Israel launched a high-profile deportation drive against African migrants on Sunday 17 June with an airlift of South Sudanese whose government said they would be welcomed back as economic assets. The planned weekly repatriation flights from Tel Aviv to Juba have been played up by the Israeli government amid uncertainty as to how it might deal with much greater migrant influxes from Sudan, a hostile country, and war-ravaged Eritrea.

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International is extremely concerned about the condition and whereabouts of the Sudanese poet Abdelmoniem Rahma, who was arrested on 2 September 2011 in Blue Nile State, Sudan. He was reportedly tried in a military court in November and there have been alarming reports that he has since been sentenced to death. It is unclear, however, on what charges he has been convicted.

The Japanese government is bowing to pressures of the nuclear lobby in Japan.

The oil industry in Uganda will be the most capital intensive that the country has ever seen. Many ordinary people believe that it may also result in mass job creation, alleviating unemployment and under-employment - said by some reports to run as high as 80 per cent among rural youth - that not only blights lives but could also foment social and political unrest. But the reality is that the oil industry is notorious for consuming large sums of money in its operations, while employing relatively few people, most of whom have particular expertise.

This is to invite you to Kilombo 2012, which is an event on Africa, Africans and Social Justice. This is going to be an annual event and the first which is Kilombo 2012 will lay the foundation for launching the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination.

Walter Rodney's classic study, 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa' has just been republished by Pambazuka Press. You are invited to a Panel Discussion on the book at the Cipriani Labour College, CLR James Auditorium, on Wednesday June 13 at 6 PM. Click on the link for more information.

The Kimberly Process intersessional in Washington, with Human Rights Watch (HRW) urging the diamond monitor to tackle what it calls continuing human rights violations in Zimbabwe's Marange fields. The meeting, which ran from 4-7 June 2012, will take up a range of topics related to the mining and trading of conflict-free rough diamonds. Human Rights Watch Africa director, Daniel Bekele urged the Kimberley Process, under the chairpersonship of the United States, to address the ongoing rights abuses in Zimbabwe’s Marange fields and the lack of transparency by mining companies operating there.

As the number of African children adopted by people outside the continent reaches record levels, experts, activists, government officials and academics have called for the practice to be stemmed, warning that adoption was too often motivated by financial gain rather than the best interests of the children involved. Between 2003 and 2011, for example, at least 41,000 African children were sent abroad for adoption from Africa, according to a study entitled 'Africa: The New Frontier' for Inter-country Adoption by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF).

‘We are profoundly alarmed that the meeting will serve to deepen neoliberal policies and processes of capitalist expansion, concentration and exclusion that today have enveloped us in an environmental, economic and social crisis of grave proportions.’

Save the Children Swaziland condemned teachers for beating all the children at a school after one pupil made a noise in assembly. It said the school violated their human rights. The mass caning happened at Lusoti Primary School. Parents have now asked the Ministry of Education and Training to investigate.

Four African migrants have been hospitalised after a deadly arson attempt on a Jerusalem building in which they were living. The incident, which police described as 'very serious', took place in an old two-storey building in a poor neighbourhood near the city’s Mahane Yehuda market.

South Africa receives more asylum seekers than any other country in the world with people mainly coming from Zimbabwe, the DRC, Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, as well as from countries further afield to escape poverty, insecurity and political turmoil. Up to 1.4 million of South Africa’s refugees and asylum seekers are Zimbabwean, representing almost 15 per cent of Zimbabwe’s population. This is according to a new report, 'Perils and Pitfalls ? Migrants and Deportation in South Africa', from the Solidarity Peace Trust/Passop. This report brings to light the discrepancies between the legal requirements around deportation of migrants and the anomalies in its practical application. It is clear from the findings that South Africa is falling short of its lofty legal standards in the manner that the various government agencies are dealing with this huge challenge.

The department of basic education faces court action over its failure to fully fill the tens of thousands of teaching posts the Eastern Cape needs. The basic education department is being dragged before court again, this time over the embattled Eastern Cape education department’s failure to fully fill 64,752 posts for 2012 and wholly fill the 64,752 teaching posts it budgeted for in the province.

The Second Istanbul Conference on Somalia, under the theme 'Preparing Somalia's Future: Goals for 2015', took place on 31st May and 1st June 2012. Maintaining the multi-dimensional and multi-layered approach of the first Istanbul Conference in 2010 onSomalia, it was attended by high level representatives from 57 countries and 11 international and regional organizations, as well as by the TFG leadership, the regional administrations, and representatives from wide-ranging segments of Somali society, including youth, women, business community, elders, religious leaders and the Diaspora.

Some schoolgirls in Kibera, Kenya's largest slum, are writing down their problems and submitting them to a message box. Schools are using the information to alleviate everything from molestation to family financial pressures. Concerns range from their families' inability to pay school fees to revelations of abuse and neglect. The Talking Box is a program started by Polycomdev, a local community-based organization in Kibera.

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.

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 National Press Commission (CNP), the print media regulatory body has suspended Notre Voie, a privately-owned pro-opposition daily newspaper for four publications. The suspension takes effect from 19 May 2012. According to the Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent, the decision of the regulatory body follows the publication of material that the commission says amounts to distortion of facts.

Preferably based in London with frequent travel

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 senior manager with extensive experience in the areas of conflict prevention, peace- and security- building to help lead Saferworld’s development into the future.

This is to invite you to Kilombo 2012, which is an event on Africa, Africans and Social Justice. This is going to be an annual event and the first which is Kilombo 2012 will lay the foundation for launching the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination.