For the people of northwestern Kenya, fighting to protect Lake Turkana from the Gibe 3 Dam is a fight for their livelihoods and the future of their unique cultures. International Rivers recently took a trip to the area and documented their struggle. International Rivers has produced a short video reflecting the sentiments of the people dependent upon Lake Turkana. They tell a story of impending social and environmental collapse in the absence of the sustenance that the lake provides them. Along with the video, IR released a 13 page report about the lake, the dam, and the communities affected.

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), strongly condemned the kidnapping of Zonal leaders of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on 11 July 2010 as a deplorable and a criminal act that was intended to destabilise NUJ dynamic leadership's commitment to defend journalists' rights and interests.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has signed a cooperation agreement with two organisations in Lesotho under which it will allocate over $1.2 million to boost an integrated social protection system for orphans and other vulnerable children in the country. The groups – World Vision Lesotho and Sentebale – will use the funds for projects that contribute to the achievement of Lesotho’s vision for a society in which all vulnerable children are free from discrimination, live in dignity and have their rights and aspirations fulfilled.

The High Court in the Gambian capital Banjul passed death sentence on a former head of the country's military. Former Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) Lt. General Lang Tombong Tamba was sentenced on two counts with seven co-accused, including a former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and a Lebanese born businessman.

While the number of armed conflicts has decreased since the late 1990s, those between national governments and non-state armed groups (NSAGs), or between NSAGs, continue to cause large-scale and prolonged displacement, both internally and to other – particularly neighbouring – states. The FMR Editors are looking for practice-oriented submissions, reflecting a diverse range of opinions but focusing on situations of forced displacement

Hundreds of refugees have been moved from a camp in northern Kenya after the killing of a teenager sparked riots in the facility and violence between its Sudanese and Somali residents, according to an official. Staff of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, held talks with community leaders in Dadaab to calm and reconcile the refugees following the 13 July killing .

Uganda has begun “forcibly” deporting hundreds of Rwandans from two southwestern refugee camps, at gunpoint according to one witness, prompting the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to call for a suspension of the operation. Both countries have long tried to rid Uganda of Rwandan refugees who for their part say they do not feel safe going home.

The South African government is in the process of passing a law that will limit access to government information undermining transparency, accountability, and media freedom in South African. The Protection of Information Bill allows every organ of state - from government departments and parastatals to the smallest municipality - to throw a blanket of secrecy over its documents. If the law is passed whistle blowers leaking, and journalists reporting, on these documents can face up to 25 years in jail. The Bill goes before parliament this month and civil society are organizing to oppose it's passing.

The African Union (AU) has named Nobel Peace Prize winners, leading sports personalities and musicians to lead a campaign for a conflict-free Africa, which is expected to climax on 21 September. Former South African President Fredrick de Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Sou th Africa and wife of South African former President Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, are among 12 key personalities selected to an advisory board to lead the campaign.

Police in Rwanda investigating the murder of opposition politician Andre Kagwa Rwisereka have arrested a man. The suspect had been a business partner of the dead man, a police spokesman said. He had been seen with Mr Rwisereka in a bar on Monday night, he added.

With about 3,000 Kenyan women and girls developing obstetric fistula each year, you might think the government would have a plan to prevent and treat it. Think again. Obstetric fistula is a childbirth injury which results in constant leaking of urine and faeces.

IDMC has compiled a table showing the estimated numbers of IDPs over the past decade in all the countries which it monitors. The figures include people internally displaced by conflict, generalised violence or human rights violations. They are compiled from the figures published from 2001 to 2009 in IDMC’s annual summaries Internal displacement: Global overview of trends and developments.

In Senegal, same-sex activity has, since 1965, been punishable by up to five years imprisonment. Enforcement of this law has escalated in the past two years, with the arrests of more than 50 people and trials of at least 16 individuals suspected of same-sex activity or being part of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans community. Simultaneously, state-sanctioned violence and anti-gay rhetoric in the media against individuals believed to be LGBT has increased.

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organization of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), expresses its abhorrence of the bomb attacks in Kampala, Uganda, last night, in which more than 60 people were killed, including Vision Voice journalist Stephen Tinka. FAJ President, Omar Faruk Osman, strongly condemned these barbaric attacks in the Ugandan capital and conveyed his condolences to the family of late journalist Stephen Tinka, the members of the Ugandan Journalists Union, as well as to other victims and their families who have been tragically affected by these attacks.

Théophile Kouamouo, the Editor-in-chief of the Ivorian daily 'Le Nouveau Courier' and three of his collaborators are being held in detention at the headquarters of Ivorian judiciary police section in Abidjan, after publishing the results of the investigation carried out by the Prosecutor about alleged fraud and embezzlement in Cocoa and coffee sector.

The Kenyan government and telecom companies have a new text service to report hate speech ahead of a referendum on a new constitution. According to NCIC's Millie Lwanga, the free SMS number - 6397 - was established thanks to $700,000 (£459,400) received from international donors, Kenya's Daily Nation paper reports. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission set up after the 2007 post-poll violence in which some 1,300 people were killed, will monitor it.

Friends of the Earth Europe has strongly criticised an agreement expected to be announced today by EU and Brazilian leaders to expand biofuels in Mozambique. The agreement to promote biofuels in Africa to power European cars is described as "immoral and perverse."

It looks like a simple enough issue: whether a pocket of land in the middle of Sudan is part of the north or the south. But the Abyei question is key to lasting peace in the country. The last time the area’s residents were denied the right - enshrined in a 1972 peace accord - to make the choice themselves, the backlash helped push the country back into civil war.

The 2010 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines. These disciplines are uniformly confronted with broadly similar difficulties of understanding social reality and the challenges posed by techniques of data collection and analysis, which, on account of their “qualitative” nature, are suspected by some to be seriously lacking in scientific rigour. Deadline: 6th August, 201 0.

The 13th conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) will be hosted by the Refugee Law Project, Kampala, Uganda from July 3 to 6, 2011. The conference aims to explore key dimensions of the relationship between forms and tools of governance on the one hand and patterns and experiences of forced migration on the other. Under the title ‘Governing Migration’, IASFM 13 will enable a wide-ranging exploration of both the direct and indirect relationships between conflict, governance, forced migration, and transitional justice