With reports of widespread rape and other atrocities pouring in from the eastern Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations mission there has sent some 40 teams to the region over the past six months to bolster the protection of civilians. By identifying early warning signs of potential threats to civilians the joint UN teams, which include child protection, civil affairs and public information officers, allow peacekeepers to react rapidly to counter them, the mission known as MONUC has said.

Madagascar's army-backed leader is in Mozambique for emergency talks with three of his predecessors. The Indian Ocean island has been in a state of crisis since Andry Rajoelina forced the elected president, Marc Ravalomanana, to flee in March. The African Union called the takeover a coup and foreign aid has been frozen.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described as disappointing Kenya's failure to investigate a bout of deadly violence after the 2007 election. Speaking in Nairobi on the first day of her African tour, Mrs Clinton urged the Kenyan authorities to end impunity. At least 1,300 people were killed in two months of violence, but the cabinet has resisted calls for a tribunal.

Police have arrested four student leaders after a foiled protest at Zimbabwe's main university over new tuition fees, a human rights group said Thursday. "Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) confirm the arrest and detention of four representatives of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) at the University of Zimbabwe," the group said in a statement.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick travels to three countries in Africa next week to see for himself damage inflicted on the region from the global financial crisis and recession. His visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda will focus on encouraging businesses and donors to invest in Africa, as the global crisis seems to be easing in industrialized economies but is still being felt in most of the developing world.

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who was elected in the first ballot of Mauritania's 18 July presidential election on with 52.47% of the votes, on Wednesday took the oath before the Constitutional Court at the Olympic Complex Office in Nouakchott. Senegalese and Malian presidents, Abdoulaye Wade and Amadou Toumani Toure respectively, representatives from several countries and international organisations, the country's acting president, Ba Mamadou, officials from the government, the Senate and the Islamic High Council (HCI), attended the ceremony.

Human rights activists and journalists in Ghana on August 3, 2009 converged at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra for a public forum to expose the Ghanaian public to the political situation in Niger which has brought in its wake dire consequences for democratic institutions in the country including the media. The forum on the theme “Niger-Democracy Under Threat” was aimed at reminding the public of the need to prevent another violent conflict in West Africa, which has in the last decade experienced a number of civil wars with devastating humanitarian consequences.

Human development is about putting people at the centre of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives they value. Since 1990, annual Human Development Reports have explored challenges including poverty, gender, democracy, human rights, cultural liberty, globalization, water scarcity and climate change.

Nine years since the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) was enacted, Kenya is yet to fully benefit from the legislation. Although the country’s slow pace of economic reforms and growth are largely to blame, US stringent import policies have also undermined the benefits. The Ministry of Trade says Kenya’s volume of exports to the US have been minimal. For instance, in 2006, export to the US amounted to Sh21 billion and Sh19.3 billion in 2007 against imports of Sh24.7 billion in 2006 and Sh44.5 billion in 2007.

‘The other day, as my drowsiness took charge, I heard the nurses whispering. They said how sad it was that I ended up this way. I don’t think it is sad. I think it is sad they think it is sad though. They said I used to be a lawyer – imagine that! Me! A lawyer! I told you I was bright. They mentioned about a generous pardon I had received from the Head of State (HoS). They also said I was very lucky, for I ought to have been sent to the gallows.’

As social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and twitter make freedom of speech a reality across the world, Paul Mwangi Maina considers the potential impacts – both positive and negative – of social media tools and citizen journalism on participation in democracy in Africa and beyond.

If you want to put Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda on the spot, Chambi Chachage tells Pambazuka News, just mention ‘the Zanzibar question’ – whether or not Zanzibar should retain its own separate government. Pinda recently sparked national debate by suggesting that Zanzibar is not a country, when he said that he would like to see Tanzania ‘run by a single government instead of two’. If we don’t ‘take the bull by its horns’ and resolve the Union issue once and for all, says Chachage, it will surely ‘explode’.

Pambazuka News presents a selection of memorable quotations by the late Mwalimu Nyerere, on the topics of Palestine, imperialism and racialism, good governance and life lessons. This material previously appeared in CHEMCHEMI, Bulletin of the Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan African Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Don’t be fooled by the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission, Wangari Maathai writes in Pambazuka News, its purpose is simply to ‘facilitate impunity, hoodwink and massage the victims and yet again, sweep the crimes under the carpet’. Impunity in Kenya started with the explorers and early settlers who demonstrated no respect for the rule of law of the people they encountered, says Maathai, and given that no leader since ‘has ever been made to account for crimes they commit against the state’, there’s little incentive for things to change now.

The emigration of skilled South-Asian professionals may have contributed to brain drain in Kenya, Grace Puliyel tells Pambazuka News, but it is also bringing with it a form of brain gain through financial remittances and access to wider knowledge networks, as many migrants choose to retain ties with the country. It’s a balance governments need to fully understand, says Puliyel, if they want to make the most of the benefits migration offers, while minimising its negative impacts.

Abousfian Abdelrazik, cleared of accusations of having ties to al-Qaeda, has returned home to Canada after spending six years in a Sudanese prison, Gerald Caplan tells Pambazuka News. But Abdelrazik’s ordeal is not over, says Caplan, with his name placed on the ‘1267’, a United Nations terrorist blacklist that imposes a total asset freeze on anyone on it. The Canadian government has told him he must get himself off the list, but without their help, this is impossible.

‘Comfort and complacency’ have replaced ‘international law and rigour’ at Minurso, a UN mission set up in 1991 to oversee a referendum for the self-determination of the Sahrawi, Nikolaj Nielsen tells Pambazuka News. With the political will of the UN Security Council to push forward the referendum weakened by economic interests, says Nielsen, the Sahrawi are steadily losing patience with relying on international laws and human rights protocols in their struggle for independence.

August 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s coup d’état against Macias Nguema, but it is not an occasion that many in Equatorial Guinea will be celebrating, writes Agustín Velloso. Yet for all his unpopularity, Obiang has won election after election with more than 95 per cent of the vote. Velloso shares with Pambazuka News Obiang’s strategy for playing ‘the democratic game’ in front of the international community.

Many Africans supported the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) because we believed it would help us end high-level impunity for mass atrocities and ‘enable us to attain the best we are capable of,’ Chidi Anselm Odinkalu tells Pambazuka News. But just five years after the ICC received its first case from Uganda, victims of ‘bad government’ across the continent are no longer sure the court can help them secure justice.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a US policy to encourage the formation of economic ties with countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, sounds generous on paper, writes Steve Ouma Akoth. But a closer look at the situation on the ground in Kenya raises questions about who will really benefit from AGOA, Akoth tells Pambazuka News.