If Egypt’s military is ever to be a legitimate national force, it must side with the protesters against Mubarak’s thugs and the police, writes Mozn Hassan.

The dubious coverage of events in Egypt reveal the extent to which Western media outlets remain mere neoliberal cheerleaders, incapable of conceiving that the Egyptian people have both the right and capacity to determine their own direction, writes Adrian Crewe.

Following developments in Tunisia and as Egypt’s extraordinary scenes continue, Melakou Tegegn stresses that the ruling classes across the region are shuddering at the power of the revolts.

It’s crucial for the Ethiopian people to draw lessons from the Tunisian revolution in their struggle for freedom and democracy, writes Melakou Tegegn, as similar events could ‘take place in our country too sooner or later.’

While the Egyptian authorities have sought to disrupt the country's communications through turning off internet traffic, people in Egypt are able to post a 'voice tweet', writes Khadija Sharife.

In the wake of the welcome and peaceful move towards democracy in Tunisia, PEN International notes with great concern the violent response to anti-government protests elsewhere in the region, notably Egypt, but also in Yemen and Syria.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's failure to understand the workings of communal democracy in Africa put him in a weak position to negotiate for peace in Côte d’Ivoire, argues Okello Oculi.

With the world’s population slated to top the milestone seven billion mark by late 2011, the new head of the United Nations agency that helps countries use population data for policies to reduce poverty pledged today to focus on the largest global youth generation ever. 'Investing in youth, their reproductive health and gender equality can help put countries on a path to accelerated economic growth and equitable development,' UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin said in his first address to the UN Development Programme (UNDP)/UNFPA Executive Board.

As most Libyans are still are too afraid of secret government agents to express their ample discontent, three of Muammar al-Ghaddafi's sons are preparing for a possible popular uprising. One is a reformist; two are hardliners. Tunisia is Libya's main western neighbour; Egypt its main eastern neighbour.

In Southern Sudan, preliminary referendum results point to 99 per cent of those polled voting to split from the North. Panos has spoken to voters in the Warrap and West Bahr al Ghazal states about their hopes for the future. Ariac Kuot Akuei, 64, waited in line for nine hours to cast her vote for separation after walking four kilometres to her polling station at Kuajoc Secondary School, in Warrap state.

With nearly one in three South Africans expected to receive state assistance in the form of welfare benefits during the 2011/12 financial year, commentators are wondering how the country can afford to keep providing an ever expanding social safety net. According to the latest South Africa Survey, released on 1 February by independent think-tank the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), the number of social grant beneficiaries has increased by more than 300 percent in the past nine years, while the number of registered individual taxpayers has grown at a much slower rate.

The Governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Ernesto Gove, has claimed that the economic and social conditions now exist in Mozambique for the government to renegotiate contracts signed with some of the mega-projects that have come to dominate the economy. Speaking on Friday at the closing session of a meeting of the Bank's Consultative Council in Mozambique, Gove said, 'In investment everybody has to win, otherwise social tensions are created.'

Twenty-four hour network coverage, activist videos, Twitter, Facebook and blogs have all mashed together to convey the Egyptian revolution to the world, writes Patrick Burnett.

Samir Amin

Jean Paul Dias

Sidy Diop

Black History Month ‘allows Africans to tell their “his-story” starting only from the period when they set foot on the enslaver’s soil and became subjected to his “civilising” efforts', argues Chika Ezeanya.

South Africa landed a coveted membership with the Brazil, Russia, India and China bloc (BRIC) by marketing itself as a gateway to Africa but analysts doubt whether this development holds real benefits for poor countries on the rest of the continent. Sanusha Naidu, research director of communication network Fahamu’s 'emerging powers in Africa' programme, says: 'What most people fail to realise is that by joining BRIC, South Africa offers a strategic partnership for investors from these countries. These investors do not necessarily have the savvy to do business on the continent, nor do they want to take all the risks associated with it. Linking up with South African capital can provide the commercial spin they are looking for.'

Francois Bozize has been re-elected president of the Central African Republic, according to provisional results released by the electoral commission last Tuesday. The commission said Bozize received 66.08 per cent of the vote in the January 23 poll, the outcome of which has already been rejected by three of the five candidates.

Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang's appointment as the new chairperson of the African Union focuses attention on areas in his country where African Union principles have been ignored, says a rights group.

While the passing of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Act in May 2007 ‘sent very positive signals about Nigeria’s desire to sustain its leadership in the global initiative to the world’, NEITI needs to be subject to a number of new amendments, writes Uche Igwe.

The people of Côte d’Ivoire must be supported in their efforts to bring the country’s political crisis to a peaceful conclusion, while all talk of military intervention must be resisted, writes Bernard Founou-Tchuigoua.