Kenya could once again find itself in a United Nations agency’s bad books for failing to submit a crucial report on torture. The UN Convention Against Torture and other cruel, inhumane, degrading treatment or punishment (UNCAT) last November gave the government a year to put in place measures to guard against state-sanctioned torture as well as opening avenues for justice to victims.

A court in Namibia has ruled that the National Society for Human Rights must have its status as an election observer reinstated, hours after polls opened. The electoral commission withdrew the group's status days before the vote, saying it was not impartial.

The Nigerian government has not brought a single prosecution or even begun investigations a year after Nigerian policemen and soldiers killed more than 130 civilians in responding to deadly sectarian clashes in the central Nigerian city of Jos, Human Rights Watch has said.

Internal displacement caused by both communal violence and internal armed conflict is a recurrent phenomenon in most states in Nigeria. The parties to the fighting have sought political, economic and social advantages in a country with endemic poverty, low levels of education and a huge and alienated youth population.

Some 100 children under five years of age will die today in Zimbabwe, a bleak statistic that is part of new social development data released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Government, revealing that the situation there for women and children has deteriorated in the past five years.

Islamist hardliners in Somalia have taken over the control of strategic town, Dobley, a southern border between Somalia and Kenya, after clashes with a rival group, reports say on Thursday. Al-shabaab fighters attacked and took over the town in the early hours of Wednesday from rival group Hizbul Islam.

Angola is considering setting up a Norwegian-style sovereign wealth fund to manage its oil revenues. Angola has said it plans to have the new sovereign wealth fund ready to invest its oil money abroad this year but has yet to announce a date for its launch.

Countries across Eastern and Southern Africa have stepped up plans for the establishment of Africa’s largest economic bloc with the opening of negotiations that may culminate in a Free Trade Area (FTA) spanning Cape to Cairo by May 2010.

This year the fourth internet governance forum was playing it safe – perhaps because next year could be its last – but we still saw real progress. Privacy no longer plays second fiddle to security, people’s rights online are recognised as central by all sides. Social networking was the new star centre stage.

Health authorities in Zimbabwe announced that the country would get US$180 million from the Global Fund to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Guinean soldiers raped at least 100 women during a crackdown on protesters in September, a human rights group has said. The findings were released as United Nations experts began to investigate the repression, in which about 160 people were killed. The crackdown has drawn widespread condemnation and brought sanctions against the ruling military junta.

Most residents have fled Ndele town in northern Central African Republic after clashes between rebels and the army. The CPJP rebels attacked at dawn on Thursday but the army is now in control. Casualty numbers are unclear.

Burundian authorities should immediately retract an ordinance outlawing the Forum for the Strengthening of Civil Society (FORSC), an umbrella organization representing 146 Burundian civil society associations, said Amnesty International, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, and Human Rights Watch in a joint statement.

A growing trend towards criminalising transmission of HIV – including transmission from mother to child – puts women at risk and will undermine progress in fighting AIDS, warns international development agency ActionAid.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on all parties in Côte d’Ivoire to fix a new date as soon as possible for their much-delayed elections, now postponed yet again from their latest deadline of this month.

A Tunisian journalist has been sentenced to six months imprisonment on for slander and assault after a trial criticised by rights groups. Accused of assaulting a woman in public, Taoufik Ben Brik, 49, was arrested on October 29, four days after Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was re-elected with nearly 90 per cent of the vote.

South Africa has moved swiftly to develop a male circumcision plan that would have buy-in from all stakeholders and will go beyond being a purely medical intervention, ideally also engaging men on among others HIV prevention, gender issues and alcohol abuse.

The consequences of the Doha Round of trade talks for larger developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa could include job losses and deindustrialisation if a new study forecasting how Kenya is set to be affected is anything to go by.

A new Ugandan study adds to a growing body of evidence that providing home-based antiretroviral (ARV) care in low-income settings can be as effective as facility-based interventions.

The Ivorian National Press Council (CNP) has banned the publication of opinion polls conducted on presidential candidates for the forthcoming election. "Within the framework of the electoral process, the National Press Council informs the media that in accordance with Article 39 of Ruling Né 2008-133 of 14 April 2008 on adjustments to the electoral code for out of crisis elections, it is prohibited to publish or issue estimates of vote or conduct polls of any kind, from any place, based on the provisional electoral roll,' a statement from the Press Council said.