A controversial United Nations-backed Government offensive against rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), during which Congolese soldiers are alleged to have committed massacres and gang-rape, has been replaced by a new UN-supported operation with a central focus on protecting civilians.

The United Nations is sending health care kits and other supplies for 30,000 victims of massive flooding in Kenya, where thousands of others are feared to be at risk if heavy rains persist.

Children cannot consent to their own exploitation, making the use of children in warfare "particularly abusive," a top United Nations official has said at the trial of a Congolese warlord accused of enlisting child soldiers.

The candidate of the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) for the next presidential election, Henri Konan Bédié, has outlined his manifesto for the election saying he has identified '10 major challenges' likely to lead the country to prosperity.

Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s dastardly attempt to detonate a bomb on flight 253 has profound ramifications for all Africans and the African continent, writes Ama Biney, from tougher security checks for passengers flying from Muslim countries, to providing justification for a greater role for AFRICOM in tackling the ‘alleged global war on terrorism’. But, asks Biney, is increased military intervention an effective strategy for treating the root causes of terrorist attacks and building a safe and secure world for all?

The new year began with a lots of hand wringing, soul searching and even outright anger in the African blogosphere over Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab’s Christmas day attempt to bomb a Delta/Northwest Airline over Detroit, and the subsequent inclusion of Nigeria on the US terrorist watch list along with 13 other countries.

Marion Grammer is surprised that Leslie Dikeni’s roll-call of South African intellectuals makes ‘not a single mention of the many so-called “coloured” and Indian intellectuals who were so prominent during the Apartheid years.’

The ever-rising poverty, joblessness and homelessness in South Africa may actually weaken the Left – the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) – within the African National Congress (ANC) family, rather than strengthen their influence, writes William Gumede in this week’s Pambazuka News.

With tens of millions of hectares of land across Africa auctioned off to corporations and governments in secretive deals, in this week’s Pambazuka News Khadija Sharife takes a closer look at a set of agreements between the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) and a group of white South African farmers. Will this partnership come at the expense of local people, Sharife asks, or could it generate models for freeing the continent from food insecurity through the sharing of resources and humanity?

In a survey of the business activities of six Angolan MPs, Rafael Marques de Morais concludes that the blatant overlap of personal, commercial and governmental concerns 'makes a mockery of the supposed separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary'. These six influential members of the country's National Assembly operate with complete disrespect for the rule of law, Marques de Morais stresses, as part of a broader pattern of institutionalised arrogance.

Sharing the faith and optimism of the imprisoned political prisoner Birtukan Midekssa, Alemayehu G. Mariam stresses that Ethiopia's future is in the 'hands, hearts and minds of its people, not in the tea leaves read by the experts'. The battle for Ethiopia's future will be one between 'future-makers' and 'future-takers' Mariam contends, victory in which in the makers will defeat the takers' efforts to oversee a continuation of the past.

Following the Egyptian government's refusal to allow activists from all over the world to travel to Gaza from Cairo, Uri Avnery highlights the country's increasing commitment to honouring Israeli wishes around the blockade of the Gaza Strip. While Egypt has previously turned something of a blind eye to the supplies funnelled to Gaza via underground tunnels, this situation is about to change through the construction of an 'iron wall'. Why a country historically considered as the leader of the Arab world is prepared to do this likely lies in its own decline, Avnery contends, with President Hosni Mubarak obliged to follow US – and by extension Israeli government – wishes with a view to shoring up Egypt's own influence and power.

Rafael Marques de Morais

Samir Amin

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana

As Muslim leaders across Kenya meet to discuss the status of Kadhi’s (Islamic) courts in the country’s draft constitution, Salma Maoulidi looks at the challenges of securing legal and human rights compliance within a religious framework in Tanzania, where debate has been raging over the introduction of the Kadhi’s courts in the legal and judicial system.

Tujuane interviews Muthoni Garland, managing director of Storymoja, a Kenya-based company formed with the ‘dream of publishing contemporary East African writing of world-class standard’. Storymoja’s mission, says Garland, is to grow East Africa's reading culture and to improve writing standards.

‘What constitutes an intellectual in the South African context?’ asks Leslie Dikeni in this week’s Pambazuka News, ‘Who is an intellectual and who isn’t?’ In an extract from a new book of essays, ‘The Poverty of Ideas’, Dikeni separates the ‘real intellectuals’ from a new breed of ‘pseudo-intellectuals’ that have emerged in recent years: The ‘celebrity intellectual’, the ‘commercial intellectual’, the ‘policy analyst’ and the ‘new gender activist’.

’Until very recently, the discussion revolved around the kind of society we would have. Today, the discussion centres on whether human society will survive.’ In this week’s Pambazuka News, Fidel Castro writes on the experiences of the Cuban delegation at last week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

In the face of sustained prejudice, Audrey Mbugua argues for the right of transsexual people to decide what is best for themselves. Having witnessed misplaced opposition to transsexual people's desire to access gender-reassignment therapy, Mbugua stresses that the decisions a person makes about their body are first and foremost their own.

Pastoralists in parts of the semi-arid eastern region of Isiolo are abandoning their nomadic lifestyles in favour of farming to improve their food security and livelihoods. Successive droughts in arid and semi-arid parts of Kenya have led to livestock deaths, affected pastoralist nutrition and, in places, led to pastoralist drop-outs.