the Millennium Develop ment Goals (MDGs), it is important to prevent deaths resulting from diarrhoea, which is the biggest killer of children in Africa, said Yunia Musaazi, East African policy adviser for Water Aid. 'Everyday, 2,000 African children die from diarrhoea. These deaths are preventa ble by providing safe water and maintaining sanitation,' said Musaazi, one of the panelists drawn from civil society organi sations across Africa.

Basil Davidson wrote so passionately about Africa it was assumed he was an African, writes Cameron Duodu, paying tribute to the late historian, whose work ‘enriched the world's understanding of Africa’. Davidson was ‘not only an inspiration to progressives inside academia, but was an important resource for African leaders themselves’, says Duodu, at a time when the majority of ‘histories’ depicted Africa as ‘a land full of barbarous peoples “until the whiteman came”’.

New initiatives at the United States’ Department of Defense indicate that the militarisation of the social sciences is high on the agenda of its forward strategy for fighting wars, cautions Horace Campbell. With academics being encouraged to produce intelligence on Africa, ‘[i]ndependent and progressive scholars and activists must intensify the peace work so that there is a new social science infrastructure that can work hand in hand with the revolutionary foment that is brewing’ on the continent says Campbell.

Kenya’s Constitutional Court is due to set a date on Jul 22 for a hearing on the application against the Anti-Counterfeit Act of 2008, of which clauses pertaining to medicines have been suspended pending the court’s decision on whether the law violates the right to health and life.

Urgent action is needed to stop the rapid and alarming loss of genetic diversity of African livestock that provide food and in come to 70 per cent of rural Africans, according to an analysis presented at a gathering of African scientists and development experts here.

Nigeria's Senate has voted to move up general elections to January, pressuring President Goodluck Jonathan's ruling party to resolve a split between the mainly Christian south and majority Muslim north. The House of Representatives must still approve the new election rules after the Senate decided on Wednesday to change the constitution to allow for a January vote in the world's eighth-largest oil exporter. Senators voted through a proposal to hold the general election "not earlier than 150 days and not later than 120 days before the expiration of term of office," of either the president or a state governor.

Zanu-PF says there is “no reason” for Zimbabwe not to hold elections in 2011, but analysts believe the polls could be much later over demands for more reforms to guarantee a free and fair vote. President Robert Mugabe, 86, was forced into a power-sharing pact with rivals Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara more than a year ago after a crisis over a 2008 national election that local and foreign observers say was marred by violence and vote-rigging.

The International Criminal Court must probe alleged crimes against humanity after Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s youth militia launched a campaign of rape during 2008 elections, a campaign group says. Witness statements by rape victims, vetted by a team of international lawyers, suggest the ruling ZANU-PF unleashed “sexual terror” against women who supported the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), it said.

Mining firm Randgold Resources says it is to begin mining Africa's largest undeveloped gold deposit - in eastern DR Congo. The mine will require the re-location of 15,000 people, but Randgold says the project has the support of the government and the local community. The mine is thought to have a reserve of about 320 tonnes of gold, it says.

Rwanda's government should allow independent experts to carry out an autopsy on a murdered opposition politician, Human Rights Watch says. The US-based group says there are discrepancies in the official account of Andre Kagwa Rwisereka's death.

The Dutch government should immediately halt all plans to return Somalis to war-torn Somalia, Human Rights Watch has said. The Dutch authorities have announced their intention to deport, between now and October 2010, at least eight Somalis whose claims for asylum have been rejected. The first deportation could take place as early as July 24. The plan is contrary to UN refugee guidelines, which advise against all deportations to south-central Somalia.

Intensified fighting between the Sudanese government and rebel forces in 2010 has caused many hundreds of deaths and mass displacements in Darfur and should prompt the United Nations to ensure that international peacekeepers strengthen protection for civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. The UN Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the Darfur peacekeeping mission in late July 2010.

They are huddled together in a group in the midst of an animated discussion to which each has something to contribute. Eager to make her point is Barbara Kyomugisha. At just 24 years old, Barbara is a single mother living with HIV. The contribution she makes towards this discussion is first hand. To her, the affordability of health services is just as important as accessibility in addressing the rates of maternal mortality in Africa.

