Energy-intensive industrial farming practices that rely on toxic chemicals and genetically engineered crops are not just undermining public health, they’re destroying the planet.

The self-declared Republic of Somaliland is grappling with high child and maternal mortality rates, malnutrition and inadequate medical personnel, health officials told IRIN. 'Somaliland has one of the worst maternal mortality ratios in the world, estimated to be between 10,443 and 14,004 per 100,000 live births,' said Ettie Higgins, head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) field office in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland. 'The infant mortality rate is 73/1,000 while the under-five mortality [rate] is about 117/1,000. Fully immunized children represent a mere five per cent. Environmental sanitation is highly challenged,' she said.

The lives of thousands of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at risk as the country faces declining donor funding and a severe shortage of HIV treatment, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF recently launched a year-long advocacy campaign to raise awareness of the DRC's HIV crisis. 'The problem is quite old in the DRC; the country has always been minimized by donors who have not seen it as a priority, mainly because HIV prevalence is relatively low at between 3 and 4 percent,' Thierry Dethier, advocacy manager for MSF Belgium in the DRC, told IRIN/PlusNews.

South Africa's leading HIV group has warned that large numbers of 'faulty' condoms are in circulation in the Bloemfontein area, despite a recall. The problem with the condoms was discovered after people complained to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). Health authorities have recalled more than one million condoms handed out ahead of the recent African National Congress centenary celebrations.

Health services in northern Uganda are still scarce in the wake of the region's 20-year civil war, leaving many battling diseases that could be cured with proper medical treatment. Elephantiasis is a widespread disease caused by a parasite that causes limbs to swell up, leaving sufferers in pain and often ostracised from their communities. According to the World Health Organisation [WHO], neglected tropical diseases, such as elephantiasis, affect more than one billion people, primarily poor populations living in tropical and subtropical climates.

There are fears of a looming food shortage in Burundi after heavy rains damaged two successive harvests, say officials. 'More than half of the expected harvest was lost in flooding and siltation,' Methode Niyongendako, a consultant with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said. The rains peaked in mid-September and November, exceeding forecasts in terms of volume and frequency, and were the heaviest since October 1961, according to households questioned, added Niyongendako.

Côte d'Ivoire is abandoning free health care for all after a brief experiment because of skyrocketing costs. 'In nine months the government had to pay 30 billion CFA francs [about US$60 million] under difficult circumstances,' Ivoirian Health Minister Yoman N'dri said in Abidjan on 24 January. As of February, the free service would only be available to mothers and their children.

The Tanzanian government has indicated it was bowing to pressure from medical doctors in public hospitals, who have been on strike to press for improved working conditions. Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has appealed to the doctors to resume work, underlining his readiness to meet with their representatives in order to work out a lasting solution to their grievances.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has highlighted the recent death of two activists. Political activist Mohamed Jamal, member of a coalition of committees defending the revolution, was found bleeding from a stab wound on 21 January and died of his injuries. Meanwhile, political activist Karim Abo Zed, member of the revolution coalition in Algharbya governorate, died on the same day in a mysterious accident on the desert road, said ANHRI.

In the context of widespread instability in Nigeria, this blog post raises questions about recent cases in which arms destined for the country were intercepted. In one case, a British based man was arraigned in the UK over the shipping of 80,000 rifles and pistols and 32 million rounds of ammunition to Nigeria. The shipment included 40,000 AK47 assault rifles, 30,000 rifles and 10,000 9mm pistols. In another case, Ghanaian authorities intercepted a truck loaded with arms and ammunitions heading to Nigeria. Both cases are cause for concern, argues the blogger.

If it was not for HIV/AIDS, the population of South Africa would be over 4.4 million more than it is today, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations' latest South Africa Survey. The survey, published this week, says there are 50.6 million people in the country and in the absence of AIDS, this would have been 55.0 million.

The People’s Health Assembly (PHA), organised by the People's Health Movement (PHM), is a global event bringing together health activists from across the world to share experiences, analyse global health situation, develop civil society positions and to develop strategies which promote health for all. It will look at forms of action to address identified challenges and build capacity among health activists to act.

The African Activist Archive Project is preserving records and memories of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s. The project is reaching out to the hundreds of organisations and individuals that supported African liberation struggles and is urging them to preserve their vital records and to make selected materials available to the public on this website. The project also assists groups and individuals to deposit their archives in public repositories, including the African Activist Archive in Special Collections at Michigan State University Libraries.

This year, a well-known international meeting on global health research will adopt a provocative new theme. The subtitle of Forum 2012, the successor to the conferences organised by the former Global Forum for Health Research, will be ‘Beyond Aid’. No longer will the conference focus mainly on the use of funds from traditional donors and funders of health research in Europe and North America to improve the developing world’s morbidity and mortality statistics. Instead, the meeting will consider a funding model in which poor countries develop their own contracts and partnerships, and use their own resources.

Karuturi Global Ltd., the world’s largest exporter of cut roses with 250,000 acres under rose cultivation in Ethiopia, is under the scanner of New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which in a new report highlights the forced eviction of thousands of indigenous people in the African country’s Gambella region, where Karuturi is a key operator. Bangalore-based Karuturi, in a letter to Human Rights Watch and in a conversation with Mint, denied any wrongdoing.

The Ethiopian government under its villagization' program is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare, and educational facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. State security forces have repeatedly threatened, assaulted, and arbitrarily arrested villagers who resist the transfers.

A rising proportion of abortions worldwide are putting women's health at risk, researchers say. The World Health Organization study suggests global abortion rates are steady, at 28 per 1,000 women a year. However, the proportion of the total carried out without trained clinical help rose from 44 per cent in 1995 to 49 per cent in 2008.

The report argues that the recent crisis has been a catalyst for important policy reforms, but governments have yet to address its underlying causes. The international community is avoiding deeper structural reforms.

Reducing methane and black carbon emissions could quickly tackle climate change while improving food security and people's health, especially in developing countries, a study reports.Scientists identified 14 emission control measures that, when applied together, could reduce global warming by around 0.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, avoid up to 4.7 million premature deaths, and boost crop yields by up to 135 million metric tonnes by 2030.

Involving men is increasingly being promoted as a key element in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and while its benefits are well-documented - in one Kenyan study it reduced the risks of vertical transmission and infant mortality by more than 40 percent compared with no involvement - it can occasionally lead to domestic discord and even violence.