Sudan's army says it has taken control of a town near its border with Chad, recently seized by rebels. Sudan says more than 60 people were killed during the fighting with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement around the town of Kornoi, in Darfur. The news comes as African leaders meet for talks, partly on regional conflict.

High-level talks at a Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) meeting in Gaborone last week failed to produce an agreement on the signing of the interim economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union. A week after the trade ministers of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Angola and Mozambique - the SADC-EPA configuration - met in Botswana's capital there is still no clarity about the region's position on a trade deal with the European Union (EU).

Sub-Saharan Africa will receive around $10 billion from the IMF in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to help its economies weather the global financial crisis, the Fund's chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Monday. As part of a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the world economic downturn agreed at April's G20 summit, the IMF will issue $250 billion worth of SDRs, which can be used to boost foreign currency reserves.

The number of Somalis fleeing the latest escalation of fighting in and around Mogadishu has surpassed 67,000, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today, adding that worsening security has also hampered aid delivery to the capital. Intense fighting between the Government and the opposition Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam groups erupted in several north-west areas of Mogadishu on 8 May.

The country’s security chiefs have taken the current political fight over the reappointment of Gideon Gono a step further, threatening to take up arms to prevent the removal of the Reserve Bank Governor from his post. Robert Mugabe on Monday declared that Gono, his money-man for many years, will retain his job despite the political deadlock that has been created with the MDC over Gono’s position.

2009 is the year of the Big Change. Cheaper and more abundant international fibre capacity will come to East Africa and 2010 will see the same happen in West Africa. New cross-border fibre connections will tie more countries together: two announcements are in the news sections below. But Africa is in danger of getting all the pipes and hardware in place and missing out on thinking about the user and the services and applications they might use.

Niger's president has dissolved parliament after the country's constitutional court ruled against plans to hold a referendum on whether to allow him a third term in office. Mamadou Tandja gave the order to dissolve the legislature on Tuesday, hours after the court said a move by the ruling coalition to hold a public vote on a third presidential term was illegal.

An innovative new campaign was recently launched in Johannesburg, that aims to ensure that young people are empowered to use their cell phones and the Internet for positive self expression. The campaign was launched by Girls’Net, a daughter project of Women’sNet. Says Faith Nkomo of Girls’Net “80% of young people have access to a cellphone – we must be acting to make sure we take advantage of this tool to help young people access opportunities and create positive social spaces to interact in.”

Witnesses have testified in the case of 11 men in Burundi, accused of the attempted murder of albino people and selling of their body parts. Initial charges of murder have been dropped because the prosecution failed to produce enough evidence. Police suspect the body parts are being sold in neighbouring Tanzania, for use in witchcraft.

For the first time, at this year’s eLearning Africa in Dakar, delegates from all over Africa and beyond will join leading international experts for a major debate on an issue of central importance for the future of education in Africa. The subject for this year’s debate is technology, an issue that is likely to stir up a lively discussion among delegates. The debate, which will be held in English and French, will be co-chaired by former British parliamentarian Dr Harold Elletson, a member of the advisory board of eLearning Africa, and the well-known Senegalese television presenter Khalil Gueye.

The International Development Association (IDA), the arm of the World Bank that makes grants and interest-free, long-term loans to poor countries around the world, lacks effective safeguards against corruption, according to a report by the Bank's own Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). The report concluded that IDA, which currently lends and grants about $10 billion annually to governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, doesn't protect its funds adequately from theft and diversion.

African growth will fall to 2% in 2009 from 5.1% in 2008 and agriculture will prove the continent's best chance of pulling itself from poverty. Most African economies had been growing steadily but the global economic crisis has caused aid flows to fall, slashed demand and prices for its agricultural exports. "GDP growth in Africa has declined from 6.0 percent in 2007 to 5.1 percent in 2008 and is expected to be 2.0 percent in 2009," a report published jointly by the AU and the United Nations Economic Commission (ECA) for Africa said.

A decade after Nigeria's last military ruler ordered his troops to "forever resist the seduction and temptation of political power", democracy still has a fragile hold on Africa's most populous nation. Nigerians marked 10 straight years of civilian rule on Friday frustrated that corruption remains endemic, poverty widespread and infrastructure shambolic, but fairly confident that the military is unlikely to stage a comeback.

In September 2008 I was in New York to attend the UN high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the internationally agreed targets to reduce poverty by 2015. Delegate after delegate talked about the need for more funds to eradicate hunger, to cut preventable deaths of infants and pregnant women, to provide clean water and sanitation, to educate girls. The life and dignity of billions of people were at stake, but there was only limited will to back up the talk with money.

Reporters Without Borders has written to communication minister Laure Olga Gondjout and National Communication Council chairman Emmanuel Ondo Methogo voicing concern about the suspension of two Gabonese newspapers, Ezombolo and Le Nganga, and the warnings issued to Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the Canal Overseas Africa satellite TV service over their coverage of President Omar Bongo’s health.

A panel consisting of Italian leaders together with international and African leaders has today appealed for focused investments on smallholders farmers in Africa in order to avoid a further and deepening crisis amidst the already ugly scars of the global slum effects.

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda should ensure that the recommendations of the Uganda Human Rights Commission are carried out and that independent commissioners are appointed promptly to the new Equal Opportunities Commission, the Human Rights Network-Uganda, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Museveni.

The IDMC has released a new profile of the situations of internal displacement in Sudan. As a result of Sudan’s numerous conflicts, about 4.9 million people remain internally displaced in the country; together they make up the single largest internally displaced population in the world.

The publication of potential “mismatches” between prevention strategies and the actual causes of HIV/AIDS in some African countries has already helped to improve efforts to combat the disease, according to the lead United Nations agency on the issue. The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said that a series of reports from Kenya, Lesotho, Swaziland and Uganda showed a “relative lack of evidence-based policies and programmes.”

Disgruntled parents of Sojini Secondary school in South West Zimbabwe have expressed their anger towards the headmaster of the school whom they accuse of trying to milk them dry by demanding outrageous fees structures. Some of the parents revealed to AfricaNews that the school which is located in Mbembesi rural district, was demanding 10 and 16 buckets of maize plus some chickens for O and A’ level students respectively.