Information, Society & Justice (ISJ) is producing a special issue with equal emphasis on ideas, policies and practice that can liberate bodies and minds from the imposed market solutions. The special issue of (ISJ) will also mark an international exchange of library staff and students during July-August 2011. You are invited to submit articles for consideration for publication in the December 2011 issue. Click on the link for more information.

This interim report from the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) in Nigeria focuses on immediate issues that merit the attention of the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) and other actors. SDN noted significant variations in the atmosphere and conduct of elections in the three states (Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta). The breakdown is intended to give an indication of the overall tenor of the polls in these states as well as highlight key incidents.

Work has begun to lay undersea communications cable along the coast of West Africa. The cable is set to give more Africans a fast internet access for the first time. The West Africa Cable System, known by its acronyms (WACS), runs 14,000 kilometres from London to South Africa.

About 162,520 refugees from various African countries are residing in DRC, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) said. An estimated 79,626 Angolans are by far the largest number of refugees in the country, followed by Rwandans and Burundians who number 67,707 and 11,259 respectively. Ugandans are the lowest number, 16, behind the Central African Republic, estimated at 700 refugees.

A three-month campaign by Addis Ababa's health bureau hopes to boost adherence to antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs in the Ethiopian capital by improving communication between patients and health service providers. A 2009 study by the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office found that on average, 72.3 per cent of patients on ARVs were still on first-line medication one year after starting treatment. 'The remaining are lost...it could be due to any number of reasons such as death or an unannounced change of location but it is a cause for concern,' said Addis Akalu, head of the disease prevention and control department at the Addis Ababa Health Bureau.

In March 2011, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Food Price Index, which tracks the price of 55 food commodities for export, rose for the ninth consecutive month. The index has now reached its highest level in both nominal and real terms since the inception of the index in 1990 (FAO, 2011). While higher food prices have benefited food corporations, they have contributed to a stark increase in poverty in developing countries. A recent World Bank (WB) report revealed that an additional 44 million people have been forced into poverty due to the drastic rise in food prices since June 2010 (WB, 2011). Having already surpassed the levels witnessed during the 2008 food crisis, the recent upsurge in food prices suggests that yet another food crisis has struck poor women, men, girls and boys.

After four months of a growing crisis which threatened to tip Côte d’Ivoire into civil war Gbagbo was detained at the presidential compound on Monday (11 April) by forces loyal to Ouattara. French troops and UN peacekeepers, who had struck Gbagbo’s home in Abidjan from the air earlier, provided crucial support. The president-elect of Côte d'Ivoire has heralded 'the dawn of a new hope' since the arrest of his rival. In a television address to the nation, Alassane Ouattara said his predecessor would receive 'dignified treatment' and called on all fighters in Côte d’Ivoire to lay down their arms.

The 2011 Economic Report on Africa (ERA) from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission recommends that African countries adopt a developmental state approach that uses the market as an instrument rather than a sole mechanism for fostering long-term investment, rapid and sustained economic growth, equity and social development. This in the context, it states, of many African countries not experiencing high economic growth rates over extended periods.

Mobile phones in Africa are increasingly being used as a media to get information and use value added services, according to the Mobile Internet in Africa report. Whether it's checking market prices, transferring money or simply checking the latest news, Facebook or Wikipedia, mobile phones are transforming life in Africa. Inevitably, the African mobile Internet market is due to explode. The number of mobile Internet subscribers in Africa has increased dramatically in the last 12-18 months, particularly in East Africa.

Mineral Resources' Minister Susan Shabangu has told Pondoland opponents of a titanium dune mining project that she needs another month to consider their appeal against the Xolobeni coastal dune mining project. Amadiba Crisis Committee spokesman Sinegugu Zukulu said the mining project 'has become an ever more menacing threat to the unique biodiversity of the Wild Coast and traditional way of life of the amaMpondo'.

In Madagascar, grassroots struggles against corporate-driven land grabbing have emerged as a political point of focus in the growing global spotlight on land grabs throughout the global south, a process that the UN special rapporteur on the right to food says has 'negative effects on the right to food as well as other human rights'. Mass scale corporate land occupations are expanding throughout Africa, and Madagascar is an example of the intensity of the corporate push for national lands but also on the ability for communities to resist such land grabbing.

Dozens of minors interviewed by Amnesty International for a new report had joined the Chadian army and armed opposition groups in the east. The report found that 80 per cent of the estimated 7,000-10,000 child soldiers recruited in Chad are associated with armed groups, while the remaining 20 per cent are involved with the country’s armed forces. These UN estimates also indicate that they may have been used as combatants.

In the two months since pro-democracy rebels rose up, eastern Libya has faced food and fuel shortages, media blackouts, power outages and the total disruption of social services. And with a long-time government prohibition on all NGOs and international humanitarian agencies barred from filling the void, the citizens of Benghazi are on their own and have set up their own structures to provide for themselves.

A project in South Africa supports mathematics education in schools using the web, social networking and mobile apps to deliver learning material directly to students’ cell phones. Teachers can also use the content in their classroom lessons. Students can practise mathematics exercises from a cell phone at any time and receive immediate feedback, while teaching staff only need a two-day training course to learn how to use the new service.

There is a wide recognition that regional integration is crucial for the prosperous future of African countries' economic progress, with some of the highest tariffs facing African countries being imposed by their neighbours, regional economic integration remains a challenge and only a very small percentage of African countries exports are being traded regionally. Visit the Chatham House website for a document summarising an event held at Chatham House which explored the prospects for an African free trade area.

More than 800 people have died in south Sudan violence since January and almost 94,000 people fled their homes, posing a major challenge for the fledgling state, the top UN aid official for the region warned. The nation in waiting has seen an upsurge in bloody clashes since January's largely peaceful referendum, in which southerners voted almost unanimously to split with the north. The number of people displaced by violence has doubled in the past month to 93,780 people, according to figures released by Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.

The UN mission in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) must protect the tens of thousands of civilians displaced by the conflict who wish to return to their home villages but are afraid to do so, Amnesty International has said. 'Thousands of people are hiding in the bush in life threatening conditions and without any proper food or sanitation. They need to be reassured and to be allowed to return to their homes,' said Gaëtan Mootoo, Amnesty’s Côte d’Ivoire researcher who is currently in the west of the country.

A controversial US project that pays drug users and alcoholics to undergo sterilisation or long-term contraception, is setting its sights on women living with HIV in South Africa. Founder of Project Prevention Barbara Harris has confirmed that they were making plans to offer similar services to women living with HIV in South Africa as well as drug users. However, Professor Eddie Mhlanga, Chief Director for Maternal, Child and Women’s Health in the health department said they would approach the Human Rights Commission if the project started operating in South Africa.

Makerere University wants the government to quickly approve a proposal to raise fees to sh6m, up from sh3m per student per year, a public accounts committee has heard. Committee members Nandala Mafabi, Oduman Okello and Grace Oburu argued that Makerere tuition fees were still high and expressed worry that if implemented, the proposed fees structure would affect the poor. 'Sh6m per student? Parents and students should now brace themselves for hard times ahead. I don’t know why Makerere charges high fees despite the fact that it is a public university,' Mafabi said.

Angola, Africa's second-biggest crude oil producer, has denied a report that it lost almost $6 billion in illicit capital flows in 2009. Calculations provided to Reuters by Washington-based watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI) suggest funds equivalent to nearly a sixth of the annual budget went missing in the last year for which data are available. In a rare response from the usually tight-lipped government, the finance ministry denied there was anything suspicious about the discrepancies highlighted by GFI.