Preliminary results in Lesotho parliamentary elections have put the ruling Democratic Congress (DC) in the lead with 45 per cent of the vote in 77 constituencies out of 80 counted. The results show that the Democratic Congress has won 46 seats, followed by the All Basotho Convention with 27 and the Lesotho Congress for Democracy with 13 seats. Official results are still being verified by the Electoral Commission with final results expected tomorrow.

The Economic Cost of Violence survey - the result of a collaboration between Karama and its economic realm in Egypt, which is led by the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement (EACPE) - was released last month, stating that the total national cost of women’s exposure to violence exceeds 785 million Egyptian Pounds (LE) a year, over three billion LE over the last three years. Launched in 2010, the study aims to quantify the monetary cost of women’s exposure to violence as the basis of a campaign to prevent violence against women by demonstrating that the impact of violence goes beyond women and has implications for the nation as a whole.

Rampant poverty is the main source of potential instability in Angola, with the main threat emerging from rapidly growing cities, according to this paper commissioned by the US Africa Command and written by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Unexpectedly sharp price rises in April for local cereals like millet, rice and maize in parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad mean many vulnerable people in the drought-hit Sahel could find it even harder to get enough to eat. The high prices of basic foods are the most alarming feature of the current Sahel crisis, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Prices are expected to keep rising until the end of August - during the lean season - but the size of recent hikes has surprised food price analysts and humanitarian aid personnel.

Mali's embattled transitional government has rejected the declaration by an alliance of northern rebels of an independent Islamic Tuareg state. 'The government of Mali categorically rejects the idea of the creation of an Azawad state, even more so of an Islamic state,' a government official told the AFP news agency on Sunday. 'Even though this state creation is just on paper and not de facto, we are coming forward to stress that Mali is secular and will remain secular,' said Hamadoun Toure, information minister in the transitional Malian administration. The two groups that seized control of Mali's north had announced that they agreed to merge and create an independent state in the northern half of the west African nation.

The reality of Indian and Chinese investment in Africa is much more complex than the good cop, bad cop image of Asia’s two emerging economic giants. China and India have caused an explosion of trade and investment in Africa in the past decade. Yet they are perceived quite differently: China has a reputation for economic ruthlessness, while India’s business interests are generally seen as beneficial to Africa. But their investment in Africa needs to be viewed in the context of broader investment trends on the continent, trade experts said at the 'Money, Power and Sex: the Paradox of Unequal Growth' conference organised by the Open Society Institute of Southern Africa, which took place from May 22 to 24 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Demonstrators have attacked African migrants in Tel Aviv in a protest against refugees and asylum-seekers that indicates an increasingly volatile mood in Israel over what it terms as 'infiltrators'. Miri Regev, a member of the Israeli parliament, told the crowd 'the Sudanese are a cancer in our body'. The vast majority of asylum-seekers in Israel are from Sudan and Eritrea. Around 1,000 demonstrators took part in the demonstration on Wednesday night, waving signs saying: 'Infiltrators, get out of our homes' and 'Our streets are no longer safe for our children.'

The Presidential Elections Commission will announce on Monday afternoon the first-round results of the presidential poll, an official said, after early counts showed it would go to a runoff between the Muslim Brotherhood candidate and the last prime minister of Hosni Mubarak. State-run news agency MENA said on Monday that the commission would hold a conference to announce full details of the electoral process, including the number of valid and invalid votes, the voter turnout, the votes won by each of the 13 candidates, and the names of the top two runners who will compete in the runoffs slated for 16 and 17 June.

Although just a few hundred kilometres from Nairobi, the county of Turkana, where newly-confirmed oil reserves are set to go on stream in the next few years, feels more like a million miles away from the gleaming skyscrapers and concentrations of power and money found in Kenya’s capital. Turkana’s socioeconomic indicators do indeed set it apart. Only 39 per cent of the youth aged 15-18 in Turkana attend school, compared to the national average of 70.9 per cent. Can oil, coupled with an unprecedented process of political devolution enshrined in a new constitution, reverse Turkana’s fortunes?

In contrast with Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, Islamists in Algeria refused to join the incoming government. Furthermore, the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), which has four ministers in the current government, decided to withdraw them altogether. The Islamist party, which until now had been a partner in the governing coalition, on Saturday (May 19th), decided to return to the ranks of the opposition after a resounding 134 to 35 vote by the consultative committee.

