After culling through 20,000 depositions from alleged victims of politically motivated torture and human rights violations in Togo, a special commission has begun hearing testimony from a select group of some 250 of those alleged victims, whose stories cover nearly half a century of turmoil in this West African nation.

A new report by the British charity Oxfam suggests that over 22,000 Ugandans have been forced out of their homes since 2004. Oxfam claims many of them have been left homeless after being evicted in so-called land-grabs, to clear the way for timber plantations. One eviction case involves the British company New Forest Company, who have denied the accusations.

Gender equality matters in its own right, but is also smart economics: Countries that create better opportunities and conditions for women and girls can raise productivity, improve outcomes for children, make institutions more representative, and advance development prospects for all, says a new World Bank report.

The newly trained Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) seems to be gradually reverting to behavior and practices of the past. There are repeated reports of soldiers’ brutality here and there against civilians and sometimes paramilitary personnel in the country.

Discover the ins and outs of Sodom and Gomorrah slum in this documentary. Close to 80,000 people live in Sodom and Gomorrah, a slum on the edge of the polluted Korle Lagoon. The processing of electronic waste near the lagoon leaches toxic substances like lead into the soil. The place sprang up in the 1980s when thousands of people fleeing bloody ethnic clashes between the Kokomba and Nanumba in the north poured into the capital.

An initiative of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa (IFAISA)
Initiated by the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa (IFAISA) (a non-profit association), and organised by Omega Investment Research, this international conference is intended to deal with all the more serious forms of corruption and combating corruption from both an international and an African perspective.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Political Promises reveals how promises given the electorate end up unfulfilled. It is a special documentary on Obom, a village a few miles away from the Ghanaian capital, Accra. Many of the residents are suffering from Buruli ulcer. Children still carry desks to school, and sit in classrooms with leaking roofs. Joy FM reporter Seth Kwame Boateng tells the story of how the health, education and economic needs of the locals have yet to be fulfilled.

Investments in rural infrastructure, both physical and institutional, were needed to enhance the resilience of agriculture in the face of the uncertainties of climate change, South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said at the African Ministerial Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture.

UNHCR has opened a sixth camp for up to 27,000 refugees from Côte d'Ivoire who have been living with host communities in eastern Liberia since fleeing their homeland.

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, US officials said.

Burundian NGOs say at least 20 people have died as a national shortage of antiretroviral continues. 'Some have died, others have turned to traditional healers, and all of them [HIV-positive people] are discouraged,' said Jeanne Gapiya, who heads Burundi's largest HIV NGO, Association Nationale de soutien aux Seropositifs et Sideens (ANSS).

Robert Mugabe’s continued grip on power in Zimbabwe, and ZANU PF’s ongoing failure to properly govern the country, is causing growing impatience among African governments, the details of which have been revealed by the whistle-blowing group WikiLeaks.

In a bid to stop millions of people dying and suffering every year from malnutrition, WHO is launching a new web-powered initiative that clarifies guidance on life-saving nutrition interventions, and assists governments and healthcare providers to better scale up action against all forms of malnutrition.

So far more than twenty Cameroonian political and civil society actors have indicated their intention to run for the country's top job, the president of the republic. As Cameroonians look forward to the 2011 Presidential Poll, due October, the aspirants have also been making public what they will do for the country, but some observers hold that the presidential aspirants are not proposing issues, which are realistic.

The abuse of women's rights in Africa is an issue which is close to blogger Glynnis Cummingsjohn's heart. Abuse against older women is common across Africa and in African communities abroad, yet it receives very little attention. People give many reasons for it: culture, religion, politics, etc... all in the hope of legitimising this abuse, which is totally unacceptable.

Farmers’ organisations (FOs) are increasingly being asked to play a central role in driving agricultural transformation processes in Sub-Saharan Africa, despite their mixed record of success. As governments, donors and NGOs rush to promote the scaling up and diversification of FOs’ activities and membership, this policy brief draws on findings of a study of the roles, functions and performance of FOs in Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi to suggest some principles and practices for supporting FOs in Africa.

More than a year after the launch of the Free Health Care Initiative, pregnant women and girls in Sierra Leone continue to face serious challenges in accessing the drugs and medical care crucial for safe pregnancy and childbirth, Amnesty International said.

This is a startling and disturbing statistic. The reality is: these 130 people were originally found guilty based on eyewitness testimony. Once physical DNA evidence surfaced, it turned out that the eyewitnesses, who testified against them, were wrong. There is no DNA evidence in the case of Troy Anthony Davis.

Egypt's army will stop trying civilians in military courts when it scraps the country's decades-old emergency law, a top general said, as activists tried to build momentum for a mass protest against military trials. Rights groups say Egypt's army rulers have used military courts to imprison as many as 14,000 civilians as they try to deal with follow-up waves of street protests since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.