Kenya has agreed to open a new camp near its border with Somalia to cope with the influx of refugees fleeing the region's worst drought in 60 years. The lfo II camp in Dabaab will open its doors to 80,000 refugees within 10 days, the Kenyan government said. Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed to open the new camp after visiting Dadaab's three existing camps where an estimated 380,000 refugees are now living at facilities intended to cope with a population of 90,000 people.

Zimbabwe’s immigration officials say they have instructed their officers at border posts not to accept illegal immigrants and refugees seeking to enter into the country. The ban is targeted at refugees mainly from Somalia and Ethiopia whom Zimbabwe accuses of using the country as a transit point to South Africa. The government-owned Herald newspaper reported that five border posts usually used by the Ethiopian and Somali immigrants had been instructed not to allow refugees into the country.

Gender activists have won a significant battle in their quest for more women representation in government with the final unveiling of President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet. Of the 40 ministers, 13 are women, a major milestone in the campaign for more involvement of women in governance. The number of female appointees in the cabinet represents about 31 per cent of the 42-member cabinet.

Amado Kafando's elation followed news on 7 March that the price of cotton, a crop he plants each summer in rows broken by a cow-tethered plow, hit a record $2.197 a pound, capping a two-year surge of 430 per cent. Finally, he said, cotton could fulfill the promise of its nickname in his homeland of Burkina Faso: white gold. But within weeks, Kafando was clenching his fists. The government and regional cotton monopolies, which Burkinabe farmers must sell to, announced they would charge growers 38 per cent more for fertilizer - and pay them as little as 39 per cent of the world price at the time for their crop.

The Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) has revealed visual evidence of mass graves in South Kordofan, which corroborates new eyewitness reports, obtained by SSP, of systematic killings and mass burials in this conflict-torn region of Sudan. The evidence found by SSP is consistent with allegations that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and northern militias have engaged in a campaign of killing civilians.

Domestically abused women who are financially dependent on their abusers can now report the crime with the assurance that they will be able to get financial and medical support from the state, thanks to the country’s new law on domestic violence. Women’s campaigners have welcomed the introduction of the new law, which was signed into the statue books on 8 July, and which criminalises domestic violence and offers protection to victims and their families. Until now domestic violence had not been illegal in Angola - and on the rare occasions it reached court, it was prosecuted under rape, assault and battery laws.

'In many countries, IDPs are exposed to violence and to various violations of their rights, either by the State or by armed non-State Actors (ANSAs). ANSAs have various obligations towards IDPs under international law, which can be found in the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols, but also in the Rome Statute and the Kampala Convention, as well as the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (the 'Guiding Principles'). However, the vast majority of violations committed by ANSAs against IDPs and other civilians are perpetrated with impunity, as national governments have lost the monopoly on the use of force and their judicial systems may function poorly.' Visit to download the report.

South Africa has set the stage for the mass deportation of more than one million Zimbabwean immigrants later this month in a move that could alter its status as the world's largest country of refuge. South Africa has been a beacon for asylum seekers due to liberal immigration laws, proximity to African trouble spots and massive economy compared to the rest of the continent that has attracted millions seeking wealth they cannot find at home. About one in five of the 845 800 asylum seekers globally in 2010 sought refuge in South Africa, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Lucy Dollokieh, a mother of four from Liberia’s Nimba County, developed severe pains when urinating and thought she had been cursed by a witch, but when a volunteer came to her village describing diabetes symptoms she recognized them, went to a nearby hospital and was diagnosed with diabetes. She now injects herself daily with insulin. With low awareness of the disease’s symptoms and only one hospital in the country that can diagnose it - Ganta Methodist Hospital in Nimba County - the vast majority of the estimated 50,000 cases in Liberia go undiagnosed, according to the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF).

Just a few hours before South Sudan's independence, the popular Arabic daily 'Ajras Al-Hurriya' and five English-language newspapers were suspended - a worrying start to the relationship between north and south, report the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and Index on Censorship. Sudan's National Press and Publication Council said the papers were closed because the owners and publishers are from South Sudan, and, under the country's Press Law, they must have Sudanese nationality, reports ANHRI.

Both supporters and opponents of constitutional changes offered by Morocco's king have protested in their thousands, indicating debate over the country's future sparked by the "Arab Spring" uprisings has not ended. Sunday’s opposition protests organised by the youth-based February 20 Movement took place in three cities and passed off without any clashes. The movement is a loose national network that was inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

The media circus surrounding the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape case dishes out more drama each day, with a side of lurid fascination. But we basically know how the story ends. The narrative of the immigrant housekeeper allegedly assaulted by a European official perfectly illustrates an axiom of violence and power: the wider the gap between genders and races, the greater the latitude of injustice, states this article from

The Economic Community of West African States says that the region has a big chunk of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees in Africa. The regional bloc commissioner for human development and gender Adrienne Diop said this at a news conference on the ministerial conference on the implementation of the African Convention on Internally Displaced Persons in West Africa. Out of the 27.5 million people, who were displaced in 2010 in Africa, 11.1 million were from the West African sub-region, Diop said.

Egypt's new cabinet will be sworn in on Monday after a reshuffle that protesters say have partially satisfied their demands for deeper political and economic reforms. Protesters, who have camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square since 8 July, say they want further measures, including a quicker trial of Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of Egyptians have returned to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's uprising, complaining that change has come too slow under the military council that took over power.

The Republic of South Sudan formally became independent from Sudan on 9 July, but its three universities remain closed, bereft of staff, students or facilities. The universities moved to the north in the early 1990s, when civil war was at its worst in the south. They were supposed to have relocated by now, with lectures due to have begun in the south in early May. But South Sudan's government has raised only half of the US$12 million it needs to build and refurbish lecture halls, laboratories and student accommodation.

The violent two-week metalworkers strike has ended, with some workers gaining a 10 per cent wage increase. Eight of the nine National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) regions accepted the offer, bringing an end to a strike that brought a near-total halt to the second-biggest contributor to GDP.

The Human Rights Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reviewed Ethiopia's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recently, including its press freedom record. Peppered with questions about an indefensible record of abuse - jailing the second largest number of journalists in Africa and leading the continent in Internet censorship - representatives of the Ethiopian government responded with cursory talking points and bold denials in contradiction of the facts, says the Committee to Protect Journalists.

ECOWAS Ministers in charge of humanitarian affairs have resolved to set up a Task Force of Government Ministries, relevant partners and civil society to coordinate the implementation of the African Union (AU) Convention on humanitarian assistance and internal displacement in Africa, also known as the Kampala Convention. At the end of their first Ministerial Conference on Humanitarian Assistance and Internal Displacement in West Africa, held 7 July 2011 at the ECOWAS Commission headquarters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, the ministers also agreed to formulate coherent national IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) policies, legal and institutional frameworks that will fully reflect the content and the spirit of the Kampala Convention.

NATO jets have struck a military storage facility and other targets in the eastern outskirts of the capital, Tripoli. Sunday's attacks came two days after major international players recognised Libya's opposition leadership as the country's legitimate representative. From Tripoli, bright flashes could be seen on the eastern horizon just after midnight, followed by a steady rumbling that went on for an hour.

The National HIV/Aids Secretariat of Sierra Leone, which falls under the National HIV/Aids Control Program (NACP) recently conducted a study on Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) around the country. The 2011 study on MSM in Sierra Leone has broken the silence on the existence of sexual minorities in Sierra Leone. Findings from this survey revealed several problems affecting sexual minorities, especially MSM in Sierra Leone.