ENERGY-CAMEROON: Dam Project Questioned

Construction has begun on a new dam at the confluence of the Lom and Pangar rivers in Cameroon. The government is pushing the project as key to addressing an energy shortfall, allowing for economic growth; observers believe the plan may only increase the country's vulnerability to drought.

CAMEROON: Fears for Forest as Dam Construction Begins

Crouched on a low wooden stool in front of his mud hut in the village of Pangar, Alain Selembe puffs away at his clay pipe, his gaze lost in the surrounding forest, quite oblivious to the noise made by his two playing daughters. All he hears is the rumbling of bulldozers opening up a 30 kilometre road from Deng Deng village to the confluence of the Lom and Pangar rivers, where the government plans to construct a new dam.

RELIGION-NIGERIA: Poverty, Frustration Fuel Sectarian Violence

The sectarian violence which broke out in several parts of northern Nigeria at the end of July has more to do with popular anger and frustration with prevailing economic conditions than religion, say religious experts and Muslim groups. Concerns have also been raised about the reaction of security forces.

Q&A: Agriculture Can Lead Poverty Reduction

Agriculture is vital to the economies of West and Central African countries, but poverty remains a reality in the region's rural areas.

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.

POLITICS-MAURITANIA: Election Results Challenged

Coup leader-turned-politician General Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz has been declared winner of Saturday's presidential elections by Mauritania’s Interior Ministry.

HEALTH-NIGERIA: Business Booming for Traditional Bone-Setters

Dressed in a simple buba (Nigerian wear) and black trousers on this particular morning, Lawal Olukole receives patients in a six by six foot consulting room made of plywood.

Q&A: Burkina Faso Moving Towards Food Security

Burkina Faso was one of several countries that where a rapid rise in food prices led to rioting in the streets in 2008. Policy-makers had sensed a crisis developing, but the country was not able to build up sufficient reserves of imported commodities such as rice, wheat and oil to avoid it. There is now an emphasis on achieving food security.

ENVIRONMENT-NIGERIA: Playing With Fire

Nigeria's gas flare-out date has once again been extended - this time to 2011. The decision follows 25 years of political procrastination by the federal government and illegal behaviour on the part of major oil multinationals engaged in flaring associated gas (AG), the byproduct of oil production in the Niger Delta.

SIERRA LEONE: Radio Stations Banned

Two Sierra Leonean radio stations have been stripped of their licences. The national regulatory body, the Independent Media Commission (IMC), says the stations failed to comply with the country's media code.

MAURITANIA: First Steps for Women's Cooperatives

In December 2008, a group of young women staged a protest against the common practice of fattening women before marriage, intended to make them more attractive in the eyes of men. The protest did not immediately result in the end of the practice, but it was a landmark event showing a new assertiveness among Mauritanian women in a society where men use tradition and sharia law to maintain their dominance.

GHANA: Tomato Queens Short-Change Farmers

When you meet Naomi Aframea, 60, in the streets of Accra, you could take her for any other Ghanaian woman going about her business. But step into her stall at Agbobloshie Market, one of the capital’s satellite markets, and amidst stacks of the wooden crates used to ship tomatoes, you sense her power.

WATER-MAURITANIA: Govt Needs to Invest

Ndey Sall, a resident of Sixième, one of the poorest suburbs in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, spends the equivalent of a dollar a day on water. That's almost half of her income - not much left to pay for food, rent, or medicine if a family member falls sick.

RIGHTS-GAMBIA: What Has Govt Got To Hide?

Following a court appearance on Jul. 3, six of the seven Gambian journalists who were arrested and charged with sedition last month were again sent to Mile 2 Prison.

LIBERIA: Controversial Mayor is Talk of the Town

Myaha Johnson sits with her family beneath a flimsy shelter of black plastic, looking with despair at the charred remains of what used to be their home. Mary Broh, Monrovia’s controversial mayor-designate, had just swept through the neighbourhood with her task force, vigorously tearing down residential structures along the back road, including their own.

HEALTH-SENEGAL: Fistula Sufferers Left To Their Fate

In Senegal's southern region, 58 percent of deliveries take place at home without any medical assistance, according to state reproductive health officials in Kolda, a town 425 km from the capital, Dakar. Women in the region suffer from exceptionally high rates of fistula.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Fears of Further Pain

With no formal education, Mama Ibeji may not be tracking the global economic crisis in the newspapers. But from her little roadside restaurant in Makoko, a Lagos suburb, she can tell that all is not well with the Nigerian economy.

RIGHTS-GAMBIA: Who Killed Deyda Hydara?

Six of the seven Gambian Press Union (GPU) officials and journalists arrested last week have now been freed on bail. The journalists still face serious charges including "conspiracy to publish with seditious intention".

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.

EDUCATION-AFRICA: The Other Crisis

The World Economic Forum on Africa has just concluded in Cape Town. If government leaders and captains of industry called for an eight trillion dollar bailout for the continent’s beleaguered education system - like the one found for the world’s biggest bankers - it went unreported.

GHANA-ECONOMY: Credit Crunch Starts To Bite

When the news of the global financial crisis broke in Ghana last year, the then-President John Kufuor said the country’s economy was insulated against the effects of the credit crunch being reported in Europe and the United States. There now seems to be an admission now that ripples are being felt.