Somalia's self-declared independent region of Somaliland has experienced an increase in landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) explosions in the recent past, with officials calling for mine awareness education in schools, as children have been the main victims. 'Child victims of land mines have increased in Somaliland in the past two months,' Ahmed Ali Maah, director of the Somaliland Mine Action Center (SMAC), told IRIN. 'Some 93 children have been killed by landmines in the past three years.'

Like other Liberian communities along the border, the impoverished villagers in Beo-Garnaglaye welcomed Ivorian refugees with whom they share the same ethnicity, language and ties based on inter-marriage. But aid workers say there is simmering tension as food supplies have dwindled stretching the resilience of the hosts.

The Right to Education Project and ActionAid has launched the Promoting Rights in Schools: providing quality public education (PRS) resource pack. Aimed at actively engaging parents, children, teachers, unions, communities and local civil society organisations in collectively monitoring and improving the quality of public education, PRS offers a set of practical tools that can be used as a basis for mobilisation, advocacy and campaigning.

Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, Youth of 30 January for Change Alliance in Sudan has mobilised thousands in protest.

Sanogo Aboubakar and Kangbe Yayoro Charles Lopez, of the pro-Ouattara Television Notre Patrie (TVN) in Bouake, the second largest city in Cote d’Ivoire, have been detained by security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo since their arrest on 28 January 2011. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the two journalists were picked up at the airbase of the Liaison Transport Air Group in Abidjan where they were to board a flight belonging to the United Nations Operations in Cote d’Ivoire (ONUCI) to cover a story at the Golf hotel.

Raising Voices is searching for a website resource person, with experience in the field of violence against women, and knowledge of organisations and individuals in this field within Africa and specifically the Horn, East and Southern Africa.

Police personnel in Accra on 2 February 2011 scuttled a plan picketing by members of the Right to Information (RTI) Coalition at Ghana’s Parliament House to register their displeasure about undue delay of the law makers to pass the bill into law, which was laid in 2009. The RTI Bill went through the first reading on 5 February 2010, it is now before the Joint Communication and Legal Committee of parliament and the committee is expected to conduct a nationwide consultative meeting, but the coalition says the bill is not on the agenda of this session of the house which ends in June, 2011.

Europe's development policy and external lending practices should play a greater role in securing raw materials from key producer regions such as Africa, the European Commission is set to propose in a new policy paper on Wednesday (2 February). The communication will also look at measures to tackle growing fluctuations in global commodity markets, an issue that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made a cornerstone of France's G20 presidency.

'I shall leave now for Tahrir Square. My family is already there. My son phoned and said it's fine: the military are running checks and everything's orderly. The questions that are being settled on the streets of Egypt are of concern to everyone. The paramount one for us today is this: can a people's revolution that is determinedly democratic, grass-roots, inclusive and peaceable succeed?'

In Southern Sudan, preliminary referendum results point to 99 per cent of those polled voting to split from the North. Panos has spoken to voters in the Warrap and West Bahr al Ghazal states about their hopes for the future. Ariac Kuot Akuei, 64, waited in line for nine hours to cast her vote for separation after walking four kilometres to her polling station at Kuajoc Secondary School, in Warrap state.

The 'deafening' silence by the South African government on issues relating to homosexuality on international platforms has been highly condemned by gay rights groups at a rally spearheaded by the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) outside offices of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in Pretoria on 01 February 2011. Over 150 people attended the march which called for DIRCO and government as a whole to uphold and promote the South African Constitution and urge African Union member states to fight discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.

Experts warn an influx [of returnees] is expected to cause dire shortages of food, water, health care and sanitation in Southern Sudan. The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Mr. Georg Charpentier says even when the referendum results are announced, the number of returnees could keep increasing.

With the world’s population slated to top the milestone seven billion mark by late 2011, the new head of the United Nations agency that helps countries use population data for policies to reduce poverty pledged today to focus on the largest global youth generation ever. 'Investing in youth, their reproductive health and gender equality can help put countries on a path to accelerated economic growth and equitable development,' UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin said in his first address to the UN Development Programme (UNDP)/UNFPA Executive Board.

We, civil society organizations from across the world, strongly urge all governments, as well as regional and international organizations, to clearly and unequivocally denounce the ongoing violent crackdown against the public protests and demands for democratic reform and government accountability that have been occurring across Egypt since the 25th of January.

During the course the participants are familiarised with contemporary theories of conflict and conflict resolution, acquainted with a range of relevant information on conflict on the Internet and introduced to practical issues and debates within the field. They are brought together in a 'learning community' with people with a professional interest in conflict. The subjects for each of the course weeks are: Introduction to Conflict Resolution, Conflict Analysis and Conflict Prevention. The students participate through online debates, assignments and exercises and are coached intensively online. Information about the content, fees, planning and approach to the conflicts can be found in the demos course: If you are interested in participating in the courses or if you have additional questions regarding course content and fees, please contact us at [email]Claske@modop.org Information about the Network University or its partner Modus Operandi can be found on our respective websites www.modop.org

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.

Much has been aflutter on twitter about the very visible presence of women among the protests that have taken Egypt by storm over the last few weeks, but images of them have remained sparse amid the digital slideshows strung together by major media outlets, portraying mainly dense crowds of the manly. Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights activist Ghada Shahbandar claims the crowd in downtown Cairo is up to 20 per cent female. Others have put the number much higher, at 50 per cent.

Two violent attacks by police on news photographers in Pretoria and Bloemfontein are to be taken up by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). The investigation comes as editor and journalist groups condemned the attacks and demanded that the policemen responsible be criminally investigated and prosecuted.

The Congo government's ban on trade in conflict minerals has met with little success as trade in North Kivu remains dominated by a mafia network that connect the mines to international markets, a report by the Enough Project said on Tuesday. Many armed groups have benefited from Congo's protracted violence and don't like the possibility of a shrinking market for their minerals, Research Director David Sullivan said in a statement. 'So it should come as no surprise that some of the fastest-moving efforts to trace and audit mineral supply chains are actually being driven by many of the same commercial actors and regional governments that have been indiscriminately purchasing Congolese minerals for years, as documented by UN investigators,' he said.

As most Libyans are still are too afraid of secret government agents to express their ample discontent, three of Muammar al-Ghaddafi's sons are preparing for a possible popular uprising. One is a reformist; two are hardliners. Tunisia is Libya's main western neighbour; Egypt its main eastern neighbour.