The United Nations has begun to parachute food aid into isolated areas of conflict-ridden southern Sudan with the aim of reaching more than 155,000 people cut off from road access by heavy rainfall, the World Food Programme (WFP) has announced.

Oil firms operating in Gabon will be banned from flaring gas in 2010, the government said in a statement. Exports of unprocessed timber will also be banned next year in an effort to increase employment by making logging companies mill and add value to wood locally, according to a statement issued after a cabinet meeting late on Thursday.

Moroccan courts on Friday (October 30th) convicted two journalists of desecrating the national flag and failing to show proper respect for a member of the royal family. Editor Taoufik Bouachrine and caricaturist Khalid Gueddar were put on trial after the daily Akhbar al-Youm published a cartoon of Prince Moulay Ismail's wedding in its September 27th edition.

Uganda is considering an anti-counterfeit bill which analysts say will impair the country’s ability to import and export cheap but effective generic medicines. Activists fear that the bill, once enacted, will deny Ugandans access to safe, effective, quality and affordable generic medication which currently forms the bulk of Uganda’s medicine imports.

Cameroonian LGBTI activist and Deputy President of the Association pour la Défense de l’Homosexualité (ADEFHO), Sébastien Mandeng was allegedly a victim of homophobic slurs and discrimination in the hands of Douala police station officials on Saturday 31 October, following an altercation with a taxi driver.

Whatever else it is, information and communications technologies (ICTs) policy-making can often be symbolic, especially in poor countries. The vision is one of social upliftment, and a new golden age of possibilities brought on by technological roll-out.

Despite strong efforts by the toppled democratic government of Mauritania, slavery has yet to be rooted out in the country, a UN report documents. Under the new government, little progress is made to fight slavery.

People living with HIV in Mauritania are voicing their concerns about the suspension of HIV/AIDS funding by the World Bank and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. They feel powerless in the face of the decisions, of which they are suffering the consequences.

Edited by William Gumede and Leslie Dikeni, 'The Poverty of Ideas: South African Democracy and the Retreat of Intellectuals' is now available from Jacana Media.

‘I write as a fellow African to take a stand with the people of Guinea and to let you know that Guinea and Africa as a whole are better off without you in power', Mawuli Dake says in an open letter to Guinea’s President Camara. Referring to the events of 28 September, Dake writes that the ‘horrendous massacre and flagrant abuse of human rights’ by men under Camara’s command, combined with the president’s ‘lamentable attempt to absolve’ himself of any responsibility by asserting that he ‘cannot control the security forces and their actions’, clearly make him ‘incapable and disinclined to remain in power as leader of Guinea'.

Equality Now, a New Field partner, is releasing a new film about female genital mutilation (FGM) entitled “Africa Rising.” The film is showing this week in New York, San Francisco, and Boston, USA. The film is not currently available for sale, but a trailer can be immediately viewed online.

Applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced person to fill in the position of Administration Officer at the Legal Resources Foundation with immediate effect. This is a contract of 4 to 6 months. The closing date for this vacancy 13 November 2009.

In the 21st century it may seem ludricrous to even consider the possibility of an increase in violence against women. The fact that we have come so far in terms of creating really good legislation, has not necessarily resulted in the scale of impact envisaged. In most countries, on any given day newspaper headlines alerts us to the reality that women still face attacks on their bodies on a daily basis.

Aggressive moves by China, South Korea and Gulf states to buy vast tracts of agricultural land in sub-Saharan Africa could soon be limited by a new global international protocol. A scramble for African farmland has in recent years seen the equivalent of Italy’s entire arable land hoovered up by businesses from emerging economies.

Fana Soumah, a television newscaster with the state-owned Guinean Broadcasting Corporation, was violently assaulted by a soldier in Conakry, the Guinean capital, the sub-regional rights body, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), said in a statement.

Civil Society Organisations from across the Commonwealth and beyond meeting in London on 13 October 2009 have issued a strong message to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009 regarding their obligation to protect and uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms, as enshrined in the 1971 Declaration of Commonwealth Principles and other subsequent Commonwealth communiqués and declarations.

(www.pambazuka.org) is an award-winning social justice e-newsletter and website that is produced by a community of some 1800 commentators, bloggers, activists and academics. It is published by Fahamu (www.fahamu.org), an Oxford-based charity.

In order to improve the usability of the site’s online database of 55,000 records, which has been built up over the last ten years, we are seeking an experienced indexer whose task will be to assign keywords using an established cataloguing system (e.g. such as used by the Library of Congress) and to develop a thesaurus of key words for classifying new articles as they are added to the database. The person would also be required to provide similar services for the growing list of books published by Pambazuka Press (www.pambazukapress.org). The person would also be expected to train and work alongside volunteers/interns.

The post would ideally be full-time for the first three months, and part-time thereafter. Remuneration according to experience. Closing date for applications: 1 December 2009.

Applications in writing with CV and references to [email]fahamujobs@googlemail.com

Fahamu Trust is a registered UK charity (no. 1100304).
2nd floor, 51 Cornmarket St, Oxford OX1 3HA

The convictions of Pierre Falcone, Arcadi Gaydamak, ex-president's son Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and Charles Pasqua in a French court for arms trafficking to Angola have exposed the impunity with which arms traffickers supplied weapons to Angola during its 27-year civil war.

A new online collection of testimonies reveal that while communities in Anosy, southern Madagascar have been living with the challenges of increasing drought for some time, it is the impact of an ilmenite mining operation that has exacerbated their feelings of powerlessness and fears for the future.

On 14 October 2009 a bill entitled the 'Anti-Homosexuality Bill' was tabled before the Ugandan parliament titled the . The bill is aimed at increasing and expanding penalties for 'homosexual acts' and for all institutions (including NGOs, donors and private companies) who defend the rights of people who engage in sexual relations with people of the same gender.