Malnutrition among children under two years of age is one of the leading challenges to reducing global hunger and can cause lifelong harm to health, productivity, and earning potential, according to the 2010 Global Hunger Index (GHI). In Sub-Saharan Africa, low government effectiveness, conflict, political instability, and high rates of HIV and AIDS are among the major factors that lead to high child mortality and a high proportion of people who cannot meet their calorie requirements. In some countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, for example Burundi, Madagascar, and Malawi, about half of the children are stunted (low height for age) due to poor nutrition.

omali government troops and allied forces retook the south-eastern town of Bulo Hawo near the Kenyan border on Sunday after defeating al-Qaeda-inspired al-Shebaab Islamists, officials and witnesses said. The Shebaab control large swathes of southern and central Somalia and have wrested control of much of the capital Mogadishu, where they have relentlessly attacked government and African Union forces.

A collection of human rights organisations have expressed their full solidarity with Al Dostour's journalists and Ibrahim Essa, editor-in-chief of the newspaper. They have appeal to all civil society organisations to not only guarantee the journalists' rights but to combat the government's plan to impose restrictions on independent mass media ahead of the parliamentary elections. The organisations have expressed their deepest worries over the restrictions imposed on freedom of opinion and expression in general and Al Dostour newspaper in particular.

An academic dispute about whether concurrent sexual partnerships are really a major factor behind high rates of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa could affect the future of prevention programmes. The relatively common practice in many African countries of having ongoing relationships with two or three partners at the same time, has led researchers to explore concurrency as a possible explanation for why parts of the continent have been so hard hit by HIV.

The Ethiopian government is using development aid to suppress political dissent by conditioning access to essential government programs on support for the ruling party, Human Rights Watch has said in a new report. Human Rights Watch urged foreign donors to ensure that their aid is used in an accountable and transparent manner and does not support political repression. The 105-page report, 'Development without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repression in Ethiopia,' documents the ways in which the Ethiopian government uses donor-supported resources and aid as a tool to consolidate the power of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

Under a new proposal from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a trade bloc of 19 African nations, the bloc would carry out science-based risk assessments on growing commercial GM crops in any of the bloc's countries. If COMESA finds the crop safe for the environment and for human consumption, the crop could then be grown in all COMESA countries, although individual countries would retain the right to withhold, says an editorial in nature.

Activists have warned that Egypt telecommunication regulator’s new rules for companies sending text messages to multiple cellphones will stifle efforts to mobilise voters ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections. Reform groups in Egypt, as well as elsewhere in the region such as Iran, have increasingly relied on the Internet and cellphones to organise, mobilise and evade government harassment.

Two political protesters have been killed and several others injured in street clashes with police in Guinea's capital, Conakry, just days before a presidential run-off election. According to witnesses, the police were initially attacked on Tuesday by supporters of Cellou Dalein Diallo, the leading candidate contesting the October 24 poll.

A new manual: 'The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture: Implementation Manual' addresses all the questions on implementation of this innovative international human rights treaty. Drawing on initial good practice from all world regions, the manual is designed to serve as a practical reference tool for international, regional and national stakeholders involved in OPCAT ratification and implementation.

Nine people have been charged in what the Environment Agency is saying is biggest investigation ever into illegal electrical waste exports from the UK to West Africa. All nine have been charged with offences under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007 and European Waste Shipment Regulations 2006 and bailed to attend Havering Magistrates Court on November 11. In some instances, it is alleged by the agency that 'considerable sums' of money changed hands in deals to collect and recycle electrical waste while treatment costs were avoided.

“You cannot divorce food from fuel, they are completely interlinked. One-hundred bags of food is useless without firewood.” For millions of families around the world, cooking fuel is a critical, daily concern, with serious health and safety implications. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put this issue in the spotlight when she announced the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which aims to provide 100 million fuel - efficient stoves to people in developing countries by 2020. These stoves will make a crucial difference in the lives of the people who receive them - especially those who have been displaced by armed conflict and natural disasters.

President Robert Mugabe wants Zimbabwe's power-sharing government to end next year, saying the unity pact was only meant to last two years, state media has reported. 'Some will say let us negotiate and give it another life. I am reluctant because part of the things happening [in the inclusive government] are absolutely foolish and stupid,' Mugabe said in the Herald newspaper.

The emergence of a new meningitis vaccine, rather than a large-scale outbreak of the disease, has prompted the current vaccination drive across West Africa. Health officials say the vaccine marks a 'revolution' in preventing the highly contagious and fatal disease. Health workers in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - the three countries selected for introduction of the vaccine - are preparing for country-wide campaigns set for December, having just completed a limited pilot phase.

Hundreds of people from different walks of life - from young schoolchildren to army officials - are planting trees across East Africa in the latest activities to be registered under Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign (BTC) run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Zambian police have arrested two Chinese coal mine managers for attempted murder after they allegedly shot and injured 12 local workers. The miners staged a demonstration on Friday to protest against poor working conditions and wages at the Chinese-run Collum Coal mine, in the southern town of Sinazongwe. The Chinese managers allegedly opened fire at the protesters because they felt threatened.

Upcoming international climate talks will be 'a total flop', according to Africa's leading spokesperson on climate change. Neither this year's talks in Cancun, Mexico, nor the ones in South Africa next year, will deliver a deal with set targets for greenhouse gas emissions reduction, said Meles Zenawi, prime minister of Ethiopia and coordinator of the Committee of Ten African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change. His statements have provoked anger from some critics who see them as undermining the African Union's stance on climate change.

A number of central African countries overwhelmed by the brutal attacks and mounting regional destabilization caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have established a comprehensive plan to combat the rebel group. Ministers from Uganda, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic agreed Friday in a meeting in Bangui, the capital of the latter, to create a joint military task force, centre of operations, and border patrol capacity, all to be supervised by a representative from the African Union.

The Global Media Monitoring Project is the only international project that gives an idea of the gender bias of the news media. In the latest GMMP, conducted on November 10 2009, the internet news media was also analysed. The survey looked at 76 national news sites from 16 countries, and eight international news sites. Women's prescence in cyberspace news is a reflection of their presence in 'traditional' news, with a couple of caveats.

On Saturday the 23rd October 2010 Congolese women will be speaking about the situation in the Congo and would like to invite you to join them between 3pm and 6pm at the Church Hall, Lancing Street off Eversholt Street, NW1 (Opposite Euston Station).

Many of Congo's rape survivors took to the streets Sunday to speak out against sexual violence in a country where it has become a weapon of war. Sunday's march was organised by the World March of Women in association with local women's groups. Organisers hoped the march would combat the stigma attached to rape victims and draw international attention to the problem of rape as a war tactic. (This post contains a video)