Eight hundred people displaced by excessive flooding and intense rains in Lusaka, the capital of southern African country Zambia. More than 60 families evacuated from their waterlogged shacks to a temporal resettlement campsite on higher grounds out of the Independence Stadium in Lusaka Nort

A strike by mineworkers at South Africa's Gold One stretched into a fourth day after workers and management failed to agree on a pay rise. About 1,000 mineworkers at the company's Modder East mine, some 30km east of Johannesburg, downed tools on Tuesday night in a wage protest.

Managing camps for displaced people is usually a complex business involving aid agencies, governments and elaborate coordination mechanisms. Not in Somalia, however, where years of violence have forced hundreds of thousands of people to take refuge in remote camps that are largely inaccessible to agencies or the authorities.

South Africa’s government has drafted a new land policy that proposes limits to land ownership by its own citizens and foreigners, its Rural Development and Land Reform Minister has said.

In an indication that the global climate justice movement is becoming broader, there is now intense opposition to a climate-destroying energy loan for South Africa. The campaign’s leaders are community activists in black townships allied with environmentalists, trade unionists and international climate activists.

Gujarat-based Sanghi Industries, part of the Rs 4,500-crore Sanghi Group, has bought land in Kenya to build a cement plant, making it the first Indian company to do so in the east African country. Sanghi plans to build a 1.2-million-tonne cement plant, along with local partnership, in a bid to cater to a growing African market and to also serve neighbouring countries, said people connected with the development.

This latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the evolution of Tripoli’s policy towards its neighbour from open imperialism to support in peace negotiations with armed rebels and with Sudan. Libya has been the most important country for Chad since Gaddafi came to power in 1969, but its approach has had mixed results.

The 2010 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines.

The United Nations has invited a newly established group of independent experts to advise on ways to better protect women in conflict situations, and to ensure that their voices are heard in peace processes and that they are included in post-conflict reconstruction and governance structures.

The Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York (UK) will be offering a new LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice with the possibility of specialising in refugee law begining in October 2010. The degree aims to combine applied focus (centering around its international human rights clinic) and international breadth (involving, for example field work in Malaysia)

A radio reporter jailed for a week in Kismayo, was released, but he was expelled from the town and told not to come back, according to a statement from the Alshabab authorities. According to The statement journalist Mohamed Salad Abdulle, working for independent broadcaster Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) was released but the Alshabab court has ordered him to leave the town with in 36 hours and told him not to return.

One minute Halimo Mohamed, 40, was at home with her children, the next she was on the move, fleeing violence in Somalia's capital, after her Karan neighbourhood, in north Mogadishu, was hit by a barrage of shells, killing dozens and destroying homes, including hers. After dodging militia, struggling to find food and sometimes being forced to walk, she and three of her five children finally arrived on 17 March at Dadaab, a refugee camp in northern Kenya.

The aim of the conference is to increase trade and investment flows into Africa and to encourage a transcontinental exchange of knowledge and expertise.The conference will have as a specific objective, fostering business to business linkages, and in particular encouraging technology transfer, joint ventures, manufacturing contracts, franchising, sub-contracts, financial investments, equipment provision and inter-regional trade

The Women’s Refugee Commission with support from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration is conducting a participatory four-day national-level workshop on operationalizing protection into livelihood and household energy programs for displaced populations in Ethiopia. The workshop is aimed at staff from governments, donor agencies, and NGOs working in Ethiopia.

Africa Youth Trust, in partnership with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute invites applications for the third Training Program on The Equal Status and Human Rights of Women in East Africa (EAHUWO). The program is jointly being undertaken by Africa Youth Trust (Kenya) and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Sweden) with sponsorship from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Clashes between government troops and Islamist insurgents have displaced more than 55,000 people from Mogadishu since the beginning of February, with many of them heading out of Somalia to neighbouring Kenya, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Several anti-trafficking campaigns have been initiated in South Africa ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. These campaigns intend to prevent individuals from being trafficked by raising awareness about this exploitative practice and providing information about the danger it presents. Anti-trafficking initiatives are important, but it is equally important that the information presented in these campaigns is accurate and based on evidence, rather than merely aiming to instill fear and outrage.

In an important victory in the global struggle for food sovereignty, the United Nations recently issued a preliminary recognition of peasants' rights. The decision was welcomed by rural social movements and activists throughout the world as a powerful addendum to the Human Right to Food (Article 25 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights)-which defines access to food as a human right, but is silent on the issue of access and control over food producing resources.

The first ever gender justice and local government summit closed in Johannesburg on 24 March 2010 with awards to five women and four men whose work on the ground won the highest accolades from judges and participants during presentations made earlier this week.

The summit featured 103 entries from ten countries in a variety of categories including prevention, response, support, individual innovation, institutional good practices, specific GBV campaigns and innovative communication strategies.
Under the banner “score a goal for gender equality, halve gender violence by 2015” the conference brought together journalists, local government authorities, municipalities, NGOs and representatives of ministries of gender and local government.

On the evening of 24 March 2010, Gender Links awarded nine winners and nine runners up awards at a colourful gala dinner that was held at the City of Johannesburg offices, Reception Room. Video footage documenting some of the grassroots initiatives were shown. Footage can be made available on request.

The judges also made their choice and a winner and three runners up were awarded. Annex A provides names of all the winners in the different categories.

Please see for full details of the awards and winners.

Perhaps more than anything today, Haiti needs a new macro-economy, one based above all on meeting the needs of its citizens. Post-earthquake economic restructuring could include equitable distribution of resources, high levels of employment with fair compensation, local production, and provision of social services.