Mali’s northern desert capital Kidal was back in government hands on Wednesday, a day after Tuareg rebels demanding a better economic deal for the region blitzed a string of barracks. The rebels, who attacked two bases in Kidal and one in Menaka further south, made off with vehicles, arms and munitions.

On 18 May 2006, the self-declared Republic of Somaliland marked fifteen years since it proclaimed independence from Somalia. Although its sovereignty is still unrecognised by any country, the fact that it is a functioning constitutional democracy distinguishes it from the majority of entities with secessionist claims, and a small but growing number of governments in Africa and the West have shown sympathy for its cause.

The Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure has again expressed, on Sunday, his resentment against international mining companies exploiting gold in his country, implying that to ensure bliss to Kayes (600Km west Bamako) residents, he relies “more on roads than the glittering metal”. “We made a mistake by thinking that Kayes' happiness will come from gold not roads,” Amadou Toumani Toure noted, on Sunday, while inaugurating a 98km asphalted road linking Kayes to the Senegalese town of Kidira.

At least five people have been killed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, when Islamist gunmen attacked a warlord, breaking a three-day truce. A compound belonging to warlord Mohamed Omar Habeb Dheere north of Mogadishu was overrun by the Islamist gunmen. The attack coincided with a rally intended to call for peace, following the death of at least 140 people. Hundreds of demonstrators chanted anti-US slogans, accusing the US of backing the alliance of warlords.

More than 300 Somalis and Ethiopians were smuggled into Yemen last weekend with tales of a harrowing trip during which the smugglers beat three passengers to death and threw their corpses overboard, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said. Of the 335 who reportedly arrived in Yemen, only 35 came to the agency’s reception centre in May’faa in southern Yemen, but survivors of the dangerous Gulf of Aden trip often travel to other destinations, UNHCR spokesman told journalists at the UN complex in Geneva.

The transitional Somali government has achieved very little since its formation over 15 months ago. Recent fighting in Mogadishu notwithstanding, senior officials of the Somali transitional federal government maintain that they are making progress in stamping out lawlessness, despite lack of international support. Doubts also persist over the functionality of the transitional parliament. In an exclusive interview with The EastAfrican in Nairobi during the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) congress, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, the speaker of the Somali transitional parliament argued that the government - currently holed up in Baidoa - could move to Mogadishu within two months if it got support from the international community.

A group of Malians deported from France is due to hold a march to protest at the visit of hardline French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy this week. The planned march follows a statement from Malian MPs, calling on Mr Sarkozy to call off his "undesirable" visit. Mr Sarkozy wants to reduce illegal immigration and has been behind the deportation of many Malians.

The role of the Director will be primarily to enhance the coherency and improve the quality of the service delivery of the advisory practice, as well as to develop and reinforce linkages with local and international strategic partners. The Director holds final responsibility for the identification of new partners/clients and resource mobilisation. In addition, the Director is expected to personally engage in advisory services for key client accounts.

This is a unique event for media professionals to exchange knowledge about media productions with children and youth in developing countries. Forum topics include: quality production; technical aspects; training; project planning; monitoring and evaluating impact, networking and fundraising. Register today and contact the organisers to be a speaker.

It was the little things: smiles; handshakes; driving from the airport without an armed escort; seeing a traffic warden, a public library, a government ministry building; not seeing a gun or hearing a gunshot. Even the weather seemed pleasantly different: a cool breeze floated over Hargeisa at night. According to the map, this was still Somalia. Yet it felt like another country. "Because it is!" said Abdirahman Awil, a small, balding man who had invited me into his restaurant, suddenly becoming animated. "Somaliland is not Somalia - 100% of us know that, even 120%!"

The Youth, Media, Development Forum is a forum for media professionals from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The global aim of the forum is to produce more quality media projects with children, using all technologies and art forms available - television, radio, internet, print, video, music, theatre, photography, cartoons, etc.

Insecurity and drought have driven some 1,780 Somali refugees into Kenya since the beginning of January, a spokesman from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has said. There are more than 100,000 Somali refugees living in three camps in the Dadaab area of Kenya's Northeastern Province, which borders on Somalia. Most of the refugees in Dadaab arrived in the 1990s, to flee the fighting and famine caused by Somalia's civil war.

Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared (but internationally unrecognised) state of Somaliland is bursting at the seams these days with former refugees who have come back to their country, but have nowhere to live but squalid settlements, often set up without permission on state or private land. At the same time, the city is booming thanks to other returnees who are bringing home their skills learned in exile, and quite often their money as well.

Reports of baboons and hyenas attacking communities in drought-stricken Somalia are becoming common. The wild creatures are said to be locked in competition with human beings in search of water as the merciless drought currently affecting the entire Horn of Africa region exhausts both food and water supplies.

The African Union is coming under increased pressure from the breakaway Somaliland Republic to accord it recognition.
This follows revelations that an AU fact-finding mission to Somaliland between April 30 and May 4, 2005, had expressed the opinion that Somaliland had been made a "pariah region" by default. It strongly recommended the country's recognition, saying that since its declaration of independence in 1991, Somaliland has been steadily laying the foundations of a democratic "modern state."

The Bamako Appeal, issued from a meeting just before the World Social Forum, Bamako, January, 2006, has now been launched for signature, in French, English and Spanish, by the Dakar-based Forum Tiers Monde/Third World Forum. “The Bamako Appeal and the proposals for a plan of action included in the document were adopted by the Assembly of Social Movements of the World Social Forum which met in Caracas on January 29, 2006, in the frame of the polycentric WSF 2006.”

As indicated by its name, this Citizens' Jury is a space to share knowledge, dialogue and inform decisions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in relation to the future of farming in Mali. This event involved farmers - men and women - from all districts of the Sikasso region in Mali. The Citizens' Jury on GMOs took place in Sikasso between 25 and 29 January 2006. Follow the link to access the outcome document, which presents the recommendations of the 45 men and women farmers from all districts of the region of Sikasso who met to cross-examine specialist witnesses and deliberate on the issue of GMOs and farming futures in Mali.

The Association of Women in Development (AWID) interviewed Roselynn Musa, of FEMNET, about her experiences at the World Social Forum, held late January in Bamako, Mali. "As regards global issues there was some stock-taking on certain themes which were central to the World Social Forum that was held at Porto Alegre in 2004. These themes were neo-liberal globalisation, the future of women's bodies, conflict and militarism, women and peace, fundamentalisms combating gender equality and the exclusion of women from decision-making organs."

Globalization intellectuals and political activists, including Marxist economists and organizers, came together to meet on Jan. 18-19 in Bamako, Mali, just before the polycentric World Social Forum opened in this city. The gathering, which was not an official WSF activity but whose invitees also participated in many WSF discussions, issued a statement at the end of the meeting: the Bamako Appeal. The appeal involves promoting discussion and action on a series of points outlining major problems for humanity. These include the need to build a workers' united front and to struggle against imperialist domination and U.S. military hegemony; the problems of peasant societies under threat of destruction from subsidized competition; democratic management of media and cultural diversity; and the struggle against neoliberal and market-driven policies.

* To read the rest of this article visit http://www.workers.org/2006/world/bamako-appeal-0202/

* To read the Bamako appeal, click on the link below.

Farmers in Mali, the fourth poorest country in the world, have told their government they do not want to see genetically modified crops being grown on their land, after Africa's first "farmers' jury" debated the issue. Their verdict comes as the Mali government decides whether to allow trials of genetically modified crops to begin in the country. During the five-day meeting in Sikasso, in the south of Mali, where two thirds of the country's cotton is produced, farmers heard arguments for and against the introduction of GM technology.