As anxiety grows about President Robert Mugabe's health, divisions in Zanu-PF have worsened, with the two main camps angling to succeed the veteran leader intensifying their internal battle for control of the party. Mugabe's health concerns escalated last week when he was rushed to Singapore for what spokesman George Charamba said was 'the last review on his minor cataract operation'.

Thousands more refugees are fleeing an escalation of political violence in the Ivory Coast, reports children’s charity Plan International. Unofficial figures suggest that up to 40,000 people have crossed the border into neighbouring Liberia. 'The number of refugees entering Liberia has increased dramatically in the last week, due to an outbreak of fighting in our neighbouring country, Ivory Coast,' says Mohammed Bah, Plan International’s Country Director in Liberia.

A dire cash flow shortage in Nelson Mandela Bay, the sprawling municipality that includes Port Elizabeth, Despatch and Uitenhage, has resulted in an R800 million cut in spending on key service delivery projects in the municipality - including a project to put an end to the undignified bucket system. The council’s financial woes are mainly due to World Cup spending that was not recouped, and a drop in the revenue collection rate.

Mozambique’s first adventure-fantasy serial radio drama will soon be hitting the airwaves. 'Madjuba: Quest for the Talisman' is an action-packed 13-part radio drama available in Portuguese, Changaan, and Sena, initiated by UNESCO with support from SIDA, produced by CMFD (Community Media for Development) Productions. Follow the tale of a community that gathers nightly around the fire to hear a wise storyteller weave a tale of adventure and fantasy. Little do they know that the magic of the story has transported their stubborn neighbour Arlindo to a far off fantasy world where he has become the unwitting long-awaited hero, Chamwari. As Chamwari seeks the talisman that will transform the land, the village listeners realise that they too have the power to speak up and help make the changes in their community they want to see. Over the course of the story the hero, along with his allies, travel though different lands, each with a task or problem to overcome related to key governance issues: accountability/ transparency, civic participation and the need for a strong civil society, freedom of expression, and political intolerance. The large-scale production involved over 50 local actors and recordings took place in Maputo and Beira. The script was drafted by talented scriptwriter Evaristo Abreu, who has over 25 years experience in the field of drama.

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As part of its mission of collaborative peacebuilding, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding
(WANEP) organised a regional workshop at the PACIFIC hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on
22 and 23 February 2011. After two days of discussions and exchange of experiences, the 50 participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo developed mechanisms and solutions for sustainable and more effective actions, and identified the different actors and organisations for the implementation of the actions.

SA’s preparations to host the United Nations (UN) climate change conference in Durban in November have been heavily criticised by the European Union (EU). Judith Sargentini, a Dutch former anti-apartheid activist now responsible for fostering SA-EU bilateral relations, said SA had neither the capacity nor the strategy to secure a deal on climate change as hosts of the UN conference.

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...

The African Leadership Centre (ALC) was established in Kenya in June 2010 as a joint initiative of King’s College London and the University of Nairobi. The ALC is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Peace and Security Fellowship for African Women for 2011/2012. This Fellowship is an intellectual and financial award to those who have demonstrated obvious or potential capacity to make a change in their field. Please note that the Fellowship does not lead to an academic qualification, rather it is a postgraduate non-degree programme.

International Rivers supports civil society groups and communities around the world which seek to stop destructive dams and promote better methods of meeting energy and water needs. We are looking for an experienced, skilled, dynamic director of our Africa Program. The position will be based at our main office in Berkeley or at a strategic location in Africa (such as Nairobi, Johannesburg, or Accra).

The African Studies Association (ASA) will hold its 54th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, 17-21 November 2011, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. We are soliciting proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables, especially relating to the theme '50 Years of African Liberation', which will reflect on African experiences over the past five decades when African nations began to win independence from colonial rule.

The first issue of Development 54 starts the one year debate on sustainability by looking at the dilemma of the current global land grabs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It engages academics and researchers of the Land Research Action Network and of the University of Utrecht in a hot debate on land speculation today. The journal issue tackles land, commodity and food speculation. It explores the implications for an equitable and sustainable development and looks at how to ensure that any benefits from foreign land development are passed on to local people.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has welcomed the resumption of the Radio Kulmiye of its normal operations on 4 March 2011. The radio station had been off air for at least 48 hours following a letter ordering the radio to go temporarily off air from the National Security Agency. The radio immediately went off air upon receiving the letter. The resumption came after the Minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunication, Dr. Abdulkadreem Jama authorised the radio back on air, according to the Kulmiye Radio Director, Osman Abdullahi Guure.

The Youth Electoral Bulletin from Youth Alliance for Democracy (YAD) aims to fill an information gap that exists in communities ahead of possible elections and a referendum following the manipulation of the national broadcaster to serve the interests of a single political party. The Bulletin will be issued on a weekly basis.

While protest movements are developing against dictatorial regimes in northern Africa and the Middle East, the statements and actions by European governments are mere rhetoric when it is a matter of reaffirming the necessity of a closure of borders that undermines fundamental rights, says this article. Thus, while Gaddafi brandishes the spectre of a migratory invasion by threatening European states of putting an end to any 'cooperation in the field of the fight against irregular immigration', the EU, through the words of its representative for foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton, claims that it does not want to give in to blackmail. At the same time European bodies continued to negotiate, less than a week ago, Libyan participation in their policy to secure the Mediterranean space.

A competition has broken out between Government and civil society groups opposed to the deferral of International Criminal Court cases. Government functionaries have launched a bid to collect two million signatures from Kenyans to prove that the deferral bid has popular support. This is a direct response to civil society groups that announced they would collect a million signatures to oppose the deferral drive.

Mount Elgon in Western Kenya is one of the most marginalised regions in the country. It is so marginalised that it is the only area where not even an inch of tarmac road has been constructed. The area is characterised by violent conflicts over land, as well as retrogressive cultural practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and early child marriages. It is from these harsh conditions that Jennifer Masis has risen, against great odds, to be a formidable force in the fight for women’s empowerment.

The Mozambican Association for the Defence of Sexual Minorities (LAMBDA), the only organisation in the country working for gay, lesbian and transsexual citizens, has praised Justice Minister Benvinda Levi for her categorical statement that homosexuality is not illegal in Mozambique. Levi was speaking in Geneva on 1 February at the review of Mozambique’s human rights record under the Universal Periodic Mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council.

The uprisings sweeping the Arab world have been provoked by long injustice, low income, police brutality, and lack of social security. While the world looks at this, the suffering of up to three million maids across the Arab world remains wrapped in silence. Victims of abuse, confinement and rape, migrant domestic workers are often invisible because they suffer in places that remain hidden to the public eye, mostly private homes.

The digital newsletter of the Nordic Africa Institute is aimed at all those who wish to receive regular information on the activities of the Institute, its research, publications and various events on issues related to modern Africa. The newsletter contains comments on current events of importance to Africa and an overview of the Institute’s activities as well as its products. The newsletter is published approximately eight times per year. To subscribe please visit the website available through the address provided.

The UN refugee agency said Tuesday (02 March) it was alarmed by an upsurge in violence against civilians by a rebel Ugandan group in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. A particularly worrying development is that the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, appears to be targeting more populated areas.