Sudan and South Sudan have pledged to cease hostilities along their disputed oil-rich border, but stopped short of actually signing an agreement, officials have said. The verbal agreement on Saturday came as the latest round of talks closed in the Ethiopian capital ahead of celebrations on Monday to mark one year of independence for South Sudan.

A free text messaging service called EcoChat has become popular with Zimbabweans living in South Africa, according to Econet. The service is free during 2012, and forms part of the Econet ‘Call Home’ SIM card. Similar to popular messenger service What’s App, subscribers only pay standard data rates, which works out to be the fraction of the cost of an SMS.

Liberian education law is silent on what should happen to girls who get pregnant while enrolled. Pregnancy and subsequently dropping out of school is just one of many problems limiting access to education for girls in Liberia. Girls in the rural areas have even more obstacles in their paths. Traditional practices along with a lack of schools and financial support are some of the challenges they must overcome.

Journaliste en Danger (JED) says it is outraged by the prolonged and illegal detention of Bruno Kabwe, interim director of Radio Parec, a community radio station based in Kalemie, in Katanga province, on the orders of a colonel of the armed forces (FARDC). According to information obtained by JED, Bruno Kabwe was arrested on 22 June 2012 and was immediately taken into custody at the headquarters of the 61st Brigade. He remains in detention and is prevented from having visitors. Kabwe is accused of having made 'rude' comments about Jean-Marie Izumbu, the colonel in question and the commander of the 61st Brigade of the FARDC.

Nigeria’s health services halved the maternal mortality rate between 1990 and 2010, but in parts of the predominantly Muslim north, which is less socio-economically advanced, women are 10 times more likely to die in childbirth than in the oil-rich, predominantly Christian south. Maternal health personnel are calling for more appropriate interventions to bridge the gap. Reasons for the divide mirror those in many West African states: too few referral facilities and health practitioners - especially midwives - and inadequate antenatal equipment; too few clinics and poor roads that make accessing clinics difficult and expensive; poverty and cultural barriers to visiting hospitals.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)-Wellcome Trust Research Programme is facing discrimination charges brought by six former employees. The group, dubbed the KEMRI six, are accusing the programme of exploiting African employees, impeding their career development, and giving preferential treatment and pay to researchers from developed countries. They also allege their work was stolen and given to researchers from developed countries. Many consider the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme to be a model North-South partnership, praising its substantial support of African researchers. But others criticise what they perceive to be a failure to promote African scientists, or to involve them in setting research agendas. According to scientists in Africa and Europe, partnerships between rich and poor nations often generate tensions.

One year after South Sudan declared independence, many humanitarian needs remain unmet. Communities lack access to basic health-care services. The situation is particularly difficult in northern regions close to the border with Sudan. Recent fighting in this area has had a direct impact on the availability and price of food, contributing to an increase in child deaths from malnutrition. 'In Malakal Teaching Hospital, there has been a dramatic rise in child malnutrition admissions over the past three months, since fighting escalated,' said Melker Mabeck, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in South Sudan.

Six west African leaders have called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate 'war crimes' in northern Mali, in a statement issued at the end of a summit on the crisis there. Over the past week, armed Islamist fighters have descended on cemeteries holding the remains of Timbuktu's Sufi saints, systematically destroying its six most famous tombs, in actions decribed by the ICC as possible war crimes.

Preparations for Angola’s second peacetime polls scheduled for August are being overshadowed by allegations of electoral fraud, state media bias and growing concerns about a violent crackdown on activists and protestors. Human Rights Watch has criticised the government for its heavy-handed response to street demonstrations by former soldiers demanding unpaid military pensions, and the lobby group said that it was worried about a series of violent attacks on youth groups known for their criticism of the government. 'The recent spate of serious abuses against protesters is an alarming sign that Angola’s government will not tolerate peaceful dissent,' said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director.

