Following weeks of disputed election results, Benin President Boni Yayi has re-settled into office, leading analysts and citizens to push him to address what they see as the country’s most pressing challenges: electoral and economic reform, forging links with opposition parties, and preparing the country to face the threat of floods as the rainy season approaches.

Billed as the year when the Kenya would consolidate economic gains made during recovery from the 2008 post-election chaos and the global financial crisis, a combination of factors is turning 2011 into a nightmare year for the economy. Rising oil prices driven by the turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East and the current drought – which have affected commodity prices and food supplies respectively – are fuelling fears that the country’s economic growth could lose steam.

Jacob Zuma is facing pressure to clarify the situation of a close ally, Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka, against whom there have been serious allegations of wasteful and possibly fraudulent use of state resources. The public protector has been asked to probe Shiceka’s spending of R335,000 on a trip to Switzerland, R640,000 in one year to stay at the One&Only Hotel, and R160,000 in eight months flying his extended family round the country. The Sunday Times has reported that there is deep unhappiness in Shiceka’s home village of Ingquza Hill in the Eastern Cape, where water has been laid on for the building of a house for the minister and a R32m tarred road is being routed past this house, which would be among the first in the area to be electrified.

Healing and Reconciliation co-Minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu (MDC) has been arrested on allegations of failing to notify police of a meeting held on Wednesday at a primary school in Lupane. Chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed Mzila-Ndlovu’s arrest. 'He has been arrested for failure to notify the police in terms of the Public Order and Security Act over a meeting they held at a primary school in Lupane on April 13,' he said.

The top leadership of Tanzania's ruling party has resigned and been replaced by a set of politicians with a cleaner image, amid infighting over President Jakaya Kikwete's succession. The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) old guard had been under pressure since the October 2010 general elections, which were marked by a record low turnout and saw the opposition gain ground in parliament.

Angry opposition supporters in Nigeria's Muslim north set fire to homes bearing ruling party banners Monday as election officials released results showing the Christian incumbent had gained an insurmountable lead. Witnesses said youths in the northern city of Kano were setting fires to homes that bore Jonathan party banners. Heavy gunfire also could be heard.

The African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday (14 April) broke its silence over the violent suppression of protests in Swaziland, calling for moves towards democratisation. 'We call on the government of Swaziland to work towards the normalisation of the political environment by unbanning opposition political parties, releasing political activists and engaging in a meaningful dialogue with opposition political and trade union leaders to find a collective solution to the socio-economic situation faced by that country,' Ebrahim Ebrahim, the deputy international relations minister, said in a statement.

Kenyan AIDS activists are furious about a plan by the government to implement a two percent tax increase on medicines, which they say will hurt poor people living with HIV. In November 2010, Kenya's Minister for Medical Services issued a gazette notice imposing the new tax on drugs to help fund the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, the government body mandated to regulate drugs in the country. The Kenya Revenue Authority already collects a 2.75 per cent tax on medicines.

Results from Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission indicate that the incumbent president looks set to keep his job after winning in 21 of the 29 states whose votes have been counted. Goodluck Jonathan's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took an early unassailable lead in Saturday's presidential elections, though results from the remaining seven states had not been declared by early Monday.

According to the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), 60 per cent of Nairobi’s population lives on five per cent of the land. The city’s overcrowded slums and informal settlements, constructed from cheap materials like corrugated iron and connected to hazardous electricity lines, make them particularly vulnerable to fire. Access roads are few, making passage difficult for fire trucks.

This interim report from the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) in Nigeria focuses on immediate issues that merit the attention of the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) and other actors. SDN noted significant variations in the atmosphere and conduct of elections in the three states (Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta). The breakdown is intended to give an indication of the overall tenor of the polls in these states as well as highlight key incidents.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has approved a staff-monitored program for Swaziland to help the southern African country enact tax reforms and at the same time protect social spending. The program entails IMF staff scrutiny of the authorities’ policies, but does not include formal backing of the program or any financial support. Swaziland is facing a serious fiscal crisis, with an overall budget deficit estimated around 13 per cent of GDP for the 2010/11 fiscal year ending on 31 March 2011. The crisis came from structural imbalances in both government expenditures and revenues.

Africa Contact's Peter Kenworthy tracked the 'April 12 Swazi Uprising', providing a series of updates as events unfolded. While the government has branded the protests a 'failure', Kenworthy notes that now 'all ordinary Swazis … have seen the true face of the regime, if they hadn’t seen it already'.

The theme of the next African Union general assembly, scheduled for June 2011, is ‘Accelerating Youth Empowerment for a Sustainable Development’. But how far do existing development policies and programmes at national and continental level take into account the ‘multiple realities that African youth are living in?’ asks Eyob Balcha.

The 2011 Economic Report on Africa (ERA) from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission recommends that African countries adopt a developmental state approach that uses the market as an instrument rather than a sole mechanism for fostering long-term investment, rapid and sustained economic growth, equity and social development. This in the context, it states, of many African countries not experiencing high economic growth rates over extended periods.

The debates raging at the highest levels of the US National Security establishment and NATO over the military ‘stalemate’ in Libya conceal an even more competitive effort on the ground in Libya, by petroleum interests keen to divide up the territory to ensure access to the country’s vast oil resources, writes Horace Campbell.

Given Côte d'Ivoire’s history, 'Alassane Ouattara’s entry into State House… will no more prove a cure than Laurent Gbagbo’s presidency ever was,’ writes Kalundi Serumaga.

‘People who have suffered the impact of unjust practices and those who have been victims of abuse from corporate impunity will heave a sigh of relief the day directors of such companies are brought to court from behind their corporate shields,’ writes Nnimmo Bassey, amidst talk that ‘top guns at BP’ may be charged with manslaughter over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Shakespeare Mukoyi was released on free bail on Tuesday (12 April). The MDC Harare province vice chairperson was arrested and beaten by police, who crushed a prayer for peace church service on Saturday in Glen Norah. Mukoyi was brutally assaulted by police in the church building and denied access to medication after an X-ray examination which showed the need for urgent treatment. Police took him to Harare Hospital during the evening where he was attended to briefly. He was however unceremoniously seized from the hospital and re-detained at Harare Central Police Station.

The UN mission in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) must protect the tens of thousands of civilians displaced by the conflict who wish to return to their home villages but are afraid to do so, Amnesty International has said. 'Thousands of people are hiding in the bush in life threatening conditions and without any proper food or sanitation. They need to be reassured and to be allowed to return to their homes,' said Gaëtan Mootoo, Amnesty’s Côte d’Ivoire researcher who is currently in the west of the country.