In 2008, only six Somali women received prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) services, although more than 2,600 women were estimated to need them. Not a single health centre delivered the complete PMTCT package which includes HIV counselling and testing, antiretroviral prophylaxis and infant feeding support. Earlier this year, however, a programme finally got off the ground, with PMTCT services starting to be offered at 21 sites in all three Somali regions - Puntland in the northeast, Somaliland in the northwest and south-central Somalia.

The country’s agricultural sector will still be in a dilemma should the government continue to implement a temporary ban on food crop exportation. The government has stuck to its guns on the policy because it believes that it is crucial to safeguard food security in the region. But local experts on agriculture and economics have been challenging the authorities on the policy. They want the government to let farmers sell their agricultural produce across the borders to widen the market and develop the sector.

FARUG calls on the minister for ethics and integrity to 'reverse his absurd decision’ to call off a conference for commercial sex workers, in contradiction to the Global Fund’s recommendations and guidelines for fighting HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

The first ever formal meeting between the two African Union bodies charged with promotion and protection of good governance and human rights on the continent took place in Gambia on 12 November to discuss freedom of expression. ARTICLE 19, in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR), organised the high level meeting between the African Union (AU), the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Secretariat and key freedom of expression experts from across the continent.

The aim of the research was to understand the lived lives of lesbian identified woman in Tshwane (Pretoria). The idea was to investigate their psychosocial and sexual histories through in depth qualitative interviews. Most funded research projects exclude lesbian, bisexual and transgendered women, since the focus is mainly on MSM. This translates into a lack of appropriate service provision to lesbian identified woman. The health, specifically sexual health issues of lesbian women, is often completely ignored, especially when it comes to HIV issues.

As wealthy investors continue to buy up agricultural land in the developing world, stakeholders disagree over how to regulate such transactions. 'Everyone agrees that you can't have a wild-west scenario where countries and companies are going into countries and getting land for next to nothing,' Michael Taylor, programme manager with the International Land Coalition (ILC), a global alliance of land rights organisations, told IRIN from Rome. 'The problem is that there are different entrenched interests and it's hard to reconcile the two sides.'

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has suggested that African countries should set up a special fund for infrastructural development to accelerate productivity and growth on the continent. He suggested a $100 billion fund that will be guaranteed by the governments to address inadequacies in roads, power and transport, stressing that there must be regional co-operation to tackle the challenges of development in Africa.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) participated in the 48th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) which took place from 10 - 24 November 2010 in Banjul, The Gambia. During that session, OMCT, along with partner organisations, delivered several oral statements denouncing, among other serious violations of human rights, the occurrence of torture and ill-treatment in Africa, the use of the death penalty across the continent, and the lack of adequate cooperation between the African Commission and the NGOs in connection with the Commission’s country missions.

There will be little surprise in the results of Egypt's elections today, says the latest edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin, as the ruling party has taken all the repressive steps necessary to ensure that it will have no problem in winning. But, says Egyptian human rights analyst Bahey Eldin Hassan, there will be four significant battles to watch: the legitimacy battle, the battle to monitor, the media battle, and the extent of violence. Opposition to the regime is widespread and growing, although its expression at the polls will be limited. Judges, bloggers, Facebook groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, and supporters of opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Commission all represent stirrings in Egyptian society that will likely be significant for the future, despite their exclusion from political power.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday ordered for the arrest of gay couples. The PM asserted that the recent census showed there were more women than men and there was no need for same sex relationships.

Rights groups contested on Monday an official turnout of 25 per cent in an Egyptian parliamentary election that was marred by opposition charges of ballot stuffing, bullying and trickery. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) always deals heavy defeats to its opponents but the two-round elections are being watched for the space given to the government's critics and clues to the NDP's strategy in a 2011 presidential vote.

'Land seizures by the Ethiopian regime, with the pretext of modernizing the country, is really intended to tear down the foundation of the Ethiopian society. Today, entire communities in Ethiopia are being forced out of their land and neighborhoods, and pushed into internal displacement and exile. Land and property owners are evicted by governmental decrees, and often paid only a fraction of what their properties are worth in compensations.'

The basic thesis for this edited book is that there is no postcolonial African state without its own ‘northern problem.’ By the ‘northern problem’ we mean the existence of an enclosed and disgruntled group claiming a particular history, particular myth of foundation, particular heroes, particular symbols and signs, and particular identity that is different from the dominant ‘ethnie’ around which postcolonial nation-states are constructed and imagined.

At least three people have been killed in the Cote d'Ivoire capital Abidjan when police opened fire on a crowd, despite efforts to maintain calm before Sunday's presidential run-off. Phillipe Mangou, the army chief of staff general, said on Saturday that a night-time curfew would take effect from Saturday through to the end of Wednesday, citing scuffles between youths wielding sticks, machetes and guns in and around Abidjan. Ivorians voted on Sunday.

Fahamu’s Refugee Programme is pleased to announce the December issue of the [1.1 MB pdf], a monthly publication that aims to provide a forum for providers of refugee legal aid. With a focus on the global South, it aims to serve the needs of legal aid providers as well as raise awareness of refugee concerns among the wider readership of Pambazuka News.

The Sudanese government on Sunday issued a strongly worded statement after president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir was forced to cancel his attendance at the 3rd Africa-European Union (EU) summit that starts Monday in the Libyan capital. Bashir was indicted in March 2009 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, and in July 2010 on charges of genocide, linked to atrocities committed by Khartoum’s forces in Darfur. Many officials around the world including ones from the EU have avoided appearing with the Sudanese president after the warrants.

Ahead of the United Nations climate talks in Cancún that start on Monday, November 29th, Friends of the Earth International calls on governments to reject the role of carbon markets in international climate agreements. Carbon trading does not lead to real emissions reductions. It is a dangerous distraction from real action to address the structural causes of climate change. Developed countries should radically cut their carbon emissions through real change at home, not by buying offsets from other countries.

Achieving universal gender equality is an ambitious goal, one that has been articulated in the UN Charter and many resolutions, conference outcome documents and decisions of governments. It will require a shift in the way we think about gender roles and financial resources will have to be made available. Compared to military spending, however, the amount seems ridiculously small. In 2008, the world's military expenditure was estimated to be US$1,464 billion.

The Aga Khan’s bid to build lodges for tourists in Uganda’s national parks has left government unsure of how to deal with a 30-year monopoly agreement it signed with the Madhvani Group while at the same time allow in more investors into this lucrative business. While addressing guests at the opening of Chobe Safari Lodge, President Museveni appeared torn between sticking to the terms of the deal his government signed with the Madhvani Group and opening space for competition in the accommodation business.

A return to civil war in Sudan would cost the country, the region and the international community more than $100bn over 10 years, says a new report. The report, published on Thursday by a coalition of European and African economic and political think-tanks, comes amid fears that an upcoming referendum on southern independence could trigger an escalation of violence.