The River Congo waters have drastically decreased in the first six months of the year, causing problems for boat navigation. According to the DRC public company in charge of the waterways - Régie des Voies Fluviales - the phenomenon is unprecedented in DRC history. According to Congolese meteorologist Amos Paluku, the low water level is linked to other climatic changes observed in the country, particularly in the western DRC.

Persistent violence compounded by a serious drought have forced 54,000 Somalis to flee in June, bringing the total number of displaced Somalis to a quarter of the country’s population, the UNHCR has said. The food shortage problem is so acute that there are now reports of children under five dying of hunger and exhaustion while fleeing, or dying within a day of their arrival at refugee camps despite emergency aid, the UN refugee agency said.

Liberia has kicked off campaigning for 11 October presidential and legislative elections, with incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf facing criticism over her plan to seek re-election. Sirleaf, who was elected Africa’s first female president in 2005, said she wanted a second term to continue her work in rebuilding the west African nation which was devastated by the 1989-2003 civil war.

Almost eight years after an estimated 50,000 people perished in a four-year conflict that also displaced 500,000 from their homes in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a tenuous calm prevails in the area. The 1999-2003 Ituri conflict was between the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups. In Nioka, Mahagi territory, about 90km northeast of the district capital, Bunia, the violence sucked in the Alur ethnic community, with the Lendu accusing them of supporting the Hema.

Thousands of Ethiopians in Afar State are facing critical food, water and health gaps almost a month after a volcano erupted in neighbouring Eritrea's Nabro region, officials say. The volcano started erupting on 12 June, spewing ash over hundreds of kilometres, affecting food and water sources as well as air travel in some parts. The eruption also caused an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7, Eritrea's Information Ministry reported in a communiqué.

This report documents the state of Zimbabwe's education sector in the year 2010. It is the latest edition of the Students Solidarity Trust (SST)'s 'Inside the Pandora's Box' annual series. This 2010 report focuses on the material and democratic tenets in its evaluation. The gist of the 2010 argument is that whereas there have been some minimal and noticeable improvements in the availability of education little of that has been premised on democratic tenets. Consequently, explanations of educational change rooted in material analysis premised in the political economy are helpful but inadequate to capture political dynamics in contemporary Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s three governing parties have agreed on a mid 2012 election timetable despite demands by President Mugabe that they must be held this year. President Mugabe has been insisting that elections must be held before the end of the year, despite protests that the political situation was still volatile and that the necessary reforms were yet to be put in place. 'This means that there is no way we can hold elections this year,' the privately owned NewsDay newspaper quoted one of the negotiators as having said.

With hundreds of new Somali refugees arriving daily at the congested and overcrowded Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya, incumbent refugees are going around the camp with loud-hailers appealing for help for the newcomers, most of whom lack food, clothes, and blankets. 'As the numbers [of new arrivals] kept increasing and more people kept coming, we decided to organise and pool our efforts,' Abdiwali Hussein Mohamed, a member of the refugees' committee, told IRIN. 'We must do what we can, even if it is one pair of shoes.' The new refugees arrive in a deplorable state, Mohamed said.

A journalist who had recently reported about the arrest of locals accused of trafficking weapons for criminal activity was found shot to death last week in the eastern town of Kirumba in the Democratic Republic of Congo, report Journaliste en danger (JED) and other IFEX members. Kambale Musonia, the host of a daily programme on Radio Communautaire de Lubero Sud, was shot to death a few metres from his home on 21 June. Musonia is the sixth journalist gunned down in the past four years in North and South Kivu alone, says JED.

Britain has piled pressure on the government for the extradition of Nambale MP Chris Okemo and former parastatal chief Samuel Gichuru on corruption charges. British High Commissioner to Kenya Rob Macaire said the fraud cases were solid and rejected arguments that the two should not be extradited given the claims that the charges were not offences in Kenya when they were committed.

Equatorial Guinea is principally a destination for children subjected to conditions of forced labour. Children are recruited and transported from nearby countries – primarily Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, and Gabon – and forced to work as domestic servants, market laborers, ambulant vendors, and launderers. This is according to a 2011 US State Department report that finds Equatorial Guinea's response to human trafficking to be inadequate, particularly given the government’s substantial financial resources.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development Assembly (IGAD) wants the United Nations to impose a No fly zone on Somalia in a bid to cut off arms supplies to the Al Shabaab terrorist group. President Kibaki led the East African leaders in asking the UN to enforce no fly zones on key towns during an IGAD meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting also directed its anger on Eritrea, which they accused of supplying arms to the Al Shabaab through Kismayu.

Egypt has a new law banning the sale of human organs, imposing severe restrictions on transplant operations for foreigners, and stipulating long jail sentences and huge fines for violations. The law, approved in December 2010 after protracted discussions in parliament, took effect only in June owing to country-wide political turmoil since January. Doctors say about 1,500 illegal transplants take place annually. Most live organs come from the destitute who sell body parts to pay debts or start small projects to earn a living to escape unemployment and poverty.

