A deadly lead poisoning outbreak that began two years ago in northern Nigeria continues to claim young victims even today, an aid agency official has said. Ivan Gayton of Doctors Without Borders criticised the government of oil-rich Nigeria on Thursday for not taking the threat seriously, despite 4,000 children already being sickened by the outbreak linked to gold mining.

Guinea-Bissau coup leaders and west African mediators agreed on Friday that parliamentary speaker Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo will lead a transition government, ruling out the return of the toppled team. The Nigerian official leading the west African mediation effort said there was no chance the former government would be restored.

Ethiopia's main, state-owned printing company has directed newspaper publishers to censor any content that may draw government prosecution under the country's anti-terrorism law or face cancellation of their printing contracts, according to local journalists and news reports.

The Washington Post reports that since 2007, the US State Department has trained about 35,000 African soldiers for an international force in Somalia, mostly deployed to Mogadishu. The African Union is planning to expand its Somalia force from 12,000 to 18,000, the majority of the troops US-trained. Training has occurred at these three primary sites.

On Saturday 19th of May, Algeria Solidarity Campaign invites you to scrutinise the context of this month’s elections and how it relates to Algeria’s most recent history. The panellists will discuss the pouvoir’s resilience over the past twenty years, its relationship with leading western capitals and the degree of manoeuvre it has today amidst regional reshaping of polities. The results of the 10th of May elections will also be addressed in the same framework.

A Zimbabwean human rights group has threatened South Africa's chief crime fighting unit with international legal action, over on ongoing probe into the illegal renditions of Zimbabwean citizens from South Africa. Several senior officials in the Hawks criminal unit and the South African police were last year accused of conducting the renditions, in partnership with Zimbabwean police. This has reportedly led to a number of Zimbabwean 'suspects' being arrested in South Africa and then sent across the border illegally, and killed. The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) has also threatened to refer the Hawks members involved to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if they are not brought to justice, explaining that a thorough, credible investigation needs to done.

This National Geographic infographic by John Tomanio is staggering. Using the metaphor of a tree, it charts the loss of US seed variety from 1903 to 1983. And what you see is that we’ve lost about 93 per cent of our unique seed strands behind some of the most popular produce.

Conducting research requires funding, and today's research follows the golden rule: The one with the gold makes the rules. A report just released by Food and Water Watch examines the role of corporate funding of agricultural research at land grant universities. The report found that nearly one quarter of research funding at land grant universities now comes from corporations.

To celebrate the African novel and its adaptability and resilience, Kwani Trust announces a one-off new literary prize for African writing. The Kwani? Manuscript Project calls for the submission of unpublished fiction manuscripts from African writers across the continent and in the Diaspora. The prize seeks fresh, original work that explores and challenges the possibilities of the novel.

Egypt’s New Women Foundation said they are suing Islamist Parliament member Azza al-Garf over her pro-female genitals mutilation (FGM) statements. The women’s rights foundation sent a letter to the speaker of parliament Saad al-Katatny, informing him of legally going after Garf and asking for his permission to be allowed to take the MP to court. The parliament needs to lift immunity for an MP in order for them to be held accountable in a court of law.

The much anticipated reconciliation talks between President Alassane Ouattara’s ruling party coalition and opposition parties ended much like they began: with the party of former President Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), conditioning future engagement on the release of Laurent Gbagbo and the other former party leaders in detention. These preconditions not only expose the FPI political elite’s contempt for the thousands of victims of often heinous forms of political violence, but also reinforce the perception that the party remains more interested in hard-line politics than in helping end the root causes of the country’s grave human rights abuses.

'Beneath the rhetoric that GM is the key to feeding a hungry world, there is a very different story - a story of control and profit.'

Sending troops to Somalia will be seen as furthering the agenda of imperialists. The idea of Africans fighting Africans is abhorrent.

This global overview from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre looks at internal displacement resulting from conflict and violence during 2011. 'In 2011, the number of people internally displaced by these causes stood at 26.4 million. The world in 2011 was an unsafe place for millions of people. From criminal violence including attacks by armed groups in sub-Saharan Africa or by drug cartels in Latin America, to armed clashes such as those associated with the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire or the uprisings across the Arab world: such events caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Many risked their lives as they sought refuge in unfamiliar environments while facing a constant struggle to meet their basic needs.'

An independent United Nations expert has urged the Tunisian Government to ensure that human rights, especially the right to education, are kept at the heart of the historic reforms taking place in the North African nation. 'Tunisia is at a turning point in its history,' the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Kishore Singh, stressed at the end of his first fact-finding mission to the country. 'If it fails to secure in its new Constitution and its new laws the highest standards of protection of human rights, particularly the right to education, Tunisia will miss a historic opportunity,' he added.

Ethiopia has made more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of 'fertile and unutilized' land available for agriculture companies that meet government requirements, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said. About 300,000 hectares has been leased for commercial farming so far, he said at an Ethiopian investment forum in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Zambia's President Michael Sata has warned Western diplomats against meeting his country's opposition leaders, saying such acts amounted to meddling. 'We do not do it in Europe, and why should they do it here? I am therefore directing the minister of foreign affairs to address the issue of diplomats meddling in internal affairs of the country,' Sata said on state radio.

At the recent Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) international forum on economic rights, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates from around the world highlighted the urgent need to link economic justice and LGBT rights. As one representative of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission noted, the United States LGBT rights movement has focused largely on civil and political issues, including hate crime legislation, partnership benefits, gay marriage, and repeal of the shameful military policy 'Don't Ask/Don't Tell'. The link between economic justice and LGBT rights, however, in both the United States and abroad, has received considerably less attention.

These simple exchanges between two citizens of Africa show their dreams, pain, hope and civic action to ensure that the continent becomes the promised land where everyone can live in peace and justice, solidarity and prosperity.

An exhibition to be held in Nairobi aims to allow present and future generations of Somalis to learn about their rich heritage so that they can work towards restoring and preserving it.