Liberia's government says the decision by a group of creditor nations to write off its debt will allow the country to write a "new Liberian story". The 19-nation Paris Club pardoned $1.2bn (£764m) worth of debt owed by the West African country. Liberia's Finance Minister, Augustine Ngafuan, told the BBC's Network Africa that debt servicing took up large amounts of its national budget.

Former Nigerian anti-corruption Czar Nuhu Ribadu has joined the country's presidential race, widening the field ahead of the Jan. 2011 presidential election. 'I'll contest for President to remake Nigeria,' the local press Friday quoted Ribadu as saying during a breakfast session with journalists in the capital city of Abuja.

Network (FEMNET) is extremely concerned with the unfolding pre-election violence in the Republic of Guinea and is calling on political leaders in Guinea to ensure that the elections to be held on 19th September 2010 are conducted in a peaceful atmosphere which secures people's free participation. Guinea has twice postponed its elections since last year. Media reports reaching FEMNET indicate that confrontations between supporters of the two main political parties turned violent on September 11th 2010.

Following inflammatory remarks made by Florida pastor Terry Jones around burning the Qu'ran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, Horace Campbell considers the resurgence of Islamophobia and attempts by powerful sections of the US conservative ruling class to stoke up the flames of conflict. At a time of acute economic downturn, Campbell contends, the forces of peace and understanding must complement one another in a bid to prevent discrimation, prejudice and conflict from gaining traction and cementing the position of the US neo-conservative establishment.

This week the coalition government that is currently running Zimbabwe reached two important milestones. Tuesday was the end of the 30 day deadline, suggested by South African President Zuma and facilitator of the Zimbabwe crisis, to resolve and implement 24 of the remaining problematic issues in the GPA. Wednesday ushered in the second anniversary of the signing of the Global Political Agreement that created the so-called ‘inclusive government’. A statement released late Wednesday by the MDC criticized what it called ZANU PF’s deliberate delaying of implementing the GPA.

Record sums were invested last year in coal power - the most carbon intensive form of energy on the planet - by the World Bank, despite international commitments to slash the carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

The following is an extract from Pambazuka Press's new book, 'Chinese and African Perspectives on China in Africa', now available at

Following Omar al-Bashir’s attendance at Kenya’s constitutional celebration last month, Francis Kornegay speculates on strategic reasons behind Kenya’s defiance of the ICC’s arrest warrant on the Sudanese president. ‘Could there be a connection between al-Bashir’s visit’ and ‘a regional conflict prevention diplomacy addressing the anticipated referendum on South Sudan self-determination in 2011?’ asks Kornegay.

Requests to accord national hero status to the late Gibson Sibanda, former trade union leader and MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) founder, have been denied, despite petitions to Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe. Sokwanele’s Glow argues that ‘the definition of heroism’ in the country should not be 'controlled by Zanu PF alone’, given the 'multi-party political reality'.

The South African Parliament has just released a report that investigates the service delivery protests that have rocked the country over the last decade. But, argues Patrick Bond, the report is ‘utterly inadequate’ and fails to identify the root cause of the protests.

As Ethiopia celebrates its new year, Alemayehu G. Mariam resolves ‘to continue to call attention and raise awareness’ of the ‘unjust imprisonment’ of opposition political leader Birtukan Midekssa by the Zenawi government. Mariam highlights parallels between Midekssa and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, with their 'genuine empathy and understanding for the ruthless dictators who are themselves "locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness".'

The recent furor over a Florida pastor’s plans to burn copies of the Qu’ran on the anniversary of 9/11 and protests against a proposed Islamic community centre near New York City’s Ground Zero feature in this week’s roundup of the African blogosphere, along with Monsanto, Haiti and a message for Mugabe.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/496/66982_logo_tmb.jpgIn October 2010 we will publish the 500th issue of Pambazuka News as we reach our 10th birthday. Over that time, we have built up a database of some 60,000 articles and news items on the website - all available for free. Some 2,500 authors have contributed articles, poems, audiovisual materials and commentary. Pambazuka News has become the oldest and largest (and of course most dynamic) citizen journalism site for social justice in Africa.

The number of readers continues to grow - some 660,000 unique visitors to the site during the last 12 months. Pambazuka News has played a significant role in supporting social movements to get their voices heard, and is widely used in advocacy by a wide range of alliances and networks. Pambazuka News provides a perspective of a proud, active and resonant Africa fighting for progressive social transformation.

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In permitting the rise and enrichment of a self-serving political elite, Namibia’s party of liberation, SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organisation), has betrayed its once noble goals of creating a more egalitarian society, writes Henning Melber. In the absence of a ‘human-’ rather than ‘elite-centred’ postcolonial trajectory, the country now sustains two sides of an ugly face of privilege and poverty, Melber concludes.

Drawing on the works of intellectuals Issa Shivji, Kwesi Kwaa Prah, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Paul Zeleza, Chambi Chachage discusses competing concepts of Africa. ‘Those who claim to be of Africa ought to truly seek its intellectual and material prosperity,’ he argues, ‘It is such an Africa-centred progress that will surely undo the yoke which has continually left us fragmented.’

The discussion on World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatibility in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries has so far been very narrowly defined, and largely from the perspective of the EU, says the South Centre. In an analytical note, the centre presents a matrix providing a comparison of the EPA commitments the EU is asking ACP countries for, and treatment of these issues in the WTO, including where appropriate, the type of flexibilities available for the different developing country groupings at the WTO.

The Refugee Law Project (RLP), Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, in collaboration with the African Transitional Justice Research Network (ATJRN) has established an Institute for African Transitional Justice (IATJ). The institute is pleased to announce its first short course on African Transitional Justice that will take place in Kampala, Uganda from 21 - 27 November 2010.

Friends of the Earth International says it is outraged by reports that a major UN investigation into Nigerian oil spills funded by oil giant Shell relies more on figures produced by oil companies and Nigerian state statistics than on community testimony and organisations on the ground who work with communities.

With former Nigerian president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) suggesting a desire to run the country once more, Okachikwu Dibia argues that IBB would be wise to clarify the question marks around his past actions, in particular by agreeing to be prosecuted over his government’s annulment of the 12 June 1993 elections.

Situated outside the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the densely populated Kibera slum was thought to have been home to as many as 1 million people. International agencies, NGOs and governments scrambled to attention, but recent figures show the numbers of people living in Kibera are much less than previously thought. Rasna Warah explains how a lie became the truth.