The African Union's new chairman faced tough challenges Sunday as UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that a furious row between Sudan and South Sudan threatened regional security. Thomas Boni Yayi, the president of Benin, vowed to work for peace in his one-year tenure as the 54-member bloc's rotating head, as sideline talks at the two-day summit tried to tackle several hotspots across the continent.

This article takes economist Jeffrey Sachs to task for an op-ed article in the New York Times in which he argued that despite continuing demonstrations against the government’s surprise decision on New Year’s Day to halt state subsidies of oil for millions of Nigerians, things aren’t as bad as they seem. 'Sachs had no idea what he was talking about, his knee-jerk response to the crisis celebrated policies of austerity and economic shock, and the Grey Lady gave none of it a second thought. Neoliberalism, it would seem, is alive and well.'

With the 18th African Union Summit taking place in Addis Ababa, civil society organizations from across Africa are concerned that the summit’s central theme, 'Boosting Intra- African Trade,' risks being overshadowed and will not get the focus needed to tackle this urgent issue. The organizations said that intra-African trade remains weak, making up only 11 per cent of total trade in Africa. Comparatively, in Asia intra-trade represents 52 per cent and in Europe 82 per cent. Failure to invest more in intra-African trade is likely to harm the continent’s development, the groups said.

Trade unions are gearing up to advance their fight against the Swaziland regime and the greed of the politicians who voted themselves payoffs and perks worth millions of US dollars. Protestors want the Finance Circular No 1 2010 that authorised the payments scrapped. Swaziland, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is broke and the government is struggling to pay its bills, including wages of public servants. Seven in 10 of the one million population live in abject poverty, earning less than US$2 per day.

A recent edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin contain the December speech by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, and the executive summary and key recommendations on US policy from a policy brief from the Friends Committee on National Legislation on the context for Kenya's next elections. Another AfricaFocus Bulletin contains an overview from an International Crisis Group briefing on the ICC and Kenya and the executive summary of the most recent monitoring report from the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) Monitoring Project.

The African Union (AU) Commission has tabled a US$274 million budget proposal for 2012, which African leaders are expected to debate and later adopt. However, questions have been raised that the money is mainly sourced from donor partners, with some African members failing to pay their annual subscriptions. The AU is owed millions of dollars in arrears, forcing the continental body to always extend the begging bowl for its activities.

Kenya's Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura step aside from office after ICC pre-trial Judges confirmed charges levelled against them. Mr Kenyatta will however retain his post as Deputy Prime Minister. President Kibaki accepted the decision of the two to step aside and appointed Nairobi Metropolitan Minister Njeru Githae to act as Finance Minister. Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia also takes over Mr Muthaura's duties on an acting capacity.

The confirmation of charges against four Kenyans, three of them wealthy and powerful elites, is welcome news for the victims of the 2007/8 post-election violence. But there are thousands of other perpetrators who are still walking free.

World Bank Managing Director Caroline Anstey recently announced a new partnership with Google that will apparently empower citizen cartographers in 150 countries worldwide. This has provoked some concern among open source enthusiasts. The worry is, says this post, that Google will organize crowdsourced mapping projects and use people with local knowledge to improve Map Maker data, which will carry Google licencing agreement restrictions. Does this really empower citizen cartographers?

Ghana’s President John Atta Mills on 25 January announced a cabinet reshuffle that saw two ministers - Health minister Joseph Yieleh Chireh and Information minister John Tia – lose their jobs. The reshuffle had been speculated about over the past several months following revelations that a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress had been awarded millions of dollars in court-approved debt payments that went against the government.

The project will bring together a group of ten emerging writers whose writing, it is hoped, will help construct a newer scope of African identity.

It may appear like business as usual but people do not experience such an outpouring of solidarity and power and remain unchanged. The apathy barrier has been broken and there has been a shift in consciousness.

The shocking news that the former Liberian strongman was indeed a CIA informant in the early years of his rise to notoriety calls into question America’s complicity in Taylor’s destruction of Liberia.

One way of measuring the quality of a democracy is to assess the behaviour of its police. The recent brutal attack on the Unemployed People’s Movement leader Ayanda Kota reveals the sad state of democracy in South Africa.

‘The uprisings in Egypt and everywhere remind us that direct action is an important pillar for the poor and the oppressed all over the world.’

North and South Sudan will not find durable peace so long as the marginalised population in the border States continues to die. There must be stability in Abyei, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, Eastern Sudan and Darfur.

It is an insult to the African Union and to every African that in 2012 a building as symbolic as the AU headquarters is designed, built and maintained by a foreign country – it does not matter which.

‘The Mozambique food riots of 2010 and the recent mass protests in Nigeria show that people are capable of forcing governments to back down from enforcing policies that have a negative impact on their lives.’

The British government, which 46 years ago fully backed the brutal repression of the Igbo secession attempt is now not opposed to the independence of Scotland. For the Scots, Igbos or any other people, the right to self-determination is inalienable.

1649 is arguably the most revolutionary year in the history of Barbados. The oppressed Barbadian working class – the white indentured servants and the enslaved black Africans – erupted in revolt against the repressive white slave master class.