Since 2003, Mali is the third-largest producer of gold in Africa. Industrial gold mining has led to much hope for Mali’s economic development : the increase in state revenue should have had a positive impact on social expenditures in the areas of education, health, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a mining industry was expected to bring improvements in the situation of local communities.

The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state, one of the country’s poorest areas and home to some 4,500,000 people, has deteriorated substantially over the past several months due to on-going security operations, according to a United Nations assessment team that recently visited the region.

African farmer organizations will meet in Selingué, Mali on November 27-28, 2007 to discuss ecological alternatives to the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations' proposal for a new Green Revolution in Africa. The Gates/Rockefeller Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) will use a combined $150 million over five years to promote higher yields through hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and western-style crop management.

Zamzam Abdinoor, a 16-year-old orphan, has already been married and widowed twice and is now a single mother of two. She was first married off to a militiaman in the port town of Kismayo. He was killed in one of Somalia's many factional confrontations just a year into the marriage. Her uncle then found another militiaman and she was soon married off again. The second husband also met with a violent death.

At least 10 civilians and one soldier were killed in northern Mali on Thursday when their vehicles hit landmines planted by suspected Tuareg rebels, Malian military officers said. The casualties in the north of the Sahel state followed three attacks this week by the Malian rebels in the desolate mountain region near the border with Algeria and Niger.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has started relocating about 4,000 Somali refugees to a reopened refugee camp at Teferi Ber in eastern Ethiopia. The camp was closed in 2001 after its previous population of Somali refugees were repatriated. Kisut Gebre Egziabher, senior public information assistant at UNHCR, told IRIN that about 2,000 refugees had been moved from an overcrowded camp at Kebribeyah.

In Coura, a district of Mali's capital Bamako, it's now possible to monitor the health of local infants closely in real time with the launch of a new pilot project dubbed Pesinet. Initiated and funded by Alcatel-Lucent, Fondation Orange Mali, Afrique Initiatives, Medicament Export (Medex) and Kafo Yeredeme, the project aims to provide a preventative medical diagnostic service for infants between 0-5 years, based on regular checks on the childrens' weight gain.

The UN refugee agency has reopened the Teferi Ber camp in eastern Ethiopia and begun relocating some 4,000 Somali refugees there from an overcrowded makeshift settlement close to the border with Somalia. The first two convoys on Friday and Monday carried a total of 1,043 people, who were warmly and loudly welcomed by the local population when they arrived at the UNHCR-run camp here from Kebribeyah, some 120 kilometres to the south. There will be a convoy every three days.

The Regional Committee for Coordination of Rural Dwellers (CRCR) in Sikasso, in partnership with the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), has initiated a new project called Jèkafo Guèlèkan. The projects focuses on establishing connections between the Local Committees for Coordination of Farmers’ Organisations and local sections of farmers’ organisations belonging to the CRCR and the AOPP in the Sikasso area.

Hargeisa, the peaceful capital of the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland, has become a new centre for the Somali Diaspora wanting to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on their daughters. Most live in countries where FGM is strictly forbidden, including when this is done abroad.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the court in Mali's capital city of Bamako to immediately release from jail and drop charges against four editors, a journalist and a teacher for "offence against the head of state" after the publication of an article about a school assignment on a sex scandal involving a fictional president.

Malian security demonstrated their true unfriendly media colours when they pounced on a group of journalists protesting against the imprisonment of their colleagues in the capital Bamako. The riot police mercilessly assaulted the President of the Malian and West African Journalists’ Associations, Ibrahim Famakan Coulibaly.

Abdirahman Aw Ali presents the case for African Union acceptance of Somailand into the union.

It was January 28, 2007 as I boarded my plane from New York to London on my way to South Africa. I was reading the Financial Times when I noticed in an article that Kosovo was to declare statehood, and how the European Union (EU) is setting the stage for Kosovo to be an internationally recognised state. I could not help myself asking why the African Union (AU) is not playing the same role with my birth place, Somaliland?

On May 18, 2007, Somaliland Republic (former British Somaliland) celebrates 16 years of self-rule. It has had a thriving democracy since it has decided to re-instate its sovereign independence from Somalia after the fall of Siad Barre regime in 1991.

As a Somalilander myself who ran away from Siad Barre's atrocities as a young man in the late 1980s and settled in the United States, I have mixed feelings as I see my people celebrating the 16th anniversary of Somaliland's birth.

On the one hand, I am extremely proud of the people of Somaliland, and its leaders for what they have been able to achieve over the past 16 years. On the other hand, I am less excited, and amazed by lack of the AU in leading the promotion of Somaliland's cause by sending a strong signal to other African countries that they do care and that they reward peace, stability, and democracy (acknowledging people's choice).

It is very clear why the European Union is serious about the status of Kosovo. The EU is planning to avoid the risk of war and violence that would again destabilise the Balkans region. The million dollar question is why the AU is not farsighted enough to avoid a potential and imminent war between Somalia's southern leaders, and Somaliland that will undermine the stability of the whole region?

Somali's southern leaders are not known to respect the rule of law and the wishes of its citizens. This is the main reason that Somaliland people are fully determined to fight for sovereignity status following the roots of independence from Great Britain on June 26, 1960.

31 UN member states recognised Somaliland as an independent state before uniting with the Italian Somaliland on July 1, 1960 to form what was known as Somali Republic.

Somaliland is only seeking recognition within the borders received at that moment. Somaliland, not officially recognised by any state, has been functioning as constitutional democracy with a President directly elected by the people, added by a parliament and local government also directly elected by the people.

