Years of working in poorly ventilated mines, inhaling silica dust - present in high concentrations in deep-level gold mines - can lead to silicosis, a crippling and progressive disease caused by scarring of the lungs. A study of former gold mine workers by the Aurum Institute, a non-profit health research organisation, found that nearly 25 per cent had silicosis. The disease has no cure and sufferers are also more prone to tuberculosis (TB). Now, two court cases have thrown a spotlight on the predicament of hundreds of thousands of former mineworkers in southern Africa who have received little or no compensation for occupational lung diseases.

In the face of intimidation and repression, peasant farmers from all parts of the country came together in November 2010 in Kolongo, Mali to publicly denounce land grabs. They also announced a collective plan to: identify and document cases of land dispossession and human rights violations; widely disseminate information about land grabbing at home and abroad; and pursue legal action to defend land and human rights in national, regional and international courts.

'There is a critical need for greater investment to support agriculture and livestock production in the area. In particular, policies should promote the local production of food with improved nutritional value, especially among the poorest groups,' says a Save the Children briefing investigating why it is that a fertile and agriculturally productive region like the DRC that can produce a variety of foods is the very same region where child stunting has reached a staggering rate of 50 per cent.

As the nuclear crisis unfolds in Japan, Democracy Now! reports from South Africa on the government’s plan to triple the country’s nuclear fleet in order to meet rising energy demand. Democracy Now! speaks with South African nuclear expert David Fig, who says, 'We need to really assess as a country whether we want to go down the nuclear road for further energy purposes.' Democracy Now! also speaks to Makoma Lekalakala of Earthlife Africa, who says that the country’s significant potential for solar and wind energy should be developed.

A Nigerian militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on an Agip oil facility in the Niger Delta on Wednesday (16 March), but the military said it was an isolated incident carried out by local youths. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement emailed to media that its fighters had carried out the attack on the Clough Creek oil flow station late on Tuesday and warned of more strikes on energy infrastructure.

A community-based organisation in the Kenyan slum area of Kibera set out to clean up garbage and deal with waste water; Ushiriki Wa Safi ended up creating a community cooker that turns waste into an energy source.

This article from Think Africa Press examines the human rights situation in Somaliland. 'If we compare the brutal, systematic repression that characterises governance in Ethiopia and Eritrea, then yes, Somaliland’s government respects the human rights of its citizens. But, if we try to assess the situation objectively Somaliland’s human rights’ gains are both limited and fragile.'

The government of the ousted Egyptian strongman, Hosni Mubarak, at one time considered the use of force if upstream countries threatened its historical rights to the use of the Nile waters. The administration was incensed by riparian states insistence on using the Nile for irrigation and other water consuming projects. According to confidential cables, sent to Washington, by American diplomats based in Cairo, the Mubarak administration viewed access to its quota of Nile waters as a national security issue, 'and a creation of a system that threatens this quota will be seen as an existential threat'.

An ambitious project to produce clean energy for the Netherlands and Belgium has degenerated into a controversial abuse of natural resources in Africa. Bioshape, a clean energy company based in Neer, the Netherlands, is going through bankruptcy proceedings after spending 9.6 million dollars on a failed biofuel project in Tanzania. In 2006, the company agreed to lease 80,000 hectares of coastal woodland in the southern district of Kilwa to grow jatropha, a shrub whose seeds contain an oil that can be processed into green fuel.

More than 200 unemployed graduates took to the streets to demand jobs in the main oil-producing state of northern Sudan on Thursday (10 March), witnesses said, a rare display of dissent in a politically sensitive area. The police have swiftly crushed a series of small protests in north Sudan this year, some seeking an end to the 21-year-rule of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and inspired by uprisings in the Arab world.

'Fighting the scourge of Acid Mine Drainage becomes not only a matter of environmental importance, but also one of protecting vulnerable, local communities that depend upon South Africa's finite natural resources,' says this article from the Consultancy Africa Intelligence newsletter published on the Sangonet website. 'The AMD scourge may place undue stress upon the country's resources and industries, and potentially undermine the overall stability of the country.'

Oil and gas companies have improved the transparency of how they report revenues and information about anti-corruption programmes but should take bolder actions to stop corruption, according to a new report by Transparency International (TI) and Revenue Watch Institute (RWI). The 2011 'Report on Oil and Gas Companies', which is based on research conducted in 2010 and is an expanded version of a report published in 2008, rates 44 companies on the public availability of information on their anti-corruption programmes and how they report their financial results in all the countries where they operate. By disclosing anti-corruption measures and key organisational and financial data, especially on a country-by-country level, companies demonstrate their commitment to stop the misappropriation of revenues. In particular, detailed publication of fiscal payments allows citizens to hold governments to account.

The first issue of Development 54 starts the one year debate on sustainability by looking at the dilemma of the current global land grabs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It engages academics and researchers of the Land Research Action Network and of the University of Utrecht in a hot debate on land speculation today. The journal issue tackles land, commodity and food speculation. It explores the implications for an equitable and sustainable development and looks at how to ensure that any benefits from foreign land development are passed on to local people.

SA’s preparations to host the United Nations (UN) climate change conference in Durban in November have been heavily criticised by the European Union (EU). Judith Sargentini, a Dutch former anti-apartheid activist now responsible for fostering SA-EU bilateral relations, said SA had neither the capacity nor the strategy to secure a deal on climate change as hosts of the UN conference.

You are invited to sign the following petition, which was drafted by farmers’ organisations, NGOs, religious organisations, unions and other social movements gathered in Dakar for the World Social Forum 2011.

Malaysia's Sime Darby is considering a $2.5 billion plantation expansion deal in Cameroon, the Financial Times reported, signalling the global grab for land is well underway as food prices soar. The Financial Times quoted Sime Darby Chief Executive Mohd Bakke Salleh as saying the project in the West African state will involve 300,000 hectares (741,300 acres) of oil palm estates although discussions have so far led to 'nothing conclusive'.

Faced with Western sanctions, meddling and distorted media reports berating the cronyism and inefficiency underpinning Zimbabwe’s land reform, ‘resettled farmers are succeeding in spite of the obstacles thrown in their way’, argues Gregory Elich.

The hidden costs of generating electricity from coal have been calculated in groundbreaking research by Harvard Medical School’s Centre for Health and Global Environment. The results of the study 'Full Cost Accounting for the Life Cycle of Coal' released by co-author Dr Paul Epstein in Boston reveal that the health, environmental and other costs of using coal costs the United States 500 billion dollars per year.

Idasa's submission to February’s National Climate Change Response Green Paper, on behalf of the Electricity Governance Initiative of South Africa (EGI-SA) which it co-ordinates, has pointed out that the challenges of climate change need different approaches to development than in the past, and may require difficult tradeoffs. Idasa stresses the importance of transparent, accountable and inclusive processes to work through such trade-offs.

Burundi has became the sixth country to sign a new draft agreement on the management of the River Nile, ending nearly 12 months of doubts about the future of the agreement and of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). The NBI is a regional partnership that seeks the best ways of developing the continent’s longest river. Burundi’s decision to sign the agreement now leaves DR Congo, Egypt and Sudan as the only countries yet to do so.