AGRICULTURE-SUDAN: Can Local Investors Beat Foreign Investment?

Sudan is hoping to use foreign cash to reinvigorate its under-performing agricultural sector, but there is growing disagreement over the extent to which outsiders, rather than local farmers, should be taking control of the industry.

POLITICS-DR CONGO: Talks Near Collapse

Rebels are being blamed for the slow progress of talks seeking to end fighting in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

MEDIA-DR CONGO: Journalists Murdered Near Police Stations

Since the November 2004 murder of Frank Kangundu, journalist with the Congolese daily ‘La Référence Plus’, and his wife, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has entered a sad cycle of killings of media professionals.

SOUTH SUDAN: Dinka and Misseriya Build Peace Along Border

Two Sudanese communities that face each other across one of Africa’s most contentious borders sat together recently in the shade of three large red tents to discuss a future tied to a recent past of bloodshed.

DR CONGO: Peace in a Discriminatory State?

War broke out in the eastern part of DRC again in August since which time 250,000 people have been displaced.

POLITICS-DR CONGO: The Devil You See…

Few Congolese believe Laurent Nkunda is the man with whom to negotiate peace in North Kivu. The crux of the matter is economics and geopolitics - both greatly influenced by Western interests.

CAMEROON: Boom Time for Microfinance

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have improved access to credit and banking services for poor Cameroonians. But the rapid growth in the number and size of these institutions in recent years is underpinned by dangerous disorder.

DR CONGO: Poverty Pushes Children Onto the Streets

Despite being Africa's treasure chest in terms of natural resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) struggles with widespread poverty.

POLITICS-DR CONGO: What Future For MONUC?

Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria and newly-appointed U.N. envoy in the Great Lakes Region, has visited both Congolese president Joseph Kabila and CNDP rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda, attempting to chisel the outlines of a new peace in the region.

POLITICS-EAST AFRICA: Love Thy Neighbour

Khartoum has long maintained a studious silence over its suspicions that the Kenyan government was assisting the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which governs the semi-autonomous south of Sudan to replenish its armament.

DR CONGO: The Cost of War

War is expensive. The costs include not only the millions of dollars spent on military equipment and maintaining an army, but the financial and psychological toll it takes on the everyday lives of people caught in the crossfire.

POLITICS-DR CONGO: Regional Leaders Urge Effective Ceasefire

African leaders meeting in Nairobi have called for an end to the renewed fighting in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which has displaced 253,000 people since August, according to the United Nations.

HEALTH-DR CONGO: Malaria Remains Biggest Killer

With almost 200,000 people dying of malaria each year in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the disease remains the country's biggest killer.

DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Sweet Deal For Bee-Keepers

Paul Mboui's family will soon move into the attractive new bungalow he is building. Then he will rent out his present compound as a warehouse to Guiding Hope, the honey trading company that has made him prosperous.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Time for Joint Action on HIV/AIDS and Violence

The war against HIV/AIDS, it is emerging, will not be won unless sexual and gender-based violence is tackled.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/RIGHTS-RWANDA: Key Genocide Trials Depend On Judicial Reforms

Rwanda is hoping to convince the International Criminal Tribunal to change its mind over refusing to transfer three genocide suspects to face trial at home, paving the way for extradition procedures to start against dozens of others living abroad in freedom.

SOUTH SUDAN: Traditional Authority Seeks Its Place

A lion attempted to devour Dinka chief Makom Majong Makom once. It was during the long years of Sudan's north-south conflict that also saw a militia attack nearly destroy his rural South Sudanese community.

HEALTH-SOUTH SUDAN: Welcome New Attention to Maternal Care

A vast pregnancy has swollen the tiny woman walking South Sudan's shining new maternity ward clutching two pieces of paper stapled together. She looks no more than 16, wide-eyed with recent pain.

AGRICULTURE-CHAD: Farmers, Herders Collide In Southern Refugee Camps

Clarisse Larlombaye was nearly ruined when a herd of cows got into her rice field one night. The tiny 900-square-meter plot, outside the U.N.-run Gondje refugee camp in lush southern Chad is the sole source of income for Larlombaye and the two other Central African refugees she shares it with.

ENVIRONMENT-CHAD: Peacekeepers Try To Tread Lightly

Polish army Lieutenant Colonel Marc Gryga didn’t realize he was planning on building his country’s major base here in eastern Chad on top of a cemetery. "It didn’t look like any cemetery you see in the United States or Europe," he says, referring to absence of headstones.

SUDAN: Cracks In North-South Peace Deal

Nyandeng Akot rushed out of the rude shelter of thatch and plastic sheeting pinned against the side of a tree with sticks. Grabbing a passing aid worker's arm, she said she has nothing except the four children that she grabbed when she began running from renewed fighting in Sudan's Abyei area a month ago.