Clashes in two Sudanese flashpoints left scores dead, officials said on Wednesday, reigniting fears for the stability of the country's oil-producing south in the countdown to its independence. Arab nomads and militias fought southern police in the contested north-south border area of Abyei on Wednesday (3 March) killing at least six people, the latest in a series of clashes, officials said. Renegade militia fighters clashed with south Sudan's army on Sunday in the southern oil state of Jonglei, where French oil giant Total is due to start exploring, both sides said.

The American Political Science Association (APSA) and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) University of Nairobi, are pleased to announce a call for applications from individuals who would like to participate in a workshop on 'Representation Reconsidered: Ethnic Politics and Africa’s Governance Institutions in Comparative Perspective' from 23 July to 6 August 2011.

Analysts say there is growing evidence that Egyptian security forces planned attacks on Christian churches and clergy, or allowed them to happen. The apparent purpose of the attacks was to reinforce the idea to sympathetic Western governments that without Mubarak, radical Islamist groups would gain a foothold in Egypt and wage a holy war on its Christian community.

Malawian civil society organisations have lashed out at religious leaders in support of the new bill outlawing lesbianism in Malawi, stating, 'Christianity as a religion should not be used to alienate diversity, people in Malawi come from different backgrounds and have different beliefs and traditions.' This came after Malawian Council of Churches (MCC) Chairperson Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe said same-sex practices 'threaten the family unit' and 'contradict Malawi’s rich traditions, culture and its spirituality as a God fearing nation'.

Zimbabwe's president has threatened to seize foreign firms and boycott their products in retaliation for Western sanctions against him and senior members of his ruling ZANU-PF party. Robert Mugabe made special mention on Wednesday of British-controlled banks and businesses, saying they controlled 400 businesses in the former British colony in southern Africa.

Senegal Saturday (27 Feb) lost three more soldiers in Casamance (southern region), during violent clashes against fighters of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) in northern Sindian near the Gambian border, PANA learnt here from military sources. According to the sources, the clashes also left seven other soldiers wounded, including one whose legs were cut off by an anti-personnel mine.

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.

Zambia’s education minister Dora Siliya who is also ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) spokesperson, has in the last few months used Facebook to make important government policy announcements as well as party matters, reports Global Voices. A few days ago, Siliya announced changes in the educational system on Facebook and, as usual, attracted a lot of comments, both positive and negative from some of her 4,950 online 'friends'.

Chatham House's Africa Programme hosted an expert discussion in February 2011 with a representative for Alassane Ouattara to discuss the post-election crisis, its impacts and prospects for a resolution. The paper available through the link provided is a summary of the event. 'As the political stand-off between incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and elected President Alassane Ouattara remains unresolved, ordinary Ivoirians have suffered the consequences, and impacts of the impasse are increasingly being felt in the region and internationally,' says Chatham House's website.

An offensive by pro-Somali government troops and Ethiopian forces against Al-Shabab militants in the western Somali town of Bulo Hawo has forced thousands of people to flee their homes there and in the nearby Kenyan town of Mandera, say witnesses and officials. One resident of Bulo Hawo, normally home to some 60,000 people, and also close to the Ethiopian border, said much of the now nearly deserted town had been destroyed 'after days of shelling'.

Over the past decade, there has been growing international momentum to conceptualise, document and address the various manifestations of 'armed violence'. To date the discourse has focused largely on the causes and effects of armed violence and explored the range of available programming options to prevent and reduce it. Discussions on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) currently underway in the United Nations (UN) provide an important opportunity to examine armed violence in the context of decisions concerning international transfers and the export and import of conventional arms used in armed violence, says this document from the International Action Network on Small Arms and Amnesty International.

Armed conflict is robbing 28 million children of an education by exposing them to widespread rape and other sexual violence, targeted attacks on schools and other human rights abuses, according to a United Nations report. The number accounts for 42 per cent of the primary school age children globally not enrolled in school and living in poor countries affected by conflict, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) warned in its 2011 Global Monitoring Report.

The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) met last week to discuss the state of the nation's media in the post-Ben Ali era. 'It's hardly a change,' said Soukaina Abd Samad, SNJT executive office member and Tunisian television journalist. 'The changes in the media did not keep pace with the democratic changes in the country.'

The government has outlined plans to stop direct development aid to 16 countries and freeze the level of assistance given to India. In a statement, a representative told the House of Commons: 'We have decided to focus British aid more tightly on countries where Britain is well-placed to have a significant long-term impact on poverty.'

At least 18 members of opposition political groups are still under detention by the government, weeks after the presidential elections. According to the opposition, several supporters were still under detention while others are missing. Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC) chairman Ken Lyukyamuzi said the government is especially harassing supporters of the Democratic Party and Forum for Democratic Change and other parties in the IPC in different parts of the country.

After decades of political violence, displacement and insecurity caused by clashes between rebel groups and government forces, as well as armed bandits, thousands of people in Central African Republic (CAR) are vulnerable to disease and have little access to health services, aid agencies say. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), many health centres in the north and southeast of CAR are either looted or not operational because medical workers are often compelled to leave the area.

Despite the signing of international peace agreements, a deadly 15 year war continues in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Women shoulder a disproportionate burden of the conflict. Women in Eastern DRC, face threats of violence and pervasive insecurity, lack of livelihoods, educational inequalities, and poor health and wellbeing. This document from Women for Women International captures the voices of women in North and South Kivu in Eastern DRC.