Attacks by the Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, are still causing displacement over a wide area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's North Kivu province. On 20 January, Congolese and Rwandan forces launched an offensive to forcefully disarm the FDLR, considered by Rwanda as a major threat to its national security. FDLR has been retaliating against the civilian population and has launched sporadic attacks on villages in North Kivu.

More than 200,000 people in Namibia have been affected by heavy flooding near the northern border with Angola since January, the United Nations said on Friday. Fields of crops have been soaked and the loss of agricultural produce could have an impact on the region's food security, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Throughout her farming career, Jane Owino she has planted recycled seeds from the previous year’s harvest. However, for as long as she can remember, the 47 year old farmer in Western Kenya has never posted any profits from her labours. Year in and year out, she prepares her farm diligently and plants the seeds on time but she knows that she is at the mercy of increasingly unpredictable seasons and when the rains fail her harvest is in jeopardy.

Sierra Leone's vice president, Samuel Sam-Sumana, on Mar. 13 ordered an indefinite ban on radio stations owned by the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) and its main rival, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). This comes in the wake of a wave of politically-motivated clashes between rival party militants across the country these past two weeks. The situation has deteriorated so much so that by-elections in Gendema, a remote town bordering Liberia, had to be put on hold.

A Malian association uses ICT to gather data from farmers to meet international export standards and makes the same information on the web to help supply chain partners and inform consumers. When the Malian fruit and vegetable export organization, Fruit et Légumes du Mali (Fruiléma), decided to promote locally grown mangoes to markets overseas, it also wanted to give consumers the chance to find out more about the product and where it came from.