Are you an African leader with a vision for the future of your continent? Applications for the next Programme for African Leadership at the London School of Economics close on May 4th 2012. Successful applicants will take part in a three week intensive programme of lectures, debates, seminars and events based around issues of leadership as well as international affairs and development. Participants will benefit from gaining access to an active pan-African alumni network of rising leaders, with an annual network forum being held in Africa from 2013. The programme dates are 3rd-21st September 2012, further information is available from

South Sudan's army has completed its withdrawal from Sudan's main Heglig oil field, the military said Sunday, but condemned the north for bombing the area. Juba seized the flashpoint oil hub on April 10, claiming that Khartoum was using Heglig as a base to attack the South's oil-producing Unity State. Although South Sudan disputes it, Heglig is internationally regarded as part of Sudan.

On Monday, 23 April 2012, Eddie Webster will be presenting the next instalment of the monthly Ndifuna Ukwazi seminar series. This public talk examines the rise of the workers’ movement and the politics of the ANC (1973–1994). Prof Webster will discuss the historical origins of the links between the ruling party - then a liberation movement struggling through the worst years of Apartheid - and the workers’ movements, which were rapidly developing and newly energised during this period. This question has continued relevance for current politics, given the political affiliation between the ANC, Cosatu, and the South African Communist Party (SACP). It is especially relevant in the year the ANC celebrates its 100 year anniversary, amidst ongoing debates about the state of our new democracy and the future of the party. For those who cannot attend, the event will be live-streamed:

Television journalist Gil Noble, who died recently, hosted the New York City public affairs television program 'Like It Is'. One of his legendary interviews was with Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee who coined the term 'black power'. Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture after moving to Guinea in 1969. Noble interviewed him in June 1996 about two year’s before his death.

South Sudan's seizure of a Sudanese oilfield has all but killed off hopes the two countries will settle their disputes soon and Khartoum may demand compensation before returning to talks, a Sudanese oil minister said on Sunday. The newly-independent South seized Heglig earlier this month, raising fears of an all-out war with Sudan. Tensions have mounted since South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in July, under a peace settlement that ended decades of civil war.

Rising drug resistance has turned what public health officials call today's Big Three infections - HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria - even more fearsome. Together, these diseases kill millions every year, representing 10 per cent of all deaths globally. Worse, the trio of epidemics is tragically interconnected, with TB, for example, the leading cause of death among individuals infected with HIV.

The junta in Guinea Bissau on Saturday said its plan for a two-year transition had only been a suggestion, in an apparent climbdown following threats of UN and regional sanctions. Hours afterwards the opposition politician picked as transitional president by the junta told news agency AFP he was turning down what he described as an 'illegal' appointment. The junta has come under fire from the United Nations and the west African regional grouping Ecowas for failing to restore civilian rule after an April 12 military coup.

In Malawi, an audience-driven radio programme - Nkhani Zam’maboma or 'News from Districts' - has captivated the nation by exposing everyday injustices experienced by Malawians. Grievances are articulated through local idioms and proverbs that have little in common with the individual freedoms espoused by human rights activists. Never before has it been possible for Malawians to share experiences of injustice so publically.

A two-day National Conference on Land Owners and Land Users affected by large scale investments in agriculture organized by the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF) and Green Scenery, held on the 2nd and 3rd April, 2012 at the St. Edwards Pre- School Hall, Kingtom, Freetown ended up with a recommendation by participants for the formation of a Civil Society coalition that would serve as a watchdog on land issues in the country. In response to this recommendation, the 'Action for Large scale Land Acquisition Transparency’' known as (ALLAT) was formed.

The mission of Congolese Genocide Awareness (CGA) is to generate worldwide awareness on the effects of war in general and the civil war specifically of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Particularly our mission is to generate awareness around the reoccurrence of the rape of Congolese women and the exploitation and killing of children. More information can be found on their website at A video and song shot for their cause can be seen at

In this Newsclick video, Professor Samir Amin discuses with Aijaz Ahmad on developments in Egypt over the last one year. Samir Amin details the correlation of forces in Egypt today and identifies the current phase as the beginning of a long period of democratic change with its ups and downs.

