The European Union should maintain its travel restrictions and asset freezes on President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle until Zimbabwe carries out the concrete human rights reforms set out in the 2008 Global Political Agreement, Human Rights Watch has said. The EU is currently reviewing its sanctions policy toward Zimbabwe.

The US has suspended $7m of funding for free primary schools in Kenya until fraud allegations are investigated, the US ambassador in Nairobi has said. Michael Ranneberger says "credible action" must be taken on claims that 110m shillings (£900,000; $1.4m) were siphoned off a free-education fund.

Nigeria's Senate and cabinet are at loggerheads over President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has spent two months in hospital in Saudi Arabia. The cabinet has declared that he is still capable of governing the country.

Kenyan MPs have agreed to scrap the position of prime minister in a draft constitution being drawn up as part of a power-sharing deal. The role was created following post-election riots in 2007 to allow coalition partners to share power.

Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formation has called for urgent regional intervention to save the coalition government amid signs the country’s feuding parties are drifting further apart in efforts to resolve outstanding power-sharing issues.

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said he believed the process that led to creation of a unity government last February is irreversible and that it is time for Western donors and investors to return to the country.

Foreign ministers gathered for talks on the change of the African Union Commission into an Authority should focus on giving this proposed government real power, the Libyan Foreign Minister, Moussa Koussa, said.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has said Africa was slowly shaking off the effects of the global financial crisis, but warned the road to full recovery would still be painful and require adjustments to economic management.

Guinea's interim government should exclude key military officials suspected of involvement in the 28 September massacre of pro-democracy activists in the West African nation, an African Union lobby group has said.

The president of the World Bank group, Robert Zoellick, has begun a visit in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, with working sessions with the Ivorian government and civil society organisations. According to Mr. Zoellick, the aim of his visit to Côte d'Ivoire is to listen and learn.

A new guide to the African Union launched by the Africa Governance and Monitoring Project (AfriMAP) of the Open Society Institute and Oxfam International aims to ensure that Africa’s citizens can contribute more fully to the work of the
inter-governmental organisation.

The modern global economy doesn’t just run on fossil fuels, writes Bob Hughes, it primarily driven by social and economic inequality. But as a growing number of studies suggests that this inequality also has a heavy environmental cost, Hughes argues that ‘a world without inequality is not just desirable, it is necessary, and urgently’.

Eric Toussaint and Sophie Perchellet criticise mainstream commentary on Haiti for failing to look beyond the earthquake and to ask where Haiti's poverty is rooted. They depict the historical passage of political and economic exploitation and individual greed that has led Haiti into a hole of crippling debt. Haiti, they argue, 'needs to be rebuilt because it has been stripped of its means to rebuild itself'. Toussaint and Perchellet note that 'All current financial aid announced following the earthquake is already lost to the debt repayment!' They conclude that those most responsible for systematically exploiting Haiti, namely France and the US, must pay their compensation through a fund for the country's reconstruction.

What is happening in Haiti is, Cynthia McKinney observes, 'shades of Hurricane Katrina all over again’. McKinney depicts, step by step, the US response to Haiti’s crisis and lays bare its unashamedly military nature. McKinney explores the reasons for the US’s militarised rescue operation. She believes it is not only a consequence of US material and oil interests in Haiti, but also the ideological threat that Haiti poses to the Western world: 'Haiti is a light.' In defeating its colonisers, it inspired millions to follow in its footsteps. But McKinney concludes with a warning: 'Every plane of humanitarian assistance that is turned away by the US military … and the … arrival … of up to 10,000 US troops, are lasting reminders of the existential threat that now looms over the valiant, proud people and the Republic of Haiti.’

Norman Girvan writes to the Honourable P.J. Patterson, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat’s representative to the Conference of Foreign Ministers on Haitian Relief, which was held in Montreal on Monday 25 January 2010. Girvan makes recommendations for a response which ‘should be based on the principles of solidarity, respect for [Haitians’] rights and respect for their country’s sovereignty'.

Against the backdrop of the fundraising 'Hope for Haiti Now’ concert, Amanda Huerta reflects on the impact that it will have. She believes that it will at least draw the attention of 'those who, by commission or by omission, never cast their eyes on the "third world" because they got lost losing the "second" one'. Haiti has two potential paths, Huerta argues, to become even more quashed by the 'military boot’ or to be rebuilt in solidarity whereby 'We will construct among us the morning … that forever ends the night of the boar.’

Gerald Caplan responds to Professor René Lemarchand's criticism of his article on the Mutsinzi Report into the assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana in 1994.

Given Rwanda's history of the elite manipulation of the past for political
gain, Gerald Caplan's analysis of the Mutsinzi Report is dangerous and thoughtless, writes Susan Thomson.

The development challenges African countries face stem from their use of an inappropriate governance structure, the nation-state, writes Amira Kheir. The nation-state is an inherited system that does not match the continent’s needs and potential, says Kheir, arguing instead for a state that functions as an administrative centre for legislation and organisation but that remains free from ‘fictitious affiliations’ to a larger identity.

One year after President Obama was sworn in to office, and less than a week before his State of the Union address, Africa Action has released its Africa Policy Outlook 2010, also published by Foreign Policy in Focus. The Outlook is an annual publication forecasts the key issues and developments in Africa policy, such as climate change, the global economic crisis, HIV/AIDS, foreign aid and other country topics, and it analyzes trends in U.S. relations with Africa under the current administration.