MINING-LIBERIA: Steel Town Blues For Yekepa

Three exhausted railroad workers sip beer and talk on the back porch of a makeshift bar in Liberia's rural Nimba County, concealed by nightfall and the deafening din of motorcycles and a generator nearby.

MINING-WEST AFRICA: Ending the Race to the Bottom

Resource extraction in West Africa has often coincided with environmental degradation and brutal conflict. Activists further charge that the agreements between governments and transnational mining companies do little to benefit local communities.

CULTURE-NIGERIA: Award-Winning Film Lands Director in Jail

The first time I visited award-winning Northern Nigerian filmmaker Hamisu Lamido Iyan-Tama in prison, a week after his arrest, the former Kano State gubernatorial candidate seemed to be in high spirits.

HEALTH-NIGERIA: Polio – Making Up For Lost Time

Six years ago, authorities in the northern Nigerian state of Kano suspended polio vaccination campaigns for thirteen months. It was a major setback for eradication of the disease, which has since regained a foothold in Africa's most populous nation and re-infected several other countries that were considered polio-free.

WEST AFRICA: Female Genital Mutilation Knows No Borders

Laws against female genital mutilation are driving the practice underground and across borders, says UNIFEM.

COTE D’IVOIRE: Formal Economy Returns to the North

Mamadou Dembélé has removed all the contraband products he has sold for the past in six years at his shop in Bouaké in central Ivory Coast. This is due to the gradual return of government control in the area - occupied by the rebellion launched in the country in September 2002.

BURKINA FASO: Grain Shortage Despite Record Harvest

Looking worried, Hadja Mamounata Belegda, commercial grain farmer, rubs the beads of her rosary between her fingers and ponders the consequences of grain shortages on the market in Burkina Faso.

LIBERIA: Life a Struggle for Ex-Combatants

Hajah Kamara's life of violence began when she was not yet a teenager. After rebels butchered her father and pregnant mother in their Voinjama home, they forced her to become a ‘wife’ and a fighter in their warring faction.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Better Education Improves Health of Mothers and Children

A new UNICEF report reveals there is still much to be done to reduce infant and maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Failure to improve care for pregnant women and newborns threatens to undermine progress on all health-related development goals.

POLITICS-GHANA: New President Must Tackle Economy

As Ghana’s president-elect, John Evans Atta Mills, prepares to take office, he has his work cut out for him translating several years of strong macro-economic performance into tangible benefits for the majority of Ghanaians.

POLITICS-GUINEA: Captain Named President, Promises Elections in 2010

Just under 48 hours after the death of Guinean president, Lansana Conté on Dec. 22, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara has been named Guinea's new head of state by the National Council for Democracy and Development, known by its French acronym, CNDD.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Constitutions Affirmed as Essential for Democracy

One of Africa's main challenges is ensuring that constitutions reflect a consensus amongst all sectors of the population, including vulnerable groups such as women, are rarely taken into account in constitutional strengthening initiatives.

DEATH PENALTY-SIERRA LEONE: Successful Appeal Strengthens Case For Abolition

A court in Sierra Leone has overturned treason convictions for 11 men. It is the first successful appeal against a death penalty in that country, opening the possibility of an eventual end to capital punishment there.

RIGHTS-LIBERIA: ‘We Will Use Our Children as Shields’

"We are not just going to let a bulldozer come in and demolish our land. If possible we will use our children as shields. We will have to do that," exclaims Eric Lavella, a middle-aged Firestone factory worker living in the heart of Liberia’s largest rubber plantation, 60 kilometres south of the capital Monrovia.

GHANA: Indecisive On Small Arms Control

It is estimated that there are eight million small arms in circulation in the West African subregion, with grave consequences for the region's security.

RIGHTS-MAURITANIA: ‘Chains Are Jewellery For Men’

Mauritania's security forces are again accused of routine and systematic torture of political opponents and Islamists accused of links with international terrorist groups. A report released by Amnesty International today details cruel violations of human rights, poor prison conditions and a judicial system that offers little protection.

TRADE-WEST AFRICA: Swollen Shoot Disease Devastating Cocoa Trees

On a hot November afternoon, Opanin Owusu Adu showed me around his farm on the outskirts of Suhum, a town in the Eastern Region in Ghana.

POLITICS-GHANA: The Fruits of the Future

The upside: three political parties selected women as vice-presidential candidates in the general elections of Dec. 7, the first time ever in Ghana’s history. The downside: the parties are small and have no real chance of victory.

POLITICS-GUINEA: Marching to the Beat of Her Own Drum

Surprises have been a common occurrence in the all-but-common political career that made Kaba Rougui Barry the first female mayor in Guinea since political parties were legalised in 1990.

POLITICS-BENIN: Women Left Out of New Govt

"Every change is a step backwards in this new era. It's disheartening," is Claire Houngan Ayémona's response to Benin's newly-appointed cabinet.

WEST AFRICA: Primary Health Care Key to MDGs

None of the 16 nations of West Africa will achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of reducing child mortality or improving maternal health without serious efforts to improve their health care systems, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).