Most of those displaced by post-election violence mainly in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province five years ago have been resettled, but those whose relatives were killed or who lost their property are seeking justice and further compensation. With few perpetrators of the violence having been bought to book, 'the compensation they need is not only in monetary terms, but also in accessing justice for lost lives', said Collins Omondi, an official with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

Tens of thousands of Moroccans have taken to the streets of Casablanca in protests against the government’s failure to tackle unemployment and other social woes. Sunday’s rally, which is believed to be the largest opposition protest since a new government took office, was organised by trade unions. They accuse Abdelilah Benkirane, the prime minister of failing to deliver on the pledges of social justice that brought his party to power in November.

The first ever Global African Diaspora Summit was held in Sandton, South Africa, on Africa Day, 25 May 2012. The meeting was attended by Heads of States or representative of the 54 Member States of the Union, the Government of the Caribbean Community, South and Latin America. The Summit began with welcome remarks by the Host, President Jacob Zuma which was followed by the remarks of Dr. Jean Ping, the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Honorable David Dikins, former Mayor of New York , as Eminent person from the Diaspora, Honorable Arnold Joseph Nicholson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable Samuel Hins, Prime Minister of the Republic of Guyana, on behalf of CARICOM, Mr. Esteban Lasto, the Vice President of the Republic of Cuba and President Nguema of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. The opening session was concluded with the opening remarks of President Boni Yayi, President of the Republic of Benin and Chairperson of the Union.

The governments of Puntland and Galmudug have withdrawn from a planned trip to the Republic of Turkey, where the Istanbul Conference Il on Somalia is supposed to take place 31 May 2012 - 1 June 2012. A press release said the event was not a Somali-owned process and the purpose and agenda of the conference was ambiguous.

Assailants in Mogadishu have gunned down the host of a critical radio program, further punctuating what has already been a deadly year for the Somali press corps and for the journalist's employer, the Shabelle Media Network. Four unidentified men fired repeatedly at Ahmed Addow Anshur while he was in Bo'le Market, in Dharkenley District, local journalists said.

This fact sheet highlights the progress of rural women against key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicators, pointing to some of the advancements made and gaps that still exist. It suggests that globally, and with only a few exceptions, rural women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men for every MDG indicator for which data are available.

Saferworld is an independent non-governmental organisation that works to prevent and reduce violent conflict and promote co-operative approaches to security. We work with governments, international organisations and civil society to encourage and support effective policies and practices through advocacy, research and policy development and through supporting the actions of others. We are seeking a country manager with experience in the areas of conflict prevention, peace- and security- building to manage Saferworld’s Somalia/Somaliland programme.

The visiting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Zimbabwe’s political leaders to quickly find a solution to their differences and implement key reforms, in order to avoid the violence that marred the 2008 elections. Speaking to journalists at the end of her five-day visit to assess human rights, Navi Pillay said unless the parties quickly agree on key reforms, the next election could turn into 'a repeat of the 2008 election which resulted in rampant politically motivated human rights abuses, including killings, torture, rapes, beatings, arbitrary detention, displacements and other violations'.

International Rivers’ new report argues that the World Bank’s top-down approach to infrastructure should be replaced by a strategy that prioritizes the needs of the poor. In its new report, 'Infrastructure for Whom? A Critique of the Infrastructure Strategies of the Group of 20 and the World Bank', International Rivers calls into question the ability of megaprojects to address the needs of the poor. The report instead offers another, more eco-friendly solution.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is launching a call for proposal for all interested researchers and academics in its Multinational Working Group (MWG) on a theme titled: 'Land grabs and food sovereignty in Africa'. MWG is one of the flagship research vehicles that is employed by CODESRIA to promote multi-country, multi-disciplinary and inter-generational reflections on critical questions of concern to the African social science research community. Each MWG will be led by two coordinators who have different specializations and possibly constitute a gender mix. The size of a single MWG should utmost be fifteen researchers. An independent selection committee will screen the proposals and select those that have a relatively better quality and depth. The life span of the project will be 18 months during which time all aspects of the research process should be completed and the final manuscript submitted for publication in a CODESRIA book series.