Donors have acted hastily in suspending aid to Rwanda over allegations that it is supporting a rebel insurgency in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a leading expert on 'fragile states'. Professor James Putzel, co-author of Meeting the Challenges of Crisis States, a report from the London School of Economics, questioned the decision of the EU, the US and Germany in partially freezing aid to Rwanda amid accusations that its military is supporting the violent rebel group M23. President Paul Kagame has vehemently rejected the allegations.

Days after the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan signed a partial agreement in Addis Ababa, several voices have come out in opposition to some of the agreement’s clauses, particularly in Juba. A number of South Sudanese military commanders and politicians held a press conference declaring their opposition to the deal, particularly the resulting security arrangements.

Nathan Pajibo, like thousands of his fellow Liberians, has been living in Buduburam refugee camp near the Ghanaian capital Accra for over two decades after fleeing the civil war in 1990. In June 2012 he lost his refugee status alongside 11,000 Liberians across the region and the camp will soon be handed over to the district assembly, but lingering fear prevents Pajibo from returning. One of at least 6,000 Liberians still living at Buduburam, he is waiting for the Ghana Refugee Board to process his application. Some 4,000 ex-refugees have applied for local integration, around 1,000 will return to Liberia, and about 1,000 are applying for exemption to remain as refugees, according to the Ghana Refugee Board (GRB).

The majority of Kenyans have confidence in pro gay Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga and his team of judges in the judiciary according to a poll. The survey conducted by Infotrak Research and Consulting found out that 70 per cent of those polled have confidence in Mutunga. Mutunga’s pro-gay activism began with his writings under the pen name Cabral Pinto and has recently said that he believes the Supreme Court would decide on the issue of gay rights and same sex marriage in Kenya.

Residents of Zimbabwe’s cities say that outdated, overflowing sewer systems dirty the streets, contaminate the water supply and threaten their health. City council officials say the government is aware of the problem but can’t afford to overhaul the infrastructure, reports Global Press Institute.

The head of the UN refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, has warned hat the UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies are under increasing strain from a combination of simultaneous major new conflicts and unresolved old ones. In a speech at the annual meeting of UNHCR's Executive Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, Guterres said his organization was facing a level of refugee crises unmatched in its recent history.

As a major international deadline on foreign assistance transparency draws closer, a new index shows that while donors are becoming more open with their data, still less than half of foreign aid information is openly available. 'Progress is being met, things are getting better, but that progress is modest,' David Hall-Matthews, the managing director of Publish What You Fund, a global initiative advocating for aid transparency, said in unveiling the organisation’s Aid Transparency Index 2012. Nearly two-thirds of the organisations that Publish What You Fund surveyed both last year and this year showed improvement, with the average score across all donors going up from 34 per cent to 41 per cent transparency.

The commission's in loco inspection, set up to investigate the August shooting at Marikana, has revealed that the bodies of miners were not limited to a specific area as video footage led many to believe, but were in fact spread out over a vast area. On Monday, crime scene experts led the commission and those involved in the inquiry on an inspection of the area near Marikana where 44 people lost their lives. They were accompanied by a host of national and international media.

A Dutch 'abortion boat' has set sail for Morocco, its first trip to a Muslim country, to provide abortions to women who are exposed to grave health risks if treated domestically, its organiser said on Monday. The group says that, according to figures published by the Moroccan government, between 600 and 800 abortions take place every day in the north African kingdom, where the procedure is illegal and taboo.

The US Supreme Court began its new session recently by re-examining an explosive international case alleging that oil giant Shell was complicit in acts of torture by the Nigerian government. Fresh from their pivotal decision in June to uphold President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, the nine Supreme Court justices took up a case with enormously important ramifications for international human rights. The legal argument pivots on whether foreign plaintiffs have a right to file suit in American courts against US corporations accused of human rights violations, under an arcane 200-year-old statute.

South Sudan's security forces have committed 'shocking' acts of violence against civilians, including killings and rapes, Amnesty International says. In a report, the UK-based human rights group says the abuse has been taking place during a disarmament campaign in the eastern Jonglei state. Amnesty urges South Sudan to take 'immediate action' to end the violence.

In the wake of the attack on the US embassy, Libya’s new government has proposed a worrying State of Emergency law that if put into action would rob citizens of the freedoms they fought so hard for. The draft would grant the authorities powers that clearly infringe on individual freedoms – such as the right to intercept communications of any kind and impose controls on the media.

Family planning advocates in Uganda have scored some major financial and policy wins this year, but experts remain concerned that inadequate political commitment and poor health services will continue to impede women’s and girls’ access to contraceptives. At a global family planning summit in July, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni announced that his government would increase its annual expenditure on family planning supplies from US$3.3million to $5million for the next five years. He also pledged to mobilize an additional $5 million from the country's donors.

Malawi has reacted angrily to sightings of a Tanzanian motor boat on lake Malawi and the release of a new map of Tanzania that claims part of the lake. Malawi president Joyce Banda announced that Malawi will pull out of the talks with Tanzania as Tanzania has failed to respect the route of dialogue that Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete had assured her at a meeting in Mozambique earlier this year.

Tanzania is by next year set to reach the goal of allocating 10 per cent of its annual budget for agricultural sector in line with the AU Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security on the continent. Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Eng Christopher Chiza announced the government commitment when addressing journalists during the ongoing African Green Revolution Forum 2012.

Chinese government state-controlled media, China Central Television (CCTV), launched its African regional bureau in Nairobi, Kenya on January 11, 2012. While its presence has diversified the media landscape in Africa, media watchdogs and foreign media outlets - such as CNN and the New York Times - have been rather skeptical of its journalistic independence given the media organization's close ties with the government.

UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller has appealed for strengthened political will to help the world’s more than 42 million refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless people, amid a recent rise in new humanitarian emergencies in Africa and the Middle East. In a speech to the annual meeting of UNHCR’s governing Executive Committee (ExCom), Feller listed drawn-out displacement situations, insecure settings, difficulties in helping acutely vulnerable people, and funding shortages as the major current obstacles to quality protection. However, she also took aim at countries seeking to outsource their asylum responsibilities elsewhere.

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.