SENEGAL: 23 JUNE WAS A RED LETTER DAY
Demba Moussa Dembélé

23 June will always be remembered as a disgrace for President Wade and his clan. But it will be etched in gold in the political history of independent Senegal. 23 June 2011 will forever remain a day of glory for the Senegalese people, who showed that power ultimately resides with them. 23 June is also a shining testimony to the courage, determination and self-sacrifice of Senegalese youth.

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SENEGAL: A PEOPLE’S VICTORY AND A REPUBLIC ON ITS FEET
Mamadou Diallo

On 23 June, the Senegalese people demonstrated en masse against the planned vote in parliament to modify the constitution in order to facilitate the re-election of Wade and ensure that his son would be his successor. But mass protests scuppered the plans of the president, his government and parliament. According to Mamadou Diallo, the people prevented a dangerous development.

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DRC: A MAP OF VOTING BOOTHS AND ELECTORAL FRAUD
Benjamin Stanis Kalombo

On 4 July Congolese police dispersed a demonstration called by opposition activists in front of the headquarters of the Independent National Election Commission (CENI). The activists were protesting against irregularities in the electoral lists drawn up for November’s legislative elections. And as Benjamin Stanis Kalombo notes, cases of fraud have been increasing.

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FRANCO-IVORIAN RELATIONS ON THE UPSWING IN THE POST-GBAGBO ERA
Jean-Jacques Konadjé

The dark chapter of the Laurent Gbagbo period has finally ended. But can Côte d’Ivoire embark on a new destiny and build a new history at the same time? France has strengthened its position in what it considers to be its backyard, but, argues Jean-Jacques Konadjé, it also faces competition from other powers, especially the strategic interests of the United States.

The suggestion that the entire populations of low-lying island States could be forced to move to other States due to the effects of rising sea levels is perhaps one of the most striking and well-known examples of the potential human impacts of climate change, states this paper from the UNHCR, which assesses the relevance of the principle that statelessness should be prevented in addressing the situation of low-lying island States. 'The paper begins by examining the elements of statehood under public international law. While there is a strong presumption of continuity for established states, the possibility of a total loss of territory for natural reasons, or the total displacement of a population and/or government, is entirely novel.'

The first official Eritrean refugees arrived in Sudan in 1968; today, an estimated 1,600 cross the border every month to seek refuge in Shagarab, a large camp in the east of Sudan. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that northern Sudan has more than 100,000 Eritrean refugees but in 43 years, the profile of the refugees has changed. 'The new arrivals are generally young and well educated; they come from the highlands and have no cultural or ethnic ties with local populations,' said Mohamed Ahmed Elaghbash, Sudan's Commissioner for Refugees.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Morocco to push for democratic reforms despite the vote approving a new constitution curbing the king's near-absolute powers. The February 20 Movement, which has organised months of demonstrations calling for reforms in the Arab world's oldest reigning monarchy, has denounced the new constitution as window-dressing. It says its approval in Friday's referendum, where it passed with 98 per cent support, was a sham. More than 6,000 protesters rallied in Morocco's main economic hub Casablanca on Sunday, chanting 'For Dignity and Freedom!', a reporter for the AFP news agency at the scene said.

Libyan rebel leaders have welcomed an African Union offer to open talks with the government in Tripoli without the direct involvement of Muammar Gaddafi. The Transitional National Council said it was the first time the AU had recognised the people's aspirations for democracy and human rights in Libya. The talks offer was agreed at an AU summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The AU also told members not to execute an arrest warrant for Col Gaddafi from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

'The developers of GMOs have exerted great pressure to ensure that our recently enacted Biosafety Act of 2009 serves the interests of foreign Agribusiness, rather than farmers and consumers. The introduction of patented seeds and related chemicals into our farming systems threatens our agricultural practices, our livelihoods, the environment, and undermines our seed sovereignty. We believe that we can feed our communities and this country with organic and agroecological farming practices that do not destroy, pollute and contaminate food, land and seeds. Our ability to feed Africa through agro-ecological practices is recognised and supported by UN reports, the IAASTD report and many research findings. We call upon the government to support small scale farmers in having access to water and capacity building in agro-ecology and for this to be enshrined in our Kenyan policies.'

Millions of Congolese have lost their lives in a conflict that the United Nations describes as the deadliest in the world since World War Two. United States allies, Rwanda and Uganda, invaded in 1996 the Congo (then Zaire) and again in 1998, which triggered the enormous loss of lives, systemic sexual violence and rape, and widespread looting of Congo’s spectacular natural wealth. The film, 'Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering The Truth' explores the role that the United States and its allies, Rwanda and Uganda, have played in triggering the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century. The film is a short version of a feature length production to be released in the near future. It locates the Congo crisis in a historical, social and political context. It unveils analysis and prescriptions by leading experts, practitioners, activists and intellectuals that are not normally available to the general public.