DEVELOPMENT-SIERRA LEONE: Freetown Shackled by Garbage

Winstanley Johnson will probably go down in history books for the fact that earlier this year, he became the first elected mayor in 30 years of Sierra Leone's capital - Freetown. As he picks his way around the rubbish heaps in the city, however, there may well be times when he wonders whether it's worth having this honour.

ENERGY-CAMEROON: Flicking the Switch on Growth

Mention the word "electricity" to a Cameroonian, and the chances are that they’ll laugh ruefully. For several years now, power cuts have been an everyday fact of life in this West African country – crippling businesses, and eating into economic growth.

POLITICS-GHANA: Election Battle Comes to South Africa

The campaign trail for Ghana’s general election in December is taking a detour through South Africa this week, with the visit of opposition leader John Evans Atta Mills.

DEVELOPMENT-NIGER: Fight Against Poverty Gets Mixed Reviews

The year 1980 proved to be a turning point for Niger, marked as it was by a slump in the sale of uranium, the country’s main export commodity. Since then, Niger has experienced a series of economic crises aggravated by drought – causing poverty in rural and urban areas to deepen.

CULTURE-CAMEROON: Religious Tensions on the Rise in the North

Earlier this year, conflict in Nigeria’s central Plateau state – resulting in part from religious tensions – sparked concern about relations between Christians and Muslims in that country. Now, another West African state appears to be grappling with a similar problem: Cameroon.

POLITICS-LIBERIA: Policing the Police

Since the start of a United Nations disarmament programme in Liberia in December 2003, much attention has been paid to the painfully difficult process of reintegrating the country’s rebel troops into society.

LABOUR-NIGERIA: Oil Industry Crisis Worsening

Indigenous oil workers in Nigeria are angry with multinational oil companies operating in the country’s Niger Delta region over the influx of foreign oil workers mainly from the United States and Europe.

HIV/AIDS-SENEGAL: Adults Shy Away From Condom

Senegal is a role model in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Along with Uganda and Thailand, the UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says the West African country has succeeded in reducing the spread of the virus.

HIV/AIDS-NIGERIA: School Urged to Re-admit Student Living with Virus

The debate around a journalism school in Lagos, which has withdrawn the admission letter of a new student, after learning that he is living with HIV, doesn’t seem to go away.

TECHNOLOGY: Rural Africa Yearning for Internet, Connectivity

In a few years, an old woman in rural Africa should be able, if all goes according to plan, to connect to the net and communicate with her children in the city.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: The Dictator’s Achilles’ Heel

Legal action in Spain and the United States taking aim at secret bank accounts of President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea could become a weapon to help put an end to his 25-year dictatorship, say opposition leaders and activists from the West African nation.

POLITICS: Five Years On, Guinea Still Occupies Sierra Leone’s Territory

Angry Sierra Leoneans are demanding that their government ask Guinea to withdraw its troops from their territory which they occupied five years ago.

RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Activists Target Alleged Extra-Judicial Killings

"Kill and go": this is the nickname that has been given to Nigeria’s mobile police unit. Its members have an alleged propensity to gun down people at the slightest provocation, then walk away unconcerned.

/CORRECTION*/HEALTH-GUINEA: Killing AIDS Patients With Kindness

The debate on how best to provide anti-retroviral medication to HIV-positive citizens has taxed the ingenuity of many an African government - not least that of Guinea. However, the administration of this country now appears to be making citizens the victim of its own good intentions.

HEALTH-SIERRA LEONE: Drug Abuse a Threat to Enduring Peace

The guns may have fallen silent, the killings stopped and the terrorising of civilians ended. But, the problem of drug use is still a reality in Sierra Leone, opening a new battlefront for the authorities of this impoverished country.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTHERN AFRICA: NEPAD Highlights Infrastructure Needs

"If you see a set of bright, shining lights at night, it's not a vehicle but a giraffe that got stuck in a pothole in the middle of the road. So, watch out," Zambians used to joke about the state of their roads a few years ago.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Champagne Tastes on Beer Money?

It was billed as a summit where a new future for Africa would be unveiled. African Union chief Alpha Oumar Konare laid out a 1.7 billion dollar plan that would help revitalise the troubled and marginalized continent.

HEALTH-SENEGAL: Cardinals and Khalifs Unite Against AIDS

It's 13:30 in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on Friday. Traffic stops around the Old Mosque. The sound of babouches shuffling on the pavement replaces hooting. Thousands fill the streets.

POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE: “Dogs of War and Hounds From Hell”

"This is the day I've been waiting for, the day when someone would be made to answer for what the rebels did to me," said 20-year-old Jabati Mambu, a student whose right arm was amputated by Sierra Leonean rebels during their invasion of the capital, Freetown, in Jan. 1999.

DEVELOPMENT-LIBERIA: After Peace – Household Waste, Shrapnel, Carcasses…

Liberia's capital has endured civil war and an influx of displaced people from surrounding areas. But, can it survive an erratic sewerage system - and the mounting tide of garbage produced by residents?

POLITICS: Cleaning Up Africa's Image

Conflict resolution and poverty reduction will dominate the annual summit of the African Union (AU), to be held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, this week from Jul. 6 to 8.