This latest report from the International Crisis Group, warns of the risks involved after President Laurent Gbagbo recently dissolved the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) and the government. Preparations are now at a virtual standstill, and the process of identifying who is eligible to vote carries serious risks of violence.

Zimbabwe has announced it was shelving the privatisation of the country's huge iron and steel company, in what is suspected to be a growing bickering in Zimbabwe's coalition government. Arcelor Mittal, the world's biggest iron and steel company, and India's Jindal Steel and Power company, had been short-listed to buy a controlling stake in the loss-making Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco).

The French government has provided financial assistance to the tune of 90,000 euros to Burundi for the organisation of the series of elections planned in the coming four months, an official source said in Bujumbura.

Amady Ba

Amady Aly Dieng

In the Niger Delta, Chevron’s operations have devastated communities’ local economies and environment. Chevron engages in gas flaring, the burning of associated gas that comes out of the ground when oil is extracted. People live literally next door to the toxic, roaring, ground-level flares—burning 24 hours a day, some for 40 years. Chevron is among the worst offenders in Nigeria, flaring over 84% of its gas in 2008. and add your own comments to this letter to Chevron's CEO.

£38,000
Central London
Permanent position

The Common Ground Initiative is a £20 million fund supporting African development through UK based small and Diaspora organisations. With the support of the Baring Foundation and working in partnership with DFID, Comic Relief aims to make grants that will bring sustainable change to some of the most disadvantaged communities in Africa. We will also create opportunities to influence international development policy as well as commission a major study to understand more about the contribution of the UK Diaspora in international development. Join us in this new role and help manage this strategic investment and in doing so, make a greater contribution towards a just world, free from poverty.

Working from our Central London office, you will project manage our work on supporting the Diaspora on policy influencing and advocacy work, and contribute to our learning in this field. You will also spend no more than one day a week carrying out grant making and management duties.

This influential role calls for experience of working in international development, a track record within policy influencing and advocacy work, proven project management skills and a passion for using learning to inform future work.

Apply online at or send a large SAE, quoting reference CR1028, to Recruitment, Comic Relief, 5th Floor, 89 Albert Embankment,
London SE1 7TP. Closing date: 21 June 2010

Please note that successful applicants must have the right to live and work in the United Kingdom.

Comic Relief positively welcomes, and seeks to ensure we achieve, diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality. We encourage applications from disabled people as they are currently under-represented in the organisation. We will guarantee an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job.
registered charity 326568

A group of Aids activists arrived in Johannesburg on Thursday afternoon after attending meetings related to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Dar es Salam. They had been detained by Tanzanian authorities in the country's capital and escorted to the airport.

This latest background report from the International Crisis Group examines the historical relationships, strategic interests, and recent engagement of key regional states as well as their views on the possible independence of the South. Many of Sudan’s bordering states were involved in, or affected by its civil wars, and each would be directly affected by either peaceful separation or a return to conflict.

The large-scale acquisition for industrial agriculture in African and other developing countries has been described as a global land grab, ‘threatening food, seed and land sovereignty of family farmers, social stability, environmental health and biodiversity around the world’, writes Joan Baxter. While it is understandable that investors deny that this kind of agricultural investment is a ‘land grab’, says Baxter, what is perplexing is that ‘the same kind of rhetoric is coming from some whose job it is to protect Africa’s farmers’ rights and their farmland from exploitative foreign takeover’.

Malawi is urgently looking for US$4.1 million to fight a measles outbreak that is on the increase in the southern African country. So far, according to Health Secretary Chris Kang'ombe, over 2, 000 cases have been recorded.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, Zimbabwe and China sign $400m power plant agreement, World Bank unit to finance Chinese Africa venture, Indian IT firm set to invest in Uganda, Seychelles-China relations accelerate with new momentum, and Niger coup raises questions about China’s tactics.

Sixteen years after the Rwandan genocide, thousands of perpetrators who confessed their roles before the traditional Gacaca Courts have been released and sentenced to community service, but survivors say this is an inadequate punishment. "The punishment should be [close] to the pain those inmates inflicted," Theodore Simburudali, the chairman of the genocide survivor organization, Ibuka, said.

At St Peter TB Specialized Hospital, high in the mountains of Entoto, north of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, a masked Johannes* is suffering from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and has spent the last month at the hospital. While the doctors are glad he is receiving treatment, they are also worried - Johannes is a bus conductor in heavily populated Addis Ababa, so there is no telling how many people he could have infected before seeking treatment.

A new report by Zimbabwe's National AIDS Council (NAC), showing a dramatic rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among people aged 15 to 24 in the capital, Harare, has health experts worried that the country's success in reducing HIV could be unravelling. STIs heighten vulnerability to HIV infection, and this age group is one of the hardest hit. According to the NAC report, more than 24,000 people were treated for STIs in 2009, compared to 8,500 cases recorded in 2008; over 60 percent of the cases were women.

The workers are pushing for the reinstatement of 25 members of the union sacked last week and a change of management over what they termed as physical harassment by senior managers. The employees are vowing to bring operations at Telkom-Kenya to a halt come Monday May 17 if their demands are not met.

Josephine Awuor, 34, always looks forward to her turn to receive "merry-go-round" contributions from fellow members of Msingi Bora (Good Foundation), a micro-finance group she belongs to in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum. Meeting weekly, the 23 Msingi Bora members each contribute 50 shillings (60 US cents), which is pooled for members to take loans from. At each meeting, the members also contribute 20 shillings (26 US cents) each - to be given to one member in what they term their "merry-go-round" as they draw lots to determine the order of receiving the money.

At least 14 civilians have been killed during a battle between government soldiers and al-Qaeda-linked fighters, witnesses say. Tuesday's clashes followed a separate suicide car bomb attack in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, by al-Shabab fighters on the base of African Union peacekeepers.

Global Witness, a leading light in establishing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), a global system to prevent "blood diamonds" being sold into the market, is facing a "dilemma" now that the Zimbabwe High Court has allowed the sale of stones from the Marange diamond fields. There have been reports from Marange that "the military ... carried out widespread atrocities in the diamond fields, including murder, rape and forced labour", Global Witness said in a statement.

Just 2km from the Tanzanian border, the “integrated” rural village of Nyakazi in Kibago commune, Makamba Province, houses 198 families, 80 percent of whom are landless returnees. The village is one of several set up in the southern region of Burundi to help in the reintegration of thousands of 1972 civil war returnees.

South Africa's transport system was expected to be brought to a standstill from 10 May as 50 000 Transnet workers planned to strike over a wage dispute. "This will be the biggest strike in the history of South Africa," said Chris de Vos, general secretary of the United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) at a press conference in Johannesburg on Friday.