On 19 July 2010, the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) withdrew consultative status from one NGO (General Federation of Iraqi Women) and suspended two others (Interfaith International and Centre Europe-tiers monde or CETIM), each for two years. However, the issue that dominated the ECOSOC meeting was a draft decision the US submitted, which sought to grant consultative status to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). Statements in support of the US proposal dominated the lengthy discussion, with only Egypt and Russia speaking aginst it. At the request of Saudi Arabia, the US proposal went to a vote and was adopted by a comfortable margin (23 in favour, 13 opposed, 13 abstentions).

Amnesty International is calling on the Gambian government to end its widespread use of arbitrary detentions and torture as activists worldwide stage protests against the authorities' appalling human rights record on 22 July, the country's national holiday known as "Freedom Day".

The West African countries of Burkina Faso and Niger have submitted a dispute over their common border to the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) as part of a wider agreement by the two States to resolve the situation peacefully. In a joint letter, the ICJ – which is also known as the World Court – has been asked to delineate the border between the two nations from the Tong-Tong marker to the start of the Botou bend.

Constitutional outreach members from all the ten provinces, with drivers and technicians included, are threatening to down their tools due to poor working conditions and a breach of agreements by COPAC. Barely a month after the launch of the Constitutional Outreach, aimed at coming up with a new constitution under the auspices of the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee, threats of its cessation are growing everyday as problems mount.

Burundi is east Africa's most corrupt nation according to an anti-graft watchdog, while Kenya, which usually tops Transparency International's (TI) annual list of graft-prone countries in the region, was third. Burundi and neighbouring Rwanda were included in the East African Bribery Index survey 2010, commissioned by TI-Kenya for the first time this year.

In one of the biggest advances in HIV prevention in decades, a vaginal gel containing an antiretroviral drug has been proven to protect almost four out of 10 women from HIV. A study of almost 900 HIV negative women from KwaZulu-Natal found that there was a 39% lower HIV incidence rate in the group that used the gel containing tenofovir. This ARV-containing gel (known as a microbicide) could save over 800,000 lives and prevent 1.3 million new HIV infections over the next two decades in South Africa alone, according to statistician Brian Williams.

KwaZulu-Natal is committed to a massive male circumcision drive using all available medical methods including the controversial Tara Klamp, according to Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo. Circumcised men are up to 60 percent less likely to get HIV than uncircumcised men, according to studies.

The East African Community (EAC) has allowed governments to run their custom services individually, ending weeks of uncertainty over the possible impact of the planned common tax collection on members’ revenue targets. The formation of the common market on July 1 had provided for a common revenue team to collect customs taxes from the entry points such as sea and airports and sharing it out among the five member state

High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has been in Kinshasa as part of a three-day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo to draw attention to the plight of Congo's displaced people and the need to ensure humanitarian access to them. Guterres who travelled to Equateur province in western DRC, said that his agency was getting ready to re-establish a presence in the region to help the internally displaced as well as prepare for the return of refugees.

AMwA will be holding a West African Sub Regional African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI) on the theme, “Building African Women’s Leadership to Address Long-Term Forced Migration”, that is scheduled to take place from 19th – 25th September 2010 in Accra, Ghana. The countries from which young women will be selected to participate in this AWLI will be from Anglo-phone West African countries. The deadline for the receipt of applications for this unique and exciting training programme is 30th July 2010.

1 am 1 of a million South Africans who Says YES to: humanity, peace and unity Says NO to: racism, ignorance and violence I promise to confront ignorance with knowledge; prejudice with tolerance; and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. I will * celebrate the common humanity of people and our shared heritage as Africans * recognise and protect the human rights of all people living in South Africa, no matter their language or country of origin * attempt to prevent any acts of xenophobia -- intolerance, intimidation or violence; and to report to the police if any person violates the rights or safety of another. Sign the petition

At the end of the AU civil society pre -summit meeting organized by the African Union Commission in collaboration with the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), we as civil society and peoples’ representatives from across the continent welcome this opportunity to jointly reflect on the condition of the continent, the issues facing it and the developments since the last Summit, to arrive at a common position from which to communicate substantive recommendations to Heads of State and Government, Permanent Representatives, Peace and Security Council and Foreign Ministers. It is our hope that such forums and spaces, which are indicative of our commitment to a people driven African Union will continue to be encouraged.

