Somalia President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has announced the government's plan to establish 100 schools in the capital Mogadishu. Several countries and institutions have expressed willingness to offer development assistance to Somalia, especially after the militants of Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group, were largely driven out of Mogadishu.

Egyptian judges probing alleged illegal foreign funding of non-governmental organisations accused domestic and foreign groups on Wednesday of illegally meddling in politics, further straining ties with key ally Washington. The judge said December raids on 17 NGO offices as part of a probe into illegal funding had been conducted 'according to the law'.

Former Liberian rebel leader George Boley is to be deported from the US over his role in the West African country's civil war in the 1990s. A US judge said evidence that the ex-Liberian Peace Council leader had been involved in killings and recruited children was grounds for his removal. Mr Boley, who has been in custody for two years, denies the accusations.

Minerals Resource Minister Susan Shabangu stood up at the Mining Indaba last year and declared: 'there will be no nationalisation in my lifetime'. On Tuesday 7 February she told a packed hall of global delegates with certainty that nationalisation is off the agenda for government and the ruling ANC. Instead, she highlighted the new approach of resource nationalism - a milder form of state intervention that will include a higher tax regime for the industry.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe says the ruling party will not be bullied into stopping discussion on the nationalisation of mines because it will scare off investors. Mantashe said this as Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel told a high-profile mining indaba in Cape Town yesterday that the nationalisation of South Africa's mines was not an option. 'The mining sector is so fundamentally important as a platform to construct the [upliftment] transition that we can't be able to take this idea of nationalisation forward,' Manuel said.

Testimony before an inquest into a Zimbabwean power broker's fiery death has ended, leaving the last hours of General Solomon Mujuru's life shrouded in suspicion that he was murdered by political rivals. After three weeks of hearings that have been closely followed in Zimbabwe, Magistrate Walter Chikwanha did not say when he would report his conclusions after hearing evidence from 37 witnesses. He can rule the death was accidental or criminal and in the latter case an investigation would be opened. Chikwanha could also declare an 'open verdict', effectively saying he was unable to reach any conclusion.

The burning inferno of what used to be a Chevron Corp. natural gas rig still stains the night's sky orange more than two weeks after the rig caught fire, and no one can say when it will end as swarms of dead fish surface. The environmental damage is hitting a region whose poor still rely on the delta's muddy waters for survival. A nearby clinic remains overrun with patients who are showing up with skin irritations and gastrointestinal problems.

Angolan anti-corruption campaigner Rafael Marques has started publishing a slew of investigations. Through a website he calls 'Maka Angola', after the Kimbundu word for trouble or problem Marques spares no blushes. He points the finger at some of the country’s most senior government officials and even President José Eduardo dos Santos’s own children. The reports make uncomfortable reading for overseas companies investing in Angola.

The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) decided at the weekend to delay Julius Malema’s suspension until its disciplinary committee had heard his submission in mitigation of sentence, party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on 6 February. This followed the decision of the national disciplinary committee of appeals (NDCA) to uphold the guilty verdict against the ANC Youth League president. The NDCA also ruled that the disciplinary case against Malema and five other members of the ANCYL’s NEC be referred back to the national disciplinary committee (NDC) for evidence in mitigation of sentence.

Libya's Lap Green Networks has dragged the Zambian government to court over its decision to take over telecoms and Internet service provider Zamtel. The Libyan government says the takeover is illegal, as the company was genuinely acquired and rightly belongs to the Libyan people. A report by a Zambian commission of inquiry, which was constituted by that country's president Michael Sata last year, concluded that the sale of Zamtel to Lap Green Networks by the previous government was 'fraudulent and irregular'.

Thousands of Touareg refugees fleeing clashes in northern Mali entered Mauritania in recent days, escaping the fighting between the Malian army and Touareg rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azaouad (MNLA). 'Since January 28th, a lot of Touareg refugees have moved in here. Most of them have arrived on vehicles,' said Sheikh Ould Ahmed, a teacher in the border town of Fassala.

In January 2012 the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) went to Libya on an information gathering mission and to establish contact with the new, rapidly growing civil society in the country. The mission went to Tripoli, Misrata and Benghazi and held lengthy discussions with the representatives of the interim government, members of the National Transition Council (NTC), lawyers, journalists and representatives of human rights organisations. The mission noted the NTC was being increasingly reproached for its political incompetence and its lack of transparency, both in managing current affairs and in taking political decisions. FIDH is also worried about the growing disconnect between Tripoli and the Eastern part of the country.

Politically motivated violence in the northern Kenyan town of Moyale, which has left dozens dead and tens of thousands displaced in recent weeks, shows little sign of abating and there are fears that the clashes could continue until elections are held for new local government positions. But by many accounts, an unintended consequence of Kenya’s new devolutionary constitution has raised the stakes considerably. The prospect of real political and budgetary power - concentrated since independence in distant Nairobi - rather than water, pasture and cattle-raid vendettas, now drives the violence.

The Catholic University of Eastern Africa is organizing for an International conference 26-30 June at their main campus in Nairobi under the theme 'Africa’s Golden Jubilee: Assessing 50 Years of Scholarship and Development in Africa'. Please click on the link provided to read more information.

The Tax Justice Network has launched a new monthly podcast. In each 15 minute show, they discuss the latest news relating to tax evasion, tax avoidance and the shadow banking system. The January edition deals with the Vodafone vs India landmark tax case, compares Bill Gates and Mitt Romney’s attitudes to taxation and talks about Egypt's offshore wealth.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has written a strongly-worded letter to to President Robert Mugabe outlining his problems with the coalition government. The leaked letter addresses areas such as land, violent acts, diplomatic protocol, arrest of ministers, appointment of government staff, hate speech, media laws and elections.

Men who have sex with men may now be at considerably higher risk of acquiring HIV than other at-risk groups such as female sex workers or young people of either sex, if findings by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) of HIV incidence at two centres in Kenya can be generalised to other populations. The study, which compared the Kenyan populations with a largely heterosexual group from South Africa, also found lower-than-expected HIV incidence amongst female sex workers and their clients. The researchers also found that recruiting MSM into the study was easier than expected, but note that there was a particularly high dropout rate in MSM.

Algeria withdrew military advisors from northern Mali last week in an effort to force a political solution to the Touareg revolt. The Algerian troops were partaking in joint counter-terror efforts, including training and equipment maintenance, and were flown home on an Algerian air force plane last weekend, El Khabar reported. Algeria's decision to freeze military support to Mali came after the country halted counter-terror operations in Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu and redirected troops towards areas now in rebellion.

South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), has upheld the membership suspension of one of its prominent youth leaders convicted of causing rifts within the bloc. A panel rejected an appeal on Saturday by Julius Malema, who was found guilty by the disciplinary committee in November and was seeking to overturn the five-year suspension, but it said he could seek a lighter sentence. The suspension effectively curtails the career of Malema, one of the country's most renowned politicians whose calls for a major transformation of Africa's largest economy unnerved investors and drew serious criticism from some ANC leaders.

A new attempt to quantify malaria deaths over the past 30 years suggests the death toll, especially among adults, has been greatly underestimated. The figures also show the fragility of the gains made in fighting the disease. Collecting data on malaria deaths is notoriously tricky; the countries where the disease is most prevalent have the weakest statistics. And even where causes of death were recorded, the researchers found many deaths were simply attributed to 'fever' – probably malaria, but possibly not. In addition, a malaria infection is often a contributory cause of death along with other health problems.