The Centre for Democracy and Development has published a Cameroon election brief which outlines the current Cameroon political situation and how the October 11 presidential election in Cameroon is a foregone conclusion. President Paul Biya - incumbent since 1982 - will be elected to serve another seven-year term, probably by a substantial majority. Further, this brief compares the different political parties and their prospective leaders.

The Darfur crisis in Sudan is one among other evil currents enveloping Africa. While I agree with Mamdani on the similarities of the Darfur crisis with those of Uganda and DRC, the former cannot compared to the latter. The large population of Displaced Persons in Darfur given the very short time frame of Janjaweed operations in the Darfur region requires further interrogation. Mamdani will do well to visit Chad and some other IDPs camp for the Darfur Victims, then a proper understanding of the humanitarian condition will be futher intellectually comprehended.

Just to say thankyou: first to Mahmoud Mamdani, and secondly to Pambazuka News. I have been reading a lot on Darfur recently, and this is one of the most comprehensive, progressive views I have come across. This article is invaluable, at a time when the 'URGENT CRISIS' our British news broadcasters were chatting about less than 1 month ago seems to have suddenly become un-news worthy...reminds me of the 2 minutes Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq seem to get regularly now.

Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa, who was viewed as a puppet of his predecessor Frederick Chiluba after he retired in 2002, has launched the country's biggest crackdown on corruption and declared a rule of law. In trying to defy the ‘puppet’ perception that was created in the minds of many Zambians, Mwanawasa seven months after assuming office addressed a special session of Parliament in July 2002 highlighting a catalogue of corrupt allegations against Chiluba. He alleged that Chiluba had plundered national resources, a scenario that had retard national development during his 10 years of presidency. Among the allegations raised was that the Chiluba’s government failed to account for US about $41 million raised from the privatisation of Roan Antelope Mining Corporation. Mwanawasa also alleged that US $20.5 million earmarked for arms purchases, was diverted from the public coffers for the personal benefit of the former president, his family and associates. He further stated that several million dollars were paid to Chiluba's family and supporters from a special bank account maintained by the ZSIS in London. Afterwards, Mwanawasa constituted what he called the Task Force on corruption. The Task Force was appointed with a specific mandate of prosecuting the suspected plunderers and recovering the stolen national resources.

* Editorial: Mamdani asks "How can we name the Darfur crisis?
* Comment and Analysis: Gerald Caplan on the genocide problem:
* Pambazuka News: New RSS feed to bring news to your desktop/website
* Pan-African Postcard: Bwana Blair's spin in Africa
* Conflicts and Emergencies: Sierra Leone Truth Commission Final Report Released
* Refugees and Forced Migration: Refugees facing a less friendly environment
* Women and Gender: Equality Now Beijing +10 Review process
* Corruption: Bribery begins in the UK
* Environment: FAO eclipses regional locust control body, but comes in for criticism

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An important meeting was held at the Goree Institute on August 3-5, 2004, where 12 regional institutions participated in discussions regarding the setting up of a Civil Society Organisations Alliance to support and engage constructively in elections within the region. The three day meeting resolved that the initiative had come at the right time as many elections are planned for the next couple of years, and civil society advocacy for free, fair, transparent and credible electoral proces ses have also been intensified.

As Burundians struggle to rebuild their war-torn nation, many have been invoking a local proverb: It is easy to light a fire and difficult to extinguish it. Currently, about 1.2 million people lack basic shelter. They are refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and single mothers whose husbands were killed during the war and who have been left to care for their children. Almost 250,000 new homes are urgently needed. So far, almost none of those homes have been built.

Donors have started rewarding President Bingu wa Mutharika's efforts to tackle corruption and restore fiscal discipline in Malawi. he World Bank recently announced it had disbursed US $25 million to Malawi in support of the country's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), and this week Norway said it was releasing Norwegian Kroner 20 million (about US $3 million) in balance of payments support to Malawi.

Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa announced on Monday that he has sacked his vice president, Nevers Mumba, for insubordination. According to Mwanawasa, Mumba had breached an oath of allegiance when he failed to retract his recent allegations that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was harbouring individuals who were working against the Zambian government. Mumba will be replaced by Northern Province Minister Lupando Mwape.

