SIERRA LEONE: Police Plan to Use Youth Against Crime Sparks Row

A new police force plan to recruit youths in each community, to help fight the country-wide spate of armed robbery, has provoked controversy and sparked a nationwide debate.

ZAMBIA: Violence Threatens Polls

Prisca Musonda is an ardent supporter of Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata and his party. She has travelled with him to most parliamentary constituencies campaigning in elections.

SOUTH SUDAN: Women Perpetuate Culture of Submission

All day Rosalinda Duany sells vegetables from her stall at the local market, earning a living to feed her family while her husband spends his days idling with his friends. But when his days become too boring and he demands his conjugal rights, Duany wordlessly stops work just to oblige him.

ZAMBIA: Chief Justice Accused of Collusion by Opposition

Chief justice Ernest Sakala has been accused of colluding with the president’s administration to protect high-profile people accused of corruption. But the Law Association of Zambia has rejected the charges as unfair.

SOUTH SUDAN: Making of a Nation still Holding on to the Past

The five children of Mary Muwombi have grown up in the war of south Sudan. It was a harsh existence - living on the brink of death and eating whatever they could find just to survive.

SIERRA LEONE: Woman Breaking Traditional Walls in Chieftaincy Elections

A war is raging in the eastern part of the country, once the centre stage for battles during the 10-year civil war and the place where "blood diamonds" were once mined. But this time the war is not for diamonds, but about whether a woman has the right to stand for paramount chief in the local chieftaincy election.

ZAMBIA: Justice Delayed Becoming Justice Denied

Harry Mubita was tired of his wretched condition in prison. He had been in Lusaka Central Prison for more than a year, and still there was no sign that his theft case would be heard.

MALAWI: Women Fight Harmful Cultural Practices

An experience which Belita Simpokolwe went through in December last year remains deeply etched in her memory. "Sometimes I fail to concentrate in class when these things come back to my mind," laments 13-year-old Simpokolwe, a grade six pupil at Kawale Primary School, in the northern Malawi district of Chitipa.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Seeking a Democratic South Sudan

The atmosphere is heavily charged with political tensions, alliances are already in the offing, expectations are high and the pressure for the country to achieve a successful transition from an interim government to a democratically elected one is immense.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Judges Address How Law Can Assist HIV Response

In Ghana, because the stigmatisation against gay men is so great, many are forced to have sexual relationships with women to escape prejudice and homophobic violence.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: Anti-homosexuality Bill Means ‘Targeted Killings’

Uganda will be going back to the days of the Idi Amin regime if it passes a Bill which will arrest or kill people for being gay or lesbian and for repeatedly engaging in homosexual sex, say rights activists.

CORRUPTION-AFRICA: A Crime Against Development

Corruption is preventing the world from reducing extreme poverty, from averting child deaths and even from fighting epidemics like HIV/AIDS. And it will have a devastating effect on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals if not tackled directly by each national government.

RIGHTS-ZAMBIA: ‘Justice Prevailed’ – Says News Editor Acquitted of False Charges

Chansa Kabwela faced a five-year jail sentence when she sent photographs of a woman giving birth, without medical assistance while in the country’s largest hospital, to government officials.

UGANDA: Mob Justice Increases as Court Backlogs Escalate

Sam Kubo had gone to lease out his 600 hectares of land in Kayunga district. But instead he went to his death.

ETHIOPIA: New Election Code Sparks Furore

Opposition parties are troubled by what they say is government’s strategy to keep them out of the general elections in May 2010.

CORRUPTION-SIERRA LEONE: President Challenged on Corruption

The country’s president has failed to meet his electoral commitment of running a transparent and accountable government, free of tribalism and regionalism, opposition parties say.

SIERRA LEONE: Mixed Reactions to Libel Laws Ruling

Journalists in Sierra Leone can still be arrested and jailed for writing material considered "libel" regardless if what they published is true or not.

Q&A: Punitive Laws Problematic For HIV Response – UNAIDS

The East African Community is currently developing a law to guide the region's response to HIV/AIDS. The move comes ahead of the commencement of the East Africa common market protocol.

EAST AFRICA: No Laws to Fight HIV Stigma in Schools

Although he was born with the virus, it was only 15 years after his birth that Robert* and his family discovered he was HIV-positive.

EAST AFRICA: Move Towards Common HIV/AIDS Law

All HIV-positive east Africans could soon access free anti-retroviral treatment even as they move freely from country to country, if a new proposed law comes into effect.

ZAMBIA: Electoral Commission Accused of Bias

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) is once again under fire from opposition political parties and some civil society organisations, which accuse it of bias in favour of the ruling party during elections.