The UNHCR says it is alarmed by a dramatic rise in the number of new refugee arrivals from Somalia into Kenya. Over the past two weeks the Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya has received more than 20,000 Somali refugees. The new arrivals are mostly farmers and animal herders from Lower Juba and the city of Dhobley. During 2010, Dadaab received an average of 6,000 to 8,000 Somalis every month. This year the monthly average has increased to 10,000 refugees.

Mali’s Dogon have traditionally seen water as a source of life and a public good, with the right to water ‘a prerequisite to all other human rights.’ Now the privatisation of water threatens to exclude citizens from managing their most precious resource, leaving ‘the task with a commercially minded technocracy’, says Sékou Diarra.

More than ten people were on Friday night (27 May) rounded up by authorities in Las Anod town in the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Although no statement has been made on the seizure of the civilians in Sool region, some 1,150 km northwest of Mogadishu, the crackdown appeared to have been related to insecurity.

The relationship between Kenyan Somalis and the Kenyan state is ‘tumultuous at the best of times, and indifferent at the worst of times’, writes Abdinasir Amin. Although little has changed for the better since Amin’s grandfather’s time, Kenya’s new constitution brings hope for genuine acceptance in the future.

Malian men involved in same sex practices say blatant homophobia makes it difficult for them to live their lives freely and to express their sexual orientation. Although there is no law that specifically criminalises homosexuality in Mali, religion and ancestral traditions still play a huge role in the country’s society and same sex practices are highly condemned and seen as immoral by the vast majority of the population.

In the face of intimidation and repression, peasant farmers from all parts of the country came together in November 2010 in Kolongo, Mali to publicly denounce land grabs. They also announced a collective plan to: identify and document cases of land dispossession and human rights violations; widely disseminate information about land grabbing at home and abroad; and pursue legal action to defend land and human rights in national, regional and international courts.

This article from Think Africa Press examines the human rights situation in Somaliland. 'If we compare the brutal, systematic repression that characterises governance in Ethiopia and Eritrea, then yes, Somaliland’s government respects the human rights of its citizens. But, if we try to assess the situation objectively Somaliland’s human rights’ gains are both limited and fragile.'

From a distance, the mud houses in the village of Gwélékoro appear to sit in the middle of the fields, which are bare in this dry season. Farmers gathered their harvests last November. Now they patiently wait for the next rains, expected between June and July. But despite the apparent tranquility, farmers are worried. Life is difficult this year in this village 60 kilometres south of Bamako, the capital of Mali. Not only was the harvest poor, but cereal prices have jumped significantly, reports Farm Radio Weekly.

Religious practices, cultural beliefs and stigmatisation by the general population hamper access to health care and HIV/Aids prevention for Malian Men who have Sex with other Men (MSM) and force them into bisexuality or underground sexual practices that put them at high risk of Sexually Transmitted and HIV infections, says Dr Dembelé Bintou Keita, Director of ARCAD/SIDA, an HIV/Aids organisation that also provides health care for MSM in Mali.

Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa, talks about the combination of the concepts of ‘Pan-Africanism’ and ‘Auto-Centrage,’ i.e ‘Pan-Afri-Centrage.’ in the context of South-South solidarity. Fall says that many of the movements from Africa have been co-opted by imperialism and we now have a historical responsibility to revive the demands of the Bamako Appeal.

The United Nations (UN) has expressed concern over the rising insecurity in Somalia, saying it would worsen the humanitarian crisis created by the ongoing drought in the region. UN Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, said at the weekend that insecurity made it difficult to reach and assist internal refugees in need of assistance. She noted that one in every four children in the country was extremely malnourished while at the same time asking Kenya not to send any Somali refugees back.

Samir Amin

Jean Paul Dias

Sidy Diop

Reporters Without Borders says it is 'dismayed' by the three-year jail sentence and fine of six million Somaliland shillings (around 1,000 dollars) that a court in Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway northwestern territory of Somaliland, has passed on Mohamud Abdi Jama, the editor of the independent newspaper Waheen, for allegedly libelling local officials.

Many Malian farmers are boycotting cotton this year, instead planting cereals. Cotton isn’t edible, but observers say that the shift could weaken food security. Discouraged by falling prices for cotton, and poor administration at the state-owned Malian Textile Company (known by its French acronym, CDMT), many Malian farmers are reducing the area planted with cotton on their farms – or abandoning growing it altogether.

Kenya's artisanal or small-scale fishermen have been living off the sea for decades. They have been facing a range of problems over the past years. In Malindi, a number of conflicts have arisen between the fishermen and prawn trawlers, large vessels that trawl the ocean floor catching prawns for sale. The fishermen say that the trawlers often cut their nets and discard healthy fish as by-catch. One trawling company faced a number of law-suits relating to these conflicts. Along Mombasa's coastline, fisherman are increasingly having to compete with the expanding hotel industry for access to scarce land along the sea. As more and more hotels take over these areas, the fishermen fear that they will lose their only means of survival. Zahra Moloo reports in this

The international community should accept Somaliland into the family of nations, writes Abdirahman Mohamed Dirye.

In the last six years, there has been a dramatic increase in foreign investment in land deals across Africa and the Malibya deal - a 50-year lease agreed by the Malian and Libyan Presidents - has become totemic of the fear that this new phenomenon of land grabbing will deprive subsistence farmers of their land and their food, reports The Guardian. Mali is one of the countries most affected by the scramble for land, and Segou, the country’s rice basket, is at the eye of the storm, with buyers from Senegal, South Africa, and Asia, as well as domestic companies snapping up leases on thousands of hectares.

The people of Somaliland have every right to statehood and membership of the AU and UN, writes Omer Hussein Dualeh.

The government of Mali is seen as the largest obstacle to conduct an effective fight against Al Qaeda groups in the Sahara desert. Distrust between Algeria and Mali further hinder cooperation. Diplomatic cables from several US embassies, published by Wikileaks, reveal that the announced concerted fight against Al Qaeda in the Sahara and Sahel region is moving ahead slowly. Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger had announced a joint effort to hit back at the terrorists.

Three projects fighting malaria and tuberculosis in Mali have seen their international funding suspended as government found 'evidence of misappropriation and unjustified expenditure'. This was reported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world's dominant financier of programmes to fight these diseases.