The number of refugees in 10 countries in Eastern Africa has risen to nearly 1.4 million, an eight per cent increase since September, the United Nations humanitarian office said 13 May in an update that shows that the majority of the new asylum-seekers travelled to Kenya and Ethiopia. Kenya received more than 50,000 of the total number of 103,874 new refugees, while some 19,000 entered Ethiopia. The majority of the refugees going to the two countries were Somalis fleeing drought and conflict in their homeland, according to the report prepared by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

A recent report on Zimbabwe’s progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, complied by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), said about 80 per cent of the posts for midwives were vacant in the public sector. 'The shortage of skilled and competent midwives can avert 80 to 90 per cent of maternal deaths. The shortage of skilled and competent midwives can result in women and their newborns dying from the complications that could be prevented by a health worker with the right skills, the right equipment and the right support,' the report pointed out.

A controversial anti-homosexuality bill that could've seen the death penalty imposed for certain homosexual acts has failed to make it through the Ugandan parliament before it broke for recess. But the MP who tabled the bill in the first place says he will table it again in the next parliamentary session.

Nato aircrafts have blasted an oil terminal in a key eastern city in a nightfall strike, Libyan TV reported, after Britain urged the alliance to widen its assault on areas controlled by ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The reported attack came as the Libyan conflict appeared largely stalemated, with each side claiming gains one day, only to be turned back the next.

The blog Africa is a Country features a new documentary called Colour Bar. It is the story of Roland Gust, who was born to a Congolese mother and a Belgian father. He grew up in Congo, believing he was white until his family decided to return to Belgium when he was twelve. The documentary follows him as he attempts to describe his past. The blog post also has a Q&A with Gust.

For the first time since former President Jerry Rawlings burst onto the Ghanaian political scene in 1979, his much talked about charisma and hold over the ordinary people in the country is to be put to the test on 8 July when his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings stands against President John Atta Mills for the right to lead the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in next year’s election. Already signs that the Rawlings myth has been broken has emerged, reports the Daily Nation.

Sudanese armies were due to begin the pullout of unauthorised troops Tuesday (09 May) to allow for the deployment of the officially-recognised Joint Integrated Units, the only military force allowed in Abyei under UN monitoring. The Abyei Joint Technical Committee (JTC), under the chairmanship of the UN Mission In Sudan (UNMIS), is monitoring the withdrawal of the troops by both sides involved in the Sudanese conflict for years in line with the 2005 deal on security arrangements.

Sudanese authorities should immediately release Hawa Abdallah or formally charge her with a credible, recognized offense, Human Rights Watch has said. Abdallah, who was arrested on 6 May, is a community activist from the Abu Shouk displaced persons camp in North Darfur and a staff member of the United Nations/African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID). On 8 May, Sudan's state news service published an article accusing Abdallah of 'christianising' children in displaced persons camps and of links to a rebel group.

The ongoing public servants' strike in Botswana has seen that country's state-owned media cover only one side of the story, writes Thapelo Ndlovu on Free African Media. 'Despite being denied the opportunity to air their views in the state media, the striking Botswana public service workers have not effectively used the new media, especially social network sites. The Internet is largely available in Botswana, but workers and the public in general don’t yet fully use it. Facebook is the most popular, but largely among the savvy youth, most of whom are not interested in labour or political issues.'

The farmers of Makeni, in central Sierra Leone, signed the contract with their thumbs. In exchange for promises of 2,000 jobs, and reassurances that the bolis (swamps where rice is grown) would not be drained, they approved a deal granting a Swiss company a 50-year lease on 40,000 hectares of land to grow biofuels for Europe. Three years later 50 new jobs exist, irrigation has damaged the bolis and such development as there has been has come 'at the social, environmental and economic expense of local communities', says Elisa Da Vià of Cornell University in this article from The Economist about land grabbing.

Egypt's transitional government moved quickly to defuse tensions after Muslim-Christian clashes in Cairo left 12 dead and cast a cloud over hopes for peaceful post-revolutionary change. Angry demonstrations erupted in the capital after a Coptic church in the Imbaba neighbourhood was burned down on Saturday night. Military police separated opposing camps at one protest reminiscent of the dramatic events that overthrew the regime in February.

In this statement, the South Centre provides a counter argument to the idea that lower developed countries (LDCs) are not integrated in the world economy as the reason for their marginalisation. 'This is not true. Many LDCs have higher exports to GNP ratio than some developed countries. It is the way in which the LDCs are integrated in trade that has been a disadvantage. LDCs are too dependent on raw materials export, and prices of commodities have had a long-term trend decline, thus causing major revenue and income losses for LDCs.'

Zogbo Blé Denis of the state-owned Ivorian Broadcasting Service (RTI) and Claude Kipré of Top Visages, a weekly magazine, have gone into hiding after reportedly receiving death threats from unknown persons. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that Zogbo Blé, a producer and presenter of 'Excellence' a popular programme on RTI, received two calls on 8 May from a caller who only identified himself as 'Commandant F' and threatened to storm his home.

At least nine unarmed Ugandans were shot dead - many of them in the back – by government security agents in the recent walk-to-work protests despite not being involved in rioting, a new report says. In its report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for a 'prompt, independent, and thorough investigation' into the use of lethal force by security forces to counter the protests against the rising cost of living.

After the arrest in the city of Abidjan on 11 April 2011, of Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Cote d'Ivoire, and his wife Simone, some confusion remains regarding the process that led to his capture. Website Abidjan.net has published a series of videos entitled, 'The film of Laurent Gbagbo's arrest: New elements', divided into four videos of 10-14 minutes each. The videos, some of them included in this Global Voices post, show the sequence of events of the Gbagbos' arrest, from the bombing of their residence by French Special Forces, to the transfer of the Gbagbo family to the Hotel du Golf.

Following the ‘brutal and often excessive manner’ with which the Ugandan state and law enforcement agencies have responded to citizens' demands for government action to address increased prices, cost of living, growing poverty, inequality in distribution of resources and corruption’, Uganda Women’s Civil Society Organisations have issued a statement highlighting their concerns.

The rainy season is just beginning in Ivory Coast. But in many places, the rain will fall on unplanted ground. Although the post-election fighting is mostly over, many farmers, especially in western regions, have not yet returned to their land. The UN refugee agency estimates that one million people have been displaced in and around Abidjan, with at least 200,000 displaced in the west. Few people remain on their farms to cultivate the land.

EG Justice and other civil society organisations have credited UNESCO’s Executive Board for soundly rejecting a petition by the government of Equatorial Guinea to reinstate a prize funded by and named after its president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. In a decision on 9 May 2011, the Executive Board declined to consider a 4 May request by the Obiang government to reverse its prior decision and award the prize without delay. UNESCO indefinitely suspended the $3 million UNESCO Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences in October 2010 after an unprecedented global outcry seeking its cancellation.

This brief available from the website of the Refugee Studies Centre analyses the challenges and opportunities - after 35 years of protracted displacement and encampment - for the Sahrawi refugees, their political representatives and international actors. It calls for a careful analysis of the diverse alternative solutions to encampment in Algeria that have been adopted or proposed and of the relevant protection concerns which may arise.

The New York Times has reported on a wave of execution-style murders of former Libyan government internal security personnel in Benghazi. The bodies of two men, Nasser al-Sirmany and Hussein Ghaith, were found within days of each other. Both men had reportedly worked as interrogators for Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal internal security agencies. At least four similar attacks are now under investigation by authorities in Benghazi, while it is unclear how many more killings have gone unreported. The so-called Transitional National Council (TNC) has denied that its security forces are responsible.