Heavy ground fighting between Chadian troops and rebels has erupted in the east, a day after the government said a rebel offensive had been defeated. The government said its forces had killed at least 100 rebels and some of its own soldiers had also died in an hour of combat near Am Dam. It said the rebels were retreating and looting as they left.

Since the end of the civil war seven years ago, the Sierra Leonean authorities and child welfare agencies have been battling to remove children from the diamond-mining fields, a trend which began at the height of the conflict, when children were abducted by rebel forces and coerced to work in the mines. "It is now a major post-conflict problem and a threat to social stability," remarks Patrick Tongu of the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), which monitors mining activities in the country.

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has given President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai an ultimatum to resolve issues fuelling infighting within the government. The move by the main wing of the divided MDC signals growing frustration within the shaky unity government, which is struggling to find cohesion and deal with the country's economic and social problems.

The Italian navy has transferred more than 200 migrants picked up in waters off the island of Malta to Tripoli under a new agreement with Libya.The migrants were rescued after they issued a distress call on Wednesday. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the Libyan government's move could mark a "turning point" in the fight against illegal immigration.

As nutritionists and medical doctors continue advising people to eat more fish for healthy living, environmental experts are now condemning this nutritious food, leaving people confused. The experts are basing their caution on new findings that show increased mercury levels in fish that is finding its way into the lake from mines around the lake.

Six relatively unknown grassroots activists from around the globe receive a moment in the spotlight when the Goldman Environmental Prize announces its list of annual recipients. The prize, now in its 20th year, is considered the Nobel Prize for the environment. Past recipients include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, former Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva, and Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was killed seven months after his recognition.

As a new post-Cold War order takes shape, the Indian Ocean brings into sharp focus many of the forces shaping contemporary world history. The rise of India and China raise questions about whether we are in a ‘post-American’ world. Yet, at the same time, Sino-Indian makes apparent new configurations and contradictions in the ‘South’. More generally, the historical experiences of the Indian Ocean offer a counterpoint to those of the black Atlantic which has become invisibly normative in much social and political theory.

This report and reflection paper documents a roundtable convened by Inter Pares, which brought together over twenty women's rights activists from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Canada, with significant experience working on issues related to sexual violence against women in armed conflict. Although the women present recognized that they were acting in very different contexts, they also identified that their distinct struggles had commonalities.

In the year since Egypt outlawed female genital mutilation the government hasn't prosecuted a single case. Nonetheless, some activists say the law is a tool, among others, for gradually dismantling an ancient tradition.

Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, politics and the war on terror
Written by Mahmood Mamdani - Herbert Lehman Professor of Government, Columbia University, New York

Saviors and Survivors is the first account of the Darfur crisis to consider recent events in the context of Sudan’s history. It is a devastating critique of the powerful Western lobby’s calls for a military response in the name of ‘humanitarian intervention’.

When: Tuesday 2 June 2009, 7.30 pm
Where: TOWN HALL, St Aldates, Oxford

Further details from
Pambazuka News, 51 Cornmarket Street Oxford OX1 3HA
01865-727006 [email]info@pambazuka.org Fahamu Trust is a registered charity: 1100304
Oxford Transitional Justice Research
http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/otjr.php

PAMBAZUKA NEWS - African Forum for Social Justice
http://www.pambazuka.org

Special offer

Saviors and Survivors will be available for sale at a special discounted rate

All are welcome

The land reform that has unfolded in Zimbabwe since 2000 has had diverse consequences. There is no single story. Today policymakers are grappling with the question of ‘what next’? How can a new agrarian structure be supported, and a vibrant rural economy be developed? Yet such discussions are often taking place in a vacuum, with limited empirical data from the ground and overshadowed by misperceptions and inappropriate assumptions.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is pleased to announce its initiative targeted at those members of the African social research community who have responsibility in their universities for teaching undergraduate and graduate-level course in social science research methods. Over the last decade and half, in cognisance of the multi-faceted crises confronting the African higher education system in general and the universities in particular, CODESRIA has invested itself in offering platforms for postgraduate students and mid-career professionals to be offered opportunities for training in quantitative and qualitative research methods.

African states and institutions are raising hundreds of millions of dollars in trade credits and business loans to shore up Zimbabwe's bankrupt unity government in the absence of a financial rescue package from the west. Regional officials fear that the reluctance of western and multilateral creditors to provide direct financial support could lead to the collapse of the fragile power-sharing deal they brokered between Robert Mugabe, president, and Morgan Tsvangirai, his opposition rival and now prime -minister.

The Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa Report 2009 is both an exercise in 'mutual accountability'- assessing what has been done to deliver on commitments to Africa's development, and a review of 'development effectiveness'- assessing what results have been achieved. It is also intended to be of practical use to political leaders in looking forward to the key policy challenges ahead.

The LPM is organising a march from Maurice Issacs High School to the Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto on the 16th June 2009 to repoliticise the meaning of the 1976 Soweto Uprisings. This march is a response to the ANC’s hijacking of the 16th June as they have turned it into a bourgeois event. We as the LPM believe we should not celebrate this day, as our government does, but commemorate it by reflecting on the struggle for the liberation of the youth that is still being fought for by poor communities 15 years into our so-called democracy..

This stream invites papers that develop a critique of –or a dialogue with- Eurocentric interpretations of human rights, and proposals that advance an understanding of rights grounded on any of the historical and geographical sites of the modern struggles for self-determination in the Global South. This stream also welcomes papers that, from the point of view of Europe, enter into a dialogue with the Third-World conceptualization of human rights. Please send your name, affiliation, title of your paper and an abstract of no more than 250 words by Friday, 26 June 2009 directly to the stream convenor.

The Women's Refugee Commission and the SEEP Network are holding a four-day highly participatory workshop designed to bring practitioners from throughout the region to learn new techniques, share experiences, and collect tools designed to improve practice on the ground. Participants should be able and willing to read the Minimum Standards for Economic Recovery after Crisis. A participatory discussion will be held before the workshops on the scope and concepts presented in the aforementioned publication.

The body of a man believed to be homosexual has twice been dug up from a Muslim cemetery in Senegal. The man, in his 30s, was first buried on Saturday before residents of the western town of Thies dug up his body and left it near his grave, police say. His family then reburied him, but he was once more exhumed by people who did not want him buried there. His body was dumped outside the family house.

Sanusha Naidu compiles a list of the top stories on Sino-African relations.

IIE is pleased to announce Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) fellowships for threatened academics whose lives and work are in danger in their home country. Professors, researchers and lecturers from any country or field may apply. We invite you to refer suitable candidates, and ask for your help in forwarding the announcement to any academic colleagues who may be interested.