Armed with an expanded mandate and an increase in troop strength, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) may now be better placed to capitalise on the slight improvement in the security situation in the east of the country. Although UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan only received UN Security Council authorisation to raise the troop strength by 5,900 from 10,800, he said the newly approved troop ceiling of 16,700 would "contribute to improving the mission's operational capabilities, which are severely under resourced".

Zimbabwe has set up an ambitious Zim $200 billion (about US $35.6 million) loan facility to breathe life into the country's struggling businesses. The Zimbabwe Development Bank (ZDB) and the Small Enterprises Development Corporation (SEDCO) have been appointed to handle and disburse the funds, which are expected to target companies facing economic hardship, particularly those close to bankruptcy or operating below capacity.

If Africa is to overcome corruption the west will have to clean up its own act. Next year, Britain is planning to make Africa the centre-piece of its presidencies of the European Union and the G8 industrialised nations. However, the UK government is potentially facing a serious credibility problem on Africa that could undermine its efforts to heal what Blair calls "the scar on the conscience of the world".

Anti-corruption police yesterday questioned former permanent secretary and Public Service chief Sally Kosgey over the Sh7 billion Anglo Leasing and Finance scandal. Anti-corruption police have flown to Switzerland to hunt down three men linked to the scandal. Two KACC detectives will travel also to Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the US for further investigations.

A Better Investment Climate for Everyone, the World Bank’s annual World Development Report for 2005, was launched on September 28, 2004. The Report focuses on what governments can do to improve the investment climates of their societies to increase growth and reduce poverty.

Application deadline: 15 October 2004
In addition to working through partnerships with others, and advocating for open society ideals, the HIV/AIDS Programme Officer (PO) will develop strategies, guidelines and policies for OSISA’s HIV /AIDS programme to enable OSISA to make a meaningful contribution to HIV /AIDS response in Southern Africa. The vision of the programme is a "Southern African region that is totally engaged in overcoming the HIV/AIDS pandemic through the deployment of appropriate policies, resources and leadership".

To celebrate World Development Information Day this year, the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT), is hosting a special one-day event on Thursday, 21 October 2004 to highlight the role and significance of information and communication in the South African NGO sector and to profile the work of the sector and specific initiatives aimed at improving its information and communication capacity. For more information please contact Martha Thibedi or Refilwe Rakhibane at SANGONeT by 18 October 2004.

Developing countries have failed in their bid to win more voting power for Africa at the IMF and World Bank. African leaders visiting Washington for the two organisation's meetings argued they have too little say in the running of the institutions. Europe has 10 seats on the IMF and World Bank boards - but Africa, which receives almost half of all loans from the two bodies, has only two. "If the fund and bank are going to be effective, they need to hear an African point of view," said Malawi finance minister Goodall Gondwe.

A two-day conference on 'Minimum Standards for Elections in Zimbabwe was held in Pretoria on 4-5 October 2004 to determine how the South African community can assist Zimbabwe in building a solid consensus on minimum election standards. Unfortunately, the Zimbabwean government and Zanu-PF decided not to participate in this conference and Mugabe declared that Zimbabwe is not bound by the recently agreed Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) standards and norms on free and fair elections.

Fanny Ann was an activist in the real sense of the word. She dedicated herself to the cause of normalizing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in society through direct action and she was an example to those of us who play the victim and claim that nothing is possible in the hostile climates in which we exist. The early death of anyone is tragic; when that someone is gruesomely murdered for seemingly no other reason than that she stood up for the rights and fought for the dignity of those who are marginalized and persecuted in Africa, it leaves us all with deep feelings of confusion and despair.

RSS newsfeeds for Pambazuka News is now available. RSS is an easy way for you to keep updated automatically on Pambazuka News - either straight to your desktop or on your website. To make use of RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication) get hold of a program called a newsreader which displays RSS information from your chosen sites on your computer. You can either choose the current newsletter or if there is a category you are particularly interested in (for example our editorials, stories on health or education) you can chose to display just those stories. Alternatively you can choose to display back issues of Pambazuka news. Right click on the orange icons on the page at , copy the link and paste it into your news reading software.