With Africa once again experiencing unconstitutional takeover of power as witnessed recently in Mauritania, Guinea and Madagascar, Nigeria has won against a similar development in Togo. The warning was issued by Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Togo, which is embroiled in what the Minister termed ''leadership tussle epidemic''.

A £15m package to help the people of Zimbabwe has been announced by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander. This critical humanitarian aid will mean increased support for the country’s health system, greater access to clean water and more support for struggling farmers in Zimbabwe.

Kenya's president has vowed to punish the perpetrators of an outbreak of violence that left at least 29 people dead in a central town on Monday. Mwai Kibaki described the killings in Karatina as "heinous crimes" and "a matter of great concern" to Kenya.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the number of civilians uprooted in continuing raids by the so-called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the Lubero area of North Kivu over the last seven weeks has risen to over 100,000. A series of concerted attacks carried out by the rebel group against civilians in the villages of Luofu, Kirumba, Kanyabonga and Kayna near Lubero, 170 kms north of Goma, have left a trail of death and destruction and caused recurrent displacement.

The World Health Organizat ion (WHO) has announced that Zambia had achieved a major reduction in malaria mortality through accelerated malaria control activities, joining several other African countries in the crusade to eradicate the disease. Malaria deaths reported from health facilities have declined by 66% in Zambia and this result, along with other data, indicates that Zambia has reached the 2010 Roll Back Malaria target of more than 50% reduction in malaria mortality compared to 2000, said WHO.

A three-day regional workshop aimed at strengthening the competences of executives in the fields of environmental communication, advocacy and leadership opens in Dakar on Monday. The workshop to be held under the auspices, Enda-LEAD Afrique, an NGO, is to train "ambassadors" to improve their exchanges with staff of various ministries about the importance of sustainable management of the environment and natural resources for economic and social development, and the importance of the integration of links between poverty and the environment.

Judge Susan Illston has denied Chevron Corp’s request to recoup over $485,000 in costs associated with a human rights case filed by Nigerian villagers. The corporation said the plaintiffs owed them the costs - including the cost of photocopies and deposition fees - after they were found not liable last fall. However, the judge disagreed.

Sudan's parliament should make major changes to a draft press law to ensure that it protects freedom of speech as guaranteed under the Sudanese constitution and international law, Human Rights Watch has said. The proposed law, to be debated this week in parliament, is among 21 laws the two parties in the Government of National Unity have agreed to revise.

Thirty-five people drowned after one of two smugglers' boats carrying more than 220 passengers across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia capsized off the coast of Yemen's Abyan region. "This is one of the worst incidents to occur in the Gulf of Aden in recent months," said Leila Nassif, head of the UNHCR office in Aden. "Unfortunately, more and more people are so desperate in their countries of origin that they are ready to put their lives in jeopardy to change their situation."

The Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CEPACS), University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, invites applications from international students into its M Sc Programme in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies for the 2009/2010 academic session.

The United Nations will convene a global summit in June to assess the impact of the world economic crisis on development, after the General Assembly agreed on the arrangements for the conference. “In the midst of the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression, we now have the opportunity and the responsibility to search for solutions that take into account the interests of all nations, the rich and the poor, the large and the small,” Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto stated after the 192-member body adopted a resolution on the 1 to 3 June summit.

The Conflict, Security and Development Group (CSDG) at King’s College London together with the Africa Leadership Centre (ALC), is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women for 2009/2010. These Fellowships1 are intellectual and financial awards for personal, professional and academic achievements, as well as the recognition of future potential.

Liberia has significantly reduced its foreign debt by buying back $1.2 billion in outstanding government debt at a discount of nearly 97 percent of face value, the steepest ever negotiated on developing country commercial debt, the country has announced. The deal, according to the World Bank report, was concluded with the payment of $38 million to retire 25 outstanding commercial claims. The World Bank contributed half of the money through the International Development Association (IDA) Debt Reduction Facility, and Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States are said to have contributed the other half.

Deposed Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana will return to the island state under the protection of the 13-member regional body, the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Ravalomanana told a media briefing on 15 April in the capital of Swaziland, Mbabane, that his return would kick-start a national dialogue with his successor, President Andry Rajoelina, in the hope of holding presidential elections by the end of 2009. He did not divulge the date of his return.

People living with HIV in Uganda's northern region are facing critical shortages of essential medicines. Dr Paul Onek, director of health services in Gulu District, said supplies of malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and antiretroviral (ARV) drugs had all run out. "We last received TB drugs in January for only 400 TB patients."

The tiny desert town of Abeche, in eastern Chad, offers a curious sight: Sandwiched between the mud huts that most people call home and the compounds belonging to international aid workers is a humble Chinese restaurant catering to Chad's growing population of Chinese engineers and managers. Significantly, no equivalent American-style restaurant is to be found.

When corporates venture into other countries, the success of their businesses ventures, to a great extent, depends on the quality of services offered by banks and financial intermediaries in those countries. Hence, having a banking partner whose services are reliable is of utmost importance. HSBC, which has been in the forefront of helping Indian businesses find their feet in foreign lands, is of the view that Indian businesses, including SMEs, can look at Mauritius as an investment destination as well as a gateway to other African nations.

The biggest winner at the G-20 summit in London on April 2 was the International Monetary Fund, which received pledges for US$ 1.1 trillion, including US$ 500 billion from member countries and US$ 250 billion through the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDR) currency. But rounding up the cash and overcoming political obstacles within IMF-member countries will be difficult. Despite the summit’s grand promises, some funding details are fuzzy.

The Democratic Republic of Congo was born into crisis and, for its nearly 50 years of existence, it has more or less stayed there. From a civil war that nearly destroyed the newborn nation in the wake of independence, it descended into decades of parasitic rule at the hands of a strongman, Mobutu Sese Seko. As he raided the coffers of state mining companies, the desperate and starving masses occasionally looted what was left of the country’s rotting infrastructure. In 1994 inflation hit nearly 10,000%: small by today’s standard in Zimbabwe, but enough to help end Mr Mobutu’s rule three years later.

Dozens of Chinese students who saw little prospect of getting into a top medical school have secured admission by becoming nationals of the tiny west African country of Guinea-Bissau, a newspaper said on Thursday. Among the 112 international students that entered Peking University Health Science Center in 2007 and 2008 were 48 from Guinea-Bissau -- all ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the Shanghai Morning Post said.