The UK Government has been accused of 'immoral' double standards after it emerged that it is encouraging British businesses to do trade deals with Sudan, which means with the regime of a president who is wanted for war crimes. As aid agencies and the UN warned that the humanitarian crisis caused by the Sudanese government was close to breaking point, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), an agency of the Department for Business, co-operated with a trade mission to Khartoum last week.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has launched its annual state of media freedom report, 'So This is Democracy?' The current edition documents numerous media freedom and freedom of expression violations that MISA recorded in Southern Africa during the course of 2011. Most of the country reports in the 2011 edition note that the existence of archaic laws is fundamentally threatening media freedom as such laws are open to abuse, based on level of interpretation.

Only 13 diseases or infections transmitted from animals to humans like tuberculosis (TB) and Rift Valley fever, are responsible for around 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. In the least developed countries, 20 per cent of human sickness and death was due to zoonoses - diseases that had recently jumped species from animals to people - according to a new study by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Nairobi, Kenya, the Institute of Zoology in Britain, and the Hanoi School of Public Health in Vietnam. The World Health Organization (WHO) has noted that at least 61 per cent of all human diseases, and 75 per cent of emerging infectious diseases, are zoonotic or caused by a bacterium, virus, fungus or other communicable disease agent picked up from an animal source.

Madagascar has launched an online research network, the Research and Education Network for Academic Learning Activities (iRENALA), which aims to boost science, technology and education in the country, as well as internationalise its science. The network, launched earlier this month (8 June), will promote discussions between worldwide researchers, students and policymakers, and facilitate access to digitised documents available in virtual libraries, according to Horace Gatien, president of Toamasina University. It will also encourage remote learning in the higher education sector, he said.

A high court judge in Uganda, Justice Eldad Mwangushya has said security agencies should 'infiltrate' gay rights groups to ascertain if children are 'recruited into homosexuality'. The judge made in Kampala at the beginning of the hearing of a case brought by gay activists against the government and Ethics and Integrity Minister for forcing the closure of a gay rights workshop in February this year.

Burkina Faso is enjoying something akin to a gold rush. The precious metal generates a huge amount of money for the government, but there is a downside to the boom. Of the thousands taking up work in illegal gold mines, many are children, often opting out of school to enjoy the meagre gains earned at mine pits.

Algerians celebrated with unprecedented enthusiasm on Wednesday (July 4th) the eve of the nation's 50th independence day. The country's 48 wilayas joined together with concerts, parades and processions that punctuated a long, emotionally-charged evening that remembered the 1962 break from 132 years of French rule.

In this podcast, Africa Today interviews Nisrin Elamin and Natalina Malwal on history, political developments, and current affairs in the country of Sudan. Nisirin Elamin is a Sudanese educator and activist and Natalina Malwal is the President of the South Sudanese Community organization.

02 July 2012 - The Botshabelo Unemployed Movement (BUM) and the Democratic Left Front (DLF) call on informal traders in Botshabelo not to use foreign traders in the township as a scapegoat for their anger at the attacks they have faced from the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality last week and their dire economic circumstances. The BUM and the DLF regret last week’s outbreak of xenophobic violence in Botshabelo. The BUM and the DLF call on informal traders and all unemployed people to desist from continued attacks against foreign traders in Botshabelo.

The Berghof Foundation has announced the release of 'Giving Peace an Address? Reflections on the Potential and Challenges of Creating Peace Infrastructures' by Ulrike Hopp-Nishanka. It is the lead article in their Handbook Dialogue 'Peace Infrastructures – Assessing Concept and Practice'. The article defines and narrows the emergent concept of 'Peace Infrastructures' as networks of organisations established by conflict parties with the aim of building peace. Thus, it argues, infrastructures for peace have a great potential to contribute to peacebuilding, by strengthening the ownership and commitment of the stakeholders to the conflict.

02 July 2012 - The Democratic Left Front (DLF) fully endorses the call for support issued jointly by Abahlali BaseMjondolo (AbM) and the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) for the mass occupation of the ward councillor’s office in the Zakheleni shack settlement (in Ward 88 in Umlazi). This call for disciplined and peaceful occupation of the office is part of intensifying mass mobilisation and pressure against the ward councillor (Nomzamo Mkhize) and the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.