Mango's mission is to help NGOs working around the world to strengthen their financial management and accountability. We are widely respected as the leading specialists in our field and recently received one of the UK's most prestigious awards at the Annual Charity Awards 2009. This particular course provides a practical introduction to financial management for managers and finance officers of small to medium sized NGOs. It covers ‘the building blocks’ of financial management: keeping accounts, financial planning, internal control and financial monitoring. The course is 5 days long and non-residential, and will be offered to NGO staff in South Africa and Zambia during August and September 2010. We are also offering a few scholarships to poorly-resourced local NGOs - more details

Following the publication of racist references to migrants in South Africa in a London Review of Books blog by R.W. Johnson, a collection of writers, academics and publishers demands a public apology.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/491/maurice_namwira.jpgSome five years after the assassination of Pascal Kabungulu, formerly secretary general of DRC human rights group Héritiers de la Justice, Maurice Namwira, the organisation’s executive secretary, discusses activism, impunity from justice and Héritier’s work with Christian Aid with Emma Pomfret.

Nigeria needs to draw upon its own political and organising traditions and not simply mimic Western models, writes Oluwole Onemola. Not only does this ‘shoe’ not fit, Onemola argues, trying to put it on has allowed exploitative politicians to enrich themselves to the complete detriment of the people they represent. But, the author stresses, ‘[t]hey are not the corrupt ones, we are, because we have let them plunder away at our national pride unchallenged, with only the faintest of castigations.’

Parliamentarians in Mozambique are currently facing a challenge by an advocacy group new to the country's political scene, on an issue most people are unwilling to even talk about - sex work. The newly formed Mozambique chapter of the Pan African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) are pressing parliament to recognise the rights of sex workers, especially to ensure their health and security.

The National Olympic Committee (NOC) and National Paralympic Committee (NPC) Services and Relations team is located within the Sports department of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). The team will define the service levels and manage the relationships with the 205 NOCs and 162 NPCs preparing for and sending athletes to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are looking for a highly motivated and multilingual Regional Coordinator for Africa to contribute to building and managing successful relationships with a number of assigned client groups in order to deliver key services at Pre-Games and Games time. Experience of working in, or closely with Africa is essential

Friends of the Earth Europe has strongly criticised an agreement expected to be announced today by EU and Brazilian leaders to expand biofuels in Mozambique. The agreement to promote biofuels in Africa to power European cars is described as "immoral and perverse."

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT), in collaboration with young women’s networks and formations in Southern Africa, are hosting a Southern African Young Women’s Festival (SAYWF) in Harare from 24 to 28 October 2010. The Festival is designed to provide space for young women between 18 and 30 years of age, to come together and share experiences, share strategies and energise each other and celebrate their youth and the potential they have to advocate for social justice in their respective communities.

It looks like a simple enough issue: whether a pocket of land in the middle of Sudan is part of the north or the south. But the Abyei question is key to lasting peace in the country. The last time the area’s residents were denied the right - enshrined in a 1972 peace accord - to make the choice themselves, the backlash helped push the country back into civil war.

Swaziland's judiciary is concerned by an absence of detention facilities for children, which forces them to share jail cells with adult criminals. "Do we have facilities for keeping a minor?" enquired presiding High Court judge Thomas Masuku during the recent trial of a 16-year-old boy, when it became apparent that the accused was being held in the same cell as adults in the northern town of Pigg's Peak.

The 2010 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines. These disciplines are uniformly confronted with broadly similar difficulties of understanding social reality and the challenges posed by techniques of data collection and analysis, which, on account of their “qualitative” nature, are suspected by some to be seriously lacking in scientific rigour. Deadline: 6th August, 201 0.