The ongoing rainy season has delayed efforts to decontaminate the six villages widely affected by lead poisoning resulting from illegal gold mining activities in Nigeria's northern Zamfara state, the state government said. Over 200 children have died from the lead poisoning in the state, forcing the federal government to ban illegal mining activities there.

As public involvement in creating a new constitution for Zimbabwe draws to a close, a rights group reports the process has sparked increased human - rights violations. The Zimbabwe Peace Project says ZANU-PF supporters were the main perpetrators of intimidation at the outreach program. The Zimbabwe Peace Project said it has monitors around the country and they have witnessed many acts of physical intimidation at public meetings.

Margot Wallstrom, the United Nation's special representative on sexual violence and conflict, and Zainab Salbi, the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, an organisation that aids women in conflict zones, were recently interviewed on violence against women in conflict zones. 'It's very extensive, unfortunately. It has happened historically. It is taking one of the worst shapes in Congo. About a thousand women is getting raped every month in the last 12 years, according to the state department.' This post includes video and audio.

The University of East London's School of Law is seeking to appoint an international scholar with an outstanding research record to lead our research in the area of international and comparative human rights and to become Director of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict

Ugandan authorities should either release a Kenyan human rights activist who is being held on terrorism charges or provide details of the charges, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint letter to the Ugandan government. Al-Amin Kimathi was arrested, along with Kenyan lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, on September 15 after the two travelled from Kenya to Uganda to observe a hearing of six Kenyans charged with terrorism in connection with the July bomb attacks in Kampala, which killed over 76 people who were watching the World Cup final.

The protection of civilians in conflict situations is a key challenge for blue berets across the world, but what would it take for peacekeepers deployed in Africa to do better? This question has gained added urgency from the mass rape by armed rebels over four days in late July and early August 2010 of more than 300 civilians in villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that lie close to a UN peacekeepers’ base. According to Paul Williams, associate professor at George Washington University, 'For many, civilian protection is the very essence of peacekeeping. But protecting civilians in Africa’s war zones raises huge challenges.'

The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Cameroon's North and Far North provinces stands at 420, according to public health minister André Mama Fouda. The outbreak of the waterborne disease throws an unwelcome spotlight on inadequate access to clean water and sanitation, particularly in the country’s rural north.

Proposals to place climate funds at an institution like the World Bank, over which developing countries have limited ownership, have undermined the process of negotiations through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). However, G77 countries have stood against the World Bank and have firmly supported placing climate finance under the UN, despite a diversity of positions. This briefing note from the Bretton Woods Project examines concerns that a significant role for the World Bank in disbursal or management of funds could limit developing country calls for direct access, recreate damaging donor-recipient aid dynamics, and hinder effectiveness.

Top officials from three African nations have called for the continent to have a permanent representative on the Security Council, saying it was a travesty that the region that comprises so much of the body’s work does not have a permanent place.

Between 20,000 and 40,000 Nigerian women and girls have been trafficked to Mali, with many of them populating brothels in the West African nation, according to the executive secretary of Nigeria’s Agency for the Prohibition and Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), Simon Chuzi Egede. The number does not include the thousands that have also been trafficked to other African nations, including Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Libya and Morocco, Egele told a press conference in Abuja Wednesday.

As the 2010 peace talks involving leaders from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and the United States–began, Egyptian bloggers were already expressing skepticism about their outcome. The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram saw things differently using Photoshop to place Mubarak front and center in the lineup of heads of state. As a result of Al Ahram's creative reporting, bloggers, both in Egypt and abroad, have taken the opportunity to demonstrate their artistic skills, using Photoshop to further doctor the image.

From May 31 to June 11, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) attended the first-ever review conference of the Rome Statue, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. At the conference, IWPR journalists had the opportunity to hear the concerns of the victims who suffered at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, Uganda’s notorious rebel group. These concerns prompted IWPR-Netherlands to produce a series of special reports to coincide with the conference. The articles in 'ICC Review Conference: Taking Stock on the Ground' give a voice to the victims of the LRA and look at the different aspects of international justice that were discussed during the review conference through the eyes of the people that the court was set up to serve.

The Peace Council, a club at the Kenya Methodist University, helped launch the organisation known as "Sisi ni Amani" (We are Peace) at the Baba Ndogo slum estate in Nairobi, Kenya. Sisi ni Amani organisation is focused on interviewing and peace mapping, a concept where any individual sends a message about any peaceful, violent or volatile activity in their area to a number and analysts are able to gather this information, map it and send it to the relevant authorities for support. The launch involved many youths and children. It also aimed at promoting local talent such as music, dance, poetry and acting in the slum area. Contact: Njoroge Caleb, [email]zaviercal@yahoo.com

Much of an MDG discussion hosted by Al Jazeera's Inside Story focuses on increasing global food security and eradicating hunger. Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental activist and author, argues in this article and video that Brazil's programme is amazing because it has been an initiative of government to allow communities to become 'food self reliant' and 'food self secure'.

Five months after Islamist militia took over a hospital and camp hosting thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia's Afgoye corridor, living conditions have deteriorated, with malnutrition, food shortages and shelter emerging as the key concerns. 'I live in the Hawa Abdi area; in my camp alone, there are 550 families [3,300 people] with little or no food, no medical help and almost non-existent shelter,' Hussein Abi, an elder, told IRIN.

In the semi-arid Laikipia district of Kenya’s Rift Valley province, research scientist Sarah Ogalleh Ayeri travels from one village to another, documenting methods used by peasant farmers as they attempt to adapt to changing climatic conditions. She is a research scientist at the Centre for Training and Integrated Research for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Development and her study is titled 'Lessons from Farmers: localised adaptations in agriculture as building blocks to climate change adaptation in Laikipia district'.

African governments have been called upon to show the political will and creativity to make up for the delay in early childhood education and care. According to statistics presented at the opening of the first world conference on childhood education and care, only 15 per cent of children have access to pre-school education in sub-Saharan Africa. However, 'hope to make up for this delay is quite possible,' said Hamidou Boukary, senior specialist at the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), who is taking part in the meeting in Moscow, Russia.

Political parties on Wednesday forwarded names of MPs to sit on a key committee that oversees the implementation of the new constitution. Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) submitted 13 and 14 names respectively to the house business committee, which met for two hours Wednesday evening.

On 9 September 2010, the International Press Institute (IPI) granted the 'Free Media Pioneer' to Okapi Radio, the UN radio in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The radio has been broadcasting since 2002 in an effort to contribute to the peace building process in the country.

Sudan has delayed the registration of voters for January's referendum on secession for the south until November, raising tensions over the timetable. The chairman of the referendum commission said this was to allow for staff training and delivery of forms. Tanzania's former President Benjamin Mkapa, appointed by the UN to encourage a smooth vote, has told the BBC many challenges lie ahead.