MEDIA: African Journalists Reject EU-sponsored Observatory

A project to create a Pan-African Media Observatory (PAMO), sponsored by the European Union in cooperation with the African union, has been rejected by numerous African journalist organisations.

RIGHTS-ETHIOPIA: Fears Over New Anti-Terror Law

A little over 18 years ago, when the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power, people were so eager to exercise democracy that even children started to challenge their parents saying "this is my democratic right". Perhaps it was too good to last.

Q&A: Defending Women’s Rights Under New Land Policy

After years of delays, Kenya's cabinet has finally adopted a draft National Land Policy (NLP), which is now awaiting debate in parliament.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: Women Press for Domestic Violence Bill

"Man forces wife to breastfeed puppies," screams one headline. "Police boss shoots wife," shouts another; and a third: "Man batters wife over meat". These are typical headlines in Uganda’s newspapers today. Women daily report surviving different forms of violence in their homes: physical, sexual, emotional or even economic abuse.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: ‘Our Mission is To End Impunity’ – Moreno Ocampo

On a visit to Uganda, Luis Moreno Ocampo, prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) has again called for joint action by governments in the region to arrest the top commanders of Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

EAST AFRICA: Raising the Bar for Gender Equality

Mention of the East African Community (EAC) usually elicits thoughts about regional trade, but a campaign is under way to use the regional body to promote gender equality.

RIGHTS: No Safe Haven for Ugandan Girls

A year ago, a mother in Kashari County took the law into her own hands and castrated a man she caught raping her seven-year-old daughter.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Neglected Diseases Under the Microscope

Neglected diseases, neglected people. Marcel Tanner uses the phrase to emphasise the attitude of drug developers towards tropical diseases that primarily affect the marginalised poor.

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Calls for Sustainable Green Revolution

Africa needs a Green Revolution, but one that will increase agricultural productivity by using practices that build soil fertility while minimising harm to the environment.

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Fears Over New Land Deal

Concern is mounting in Kenya that the government has leased a big slice of agricultural land to Qatari foreign investors to produce food for export.

AGRICULTURE: Biotechnology: Africa Must Not Be Left Behind

Africa must embrace agricultural biotechnology or risk being excluded from a major technological revolution that has had increased food production in the Europe, North America and Asia.

KENYA: A Role For Men in Gender Equality

The recent Gender Festival in Kenya has underlined the important role that male activism can play in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.

ECONOMY-UGANDA: Traders Go Down as Prices Go Up

With the world economy in the grip of a credit crunch, traders and consumers in Uganda are struggling with price inflation and the depreciation of the country’s currency, the Ugandan shilling, against the dollar. Especially importers have not been able to bring goods in which were ordered when prices were lower.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: You Are Worth Nothing

Widespread gender-based violence against women and children in the conflict zones of the Great Lakes region has received some attention in recent years; less well-known is the extent of sexual violence against men.

POLITICS-SUDAN: 'Darfur Was Just A Place Where Evil Lived'

Analysing the colonial and historical roots of the violence in Darfur, Mahmood Mamdani concludes that the crisis in Darfur is not genocide, but a fight for land, triggered by drought, which has been racialised by outside powers.

HEALTH-KENYA: Family Planning Not Only For Women

In a makeshift room inside an unfinished building in the Manyatta slums in the Western Kenyan city of Kisumu, the neighbourhood’s men regularly congregate to discuss community matters, usually in the presence of the area chief.

HEALTH-KENYA: Two Dollars And Change: Enough To Save a Mother’s Life

At the age of 14, Zulekha Mumma delivered her first child. At 21, the birth of her seventh child killed her. She died from excessive bleeding in her home in Nyalenda, a slum on the outskirts of Kisumu city in western Kenya, some 400 kilometres from Nairobi.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: ‘When a Man Hurts a Woman, There’s Nothing She Can Do’

Mary Atimango left the war-ravaged Gulu district to come and live in Kampala during the peak of the northern Ugandan conflict over fifteen years ago. The 59-year-old now lives in the small peri-urban village of ‘Acholi Quarters’ on Kireka Hill, on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital.

TOURISM: ‘‘Uganda Not Just About Idi Amin, Civil War and AIDS’’

Ugandans are unhappy with their tourism authority as they believe that their country’s warm climate and exceptional species, such as the mountain gorilla, should attract as many tourists as neighbouring Kenya. To compound matters, the global economic crisis has shrunk tourist arrivals from Europe.

TRADE: COMESA on Track with Establishing Customs Union

Zimbabwe will finally host the 13th Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) summit in the resort town of Victoria Falls in June where the regional grouping is expected to launch its customs union.

Q&A: "A Threat to One is a Threat to All"

On May 24, one of the leading advocates of Africa's unity and liberation, Tajudeen Abdul Raheem, was killed in a car accident in Nairobi, Kenya.