At least 17 people have drowned in northern Ghana in recent weeks after nearby Burkina Faso opened spillway gates to dams following heavy rains, the country's relief agency said on Friday. "As at yesterday, the death toll in the three northern regions stood at 17 and a number of farmlands have been destroyed," National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) spokesman Nicholas Mensah told AFP.

On 12 September to 6 October, the V International Awareness Campaign for the Freedom of Antonio Guerrero, René González, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino, the well-known Cuban Five unjustly imprisoned in the United States. Twelve years have passed since they were incarcerated, psychologically tortured and separated from their families and beloved ones. That it is why we shall join together, once again, to demand their liberation.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says it is drafting a list of grievances on the ongoing constitution revision and will present a dossier to the select committee leading the process in the next few days. The organization said Thursday it was concerned the results of the outreach may not reflect popular views of members in various communities, as many speakers at the outreach meetings appear to have been coached on what to say.

Companies access to farm land in Sudan, the first deal of its kind between the two countries, an agriculture ministry official has said. The agreement would allow Egyptian firms to grow crops on 1 million feddans (1.04 million acres) [400,000 hectares] of land, said Saad Nassar, advisor to Egypt’s agriculture minister.

Gambela, one of the nine regional states of Ethiopia is fast growing into what the local media has described as “a land grabbing” hub among Indian companies. Gambela’s new tag as a land grabbing hub comes as BHO Agro Plc becomes the third Indian firm to begin operations in the region after two other Indian companies, Karuturi and Ruchi Group, moved into Gambela in 2008 and early 2010, respectively.

The political climate is growing increasingly antagonistic in Burundi, where many of today’s political parties were yesterday’s rebel groups. A spate of elections designed to entrench stability through pluralism has only made matters worse, say analysts, raising fears that a 10-year-old power-sharing deal is falling apart.

Cameroon is currently experiencing one of its most severe outbreaks of cholera in decades. The epidemic began in May 2010, following the country’s rainy season, and is most prevalent in the country’s Extreme North province. To date, there are some 5,560 reported cases of cholera and 385 deaths, according to the Government of Cameroon.

For two years, Rozina Chimbalani has struggled to feed, clothe and school the four grandchildren left in her care after her daughter died. Across Malawi, this has been a painfully common story, as for more than two decades HIV has shattered families and left more than a million children orphaned.

The opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as 'unrealistic and a recipe for failure' the 2011 general elections timetable, which was released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showing the staggered elections will be held in January. According to the timetable, the elections will start 15 January with the National Assembly (parliamentary) polls, followed by the presidential poll 22 Jan and the Governorship/State Assembly polls 29 Jan.

Hidden Voices: Urban Refugees is a video produced by the International Rescue Committee and MediaServe International. The short film highlights the daily struggles facing thousands of urban refugees living in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi. In their own words, the refugees tell of how they face poverty, harassment and violence as they make their way in the urban environment.

The recent Mozambican food and fuel riots raise the spectre, in general, about food insecurity and social unrest in the future. We certainly have the capability to feed all of the world’s population, but the political economy of agriculture, food production and distribution somewhat has a greater influence as to whether people can feed themselves or not.

Congolese authorities should open a prompt, impartial, and thorough investigation of the abduction and ill-treatment of a human rights defender in North Kivu province in late August 2010, a coalition of 36 international and Congolese human rights organizations has saidy. The authorities should publicly condemn this act and identify and bring to justice those responsible, the coalition said.

Mandela Park Backyarders have continued to stop the construction of houses in our community. Because of our efforts, construction has been unable to proceed for over two weeks - since the 17th of August. We have demanded that the MEC for Housing, Bonginkosi Madikizela, come and listen to our grievances. He had promised to come to our mass meeting last Sunday, the 29th of August. He didn't pitch. He again promised to come to our mass meeting on the 5th of September. We now hear that he won't be able to make it. We are still waiting for him.

There is a division between men and women, not only in terms of pure economics, but also in the realm of technology. Women’s lack of technological access is caused by many factors, and it will ultimately hurt them. Though there is currently a wide range of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) available, there is still a division of who is allowed access to it. Women are deprived not only economically, but also in terms of information.

East African governments have been criticised for failing to protect their agricultural workers from exploitation, and chided for leasing to foreigners land without the explicit consent of existing users. A regional meeting heard that land deals are often done in secret without informing the current land users, in a manner that causes abrupt dispossession and food insecurity.

As large-scale investors’ interest in acquiring vast swathes of land for commercial agriculture in Africa intensifies, farmers believe the time is ripe for the government to press investors to allocate shares to villagers as a corporate social responsibility. Should the proposal be put in place villagers will become shareholders of large-scale commercial farms.

Kibrom Sebhatu, 45, is among hundreds of Eritreans expected to benefit from a recent Ethiopian government ruling allowing Eritrean refugees to live outside the camps. “I am happy that UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency] and the government of Ethiopia agreed to let us live outside the camps. I hope this will open a new era in Ethiopia-Eritrea relations,” Sebhatu said. He joined the Shimelba Refugee camp, along the border with Eritrea, in 2006, after serving in the Eritrean army.

The United Nations has voiced its strong condemnation after Friday's terrorist attack at the main airport in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, which has killed two African peacekeepers and several civilians. In a joint statement, the heads of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) described the attack as a “heinous act of terrorism.”

UNHCR is alarmed by the further deterioration in the situation in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Partners report that fighting over the past two weeks between the transitional government and al-Shabaab has cost more than 230 civilian lives with at least 400 people wounded and 23,000 displaced. So far this year over 200,000 civilians are estimated to have fled their homes.

The prices of foodstuffs have risen in Guinea-Bissau since mid-August, the chairman of the Association of Consumers of Goods and Services (ACOBES), Bambo Sanha, has said. The price of a bag of 50 kg of rice, the basic food in the country, increased from 12,000 to 14,000 FCFA, while that of the 50 kg of sugar increased from 15,000 to 27,000 FCFA, he said in Bissau.