A meeting to discuss the return of people to their lands after they were evicted during post-election violence led to the illegal arrest of 31 people on 26 February.

In this East African article, Charles Onyango-Obbo, writes about the old school information sharing approach of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF). It has reduced the regular press briefings to a drip. And even when it brings the generals out to speak to the media, they give very little away. There are rarely any leaks. But a juicy leak about the KDF's approach to Kismayu did come through - revealing important implications for businessmen, tax collectors, Al Shabaab and the environment.

At least 600 Ugandan girls have been forced into Malaysia’s sex trade in what has become a human trafficking epidemic, a foreign diplomat has said. Hajah Noraihan, the Malaysian consul to Uganda, said despite an early warning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008 when the number of trafficked girls stood at 30, the constant flow of victims had not slowed.

Four months ago, Clemence Uzizo, 21, a welder living in Soweto, Johannesburg's most populous suburb, made the mistake of venturing out to a local shop without his asylum-seeker permit. Neither the police who arrested him, nor the immigration officials who detained him, verified Uzizo's legal status before deporting him to Zimbabwe, the country of his birth. 'My permit was at home but I didn't have a cell phone to call to ask someone to bring it,' he told IRIN not long after making a risky and expensive return to South Africa via the Limpopo River. 'Since my father brought me [to South Africa] in 1992 I've lived here, so I don't know anyone in Zimbabwe.'

Women, who are already compensating for rising food prices and energy costs with additional time and labour - are now further disadvantaged through land grabbing. Land grabs are land lease or sale agreements between parties with unequal bargaining power, often transacted through covert or illegal means. Although land grabs in the 21st century bear some resemblance to massive land grabs that characterized colonization and empire-building in Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries, grabs today are courted by African governments, endorsed through intentionally vague paperwork and lauded in official speeches espousing their trickle-down merits.

Was the ANC’s decision disciplining or silencing the ANC Youth League? asks Zama Ndlovu on the Mail and Guardian blog Thought Leader. 'Before Julius Malema entered the political scene, there was very little public discourse on the acute socio-economic issues faced by a growing number of young South Africans today. After 18 years of political freedom, more than half of South Africans under the age of 25 remain unemployed – among the highest jobless rates in the world.'

In parallel narratives Simon Bright tells the stories of Rhodesia’s transition to Zimbabwe and the personal journey of Robert Mugabe, using one to explain the other and finally suggesting why Mugabe chose the road he has.

As a biography it has everything - first-hand accounts of Mugabe’s early life with a desperately poor Catholic mother, what he was like at school, the effects of a Jesuit education and his rage against his absent father. As his star ascends commentators reflect on early landmarks, particularly his attendance of Ghana’s independence celebrations in 1957.

It’s clear the highly intellectual Young Turk was admired and respected through the 1960s and 70s: Bright traces the origins of the esteem through fascinating archival film interviews. The parallel story of the transition is equally well researched, as are later episodes of importance, notably Lancaster House, the Matabeleland genocide and the growing role of global business in Africa’s economies.

But it’s the behind-the-scenes jostling for power which Bright exposes that is the most riveting, and from it Mugabe emerges as unquestionably one of history’s most canny, devious leaders. It is a haunting film, the music an achievement in itself, a mix of liberation, folk and contemporary sounds. Simon Bright was co-producer of the pivotal 1996 Zimbabwe liberation film ‘Flame’.

* This brief is courtesy of the director and Spier Films.

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The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) is mobilising against the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, which has been re-tabled in the Ugandan Parliament.

Senegal's police on Tuesday 14 February blocked youths from settling in a square in Dakar where they planned a permanent sit-in to protest President Abdoulaye Wade's bid to run for a third term in February polls. Scores of police were deployed on and around Obelisk Square, preventing members of rapper-led youth movement 'Fed Up' from gathering for their protest.

