General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, former leader of the ruling military junta in Mauritania, who is contesting the controversial 6 June election, says the vote would not be postponed. General Aziz, who resigned his position as President on 15 April to contest the election, told a press conference in Nouakchott that the 6 June date “is a choic e made by the Mauritanian people at the end of the ‘nationwide days for concerted action’ held in December 2008 and January 2009”.

African ministers of finance, planning and economic development have scheduled a meeting in Cairo, Egypt, 6-7 June to discuss measures required to deal with the global economic crisis, a UN think-tank said here. The Addis Ababa-based UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said on Thursday the meeting would explore ways of dealing with the effects of the global economic crisis through enhanced fiscal planning and ways of raising funds internally with in Africa.

, Njonjo Mue’s and what really happened in the

The Congolese people do not have what it takes to be one nation, Digital Congo writes in response to call for a united country. There is no where else in the world, says Digital Congo, where people who have had such a history of oppression and exploitation ‘would not have the capacity and the willingness to fight for their country's development, rule of law, and good governance’. As a ‘people’ we do not share common interest, common history, and common vision of our future, says Digital Congo. Most people in most parts of Congo ‘identify themselves with nations in the neighbouring countries where they have a common culture, aspiration and blood ties’, and would rather fight for neighbouring countries. While secession is still seen as a controversial idea, as long as Congo remains a single state, ‘all Congolese people will never live up to their potentials’ Digital Congo suggests.

cc The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has urged the ACHPR to adopt a resolution to address the Kenyan government on its obligations to protect and promote the rights of all people and its duty to hold violators to account through criminal prosecution. The criminalisation of peaceful demonstrations and the rise in extra-judicial killings are evidence of the government’s failure to act on recommendations made by commissions of inquiry into the presidential elections and post election violence, say KHRC. The body also wants ACHPR to send a fact-finding mission to Kenya including special rapporteurs on human rights and human rights defenders, women, freedom of information and refugees; and to ‘address and inform the AU summit on the factual situation and risks in Kenya’.

cc It is ‘not enough for men to plead that they are not as bad as some of their brothers’, writes Wandia Njoya in reply to . Of course there are exceptions to the men I describe, says Njoya, ‘I simply used the male callers as icons of values I know to be still entrenched in Kenyan society after a century of colonialist, traditionalist and racist patriarchy.’ Airing Kenyan men’s dirty linen on an international stage may have been inappropriate but some sort of ‘collective responsibility for what some do in the name of an identity that includes many’ is necessary, Njoya argues. Concerns with ‘personal righteousness’ are largely irrelevant when talking about ‘structuralised oppression’, says Njoya. ‘Men who believe they treat women responsibly and humanely must tell their brothers and teach their sons to do the same.’

Sokari Ekine highlights attempts to ‘turn the forgotten people into the deliberately excluded and deliberately oppressed people’ with challenge of controversial legislation on slums in South Africa. Political patronage machines, the pope’s views on condoms, and the forthcoming

cc In the wake of Kenya and Uganda's confrontation over the small island of Migingo in Lake Victoria, Godwin Murunga argues that the actions of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni are very much in keeping with an essentially paradoxical nature. While in broad agreement with

cc Deeply concerned about the profound discrimination experienced by Kenya's transgender community, Audrey Mbugua berates Kenyan society for its unjust treatment of a marginalised group. Rather than creating 'transgender rights' per se, Mbugua calls upon the country to view transgender people as human beings like any other group. Deeply scathing of Kenya's entrenched 'trans-phobia' and the divisive nature of different groups' competing for recognition, the author implores those marginalised to see themselves as part of a wider struggle for justice that transcends identity politics.

Uganda's opposition parties are demanding reforms in the electoral commission as the country prepares for the presidential polls in 2011. The statement presented to parliament yesterday by Forum for Democratic Change president, Kizza Besigye, suggests major facelifts in the way elections are conducted, the announcement of winners, while also calling for the reinstatement of the presidential term limits.

African science researchers and policy advisers have agreed to set up a foundation, endorsed by a range of African-based banks, to promote the use of scientific and other forms of knowledge by both public and private decision-makers in the continent. The body, to be known as the Knowledge Management Africa (KMA) Foundation, will be under the auspices of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The MDC is fully aware that some of the top civil servants and cabinet ministers from ZANU PF are working against the inclusive government, but are powerless to deal with them. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday said that hard-liners left over from the old regime were endangering the country's future. The MDC leader blamed what he termed ‘residual elements from the old government’ for violating the rule of law and the agreement that created the inclusive government.

As Malawi prepares for elections in four days, The International Institute for Journalism, based in Ghana, has launched the first ever elections project for that country. The president of the institute, Kwami Ahiabenu, said it's designed to promote the use of ICT in generating election information.

The rural poor across Cameroon are set to receive a cash injection of close to $14 million from the United Nations in an effort to reduce poverty, increase income and improve livelihoods. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will support the Rural Microfinance Development project in the West African country with a $13.5 million loan and $200,000 grant.

The joint African Union-United Nations envoy to Darfur has expressed concern over recent armed clashes between various factions in the northern part of the war-ravaged Sudanese region. AU-UN Special Representative Rodolphe Adada called on the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudanese Liberation Army/Minni Minawi wing (SLA/MM) to end hostilities, which flared up over the weekend in the North Darfur town of Umm Baru.

A group of civil society organisations in Malawi is pushing for changes to the country's controversial social cash transfer scheme which has caused tension in communities as it attempts to separate the poor from the "very poor" in a country where some 65 percent of people live on less than a dollar a day. Pilot programmes to test the scheme are underway in seven of Malawi's 27 districts.

Members of the Nigerian National Assembly in charge of investigating the country's electricity crisis have been charged with fraud. The 10 MPs denied charges of siphoning off $42m (£27m) of public funds in a hearing that stretched over two days.

A prominent Zimbabwean human rights lawyer was arrested Thursday at a court in Harare, colleagues said. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights director Irene Petras said Alec Muchadehama was arrested at a magistrates court where he had gone to work.

Togo will hold presidential elections between 18 February and 5 March, 2010, a statement by Aboudou Assouma, chairman of the Constitutional Court, issued on Thursday in Lomé said.

The first ballot in the presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire will take place on 29 November 2009, sources at the Council of ministers at the presidential palace, said on Thursday in Abidjan.