When disaster strikes as it has recently in Southern Africa, everyone is affected. Last week the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that during the next two or three months parts of Southern Africa will likely experience some of the worst flooding seen in more than 20 years. But for women, the impact can be far greater, and have longer-lasting consequences. Natural disasters are often considered a ‘gender neutral’ topic – that is, something which affects everyone equally. However, according to Indian author and activist Ammu Joseph, ‘every issue has a different impact on different sections of the population, this includes women.’

A study has found that about 55 per cent of HIV patients in South Africa who are not eligible for treatment at the time of diagnosis will disappear from clinics within a year of initial monitoring, leaving a serious gap in HIV care and prevention, say researchers. Most patients in South Africa must have a CD4 count - a measure of the immune system’s strength - of 200 or less to be eligible for antiretrovirals (ARVs), but previous research has shown that about two-thirds of people will not meet ARV treatment criteria at diagnosis.

'On 18 and 19 February 2011, the National Steering Committee of the Democratic Left Front (DLF) held its first meeting after the historic DLF’s founding conference held last month at Wits University. This committee meeting was held in eThekwini as part of initiating the launch and growth of the DLF process, campaigns and structures in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The meeting was held in the immediate aftermath of the people’s revolutions for democracy and wealth redistribution in the countries of the Maghreb and the Arab world, President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address, the forthcoming municipal elections and the current wave of worker and community protests as we have seen with the recently-ended truck driver’s strike, the Equal Education Campaign’s protest outside parliament concerning the crisis in the Eastern Cape education system, and the community protests in Grahamstown, Ermelo and others bubbling elsewhere.'

At least 50 Somali and Ethiopian migrants died when a ship carrying 129 people sank off the northern coast of Mozambique last week, media reports said. Reuters reports that survivors, thought to be illegal migrants, have been taken to refugee camps.

Alhaji Bature Iddrisu, managing editor of privately-owned Bilingual Free Press on 19 February 2011 filed a complaint at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service against Kennedy Agyapong, an opposition Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North Constituency of the Central Region, for threatening him with death. Agyapong was reported by a pro-government daily newspaper, The Enquirer, to have said that he would 'kill' Alhaji Bature for consistently linking him and his family to illicit drug trafficking from one radio station to another.

Over 100 European and international organisations are calling on the G20 Finance Ministers to rein in speculation on food prices by banks, hedge funds and pension funds. The finance ministers will be discussing responses to the record food prices which are at ‘dangerous’ levels according to the World Bank with 44 million more people pushed into poverty since last June.

A suicide car bomber has attacked a police training camp in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, killing at least six people, officials say. The blast is reported to have happened near the Darwish Camp, which is next to a police academy. There are fears the death toll will rise.

Orchestrated violence following hotly contested presidential election results in December 2007 led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Many are still struggling to rebuild their lives in their new homes, despite a government compensation scheme.

Graca Machel, president of the Foundation for Community Development of South Africa has said the most important revolution that African women have to get involved in is the economic one. Machel also said women have to be agents and builders of peace in their respective countries.

Issue one of the 2011 Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Southern Africa newsletter is now available. Visit their page to read the newsletter and to sign up for forthcoming editions.

Wesley Kipkoech*, 21, may be illiterate and speak only his native Ndorobo tongue, but he understands all too well that if he does not have regular access to his HIV medication, he is likely to die. Kipkoech is one of hundreds of internally displaced people living on the edges of the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya's Rift Valley Province after the government began evicting them in 2009, in a bid to rehabilitate the forest after decades of farming, charcoal burning and other harmful activities.

Unconfirmed reports from sources in Libya - where reliable information is notoriously difficult to come by - suggested more than 60 people died in violence in the capital on 21 February. Network Al-Jazeera also claimed at least one government building had been torched in Tripoli, a report that also could not be independently verified. Unconfirmed reports from sources in Libya suggested more than 60 people died in violence in the capital on 21 February. Network Al-Jazeera also claimed at least one government building had been torched in Tripoli, a report that also could not be independently verified.

The London Guardian has established an interactive map that syncs with Twitter feeds relevant to protests currently prevalent in the region. The page makes it possible to click on a region, following which the relevant Tweets for that country show up.

Multiple pre-dawn explosions rocked opposition offices in oil-rich southern Nigeria, the latest in a wave of attacks ahead of April elections, police and the party said Monday (21 February). The explosions went off at the Labour Party campaign offices in Bayelsa, President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state.

Bad governance and the persistence of the tax avoidance industry allow billions of dollars of profit to be siphoned out of Africa, untaxed, every year. For the past 25 years, tax revenues in most African countries have missed even the low target of 15 per cent of gross domestic product, far less than rich countries’ average of 35 per cent, according to a recent report of the Tax Justice Network’s Africa section.

Morocco will address labour concerns and unemployment by providing 'solutions as quickly as possible', according to Communications Minister Khalid Naciri. 'The labour situation is worrying. Wages are still frozen at a time when prices are skyrocketing. Unemployment is rising. We must enter into serious discussions. As unions, our role is to prevent the country from getting into difficult situations,' said Abdelhak Azzouzi, General Secretary of the Democratic Labour Federation.

Ivorian security forces killed at least three civilians when they opened fire to disperse gatherings in an Abidjan district on Sunday, and African leaders ended meetings to resolve a three-month post-election stand-off. There were no organised protests, but security forces fired bursts of live rounds to prevent groups from forming.

The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has found major IMF lapses in judgement before the financial crisis, including the promotion of 'light-touch regulation', casting doubt on the Fund's ability to contribute to taming global finance. As the banking crisis has been transformed into crises of public finance, and while the financial sector returns to business as usual, the IMF has grown increasingly vocal about the insufficient attention being paid to regulation and reform.

Egypt could soon be looking for a new economic model – one that will be different from the traditional system that has been promoted for years by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), under the reign of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Since the mid 1980’s, the World Bank, the IMF, and USAID have sought to encourage policies that limit the role of government in the economy, cut budget deficits, and give more influence to the private sector and corporations.

There is growing interest in the role that restorative justice can play in addressing mass atrocities. This UNICEF paper describes the associated principles and practices within juvenile justice systems and in societies emerging from mass violence. It also examines the meaning, opportunities and limitations of restorative justice in transitional societies, particularly in relation to the needs of young victims and offenders.