More than five years after the Front for the Liberation of Cabinda (FLEC) filed a complaint with the African Union (AU) against the Angolan government for alleged human rights abuses, the AU says it is willing to hear the 'merits' of appointing a special rapporteur to investigate the claims. Cabinda is separated from Angola's main territory by the River Congo and a narrow sliver of the Democratic Republic of Congo and accounts for more than half of Angola’s oil production. Cabinda's mineral wealth also includes gold, diamonds and uranium, as well as extensive reserves of tropical hardwoods. Since 1975, the status of Cabinda has been disputed, resulting in one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

Last month, on the other side of the Atlantic, the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell's operation caused from 1m to 2m gallons of oil to spill into the ocean off the coast of Nigeria, also as the result of an industrial accident. 'You may wonder where the outrage against Shell is?' asks Michael Keating in this article on the website. 'To say that it is nonexistent except for a few responses from the environmental community would be an understatement. The simple fact is that Shell and its "sisters" in the West African oil patches are rarely scrutinized except in the most egregious cases – which this one surely is – and the world seems to simply expect that the people of Nigeria should live with these sorts of occurrences because they unfortunately lack the political and media clout to do otherwise.'

Thousands of Egyptian women have held rallies in Cairo against their treatment by security forces. Demonstrators brandished photos of a woman who was beaten and dragged along the ground, exposing her underwear - an incident that has outraged Egyptians. The rally took place in Tahrir Square, which has seen five days of deadly clashes between protesters and troops.

The latest issue of the South Bulletin has two major main issues: The Durban Climate Conference, and the WTO's 8th Ministerial Conference, both held in December 2011. The Durban conference has given rise to a new round of climate change negotiations, which will start in 2012 and is scheduled to end in 2015. At the WTO's Ministerial Conference in Geneva, there was (in contrast to Durban) a calm and relaxed atmosphere. But there were also many issues that divided the countries, mainly on North-South lines. The South Bulletin provides preliminary analyses of these two major events.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the Salafi Al-Nour Party will be facing off in the run offs over single winner seats in the second round of parliamentary elections slated for Wednesday and Thursday, having won almost 70 per cent of the party list votes in the nine governorates of round two. The elections, which were held in Giza, Beni Suef, Menufiya, Sharqia, Beheira, Sohag, Ismailia, Aswan and Suez, saw the FJP-led Democratic Alliance win 37 per cent of the party list votes, worth around 30 seats, and Al-Nour 33 percent worth around 20 seats.

The goal of The Young Feminist Fund (FRIDA) is to provide accessible, strategic and responsive funding for young feminist-led initiatives. FRIDA invites applications from groups led by young women and transgender youth under 30 years for grants of up to US$5,000.

Joseph Kabila has been sworn in for another five-year term as the Democratic Republic of Congo's president even as his main rival, Etienne Tshisekedi, continued to lay claim to the same job following disputed polls in the central African nation. The 40-year-old incumbent was confirmed the winner of November polls, which the country's opposition parties and international observers say were rigged.

This 108-page Human Rights Watch report reveals that children as young as six dig mining shafts, work underground, pull up heavy weights of ore, and carry, crush, and pan ore. Many children also work with mercury, a toxic substance, to separate the gold from the ore. Mercury attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children.

Malawi police on 18 December stormed a stage on which a play was being performed, and led the play's main actor away into a waiting police van. According to posts on Facebook, the play is titled 'Semo' produced by Lions Theatre. The lead actor in the play is Thlupego Kaluli Mgawa Chisiza. According to Nyasa Times reporter, Semo is a Moses-like leader who saved a historic nation from oppression. The play is set in the increasingly undemocratic Republic of Kwacha which is plagued by learned advisors who praise an increasingly oppressive king to safeguard their positions.

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) issued a press release condemning the targeting of media personnel in Egypt, who have received death threats via text message for their work in exposing government corruption. EOHR reports that Adel Hamouda, the editor-in-chief of Al-Fagr newspaper, Madi al-Gallad, the editor-in-chief of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, Amr Al Lithy, the presenter of the '90 Minutes' talk show, and Lamis Al Hadidi, the presenter of the 'Hona Al Asima' talk show, all received death threats via text message on 13 December.

