From mid-June to early August this year, Sudan has witnessed nationwide protests directly calling for regime change, sparked by an alarming increase in prices. The protests were met with a massive crackdown on civil liberties, and a wave of arrests by National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), Sudan’s security apparatus. While journalists were not disproportionately impacted by the crackdown, what they have experienced during the past few weeks helps paint a picture of a country on the brink of economic collapse and escalating political turmoil.

Uganda’s former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ezra Suruma, has expressed doubt that the government will have the capacity to appropriately utilise expected oil revenues, given problems of corruption, weak budgertary control and lack of ability to absorb an injection of cash. 'I must say that oil frightens me as a possible source of instability if it is not carefully managed. We have had severe political instability since independence. Some of us who still carry or bear the scars of that instability are careful when looking at these issues to ensure that this instability does not come back,' he told a conference.

Egyptian youth expressed their discontent with the government removing a large graffiti mural on the wall of the American University in Cairo (AUC) building on Mohamed Mahmoud street in downtown Cairo late on Tuesday, which had been painted to honor those who died in the January 2011 revolution and the November clashes that occurred on the street. Activists shared a photo on social networking sites showing a man painting over the art and called on street artists to go back and redo the art scene, defying the government’s decision to 'beautify' Tahrir Square its own way.

Less than a year after Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s fatal ouster, preparations are underway for the trial of his son, Saif al-Islam, even as new facts emerge about the involvement of foreign mercenaries in the Libyan crisis and in other African wars. It has emerged that a number of unidentified white South African mercenaries were hired to smuggle the beleaguered Gaddafi and his sons to exile in Niger. Their attempts were, however, thwarted by Nato bombs shortly before rebels shot the strongman dead.

Workers at Lonmin's Marikana mine, west of Pretoria, have just accepted an offer of a 22 per cent overall pay increase, ending weeks of bloody strikes in which dozens died. Police brutality and the exploitation of workers were the defining features of the strike.

More than a year after civil unrest broke out in Burkina Faso, observers and analysts say despite some progress, and sustained support for President Blaise Compaoré, tension between his government and the population remains. Stability in Burkina Faso is vital for regional stability, said a Western diplomat, given the recent conflict in Côte d’Ivoire and the current situation in Mali.

Two mass graves have been discovered in Kenya's coastal Tana Delta region, the number and identities of the bodies in the graves are unknown, police say. The discovery of the graves comes a week after at least 38 people were shot, hacked and burnt to death after two tribes fought over land and water in the same area. The graves were located in Kilelengwani village, the epicentre of fighting that has left 100 people dead in the last three weeks, including nine police officers.

More research and better policies are needed to protect the world's most vulnerable seas, lying off the coast of West Africa and the Caribbean, local experts have told SciDev.Net. The two regions have some of the world's unhealthiest seas, according to a new index that assessed the health of seas and their benefits to livelihoods. Its methodology was published in Nature last month (15 August).

'Shutting the Spigot on Private Water' is a landmark report that documents how the World Bank is driving global water privatization at a chilling human cost. With original financial analysis and powerful case studies, it demonstrates how the World Bank must divest from private water projects to align its actions with its stated mission of alleviating poverty and supporting sustainable development.

Two journalists at the state-censored Swazi TV were suspended from work for allowing an unauthorised item about King Mswati III to appear in a news bulletin. It concerned the traditional Umhlamga Reed Dance that took place last week. A news report about the event sourced from Channel France International (CFI) did not give the king enough respect, according to Swazi TV bosses. The report mentioned the fact that sometimes the king uses the Reed Dance to find himself a wife from the tens of thousands of semi-naked women and girls, some as young as nine years old, who dance in front of him.

Violence against women and girls and the indiscriminate extraction of natural resources are among the most pressing issues that indigenous peoples face today, a United Nations human rights expert said. 'A recurring issue that has come to my attention in various contexts is that of violence against indigenous women and girls,' said the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, in his statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In the past year, Anaya has collaborated with various countries, UN agencies and indigenous peoples in several studies and country assessments on the challenges indigenous peoples face on a daily basis. He has also made recommendations to states of good practices and responded to cases of alleged human rights violations.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) which has been trying to broker an end to the political crisis in Mali will secretly deploy regional troops to deal with Islamist militants following request by authorities in Bamako. The regional force is expected to help flush out Islamists who have been holding northern Mali since April this year.

The restoration of term limits will return citizens' authority in the constitution as stated in article 1 of the 1995 constitution

A suspected cholera outbreak has killed about a dozen people in the southern Somali village of Hoosingo, in the district of Badade in Lower Juba, say government and health officials. 'One of the biggest problems we have is that we do not what this disease is,' Adan Ibrahim Dhaqane, the Hoosingo Village commissioner, told IRIN by telephone. Dhaqane said that at least 19 people had died since the outbreak started on 5 September, with 12 others sick.

This study analyses the political, economic and social impacts of the land and ‘virtual water’ grab in Southern Sudan. The ‘virtual water’ concept, which explains the absence of water wars through water embedded in agricultural imports, has been a major breakthrough in the study of the Middle Eastern water question. This paper shows how agricultural commodities in the form of virtual water are at the heart of Middle Eastern investors’ interests.

This International Organisation of Migration (IOM) research newsletter provides a comprehensive update on IOM’s migration research activities, institutional partnerships and research events for IOM colleagues and interested external readers. This edition focuses on 'The Arab Spring: Reflections on the international response one year later'.

Following the announcement on 21 August 2012 of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s death, Ethiopia’s new leadership should recommit the State to the full respect of its population’s human rights, especially the freedoms of association, assembly and expression, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) said in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council. The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has expressed serious alarm about the 'climate of intimidation' against human rights defenders and journalists in Ethiopia.

The Head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom has condemned the recent killing of a Tanzanian journalist, Mr Daudi Mwangosi, and called for an independent investigation into the matter. Mwangosi (40) was killed while covering efforts by police to disperse supporters of opposition party Chadema in Nyololo village, Iringa region on 2 September.

South Sudan accused Sudan on Sunday of air-dropping weapons to rebels, just as the presidents of the African neighbours were about to meet to finalise a border security deal to restart oil exports. Sudan dismissed the charges and any links to rebels in the South, which seceded from Khartoum in July last year under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. Sudan, in turn, often accuses Juba of supporting rebels in its borderlands.

In the view of the Democratic Left Front (DLF), the crackdown by soldiers and police in Marikana represents a serious escalation of authoritarian repression against the working class by the ANC government. It has declared a de facto state of emergency in the mining sector.