The Kimberley Certification Process (KP) was ostensibly designed to keep 'blood diamonds' off global markets. Not only has it failed to do so, but it is actively promoting the human rights atrocities it pledged to wipe out. At least that's the view of Khadife Sharife and Nick Meynen expressed in a strident denunciation of the KP published on 15th October 2012. Sharife and Meynen also claim that the world's largest purveyor of diamonds, De Beers, actively corrupted the application of the Kimberley Process to Angola, at a time when De Beers was majority-owned by Anglo American.

One of the only chances small-scale food producers have to gain competitive access to local and global markets is by banding together in cooperatives, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva told a meeting of the World Cooperatives Congress in Manchester. The International Year of Cooperatives is being observed in 2012. 'Cooperatives follow core values and principles that are critical to doing business in an equitable manner, that seeks to empower and benefits its members and the community it is inserted in,' Graziano da Silva said in a keynote speech. 'This is especially relevant in poor rural communities, where joining forces is central to promoting sustainable local development.'

Nigeria may shut down oil fields as it tries to clamp down on gas flaring, even if it means a loss of revenue, the petroleum industry's chief regulator said. Africa's top oil producer and holder of the world's seventh largest natural gas reserves is considered to be among the top two gas flarers in the world, burning off unwanted gas, after Russia.

South African authorities exceeded their public powers and acted unlawfully and irrationally by granting refugee status to former Rwandan general and suspected war criminal Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa. This decision should be set aside. This is according to the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in SA, supported by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre. A decision in this case could have implications for others in the same position as Nyamwasa.

South Africa’s first census in a decade shows wealth disparities between race groups that persist 18 years after the end of apartheid. While incomes for black households increased an average 169 percent over 10 years, their annual earnings are 60,613 rand ($6,987), or a sixth of that for whites, Statistics South Africa said in a report released in Cape Town. About 80 percent of South Africa’s 51.8 million population is black.

The inaugural Colours of the Nile International Film Festival (CNIFF) will run in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 7-11 November 2012, introducing the best of African cinema to African audiences.

In a recent report published by the Cairo-based Nadim Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims, 34 cases of death, 88 cases of torture, and seven cases of sexual assault at the hands of Egyptian police were recorded during Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's first 100 days in office. In the time period cited, the report recorded a total of over 247 cases of alleged police brutality.

South Africa hosts the third annual Tech4Africa conference, in Johannesburg, attracting innovators and entrepreneurs from a dozen countries. Among the speakers are Sim Shagaya, a Nigerian-born Harvard graduate planning to create the 'Amazon of Africa', selling Lagos's increasingly affluent consumer class everything from refrigerators to perfume to cupcakes. His previous venture, DealDey, which offers Groupon-style deals, is now the top-grossing ecommerce site in Nigeria with 350,000 subscribers.

Sudan dismissed as 'misleading' Israeli allegations it supplies arms to foes of the Jewish state and said there was no foreign involvement in a munitions factory Khartoum says was bombed by Israel. The poor Muslim East African country has long been seen by Israel as a conduit for weapons smuggled to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, via the Egyptian Sinai desert. Four people were killed after fire broke out a week ago at the Yarmouk arms factory in the south of Khartoum, and the following day Sudan said an Israeli air strike was responsible.

Uganda’s practice of pardoning and then integrating into its military captured or surrendered members of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), getting them to hunt down their former comrades-in-arms, has come in for criticism by civilians affected by the rebel group in the Central African Republic (CAR). 'This strategy is a real insult to the victims,' said Gaétan Zangagoumé, chairman of a victims’ association in Obo, capital of Haut-Mbomou Prefecture. The area, in the extreme southeast of CAR, has been heavily affected by LRA activities. Victims there include hundreds of civilians forcibly conscripted into the LRA as well as people from villages repeatedly attacked, torched and now deserted. Fear of further attacks greatly restricts freedom of movement.

Hotter than normal temperatures raise the risk of violent conflict in East Africa, while increased rainfall makes such disturbances less likely, according to a new study conducted by the US National Academy of Sciences. For both climate variables, there is about a 30 per cent change in the likelihood of violence occurring in an affected area, the study finds. The results appear to reinforce warnings of climate change leading to more conflict in Africa, which is regarded as particularly vulnerable to the effects of sharp shifts in temperature and precipitation.

All AU member states (with the exception of newcomer South Sudan) have become state party to the African Charter, and 26 of them have accepted the Women’s Protocol. The question should be posed as to what extent the promises of the Charter and Women’s Protocol have been realised. What has the impact of these instruments been on the practice of state parties? This publication, 'The impact of the African Charter and Women’s Protocol in selected African states', aims to start addressing this question.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest rate of malnutrition in central and west Africa, affecting 43 percent of children under five, UNICEF said. In central Africa, 'some countries have a rate of chronic malnutrition which is still alarming,' Marianne Flach, the representative of the UN children's agency in Congo, said at the opening of a regional workshop on reducing malnutrition. At least 75 experts from different countries in central Africa came to take part in the workshop, which will continue until Thursday in a northern suburb of Brazzaville.

The number of refugee families staying in the Netherlands after their asylum requests have been rejected is increasing. Last summer, they were being housed in two special centres. Since then five new centres have been opened, providing shelter to over 1700 people. A lawyer, who visited one of the centres, said conditions were so deplorable that he is taking the government to court to have it closed.

Uganda's house speaker, Rebecca Kadaga, has promised to expedite the debate on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill days after she was engaged in a war of words with Canadian Foreign Minister, John Baird over Uganda's anti-homosexuality record. Speaking after arriving from the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Quebec, Canada, Kadanga said she will allow debate and voting on th famous anti-homosexuality bill in the East African country. 'They said I should stop the debate on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill but I assured them there is no way I can block a private members Bill,' she said, while addressing religious leaders and journalists at Entebbe International Airport.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has eased technical assistance restrictions on Zimbabwe in a move seen as moving towards normalising relations with the southern African nation. This will see Zimbabwe getting technical advice to design its economic programmes and the IMF will monitor the implementation of specific projects.

A recent academic study has identified a range of mental health disorders suffered by shack dwellers in South Africa's Western Cape Province, from chronic insomnia to low self-esteem. The study, 'The Impact of Living in Transitional Communities; The Experiences of People in Blikkiesdorp and Happy Valley', was conducted by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Because of budget considerations, the study was constrained to two settlements.

Gunmen have killed 20 people, including a traditional leader, in an attack on a village in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state, a local official has said. The attackers stormed Kaboro village and began shooting indiscriminately.

Experts have called on governments and development organizations to put in place measures to significantly reduce the amount of food lost in the global food delivery chain. 'The amount of food lost along the food supply chain should be reduced as a way of reducing wastage within the food production system and also as a way dealing with global food insecurity,' Joseph Alcamo, chief scientist at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told IRIN.

Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire was jailed for eight years Tuesday after a court found her guilty of terror charges and denying the genocide. 'She has been sentenced to eight years for all the crimes that she was found guilty of,' judge Alice Rulisa told the court, adding however that she was innocent of another charge of 'calling for another genocide.' Rulisa said the leader was found guilty of the 'crime of conspiracy in harming authorities through terrorism and war' as well as denial of Rwanda's 1994 genocide.