The incumbent chairman of the opposition umbrella in Mauritania, Mamadou Alassane Ba, has called for an end to military rule in the country. Ba, who leads the Mauritanian Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD), an umbrella of 12 political parties, called “for the withdrawal of the military system in power in Mauritania for 30 years to end the misery and suffering of the people.

This handbook from the African Centre for Biosafety will enable readers to:
1. Know the field and articulate your position;
2. Familiarise yourself with the regulatory issues;
3. Identify your allies;
4. Interact with the process;
5. Keep the pressure on.

This video report for the African Refugee Development Center (ARDC) on the mistreatment of asylum seekers in Israel was submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on 30 January 2012. It presents evidence of racial discrimination towards African asylum seekers and refugees who have walked across Israel's open border with Egypt.

Listening to Somaliland – and deploying some of its methods in achieving stability – is crucial to addressing the crisis in Somalia.

Police in Swaziland fired teargas on Monday 30 January at students protesting their university's failure to open for the semester, injuring several people, a student leader said. Police arrested at least four demonstrators after students of the University of Swaziland vowed to occupy the labour ministry and clashed with peers from a teachers college who refused to join their protest. The university announced last week it would not be able to open as scheduled, the second time in two semesters it has postponed its opening.

OSISA, in conjucnction with the Africa Foundations of the Open Society network of Foundations (OSF) is hosting a gathering in Cape Town, 22-24 May 2012, entitled the 'OpenForum: Money, Power & Sex: The Paradox of Unequal Growth'. Under the theme, the OpenForum will provide a space to talk about the economic, social and political implications of the emerging world order. It will also provide space for a range of actors - prominent and well known, as well as younger and newer voices - to take a critical look at the factors that will influence the African democracy and governance agenda over the next decade. Bring your ideas, let’s turn them into action!
The Call for Proposals is available at the following link:

Young people Tweeting from mobile devices are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, according to How Africa Tweets, new research launched in Nairobi. In the first ever attempt to comprehensively map the use of Twitter in Africa, Portland Communications and Tweetminster analysed over 11.5 million geo-located Tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011.

Wednesday 25 January marked the one-year anniversary since the beginning of 18 days of protests that ousted the previous regime of Hosni Mubarak. Since that day, Egypt remains struggling to see the revolution succeed. Website has a useful timeline of important events throughout the year.

Oxfam seeks to expand its capacity to hold global multi-lateral institutions and African States accountable to the claims of people living in poverty, suffering and injustice in the African countries we work in. The Pan Africa Programme is a continental public policy advocacy programme with staff in based Nairobi, Hague, Addis Ababa and Dakar. Together with the State of the Union coalition (www.stateoftheunionafrica.net) , we are looking to fill seven exciting vacancies based in Nairobi. Are you ready to act with poor people and their allies to make claims on the global and African policy processes? Are you committed to holding African States accountable to their own decisions within the African Union? We are looking for people like you to fill a total of seven positions. The first three positions will form the Nairobi based secretariat of newly established State of the Union coalition. The remaining four positions will be Oxfam staff working within the Pan Africa programme office in Nairobi, Kenya.

OSIWA calls for proposals that seek to:
1. Foster building of strong governance institutions, processes and structures that are transparent, accountable and intolerant of impunity;
2. Build the capacity of civil society organizations and increase citizen participation in decision-making processes and
3. Promote the protection of fundamental rights and citizenship groups exposed to discrimination.

The programs will be implemented in one or more of these countries: Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

Please click on the link provided to access the full Call for Proposals, which contains further links to a detailed strategy to guide the application process and the application documents.

Because of the outstanding success of the workshops at last year's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., the ASA will welcome proposals for workshops on a wide range of topics to be held on Wednesday, November 28, 2012, prior to the 55th Annual Meeting.

Last year's workshops were organized by the Library of Congress, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, American University; and scholars from the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health. Topics included health in Africa, governance and development, new technologies in the field of museum studies, and information resources and materials.

To propose a workshop, please visit the to view and complete the application. Submit the completed document as an attachment to [email][email protected] or mail to: Pre-Conference Workshops, African Studies Association, Rutgers University-Livingston Campus, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854. The deadline to submit applications is March 15, 2012. Applicants will be notified of the Program Committee's decision in early April.

Until his death on 20 January 2012, Dudley J. Thompson remained a revered leader of the Afro-American diaspora.

The Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) of the African Union has called for monitoring of human rights in occupied Western Sahara, during its 23rd ordinary session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The PRC asked the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to provide constant information on the developments taking place in occupied Western Sahara.

Fahamu is seeking an experienced Finance and Operations Director. Reporting to the Executive Director, the Finance and Operations Director will be a hands on and participative manager who will lead a team to manage the organisation’s finance and operations (including human resources and administration).

The imprisoned former Liberian president Charles Taylor has categorically denied working as a United States spy and vows to sue the Boston Globe newspaper that made the revelation. Reacting to the publication through his Jamaican-born lawyer Courtenay Griffiths, Taylor said he has never worked or played any role on behalf of any US government intelligence agency in his 'personal capacity'.

“The liberation of the oppressed people cannot come as a result of magical practices, nor of a natural shock, nor of a friendly understanding”. Those were the powerful words of Frantz Fanon in his masterpiece “The Wretched of the Earth”. Fanon spoke of decolonisation as a violent process to create new men and to overthrow a system that exploits the native, dehumanises him and plunders his resources. Talk by Dr Leo Zeilig: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 28 January at 15:00. Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N 2AB

Forum 2012, to be held 24-26 April 2012 in Cape Town, is the beginning of an exciting new series of the well-known and respected Global Forum for Health Research meetings. Under the theme of 'Beyond Aid...Research and Innovation as key drivers for Health, Equity and Development', COHRED and the Global Forum for Health Research will focus on potentials, solutions, and developing capacities - specifically in low-and middle-income countries and emerging economies - and how global collaboration canleverage this for a new era of global development support.

The African Studies Association is soliciting proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables. Presentations may focus on the theme of 'Research Frontiers in the Study of Africa' or on broader social science, humanities, and applied themes relating to Africa.

The African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) committee of experts has tabled a proposal that could lead to a settlement for the thorny oil issue between Sudan and South Sudan. The proposal was submitted at the current round of talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on post independence issues between the two countries.

A startling revelation made by a US newspaper indicates that former Liberian President Charles Taylor was aided by American intelligence agents to escape from a Boston prison where he was awaiting extradition back to his country. The Boston Globe newspaper this week carried the report which also indicated Taylor worked as a spy for the Americans for many years. He had fled Liberia where he was wanted for embezzling millions of dollars from the government and was awaiting extradition from the US when he escaped from the Massachusetts jail in 1985.