Somaliland did not even have a university for 31 years of union with the southern Somalia. Today they have four universities despite lack of recognition. They have four private owned telephone and mobile operators where they did not have any in the past 31 years of union with the south. And the list goes on.

Some people do not truly understand why the people of Somaliland decided to go alone, and break their partnership with the south. Some people even speculate that the issue of Somaliland is tied with the stability of the southern Somalia, and the union will be back when the rest of the south becomes stable. As a matter of fact, there are many reasons why Somaliland re-took its independence, and broke its partnership. But in my personal view, I would only focus on two important reasons.

Firstly, British Somaliland had voluntarily entered a union with Italian Somaliland in pursuit of irredentist dream of a 'Greater Somalia' (including parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti).

It was clear to everybody in both regions that it was never intended to stop with the union of the two regions, but to pursue the other three remaining regions.

Therefore, that dream effectively died when Djibouti got its independence in 1977, and decided to go alone without joining the existing union. If Djibouti people had that freedom to make that choice, it is only fair that the people of Somaliland can make similar choices to decide on their fate.

The main argument here is that the Somali union in 1960 did not achieve the reason it was formed which was a greater Somalia. Somaliland's voluntary union at that time was based on that formation. If that dream did not materialise, Somaliland could go alone like the other regions did where Somalis live including Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

Secondly, another very crucial point that made the people of Somaliland go their separate ways from the South is the suffering and injustices that the people of Somaliland endured for 31 years of marriage. They have suffered at the hands of Southern rule governments particularly during Siad Barre's 21-year rule.

The whole world knows that those governments even bombarded Somaliland cities. Therefore, it is a trust issue. If you had a business partnership with another person and you have suffered and lost everything, and you would have to re-start your business. Would you again trust to create another partnership with that person? It is fair to say that the people of Somaliland have a trust issue with their brothers in the South, and will not join them again within a union despite a lack of recognition by the international community.

It is important to note that the AU sent a fact finding mission to Somaliland in 2005 in order to respond to the concern that Somaliland recognition would create a fragmentation of Somalia, or other AU member states.

The African Union fact finding mission in 2005 concluded 'the case should not be linked to the notion of "opening a Pandora box"', and the report recommended that the AU 'should find a special method of dealing with this outstanding case' as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, AU actions stopped there. Why cannot we Africans decide for ourselves, with Europeans doing so and the EU leading the way? I hope I can one day be proud of our African leaders through the AU leadership when I see that they are taking a far sighted approach like the EU doing on Kosovo.

The more the AU delays dealing with the Somaliland case, the more it makes the situation in East Africa difficult, and increases the risk of war and questions the credibility of the AU.

The Somaliland case is a time bomb for the African Union and the international community cannot really afford to ignore the issue. On the other hand, Somaliland's multi-party democracy system is a rarity in Africa, and the Muslim world.

The African Union needs to seriously consider Somaliland's formal application of AU membership and reward people's choice of democracy. Somaliland is a state where the power truly belongs to the people.

* Abdirahman Aw Ali is is from Somaliland and based in the USA.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Fifteen years of multiparty democracy in Mali has failed to galvanise voters in the poverty-stricken west African nation, who enjoy the dubious honour of being the world's most ballot-shy electorate. Last week's presidential election garnered a turnout of around 36% -- actually a comparatively high figure given Mali's past record.

Mali's president Amadou Toumani Touré has been re-elected with an absolute majority of votes cast in Sunday's election, according to official results released on Thursday. Provisional results announced by the Territorial Administration Ministry, which organised the polls and collated the returns, showed Touré won 68,3 per cent of valid votes, while his main challenger, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, took 18,6 per cent.

For almost 13 years Maimouna only knew that her parents died of a “blood disease” when she was young. But three months ago she learned that disease was HIV/AIDS - and she is infected too. “I can’t tell my friends. Only my grandmother knows,” the tall, thin girl said after one of her regular check-ups at the Gabriel Toure Hospital in the Malian capital, Bamako.

When Malians queue to cast ballots in presidential elections Sunday, they will be participating in a poll with a difference: for the first time ever, a woman will be amongst the candidates.

At least 35 migrants were confirmed dead and 113 others missing and presumed dead after making a perilous sea voyage from Somalia to Yemen, a Somali community leader told IRIN on Monday.

The figures tell the story. In 1990, forests in Mali extended over more than 14 million hectares. But by 2000 they covered 13,117,643 hectares, according to a national report on the state of the environment made public in 2005. This marked a reduction of about seven percent in the West African country's forests, in just a decade.

Dear colleagues:

You probably have already heard about the tragedy that befell Malian families in the Bronx this past Wednesday night. Eight children and their mother were killed in a fire which devastated a three-storey building in the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is so hard for the communities here to come to terms with such a terrible tragedy. The fire is suspected to have been caused by an electric heater in the basement.

Members of the community and throughout New York are responding kindly to the families and friends undergoing great pain at this time. African communities within the New York boroughs are also collectively reaching out in different ways.

If you can in your individual capacity reach out to the families, I believe that your gesture will be very much appreciated. The African Services Committee is collecting donations to help victims of the fire, including those were were injured and are currently in the hospital. Here is the website of the African Services Committee. I plan to go over to the Bronx tonight to pay my respects.

Thank you for your kindness and please feel free to pass this on to anyone who can help

Doreen Lwanga