Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in partnership with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) and Chiadzwa Community Development Trust (CCDT) immaculately hosted a three day 'People's Indaba' at the Harare Crowne Plaza Hotel, from the 11th - 13th September this year. The event, known officially as the 'Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba' (ZAMI), saw over 120 individuals including; Chiefs, Legislators, church leaders, mining communities, community based organizations, regional participants, youth and women activists and media taking part in the indaba.

The European Union is hoping to wrap up free-trade agreements across most of sub-Saharan Africa next year but has yet to assuage African fears that their budding industries will not be able to cope with the new competition. The European Union launched talks with more than 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries 10 years ago on Thursday - on September 27, 2002 - aiming to help them trade their way out of poverty and to give EU businesses access to nascent markets.

A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Goodluck Jonathan’s government to mark the country’s 52nd independence anniversary by 'urgently committing itself to socio-economic rights reform and end systemic poverty that has remained the bane of millions of Nigerians for decades'. The organization in a public statement dated 30 September 2012 and signed by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni stated that, 'The struggle for political freedom and independence from colonization was widely applauded by our people but over five decades after Nigeria gained independence the country’s enormous natural resources and wealth have not been utilized for the prosperity of the country and its peoples. Rather, socio-economic conditions in post-independent Nigeria have remained precarious, and consequently millions of our citizens embarrassingly remain in poverty and misery. For such people, the promises of independence remain unfulfilled.'

Tanzania has encouraged Morocco to rejoin the AU so that together they can find a durable solution to the conflict of Western Sahara, calling on the UN Security Council to continue mediation efforts in the Territory. Addressing 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania, Mr. Bernard Kamillius Membe, said that his delegation 'encourages Morocco to rejoin the AU.

A media rights watchdog said Monday it is concerned freedom of information is under threat in Libya due to visa refusals for foreign journalists, bans on films and arbitrary arrests. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was 'very worried by the signs of a decline in respect for freedom of information… since the election of the General National Congress on 7 July.'

Lawlessness is reigning in the Somali port city of Kismayu, where gunmen have killed at least three people since the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab abandoned their last bastion there, residents said Sunday. After Kenyan and Somali troops' advances towards the strategic port forced the Islamists to abandon it Saturday, the Kenyan army said helicopter gunships were attacking Shabaab bases outside the city to clear the way for a final ground assault to occupy the city.

Ethiopia has announced plans to lease 100,000 hectares of land both to local and foreign investors, despite recent reports that foreign investors were grabbing large chunks of land. The Ethiopian Ministry of Agricultures said details on the leases will be provided in this year's budget. The ministry indicated that it had prepared large fertile tracts of land in Gambella, Benshangul-Gumuz, Oromia and Amhara states to be offered to investors.

Maxwell Dlamini, president of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), has been denied his university scholarship by the government because of his political activity, he said. Dlamini was called to the scholarship selection board today (27 September 2012), where he hoped to be allowed to continue his law studies at the University of Swaziland, but he said he was denied for being a ‘progressive’. Writing on Facebook, Dlamini, said he was questioned about his activities in SNUS and ‘why I cause all the noise in the tertiary institutions [and] why I want to overthrow the government.’

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda has called on the United Nations General Assembly to ensure that an ambitious programme adopted last year to spur development and economic growth in the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) be fully and speedily implemented. 'In particular, duty-free quota-free market access and supply side capacity must be ensured to the least developed countries,' President Banda told the Assembly on the second day of its annual General Debate, adding that implementation must be 'in its entirety and in an effective and timely manner'.

Nigeria and Saudi Arabia held high level talks to resolve diplomatic tensions generated by Riyadh's decision to deport 1,000 Nigerian women hajj pilgrims who were not accompanied by male guardians. Nigeria retaliated to the move by stopping all hajj flights to Saudi Arabia. Nigeria's minister of foreign affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru and Saudi Arabia's acting minister of foreign affairs, Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz met in Washington and the former registered his protest to the Saudi move.

An attack on a political rally by uniformed soldiers is stoking fears of a reprise of state-sponsored violence against NGOs, human rights activists and parties opposed to President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF in the lead-up to a referendum on a draft constitution and scheduled parliamentary and presidential elections in 2013. Welshman Ncube, the leader of the smaller Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), addressed a gathering of about 1,000 people at the 21 September rally in Mutoka, in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland East Province, before the assault occurred.

One year after independence, many in South Sudan still do not have access to adequate healthcare. Among those desperate for treatment are victims of serious accidents or diseases. In South Sudan many are kept waiting for complicated and expensive procedures. There are few skilled surgeons in South Sudan and people with little money have scant hope of treatment.

It has already been labelled as an "epidemic" by rights groups, but it seems in post-revolution Egypt sexual harassment has become worse rather than better. The harassment of women continues on the streets, at times escalating to mob levels, and it has now reached the point where taking steps to eradicate this social malaise has become an absolute necessity. A 2008 study by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) revealed shocking figures that 83 per cent of Egyptian and 98 per cent of foreign women in the country have been subjected to some form of sexual harassment.

International peasant's movement La Via Campesina and its member organization in Switzerland the peasant union Uniterre have announced that the United Nations have decided to better protect the rights of farmers and peasants around the world. On Thursday, 27 September, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution 'Promoting the human rights of peasants and others people living in rural areas.' Through this resolution, the Council recognizes the absolute need for a new international legal instrument that takes the form of a United Nations declaration. It aims to bring together in a single text the specific rights of peasant farmers, women and men, and to integrate new rights such as rights to land, seeds, means of production or information in rural areas.

South Africa’s judicial inquiry into the police’s killing of 34 striking mineworkers at Lonmin Plc’s Marikana mine begins on Monday with a visit to the site of the most deadly police action since the end of apartheid. Retired Supreme Court Judge Ian Farlam, assisted by two lawyers, is mandated to investigate events between August 9 and 16, Kevin Malunga, spokesman for the commission of inquiry, said in an interview on SAFM radio on Monday. Public hearings are being held in the northwest town of Rustenburg.

Rwanda has defiantly denied claims at the United Nations that it was aiding rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo and rejected UN chief Ban Ki-moon's summary of a meeting on the crisis, diplomats said. According to Ban, most states attending a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Joseph Kabila 'condemned all forms of external support' to the rebels.

The recent arrests of three union officers and the editor of N’Djamena Bi-Hebdo (an independent, bi-weekly newspaper) are symptomatic of a disintegration of freedom of expression in Chad. These arrests are the result of protest movements against the impoverishment of Chad’s population and the privatization of the country’s resources, reports Global Vocies Online.

Women are pioneering Mauritania’s fledgling dairy industry and trying to get Mauritanians to support local small producers, but they face steep competition from the heavily subsidized European milk sector. The Mauritanian market is flooded with cheap milk products imported from Europe. Sixty per cent of the population depends on the livestock sector in some form for income, and the sector contributes almost eight per cent to the country's GDP, yet the country imports 65 per cent of its milk requirements, a joint report produced by the NGOs Intermon Oxfam , ACORD and AMAD noted.

The United Nations described South Sudan’s refugee crisis as 'critical'. Unless the political tension in Sudan is resolved, experts warn the outlook will sharply deteriorate.

While some parts of Africa are reporting floods this year, others are suffering for lack of water. Lake Chilwa in Malawi supports 70,000 families who depend on it for fish and water. But over the last two years the lake has been shrinking. Read this Farm Radio Weekly article about what effect this is having on fishers and farmers like Oscar Wemba and Yohane Chikosa and their families.