The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will continue its fight against the e-tolling project until the tolls have 'finally been scrapped', the union federation said. Spokesperson Patrick Craven said in the federation's Workers' Day statement that the postponement of the R20-billion e-toll project was 'a direct product of the workers' power and sacrifices'.

An Egyptian doctor volunteering at one of the makeshift hospitals in the Abbassiya district of Cairo assisting the wounded on Wednesday told the al-Dostour newspaper that at least 15 people have been killed in violent clashes that erupted massively on Wednesday morning. According to activists, 'army sponsored thugs' attacked the demonstrators near the ministry of defense on early Wednesday morning, firing live ammunition, Molotov cocktails and rocks at the unarmed protesters.

The traditional farming methods of smallholder farmers – which, researchers say, also help to fight soil depletion, reduce irrigation needs and adapt to climate change – may soon disappear. They are being wiped out by governments focused on promoting commercial monocultures that they hope will bring fast, high yields in order to boost national agricultural sales on global markets.

The Land Matrix is an online public database of large-scale land deals. It provides a visualisation of records documenting land deals since 2000. The data you can explore represent about 50 per cent of the entire data base. The remaining deals are being crosschecked and added, together with new data provided, on an on-going basis. The visualisations offer overview of the data as well as giving full access to the public database down to the level of an individual deal.

In this episode of Africa Today, Walter Turner interviews Anuradha Mittal from the Oakland Institute on land grabs in Africa and speaks with Kambele Musavuli from Friends of the Congo on resource exploitation and contemporary developments in the DRC.

While it is a recognised universal fact that eliminating gender inequality and achieving women’s empowerment are paramount to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, progress with implementation of the MDGs is the slowest in those areas that depend most heavily on improving the status of women and girls. The Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) held a seminar titled 'Uniting parliamentary efforts to end violence against women in Africa' to discuss the important role parliaments can and do play in ending violence against women in Africa. Besides being an opportunity to learn, meet and develop new projects, this seminar also served as a base for a parliamentary resolution and two parliamentary guidelines on FGM/C and UNSC Resolutions 1325.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has expressed deep concern about current or recent moves in a number of countries to curtail the freedom of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil society actors to operate independently and effectively. Pillay noted that freedom of association is under increasing pressure in many countries across the world. 'Freedom of association is the lifeblood of NGOs,' she said. 'Systemic legal or administrative attempts to curtail their activities can be very damaging.'

Parliament has passed a law that spells out the punishment for torture - 15 years imprisonment or a fine of Shs 7.2m upon conviction. It is intended to define and criminalize torture, and provide for sanctions and compensation in case of the offence of torture, and regulate the use of information obtained through torture.

The world’s recent financial and political upheavals have not been kind to women. In Libya’s Tripoli, female suicide rates increased tenfold during the revolution, while dismal job prospects have young Greek women abandoning their career aspirations, participants in a global forum on women’s rights said over the weekend. 'Many people say this is a time for transformation and moving forward but we know from our work that it’s also a time of instability and uncertainty,' Jamaican activist Mariama Williams, a senior programme officer at the South Centre, said at the closing session of the 12th International Forum on Women’s Rights and Development in Istanbul.

With a recent report detailing corruption in the fuel subsidy system, a symposium is planned to address the issues and map out a plan of action on the imperative of accountability and probity
on how the collective state resources must and should be managed.

Sign the civil society statement and join the campaign to stop UN corporate capture!

The African Media Barometer (AMB) is an in-depth and comprehensive description and measurement system for national media environments on the African continent. Unlike other press surveys or media indices the AMB is a self assessment exercise based on home-grown criteria derived from African Protocols and Declarations like the 'Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa' (2002) by the 'African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights'. The instrument was jointly developed by fesmedia Africa, the Media Project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Africa, and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in 2004.

Five people have been killed and 10 injured in two separate attacks in central Nigeria - one targeting football fans, officials have said. Unknown gunmen shot dead five villagers in an overnight attack on Rim, 50km (30 miles) south of Jos in Plateau state. Earlier, in Jos city nine people were injured after a blast outside a venue where fans had been watching the Chelsea-Barcelona football match.

African women are dismayed at the fact that this racist project which was supposed to bring awareness of the very painful and complex issue of genital cutting has ironically had the completely opposite effect.

Participants at the NGOs Forum of African Commission on Human and People’s Right (ACHPR) on 12 April added their voice to the widespread condemnation of the Gambian authorities over their deliberate policy of blocking access to critical online news websites in the country. Systematically, the Gambia authorities have either attacked the online news newspapers by hacking into their websites or blocking their IP addresses, making it impossible for Gambians to access the news sites.

The World Bank and European Commission officials have accused Nevsun, the Canadian mining company operating in Eritrea, of misleading its investors. A Wikileaks cable, dated 15th June 2006, describes a visit organised by Nevsun and the Government of Eritrea for export credit agencies from Canada and South Africa, as well as Proparco, Standard Bank, and the European Investment Bank.

A Nigerian pressure group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate an alleged US$6 billion fuel subsidy loot in the West African country. It said in its petition to Luis Moreno Ocampo, ICC Prosecutor, that the ICC should examine and investigate whether 'the widespread and systematic corruption and theft of over US$6 billion in the fuel subsidy scheme over a period of three years and its devastating effects on millions of Nigerians amount to inhumane acts intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health as provided by Article 7 of the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court'.

Malaria cases have increased dramatically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaving clinics and treatment centres unable to cope, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned. The number of people treated for malaria in MSF projects has soared by 250 per cent since 2009 in six provinces – half of the vast African country – and accelerated even more sharply in recent months. The reasons for the trend are not clear, although it is thought renewed fighting by militia groups has made it increasingly difficult for people to access prevention and treatment for the mosquito-borne disease.

The white right-wing group Kommandokorps has emerged again in mainstream media after an in-depth article in the Mail & Guardian and a short documentary video in cyberspace. Wessel van den Berg and Mbuyiselo Botha argue that the video shows the way in which violence is equated with manhood, demonstrating that certain forms of masculinity are valued above others. 'These processes are often overlooked, but they are the root cause of the high levels of violence in South Africa.'

Date: Saturday, 5 May 2012 (9am-5pm)
Venue: Wesley Memorial Hall (by St Peter's College) , New Inn Hall Street, University of Oxford, UK
http?://www?.?oxfordafrica?.?eventbrite?.?co?.?uk/

We warmly encourage all students to join us.

The 2012 Conference focuses on building the type of leadership Africa needs to successfully face challenges in the 21st century. The conference will bring together young and emerging academics, students, entrepreneurs, activists, and politicians to discuss and debate the challenges of the day in Africa. These discussions will help develop concrete strategies to nurture and sustain youth leadership in Africa and in African communities worldwide.

Speakers include:

Vera Songwe (World Bank Country Director)
Arthur Mutambara (Deputy Prime Minister, Zimbabwe)
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria)
He Liehui (Chairman, Touchroad International Holdings Group, China)
June Arunga (CEO, Open Quest Media, 100 Most Creative People in Business)
Matthew Hassan Kukah (Human Rights Activist & Social Exponent)
Gbenga Sesan (Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative, Nigeria)
Patrick Awuah (Founder, Ashesi University, Ghana)

Mary Harper, Africa Editor, BBC World Service & Author of Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, War & Hope in a Shattered State

We are proudly sponsored by Google, Business Connection, Think Africa Press, and the Oxford African Studies Centre.

Be sure to visit our website for all the latest news: http?://www?.?oxfordafrica?.?org/