Two Swedish photojournalists have been convicted by an Ethiopian court for supporting terrorism, but the Committee to Protect Journalists contends they are the victims of a politicised trial.

Clashes pitting groups of armed youths against government forces in the west of Cote d'Ivoire killed at least six people at the weekend, a senior official said Sunday. The unrest in Vavoua started after a dispute between Republican Forces (FRCI) and youths Saturday night left dead a young man who succumbed to his injuries in hospital, the military said on state television. On Sunday morning, 'many young people armed with clubs and rifles' tried to storm the military camp in Vavoua, located in the northern half of the country which had been under rebel control since 2002, said the army.

The government of Angola should promptly provide a full public accounting for US$32-billion in missing government funds thought to be linked to the state oil company, Human Rights Watch said. A December 2011 report by the International Monetary Fund revealed that the government funds were spent or transferred from 2007 through 2010 without being properly documented in the budget.

Blog Africa is a country summarises a debate over comments made by Democratic Alliance leader Helen Ziille, who has called for the criminalisation of HIV transmission, and saying the state should not have to pay for treatment for those who contracted HIV through irresponsible behavior. The post links to commentaries on her statements. 'What doesn’t seem to have been emphasized enough though,' says Africa is a Country, 'is that while Zille has been spending time on populist and damaging nonsense, we in fact do know how to effectively combat HIV. What we need is politicians with the sense and integrity to make it happen.'

Human rights organisations in Egypt are increasingly concerned about the safety of protesters and activists after a series of brutal attacks.

Senegal’s separatists pushing for the secession of the Casamance region plan to transform into a political party. The group's leader disclosed this when he urged its factions to support the plan. 'The move is in the interest of peace and the reconstruction of Senegal,' said Mr Jean-Marie François Biagui, the group's leader.

The global rush to acquire large amounts of land in developing countries has done more harm than good, especially to the poorest people who often lose access to land and resources essential to their livelihoods, a new study says. The problem is fuelled by ineffective governance, corruption, a lack of transparency in decision-making and weak rights for local landholders, according to the study by the International Land Coalition (ILC), which presents findings from the Global Commercial Pressures on Land Research Project.

Twenty-nine youth and rights groups called on Egyptians Tuesday to revolt against the 'tyrannical' military that killed peaceful protesters and burning state-institutions. To counter statements made by the ruling military council a day earlier, representatives of groups presented numerous videos and accused the council of ordering the clearing of a three-week-long peaceful sit-in outside the Cabinet. The crackdown has left at least 12 dead. The press conference featured testimonials by protesters, doctors and lawyers, describing the attacks and killings.

In July 2002, African leaders dissolved the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and created the African Union (AU). By emphasising on democracy, good governance and respect for human rights as necessary pre-requisites for development, the AU makes a significant departure, at least in theory, from the modes operandi of its predecessor which was known for its long-held principle of ‘non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.’ In July 2012, the AU will celebrate its tenth anniversary. The event is an opportune moment in stocktaking the state of democracy in Africa since the establishment of the AU.

'The magnitude of African capital flight is staggering both in absolute monetary values and relative to GDP. For the thirty-three sub-Saharan African countries for which we have data, we find that more than $700 billion fled the continent between 1970 and 2008. If this capital was invested abroad and earned interest at the going market rates, the accumulated capital loss for these countries over the thirty-nine-year period was $944 billion. By comparison, total GDP for all of sub-Saharan Africa in 2008 stood at $997 billion.' This means, L. Ndikumana and J. Boyce, in their new book 'Africa's Odious Debts', that the rest of the world owes more to these African countries than they owe to the rest of the world. This suggests that Africa could expunge its entire stock of foreign debt if it could recover only a fraction of the wealth held by Africans in foreign financial centres around the world. The latest edition of the Africa Focus Bulletin contains extracts from the book.