In this week’s Emerging Powers news roundup, Sanusha Naidu looks at India and Russia’s investment forays in Nigeria, Namibia and Angola, respectively. China continues to establish itself across the continent, from Cape Verde to Cameroon and Ethiopia. China has also received mention for policies that will benefit domestic and global economic recovery. Elsewhere, Brazil, India and South Africa have held an inter-ministerial meeting to strengthen ties. There is also emerging evident that there is growing competition between India and China in the investment stakes

Despite a two-year-old law in Niger penalizing discrimination against people infected with HIV, seropositive women say they still receive substandard health care, are denied employment and risk losing their children because of their status. “When a woman is divorced as a result of her HIV status, it is difficult for her to keep her children,” said Sona Soumaré Conté, president of a local NGO that works with HIV-positive women. "Their husbands are afraid their children will not be well taken care of or will become contaminated.”

Women and children are being increasingly targeted in the escalating attacks against communities in Southern Sudanese states, exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation, say officials. "We have seen a drastic escalation in violence across Southern Sudan this year - from the Equatorial States besieged by LRA [rebel Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army] attacks, to the brutal clashes in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Lake States," Jonathan Whittall, head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Southern Sudan, said.