Two days of rioting over pay by workers from African Minerals' Sierra Leone mine left one woman dead and at least six injured in April, witnesses and medical staff said. African Minerals made its first trial shipment of ore from Tonkolili mine in November last year. Shipments from the mine are due to help Sierra Leone to what the IMF estimates at 35.9 per cent growth this year, one of the highest rates in the world.

Two trade unionists in Swaziland were arrested and beaten by police at a May Day rally. They were arrested because they were holding a banner with markings of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), a labour organisation that is not recognised by the Swazi Government.

In March, 44 countries called on the Government of Eritrea to end its use of arbitrary detention and torture of its citizens. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Human Rights Concern - Eritrea and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project welcomed this long overdue attention paid to the widespread and systematic human rights violations continuing in Eritrea for over a decade. In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council, states from Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and North America expressed their concerns about the government’s refusal to hold national elections or allow opposition parties, independent media or international non-governmental organisations to operate.

Madagascan security forces Saturday fired tear-gas to disperse a crowd of opposition supporters who attempted to gather in the capital Antananarivo. The meeting had been organised by deposed President Marc Ravalomanana allies to discuss development issues. About three people were arrested and about forty injured during the fracas.

A top Moroccan newspaper editor, convicted and jailed under the penal code for his writings, has been freed after serving a year in prison. 'I denounce my imprisonment and conviction under the penal code, and I hope I am the last journalist to be tried under it,' said Rachid Nini, editor of the country's most popular daily, al-Massae, on Saturday.

Only a fraction of the millions of people worldwide with blood and autoimmune disorders survive - especially those in poorer countries - partly due to the lack of bone marrow stem cell transplants. A recently established Nigerian bone marrow registry hopes to boost matches between donors and patients, and survival chances. Some 200,000 babies are born annually in sub-Saharan Africa with sickle cell disease, a blood disorder in which mutated red blood cells can clump and block blood vessels, causing pain, infection and organ damage. Nigeria has up to two million sickle cell patients, many of whom can benefit from stem cell transplants.

Sudan has declared a state of emergency in areas bordering South Sudan, giving authorities wide powers of arrest a day after they detained three foreigners in a flashpoint town along the frontier. The detentions and Sunday's state of emergency declaration heightened tensions even further along the border between the old rivals, who in the past month came to the brink of an all-out war because of renewed fighting in disputed areas.

The Guardian reports that for 48 turbulent hours she was the victim of a conspiracy that left the future of Malawi hanging in the balance. Then Joyce Banda made a critical phone call to the head of the army, asking if she could rely on his support. He said yes. And at that moment her place in history was assured. In the interview, she revealed the inside story of how Mutharika's sudden death pushed Malawi to the precipice of a coup. By 6 April, the news had spread worldwide yet there was still no official confirmation inside Malawi itself. The cabinet met secretly in an attempt to thwart Banda and install Mutharika's brother, Peter, as acting president.

Labour on May Day threatened to mobilise Nigerians for another street protest if the Federal Government fails to implement the report of the Farouk Lawan-led committee on the probe of the fuel subsidy. The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwaheed Omar, who issued the threat in his goodwill message to the May Day celebration in Ibadan, Oyo State, also accused the government of an alleged plans to outlaw strikes.

The scheduled reopening of the trial of those accused of murdering Ernest Manirumva, a Burundian human rights defender, is a positive step, said the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) and Protection International. Ernest Manirumva was vice-president of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Malpractice Observatory (OLUCOME). He was kidnapped from his home on the night of 8 April 2009 and murdered in the early hours of the morning of 9 April.

Officials and witnesses are reporting a death of around 20 people after attackers with bombs and guns opened fire at worshippers attending church services at a university in northern Nigeria on Sunday. Explosions and gunfire rocked Bayero University in the northern city of Kano, and witnesses said they targeted two campus church services – one outdoors, the other in a building but with the crowd spilling outside.

The captain who led a coup in Mali last month before handing power back to a civilian president has rejected the decision by West African states to send troops, casting a shadow over delicately-balanced negotiations to resolve the country's crisis. 'All the decisions announced in Abidjan were reached without consulting us,' Amadou Haya Sanogo told reporters on Saturday. 'I do not agree with the deployment of soldiers from the Economic Community of West Africa States.'

A lack of awareness of the importance of skilled hospital deliveries in Ethiopia, cultural beliefs, and transport challenges in rural areas are causing a high number of deaths during childbirth, say officials. Only 10 per cent of deliveries take place within health facilities, according to the Ethiopia’s latest (April) Demographic Health Survey results. Nevertheless, the figure is a significant improvement on 6 percent in the previous 2005 survey.

The UN refugee agency has said that heavy rains have hit Somali refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, damaging tents, flooding roads and affecting aid delivery. This comes as the refugee population in southern Ethiopia swells to more than 150,000. 'In recent weeks, Dollo Ado in southern Ethiopia has been receiving a weekly average of 450 new Somali refugees. More than 8,500 have been registered so far this year, pushing the refugee population in the area's five camps past the 150,000 mark,' said a UNHCR spokesman.

Zambia President Michael Sata has with immediate effect suspended Justices Philip Musonda, Charles Kajimanga and Nigel Mutuna. The President has since appointed a tribunal which will be headed by Justice Lovemore Chipoka of the Malawi High Court to investigate the alleged misbehavior of the three Judges. The terms of reference would be based on the allegations that the trio interfered with a case involving the Post newspapers, Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ and JNC holding limited and Mutembo Nchito.

Farm Radio Weekly has a story about Michael Gitau, one of 5,000 members of the Central Organic Farmers and Consumer Organization who has been growing organically for six years. He is happy that he now makes double the income he used to as a conventional farmer. In a second story, Selinah Mncwango from South Africa is a farmer who treasures the seeds that have been handed down to her from generation to generation. But she worries that the South African government is taking steps which may deprive her and other South African farmers of their seed heritage.

The Globe and Mail has an article about Bill Gates and his advocacy of technology in the agriculture sector. 'Relying on genetically modified (GM) crops and chemicals to push up output per acre may help Monsanto (which was one of the stocks in the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio), Syngenta and other tech-driven food biggies, but won’t necessarily support those who need the most help-poor smallholder farmers and underdeveloped countries. Making them part of Big Ag’s global supply chain might not help either.'

Ghana has become the first country in Africa to start protecting children against two of the continent's deadliest infant diseases with simultaneous vaccinations. The diseases targeted are rotavirus, which causes diarrhoea, and pneumococcal, both of which kill more than 2.7 million children worldwide each year. The project is backed by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.

President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire promised paved roads, an end to power cuts and water shortages, better mobile phone coverage, and a new university in the country’s west as part of an 'emergency plan' to develop a region that has been steeped in violence and insecurity for a decade. But for some displaced Ivoirians still unable to return to their homes, the promises ring hollow.

Malawi will devalue its currency, the kwacha, by 40 per cent to unlock blocked aid by meeting conditions set by the International Monetary Fund, President Joyce Banda said. The government has resumed relations with the UK and held talks with the IMF, World Bank and U.S. after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, the leader who clashed with western donors, Banda said. She was sworn-in as president of the southern African nation this month after Mutharika died of a heart attack on April 5.