The ECOWAS Community Court in Abuja, Nigeria, on 6 February 2012 ordered the Gambian government to comply with its ruling on Musa Saidykahn, a former editor-in-chief of the banned The Independent newspaper, by compensating him for violating his human rights in 2006. On 16 December 2010, the regional court confirmed that Saidykhan was tortured by President Yahya Jammeh's security agents while in detention in 2006. It also ruled that Saidykhan’s arrest and subsequent detention were illegal and violated his right to personal liberty and a fair hearing as guaranteed by Articles 6 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. The ECOWAS court, therefore, awarded Saidykhan damages of US$200,000.

Eleven people have died from meningitis out of 40 reported cases in four departments across Côte d’Ivoire as of 31 January, leaving people scrambling to access the vaccine for their families. The Ministry of Health has declared the outbreaks in the departments of Kouto and Tengrela in the north as epidemics, and is providing free vaccinations in both locations through mobile health teams, with the help of the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

The International Detention Coalition (IDC) has made a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur concerning a report on the issue of immigration detention. The report draws from global research and consultations undertaken by the IDC and focuses on the international trends emerging in the use and impact of immigration detention, the legal standards relating to the detention of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, as well as alternatives to immigration detention.

The South Centre organised a workshop at the beginning of February on the state of the global economy, and reflection on recent and future multilateral negotiations. The workshop provided a forum at the beginning of 2012 for policy makers, diplomats and experts of developing countries to reflect on the state of the global economy and prospects for developing countries, and on the implications of important multilateral negotiations that have recent taken place, and that will take place this year. Documents presented at the workshop and available from the South Centre website include:
- The Staggering Rise of the South By Y?lmaz Akyüz, Special Economic Advisor, South Centre
- Instability and Downturn in the World Economy and the Prospects of the South", Statement by Petko Draganov, the Deputy Secretary-General, UNCTAD
- EPA Negotiations between EU and Africa, by Aileen Kwa, Coordinator, Trade and Development Programe, South Centre.

Fishermen, under the aegis of Famous Fishing Organisation (FFO), have said the recent bonga oil spill had negatively affected the economy of coastal settlements in Akwa Ibom. Mr Umoekeyo Eno, legal adviser of the organisation in Oron, said that the fishermen would be compelled to seek legal redress if the oil firm responsible for the spill failed to compensate the victims. He said that he had written to Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) on the impact of the spill on members of the organisation in Akwa Ibom.

Thirteen leaders of national and grassroots activist organisations in Tanzania were detained 10 February 2012 by the government in the Oyster Bay Police Station, Dar es Salaam, in a government clamp down on protests by women/feminist and human rights activists against the failure of the government to resolve the health crisis arising from a two week doctors strike in Tanzania. The leaders come from LHRC, TGNP, TAMWA, NEDPHA and several other grassroots organisations.

Thousands of Zimbabwean households are feeling the effects of lost remittances from family members forcibly returned from neighbouring South Africa since that country resumed deportations of undocumented Zimbabwean migrants in October 2011. Makaita Gwati, 60, from rural Chirumhanzi, about 90km from the provincial capital of Masvingo in southeastern Zimbabwe, relied on the income her son and daughter sent from South Africa to support the rest of the family, until both were deported in November last year. 'I counted on them for money to buy food and other essential items, but now that they are here and they can’t find jobs, I don’t know how we will survive,' Gwati told IRIN.

Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, has revealed an ambitious set of infrastructure projects designed to rescue South Africa from the effects of a global recession that has hit the nation harder than most on the continent. 'We have chosen five major geographically-focused programmes, as well as projects focusing on health and basic education infrastructure, information and communication technologies and regional integration,' Zuma said in his annual televised state of the nation address to parliament in Cape Town. Zuma's focus on infrastructure development was applauded by opposition politicians, but they questioned whether he could or would follow through on his pledges.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

In this broadcast of Africa Today, host Walter Turner speaks to Dr Adam Hanieh, a lecturer from the School of Oriental and African Studies about developments in North Africa and the gulf states and Tidiane Kasse, editor of the French edition of Pambazuka News, about developments in West Africa. The broadcast also profiles African Awakenings, a new publication from Pambazuka Press.

In January 2012, International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) staff traveled to Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), to assess the state of the news media and examine the prospects for developing a journalistic information network. They have posted a photo gallery which shows the state of media and life in the camps more generally.