Learn why the carbon trading gamble and ‘Clean Development Mechanism’ won’t save the planet from climate change and why African civil society is resisting. Read the second EJOLT report, 'The CDM in Africa Cannot Deliver the Money', by the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society and Dartmouth College Climate Justice Research Project. A dozen researchers from around the globe, under the guidance of Professor Patrick Bond, explain in full detail – and through case studies from South Africa, Niger, Kenya, Mozambique, Ethiopia, the DRC and Tanzania – why the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is failing. The West’s strategy to reduce emissions is causing more harm than good to Africa - the continent that contributes the least to climate change but that suffers the heaviest toll. Disguised as a ‘solution’ to the climate change crisis, the CDM is now creating a second injustice above this existing injustice.

The Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) must act immediately to investigate and prosecute abuses against the Tawargha community of black Libyans, said Amnesty International today, after another Tawargha man was tortured to death in a Misratah detention centre. The body of 44-year-old father of two Barnous Bous’a was delivered to his family on 16 April. It was covered with bruises and cuts, including an open wound to the back of the head.

The bitter split between two warring ZANU PF factions has widened following the hotly disputed District Coordinating Committee (DCC) elections in most of the country’s provinces. The elections, that have seen many candidates linked to Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa romp to victory, have however been marred by reports of violence, intimidation and vote-rigging. Signs of growing structural fissures in the ¬former ruling party have emerged with key members belonging to Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s camp openly disputing election results from the restructuring exercise.

Policy makers and academics often pay little attention to environmental drivers of migration in Egypt. This paper demonstrates that environmental factors are often the hidden cause of the migration of Egyptians from one region to another. The analysis is situated in the broader studies on migration, and also shows why the findings of this study are significant. The paper makes recommendations that will hopefully help policy makers in understanding the causes of environmental migration and assist them in developing policies to address the problem of environmentally induced migration in a sustainable way.

So far this year 14 schools have been burnt down in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, northern Nigeria, forcing over 7,000 children out of formal education and pushing down enrolment rates in an already ill-educated region. In a video posted on YouTube in February, Boko Haram, the Islamic jihadist group based in Nigeria, called on their followers to destroy schools providing Western education.

An education strategy released by UNHCR in February recognized the 'huge unmet demand for higher education among refugees' and made improving access one of its goals over the next five years. Although part of this approach involves doubling the current 2,000 scholarships a year available to refugees through the German-government-funded DAFI programme, a key element of the strategy is to make use of internet technologies and partnerships with academic institutions to reach much larger numbers of refugees through distance learning.

For its ninth annual meeting, the CPA now invites the submission of papers and panels that will engage various aspects of this question of regional race/ethnic change or stability as a result of major tremors and aftershocks in the capitalist world economy.

Malian scholars, librarians and ordinary citizens in the rebel-occupied city of Timbuktu are hiding away priceless ancient manuscripts to prevent them from being damaged or looted, a South African academic in contact with them said. Cape Town University's Professor Shamil Jeppie said he was in daily contact with curators and private owners safeguarding tens of thousands of historic texts in Timbuktu, the fabled desert trading town and seat of Islamic learning overrun by Tuareg-led rebels on April 1.

In 2011, Socfin Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd. (Socfin SL) secured 6,500 hectares (ha) of prime farmland for rubber and oil palm plantations in Malen chiefdom in Pujehun district in the south of Sierra Leone. The firm is now seeking an additional 5,000 ha in expansion plans in the Malen region or neighboring chiefdoms. The initial investment, estimated at $100 million, with promises of job creation, compensation for lost farms, and construction of infrastructures, has enjoyed high-level government support.