In any emergency, be it natural disaster or man-made, long- or short-term, people’s lives are turned upside down. Knowing what’s happening, where to go for assistance and who to call for help is crucial to their survival and recovery. As famine is declared in six regions of neighbouring Somalia, this edition of Mobile Message highlights the work of ActionAid in improving vital communication with drought-affected populations in northern Kenya.

The Egyptian military authorities’ expansion of the emergency law is the greatest erosion of human rights since the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year, Amnesty International said. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) broadened the application of the Mubarak-era emergency law following clashes between demonstrators and security forces at the Israeli embassy last Friday. The confrontation resulted in three reported deaths and some 130 arrests.

An opinion piece in the Herald argues that AFRICOM is 'undermining the African Union (AU) and its Peace and Security Council which deals with Peace and Security on the continent'.

Cervical cancer is the most common women’s affliction in Sub-Saharan Africa and the third most common ailment in females, with 530,000 new cases and 275,000 deaths each year. About 80-90 per cent of women in the Region have never had a pelvic examination.

Agriculture, predominantly small scale, accounts for about 30% of sub-Saharan Africa's GDP and at least 40% of export value. Having fallen out of favour in the development debate in the last decade, agriculture these days gets its own G20 summits and there are moves to make agriculture the centrepiece of the Rio+20 global development summit next June.

Mobile phone manufacturers, operators and Google have started a big push of the Android operating system into Africa this year. Samsung, HTC and Huawei are moving Android phones into the market and some operators are starting to subsidise Android handsets to get them to a price point palatable to a larger number of buyers.

In this video interview, made by Francesco Fiondella at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), CCAFS theme leader James Hansen discusses the causes of the current drought plaguing the Horn of Africa. He points out that even if the lack of rain is a root cause of the crisis, it is still only one of many factors that has lead to the ongoing drought.

'HRCSL expresses deep concern over the recent spate of violence in the country and regrets the resulting loss of life and injuries to individuals and destruction of property. We refer to reports of political violence recently in Kono followed by the affray at the national stadium during the Egypt/Sierra Leone match and most recently the Bo incident. The incident in Kono and Bo involved political violence resulting in the discharge of firearms allegedly by the police leading to injury to individuals and security personnel.'

Zimbabwe has completed the development of a second national HIV/Aids strategic plan for 2011 to 2015 which is designed to reduce the percentage of HIV infected infants born to HIV-positive mothers, an official has said.

The number of underweight children as a result of malnutrition continues to rise in Karas Region, a recent weight monitoring study conducted by the Keetmanshoop health district reveals. A report that contains information over a six month period since January indicated that 145 children aged between zero and 59 months were found to be severely' underweight.

A new Land Deal Brief from the Oakland Institute (OI) exposes that the controversial Gibe III hydroelectric project located in Ethiopia's Omo Valley is ‘facilitating the take over of 350,000 hectares (ha) of land for sugar cane and cotton plantations and resulting in state-sponsored human rights violations.’

As alumni of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, we are deeply troubled by the most recent development regarding the Africana Center’s future. In a recent Cornell Chronicle article, Peter Lepage, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, announced his plans for the Africana Center to “flourish” at Cornell University. Beneath a camouflage of concern, this decree rests on blatant misinformation and a reckless disregard for the integrity of Africana Studies and—by extension—the credibility of Cornell University as an institution of higher learning.

The New York Times reports that Commander Gen. Carter F. Ham, the top officer at Africa Command, has claimed that 'three violent extremist organisations on the continent were trying to forge an alliance to coordinate attacks on the United States and Western interests.'

The Komo Learning Centres (KLC) was established in 2008 as a non-profit (501c3) corporation dedicated to providing community-based educational opportunities for vulnerable and disadvantaged children in Uganda. With the third highest fertility rate in the world, Uganda’s education system is burdened with overcrowded classrooms, a scarcity of teachers and dilapidated schoolhouses.

The head of an international medical charity has called on aid agencies to stop presenting a misleading picture of the famine in Somalia and admit that helping the worst-affected people is almost impossible.

Sheila Ruiz, programming and communications consultant for the Africa Centre in London's Covent Garden, put together a list of 7 African diaspora women in London who are using fashion for progressive change.

Subscribe to Highway Africa’s Email Alerts or RSS feed for regular updates. Sustainable development in the face of climate change is the theme of the 15th annual Highway Africa conference currently underway in South Africa.

Resistances and alternatives are the key words chosen by the Liaison Committee, established during the World Assembly of Inhabitants (WAI) in order to unify the Global Campaign for the right to housing and to land from the 15th september until the 31st october this year. The central focus is the struggle against expulsions, evictions, the land grabbing and the persecution of activists. This year, these matters involve not only the organisations that have long been committed to the World Zero Evictions Days and other campaigns, but the entire world.

The water supply crisis in Ghana is being exploited by all manner of pro-market corporate bodies ranging from the World Bank to Coca-Cola. While the World Bank is licking its wounds from failed private water management initiatives, such as the Aqua Vitens Rand Limited management contract in Ghana, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), its private sector arm, is investing in small-scale private water ventures via WaterHeath International (WHI).

The Angolan authorities should immediately drop politically motivated charges against 18 people who were convicted after unfair trials for their participation in an anti-government demonstration in Luanda, Human Rights Watch said.