'According to the UN World Food Programme, there is enough food in the world for 12 billion people. If today people are still starving, then this is organized crime, mass murder. Every five seconds, one child under the age of ten dies, one billion people are permanently and heavily undernourished.' This is a quote from Jean Ziegler, who was until recently (2000-2008) the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, in an interview about a new book that he is published. Blog Africa is a Country has translated parts of the interview in their discussion about Ziegler and the book.

An outbreak of cholera along the Kenya-Somalia border has left dozens dead and many more sick, according to local residents, aid workers and government officials. 'We have recorded nine deaths of cholera patients at our health facilities in the past three weeks, and 89 cases have been diagnosed at different settlement locations close to the border areas,' Mohamed Sheikh, director of public health in Kenya's North Eastern Province, told IRIN.

Nearly a quarter of Kenyans expect a presidential vote in March to be marred by post-election violence, an opinion poll showed, raising fears of a repeat of unrest in 2007/8 when more than 1,200 people were killed after a disputed ballot. Kenya's 4 March poll will be closely watched and any serious violence is likely to be viewed dimly by the United States which has urged Kenya to hold free and fair elections and to be a role model for Africa.

The faculty of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Tunis closed on Thursday last week and suspended classes for three days after violent confrontations broke out between Islamist and leftist students, causing considerable damage to classrooms and facilities – and promising a difficult academic year to come. The incident at the institution’s oldest faculty revived memories of a long history of clashes at the University of Tunis between leftists and Islamists.

A Cameroon court has suspended sale of a new book which alleges that the country's growth has been held by bogus sects run by people close to the authorities. The move came after country's Science and Research minister, Madeleine Tchuinte, took to court the author of the book titled 'Cameroon Under the Dictatorship of Lodges, Sects, Magico-Anal and Mafia Networks'.

Rwanda’s military intelligence department known as J2 has illegally held scores of civilians in military detention without charge or trial amid credible claims of torture, Amnesty International states in a new report. 'Rwanda: Shrouded in Secrecy: Illegal Detention and Torture by Military Intelligence' reveals unlawful detention, enforced disappearances, as well as allegations of torture by J2. The report details credible accounts of individuals being subjected to serious beatings, electric shocks and sensory deprivation to force confessions during interrogations.

Oil and gas discovers in East Africa have re-ignited long-standing territorial disputes in areas believed to possess significant petroleum deposits. This week, Malawi announced it would take Tanzania to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, over the disputed ownership of Lake Malawi, known in Tanzania as Lake Nyasa. Tanzania claims that colonial era treaties between Great Britain and Germany demarcated the border down the middle of the lake but since independence Malawi has claimed sovereignty over the whole of its northern reaches.

The Forum for Democratic (FDC) party crusader, Dr Kizza Besigye, has said that President Museveni must at all costs be removed from power ‘forcefully’ if the country is to be saved from further decadence. In a press briefing at his home in Kasangati; which is heavily under guard by plain-clothed security operatives, Col. Besigye noted that through continued civil disobedience across the country, the departure of President Museveni is 'inevitable'.

As mining projects in South Africa and Peru face violent opposition, critics are questioning the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) stakes in the companies at the centre of the controversies. IFC funds for mines in Mongolia and Guinea have also caused alarm, prompting renewed interest in the recommendations of the Extractive Industries Review.

A trans-woman is viciously assaulted in a hate crime, the police won’t readily help, and there’s little hope for justice. This is just one story of just one day of paying the price of being LGBTI in Uganda, reports this article on the website of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

Malawi's first female president, Joyce Banda, is pushing for family planning efforts in her African nation. Her new Initiative on Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood will provide better access to reproductive health services for women in Malawi, in the hopes that girls will stay in school longer instead of becoming pregnant.

In October 2012, ARTICLE 19 analysed the Draft the Broadcasting Corporation Bill, 2012 of South Sudan. 'In particular, we are concerned that the biggest changes introduced relate to the process for appointing and dismissing members of the Board of Directors of SSBC, and that their effect is to place the broadcaster under the control of the President and Minister of Information and Broadcasting, rather than the National Legislative Assembly.'

Africa is a major target for tobacco industry sales and marketing, warned the American Cancer Society (ACS) and World Lung Foundation at the launch of French version of latest Tobacco Atlas. in Dakar Senegal recently. Tobacco industry activity is booming across the African continent, according to ACS. Between 1990 and 2009, cigarette consumption in the Middle East and Africa increased by 57 per cent. According to the The Tobacco Atlas – Fourth Edition, four African countries – Mozambique, Zambia, Mali and Ghana – are among the top five countries with the greatest increase in tobacco production in the last decade.

World food prices rose in September and are seen remaining close to levels reached during the 2008 food crisis, the United Nations' food agency said, while cutting its forecast for global cereal output. The worst drought in more than 50 years in the United States sent corn and soybean prices to record highs over the summer, and, coupled with drought in Russia and other Black Sea exporting countries, raised fears of a renewed crisis.

Governments around the world are leaving hundreds of millions of cancer patients to suffer needlessly because of their failure to ensure adequate access to pain-relieving drugs, a new international survey reveals. The new data, released during the recent European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2012 in Vienna, paints a shocking picture of unnecessary pain on a global scale, said Prof Nathan Cherny, lead author of the report from Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Israel, and chair of the ESMO Palliative Care Working Group.

Global development group Oxfam has called on the World Bank to suspend financing for large-scale land acquisitions to ensure that its practices do not encourage foreign land grabs in developing countries. Oxfam urged Jim Yong Kim, the lender's new president, to announce a six-month moratorium on land investments by the bank at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Tokyo next week.

The convergence of African urbanization and technological change, including the rise of digital media, is driving major change on the continent. Perhaps most dramatic, cellphones and other mobile devices, already widespread, are becoming a nearly universal platform, not only for telephony but also for audio and video information and entertainment. This offers a fundamentally different 'media' experience and has already led to an entirely new and largely unrecognized class of independent media–some newly created channels for international broadcasters–serving the African continent. This report traces the dramatic spread of mobile telephony in Africa and examines how this is affecting the news media landscape on the continent.

The United States would support a 'well planned' and 'well resourced' African-led force to help oust Islamic rebels in northern Mali, provided its neighbours back the idea, a US official said Monday. 'Yes, I say there will have to be at some point military action to push' the rebels linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb out of northern Mali, the top US diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, said.

The Soul Beat Africa Democracy and Governance website is an online space to support knowledge sharing and networking among people and organisations working on democracy and governance issues in Africa, with a particular focus on media and communication. The content consists of programme experiences, resource materials, research reports, events and trainings and covers the following areas: Media and Democracy and Governance; Freedom of Information; Civic Engagement; Anti-corruption; Conflict and Peace; Elections; Gender Empowerment; Rights and Justice; and Parliaments.
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This paper provides a status of trade integration in SADC, highlighting achievements, challenges and constraints. Understanding constraints facing this process can provide insights as to whether the region should forge ahead with its approach to economic integration or retreat and evaluate the process with a view to define what could be its immediate priorities.