Efforts to end the growing violent conflict in Mozambique have stalled, largely because of the hard line positions taken by the government and the armed opposition group Renamo. There has been an increase in attacks and deaths by Renamo in recent months.

The name of Islam, a religion of 1.6 billion people, has been used to not only commit terrible crimes but is also tarnished by politicians, the media and commentators who are angered by those same crimes. That serves the interest of the perpetrators. Acts of terrorism are never committed by “radical Muslims”. They are committed by criminals.

Regardless of where in the world Black people are killed or brutalized, the violence is rooted in the white man’s diminution of African life. With their long history of struggle, the people of Biafra who seek to break away from neo-colonial Nigeria want to build for themselves a new civilisation where African life, all human life, fundamentally, is sacrosanct.

Jamaica has one of the highest rates of police killings in the world. Physical assaults, arbitrary detention and arrests, torture, humiliation, sexual assaults, extortion, robbery, intimidation of witnesses and fabrication of evidence are also common. The working-class communities that bear the weight of this brutality need to collectively and systematically organize in order to combat it.

Last week Mozambique invited former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to mediate the simmering conflict between the ruling party and opposition. The impact of this conflict with the potential to disrupt neighbouring countries seems to have gone unnoticed by SADC. The regional bloc should take a firm, impartial leadership position on this matter.

It is very disturbing that the very same municipality that gave permission for people to build and provided the building material is now illegally and violently tearing these shacks down. If the govrernment continues to rule impoverished people in a violent, unlawful, corrupt and criminal way, there will be a risk of retaliation from the oppressed.

Started 10 years ago, South Africa’s shack dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo has mounted a remarkable struggle – often at a terrible cost - to protect and promote the rights of impoverished people in the towns. This inspirational story shows what poor people can achieve when they organize themselves outside the state, political parties and NGOs.

The UNMIL draw down will test Liberia's ability to maintain peace ahead of crucial elections scheduled in October 2017, within a region that is increasingly volatile. The elections will mark the country's first post-war transition from one civilian government to another. So, the stakes are quite high. But Liberia cannot continue to rely on external peacekeepers for this all important transition period.

The fact that media and information and communications technologies are an important resource for violent religious groups such as Al-Shabaab is a call for investment in media literacy for vulnerable and influential groups that are the target of extremist messages.

Beyond the propping up of tyrannical leaders that have subjected their populations to widespread, systematic, pervasive human rights violations, the West’s longstanding infatuation with Ethiopian autocrats is extremely problematic because it has encouraged Ethiopia’s bellicosity and aggression towards its neighbours.

Police in Kenya seem to have been under instructions to use lethal force against peaceful protesters in the Western region, which is an opposition stronghold. The Government of Kenya should publicly acknowledge and condemn the killings and maiming of unarmed people by members of the security forces and undertake credible investigations to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976 did not just drop from the sky. The Black students of South Africa did not wake up one day and begin resisting Bantu Education. The uprising was carefully organized and led secretly by leaders of the underground political movement, most of them militants of the banned Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC).

Racism has succeeded not just in making anti-Black violence a part of normal human existence, but it has also succeeded in making Black people numb to their own pain and suffering, and in many instances, made it normal for Black people to become participants in their own oppression.

When the purported leaders of two neighboring countries cannot even talk in a civil, well-mannered, courteous, respectful and thoughtful manner, is there any hope?

The answer is that in America, stupid arguments are sometimes allowed to override sane ones, provided the organisation or person peddling the argument is powerful or rich enough. Around 3.7 million American households have a military-grade weapon similar to the one used in Sunday’s mass killings.

Underage marriage is a big problem in Southern Africa. Now the regional parliament has won praise for enacting a new model law to end the menace. The challenge lies in adoption and enforcement of the law in the member states.

Migrant domestic workers in the Middle East and Gulf countries are ranked, with Filipinos at the top commanding the highest salaries, followed by Indonesian and Sri Lankan women, and African women at the bottom. The region has a deeply rooted culture of discrimination against people of African descent.

A family in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa has been battling with the African Union over a piece of property in the past five years. But the family’s predicament is only a small part of a wider struggle under a soulless system that has little regard for the lives of its people.

Kenya’s decision to close down refugee camps hosting hundreds of thousands of people from neighbouring countries is ill advised as it violates international law. What is more, the move will not solve the security challenge posed by Al Shabaab militants. Forcefully returning the refugees to Somalia will aid recruitment into terrorist ranks.

Millions of Ethiopians are facing famine again, which is attributed to drought but in reality has its roots in the country’s failed governance. In this poem, an Ethiopian in the diaspora turns his mind to the situation of women and children in the current crisis.