Intensified fighting between the Sudanese government and rebel forces in 2010 has caused many hundreds of deaths and mass displacements in Darfur and should prompt the United Nations to ensure that international peacekeepers strengthen protection for civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. The UN Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the Darfur peacekeeping mission in late July 2010.

On 19 July 2010, the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) withdrew consultative status from one NGO (General Federation of Iraqi Women) and suspended two others (Interfaith International and Centre Europe-tiers monde or CETIM), each for two years. However, the issue that dominated the ECOSOC meeting was a draft decision the US submitted, which sought to grant consultative status to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). Statements in support of the US proposal dominated the lengthy discussion, with only Egypt and Russia speaking aginst it. At the request of Saudi Arabia, the US proposal went to a vote and was adopted by a comfortable margin (23 in favour, 13 opposed, 13 abstentions).

The West African countries of Burkina Faso and Niger have submitted a dispute over their common border to the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) as part of a wider agreement by the two States to resolve the situation peacefully. In a joint letter, the ICJ – which is also known as the World Court – has been asked to delineate the border between the two nations from the Tong-Tong marker to the start of the Botou bend.

Burundi is east Africa's most corrupt nation according to an anti-graft watchdog, while Kenya, which usually tops Transparency International's (TI) annual list of graft-prone countries in the region, was third. Burundi and neighbouring Rwanda were included in the East African Bribery Index survey 2010, commissioned by TI-Kenya for the first time this year.

KwaZulu-Natal is committed to a massive male circumcision drive using all available medical methods including the controversial Tara Klamp, according to Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo. Circumcised men are up to 60 percent less likely to get HIV than uncircumcised men, according to studies.

Despite the various challenges confronting the agricultural sector in Africa, most countries in the continent have recorded a five per cent agriculture growth rate in the last 10 years, according to the Executive Secretary of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Monty Jones. 'Actually when you look back in the last 50 years, a number of African countries were exporting their agricultural produce; somewhere along the line, we saw a drop in agricultural activities and it was stagnant,' Jones told journalists during a news briefing on the sideline of the fifth African Agriculture Science week.

Tidiane Kassé

Dame Babou

Khadija Sharife

The Congolese Minister of Finance, Budget and Public Portfolio, Gilbert Ondongo, and the French Ambassador to Congo, Jean-François Valette has signed an agreement under which France will write off Congolese debts of 645.7 million euros (or 424 billion FCFA), a French official statement said. France, which has pledged to write off all of Congolese debts, will write off 33 1 million euros of the total amount under the present arrangement while furthern egotiations for more debt relief will continue.

Although this morning started with relative serenity, residents in Mogadishu’s eastern districts witnessed some of the most intensive confrontations in the past months. Clashes between fighters loyal to Al-Shabaab, the most radical Islamist group opposing the Transitional Federal Government, and the pro-government forces that included the peacekeepers serving the African Union Mission in Somalia, Amisom, have been extremely heavy in the last three days.

Incidents of bribery in Rwanda are negligible, anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International says. Rwanda, which has been striving to rebuild itself following the 1994 genocide, was by far the least corrupt country in East Africa. Rwanda and its neighbour Burundi were included in the East African Bribery survey for the first time.

A Sudanese rebel group has signed an agreement to allow the UN access to its bases to check children are not being recruited as soldiers. The Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) told the BBC it had been trying to protect children since the beginning of the seven-year conflict in Darfur.

How can the African Union's mediation and conflict prevention mechanisms be strengthened? This seminar report assesses the evolving African peace and security architecture and presents five key recommendations for its future development. It argues that the AU's partnerships should be strengthened, mediation work institutionalised, early warning systems established, lesson-learning institutionalised and that civil society should become more involved in mediation processes.

ILGA is launching a world Directory of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex organizations accessible through its website This service which lists ILGA member groups as well as non members also includes trade unions, women’s or human rights organizations in an attempt to create bridges with NGOs which are not working specifically on LGBTI rights but include or support this agenda. ILGA’s membership includes for example the city of Barcelona and Amsterdam or multi-million member global trade union Public Services International.

Three cabinet ministers from the two MDC formations, plus Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, were in London addressing two separate meetings that sought to woo investors and donors to help with Zimbabwe’s economic recovery. The ministers were accompanied by their permanent secretaries and other senior civil servants from their ministries.

Global funding for AIDS efforts fell flat during last year’s economic meltdown, ending a six-year streak of annual donation increases, according to new analysis released this week. Overall, financial support for international HIV/AIDS assistance fell more than 1 percent to R64,2 billion (US $7.6 billion) in 2009, from R65 billion (US$7.7 billion) the previous year, according to a report from Kaiser Family Foundation and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. The report measured donations from the Group of Eight most industrialized nations, European Commission and other donor governments to low- and moderate-income countries, and noted difficulties interpreting real value as reporting cycles and currency fluctuated.

In its report to the Human Rights Committee, the government of Ethiopia states that “to promote the operation of charities and societies and to ensure their transparency and accountability, a Proclamation for Registration and Regulation of Charities and Societies has been issued and is effective now.” This proclamation helped Ethiopian authorities strangle the country’s independent human rights organisations.

Defence chiefs of staff of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have finalized a detailed plan on the deployment of 2,000 troops to Somalia, according to a press release issued in Addis Ababa. It said at the end of their three-day meeting, the military chiefs and architects from member countries of the East African grouping deliberated on the creation of a central command for Somali security forces; who should contribute what and how many of the troops; when they should be ready for deployment; how and when the African Union (AU) should provide the logistics the forces need; and the establishment of a Joint Command.

For African countries to achieve the Millennium Develop ment Goals (MDGs), it is important to prevent deaths resulting from diarrhoea, which is the biggest killer of children in Africa, said Yunia Musaazi, East African policy adviser for Water Aid. 'Everyday, 2,000 African children die from diarrhoea. These deaths are preventa ble by providing safe water and maintaining sanitation,' said Musaazi, one of the panelists drawn from civil society organi sations across Africa.

Urgent action is needed to stop the rapid and alarming loss of genetic diversity of African livestock that provide food and in come to 70 per cent of rural Africans, according to an analysis presented at a gathering of African scientists and development experts here.

Zanu-PF says there is “no reason” for Zimbabwe not to hold elections in 2011, but analysts believe the polls could be much later over demands for more reforms to guarantee a free and fair vote. President Robert Mugabe, 86, was forced into a power-sharing pact with rivals Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara more than a year ago after a crisis over a 2008 national election that local and foreign observers say was marred by violence and vote-rigging.