More than five years after the Front for the Liberation of Cabinda (FLEC) filed a complaint with the African Union (AU) against the Angolan government for alleged human rights abuses, the AU says it is willing to hear the 'merits' of appointing a special rapporteur to investigate the claims. Cabinda is separated from Angola's main territory by the River Congo and a narrow sliver of the Democratic Republic of Congo and accounts for more than half of Angola’s oil production. Cabinda's mineral wealth also includes gold, diamonds and uranium, as well as extensive reserves of tropical hardwoods. Since 1975, the status of Cabinda has been disputed, resulting in one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

This course is an intensive introduction to System Dynamics, a unique framework for understanding and managing complex development problems. Through case studies and practical exercises, the course will equip participants with the knowledge and skills required to effectively understand, map, and analyze complex national and global development challenges using a systemic perspective, and to determine the best approaches to mitigate them. The course is designed for professionals working in the field of development planning, especially policy advisors/analysts, and implementation and evaluation specialists from government institutions, research institutes, advocacy and civil society groups, private foundations, and international development agencies.

A group of South African musicians has recorded a response to Bob Geldof’s 1984 song. Proceeds from the new single will go towards teaching discipline, literacy and contraception at British schools.

Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, in her capacity as president of the COP 17, was a key player, writes Yoke Ling Chee. It is hard to not conclude that the EU agenda was at the forefront of the presidency’s preoccupations.

Early this month, the US repaid Trinidad and Tobago’s hospitality by acutely embarrassing the Caribbean nation in the presence of regional leaders. But, as Norman Girvan reports, it was America’s image that suffered the most.

In July 2002, African leaders dissolved the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and created the African Union (AU). By emphasising on democracy, good governance and respect for human rights as necessary pre-requisites for development, the AU makes a significant departure, at least in theory, from the modes operandi of its predecessor which was known for its long-held principle of ‘non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.’ In July 2012, the AU will celebrate its tenth anniversary. The event is an opportune moment in stocktaking the state of democracy in Africa since the establishment of the AU.

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Dedicated to the remaining few, in Busoga, Uganda.

‘Steve Biko’s words had a profound effect on me. They helped shape my personal outlook and political beliefs,’ writes Roy Trivedy. ‘They also played a key role in helping me decide what I wanted to contribute in life.’

American military influence has fanned out across Africa during 2011, thanks in large part to assistance from African governments.

With international diplomacy at the UN deadlocked on issues like climate change, new regional formations offer a way forward.

‘Africa is bleeding money, as capital flows into the private accounts of African elites and their accomplices in Western financial centres,’ write Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce, in an excerpt from their new book.

The damnation of the world’s majority that Frantz Fanon spoke about did not end with the withdrawal of formal colonial rule. It continues in the razor wire transit camps, detention zones, rural pauperisation and in shanty towns, writes Nigel C Gibson.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the Salafi Al-Nour Party will be facing off in the run offs over single winner seats in the second round of parliamentary elections slated for Wednesday and Thursday, having won almost 70 per cent of the party list votes in the nine governorates of round two. The elections, which were held in Giza, Beni Suef, Menufiya, Sharqia, Beheira, Sohag, Ismailia, Aswan and Suez, saw the FJP-led Democratic Alliance win 37 per cent of the party list votes, worth around 30 seats, and Al-Nour 33 percent worth around 20 seats.

The government of Angola should promptly provide a full public accounting for US$32-billion in missing government funds thought to be linked to the state oil company, Human Rights Watch said. A December 2011 report by the International Monetary Fund revealed that the government funds were spent or transferred from 2007 through 2010 without being properly documented in the budget.

This 108-page Human Rights Watch report reveals that children as young as six dig mining shafts, work underground, pull up heavy weights of ore, and carry, crush, and pan ore. Many children also work with mercury, a toxic substance, to separate the gold from the ore. Mercury attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children.

Senegal’s separatists pushing for the secession of the Casamance region plan to transform into a political party. The group's leader disclosed this when he urged its factions to support the plan. 'The move is in the interest of peace and the reconstruction of Senegal,' said Mr Jean-Marie François Biagui, the group's leader.

Joseph Kabila has been sworn in for another five-year term as the Democratic Republic of Congo's president even as his main rival, Etienne Tshisekedi, continued to lay claim to the same job following disputed polls in the central African nation. The 40-year-old incumbent was confirmed the winner of November polls, which the country's opposition parties and international observers say were rigged.

Father of South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement Steve Biko would have been 65 on 18 December. Peter Kenworthy looks at the influence of his ideas on Swazi civil society today.

Much of the infighting in South Africa’s ANC, which is paralysing both government and the party, is the result of outdated codes, traditions and rituals governing the elections of leaders of the party, especially that of the president, writes William Gumede.