The UN Security Council has called on the African Union (AU) to urgently increase the strength of its peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) to its mandated level of 12,000 to enable it to better carry out its UN-authorised mandate to stabilize the war-torn country. In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body also extended AMISOM’s authorisation until 31 October 2012, and called on UN member states and regional and international organisations to provide additional equipment, technical aid and funding to the enlarged force.

The involvement of men is key to the success of the gender-equality movement, but changing long-held social structures and convincing men of the importance of equal opportunities for women will not happen overnight, experts say. 'Men giving up their superior position is akin to acting out of the normative or prescribed way and [means men can be] ridiculed for acting differently - not like men,' Maria Magezi, programme officer with the NGO, Akina Mama wa Afrika, told IRIN in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Some of Egypt’s Public Transit Authority (PTA) workers returned to work 4 October, after striking for two weeks. Workers from the Giza and Imbaba transit garages have remained on strike, however. The workers were on strike to demand fair wages and better work conditions.

The ECOWAS Community Court in Abuja, Nigeria, on 26 September adjourned indefinitely its hearing over applications for the review of two landmark judgements brought before by it by Gambian authorities involving two Gambian journalists. The first relates to the illegal arrests and torture of Musa Saidykahn, a former editor-in-chief of the banned The Independent newspaper. In the second case, the Gambian government was ordered to release Chief Ebrima Manneh, a foreign editor of the privately-owned, pro-government the Daily Observer newspaper and compensate him. Costs were awarded against the authorities in both cases.

Three former Anglo American workers who were left destitute and devastated by lung disease acquired in their line of work have expressed their desire for justice, reports The New Age Online. Wilson Mafulwane, Daniel Thakamakau and Alpheos Blom form part of hundreds of former Anglo American workers who are squaring up against the global mining giant in a court battle domiciled in Johannesburg and London. Their course closely resembles the Cape PLC case where 7,500 South African asbestos miners successfully sued for more than £21m (about R268m) in a London court.

Thousands of people are held in immigration detention in the Middle East and North Africa on any given day. This practice is expensive, can harm the health and wellbeing of those detained and has been found to be ineffective at deterring irregular migrants. To address this growing human rights issue, the first-ever regional workshop on immigration detention was held in Beirut recently by the International Detention Coalition (IDC) with the assistance of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC).

Botswana and Namibia are set to lose preferential access to the European Union, which wants African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign controversial free trade agreements within two years or face potential loss of market access to the 27-member EU bloc. The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are contested because countries fear unfair competition from the EU market. Brussels has finally set an ultimatum for the talks: a total of 18 out of 36 countries that have not yet concluded or implemented an EPA now have till 1 January 2014 to do so, reports IPS.

A young woman is told she can only benefit from a land redistribution scheme if she provides sexual favours to the Moroccan official administrating it.

TrustAfrica has produced a video on their Enhancing Women's Dignity project, which seeks to stop gender violence and increase women’s political participation in seven French-speaking countries in Central and West Africa. The film was shot on-location in several of the project countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Mali, where it documents the activities of women who are leading the way to improve their socio-economic conditions and increase their political representation.

There have been recent clashes between the Sudanese army, Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states, as well as fighting between communities along the border. 'One day the communities on the border may end up either facing genocide or there may be a very heavy war as the governments in both countries do not value the lives of the people but the resources they are sitting on. These resources will undermine the value of the lives of human beings,' Edmund Yakani, the coordinator for the local NGO Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO), told IPS.

Police are preventing the man chosen by a group of Southern Cameroon separatists living abroad to lead the 'Home Front' in their struggle for a separate state for English-speaking Cameroonians, from leaving his home. Mola Njoh Litumbe issued a statement in which he declared: 'Comrades, having failed to locate my driver to take me to the Police Station where some of our compatriots are detained, or to the Nigerian Consulate where others are camped, I attempted to drive the car out myself and was met by a strong police contingent outside my gate who stopped me from leaving my premises, alleging that they were on orders to keep me under house arrest, on orders from the Governor of the South-West Region.'

First time author Nadia Denton presents in 'The Black British Filmmaker’s Guide to Success' a valuable resource that will enable film practitioners to achieve greater success with their endeavours. The Black British Filmmaker’s Guide to Success addresses the need for an up-to-date, practical resource that caters specifically for black content work.

A new report by the London-based Amnesty International has slammed the European Union for 'shamefully' failing to help thousands of refugees stranded near Libya’s borders. In a report titled, 'Europe, Now It Is Your Turn to Act', Amnesty International has strongly criticised EU governments for failing to offer resettlement to an estimated 5,000 refugees – who would face persecution or conflict if returned to their own countries.

President Jacob Zuma has said he would soon release further details on the arms deal commission of inquiry. Zuma recently announced he would set up a commission of inquiry into South Africa's controversial multi-million rand arms deal.

Thousands of people who fled insecurity in Sudan's Southern Kordofan State to neighbouring South Sudan's Unity State remain vulnerable, amid humanitarian access and security concerns, says the UN. 'People entering the area are reported to be highly vulnerable, some having walked with children for two weeks,' said Siddartha Shrestha, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) South Sudan chief of communication. At present, about 9,200 people have been registered, states a recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Breast ironing is a traditional ritual in which, by using heated and flat objects, a girl's growing breasts are pressed in order to suppress and reverse their development. 'Breast ironing has existed as long as Cameroon has existed,' says Sinou Tchana, Cameroonian gynaecologist and vice-president of the Cameroonian Association of Female Doctors. In the early nineties, when her association started touring the ten regions of Cameroon to find out what practices could have been affecting female sexuality, they were shocked by the prevalence of breast ironing in most parts of the country.

Benin has launched a major campaign to arrest growing drop-out rates as schools begin a new term. The one-year campaign is expected to encourage parents to allow their children to stay enrolled in school. With a national enrolment rate of 87.3 per cent, Benin has an impressive record. But it has been difficult to keep the children in school, watering down the gains.

Africa needs to come up with an indigenous philosophy of development determined and influenced by the mores of traditional values derived from its own linguistic and cultural repertoire, a university lecturer from the department of African Languages and Literature, University of Zimbabwe, has said. Angeline Masowa, who spoke on Friday at a Conference on African Renaissance, Integration, Unity and Development in Pretoria, South Africa noted that the western model of development posed as the benchmark, which every nation wishing to be regarded as developed, had to follow, with the requirements of development dictated by the west.

In order for global climate change policies and efforts to progress, intense local activism and countries most adversely affected by climate change must play a leading role. If they don't, an upcoming meeting of state parties to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) in South Africa will be a conference of 'paralysis' and 'profiteers', says Patrick Bond, climate justice expert and author of the book 'Politics of Climate Justice' coming out in November.

Despite its oil wealth, in 2006 Angola ranked ninth from the bottom in the world on health spending, which accounted for just 2.5 percent of gross domestic product. Since then, spending per person has tripled from $64 to $204, according to World Health Organisation data. Yet Angola still has less than one doctor for every 10,000 people, while battling to eradicate preventable diseases like polio.