Abdramane Keita, managing editor of privately-owned bi-weekly L’Aurore newspaper was on the night of 2 July 2012 violently attacked by unknown armed men in the capital Bamako, accusing him of causing confusion in the country. The Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent reported that Keita’s assailants abducted him the same night and abandoned him at Senou, a town located in Bamako after seizing all his possessions including an unspecified amount of money.

A Ugandan legislator has proposed to penalise Ugandans who give birth to many children, saying the unchecked population growth was outstripping the country's resources. Uganda has an annual growth rate of 3.1 per cent, but legislators say this is too high and should be slowed down. Parliamentarian, Peter Claver Mutuluuza called for enactment of a policy that would limit the number of children produced by Ugandans.??

With the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum given to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan and the country's Code of Conduct Bureau to provide information on the President's assets declaration, the Nigerian NGO Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) is heading to court to compel the bureau to comply with its request. 'Since the Bureau has so far failed to respond to our request after the mandatory period of 7 days; we have prepared the necessary court papers which will be filed before the court this week to compel the Bureau to discharge its constitutional responsibility,' SERAP said in a statement made available to PANA. SERAP had earlier sent a request to both the President and the Code of Conduct Bureau, arguing that the disclosure of the information requested will give SERAP and the general public a true picture of the assets of the President from May 2007 to May 2012, and will demonstrate the President’s oft-expressed commitment to transparency and accountability.

As a gay man living in Tanzania, Cassim Mustapha could have faced imprisonment, but prosecutions under the country's Sexual Offences Act are rare, and the bigger threat came from his own community. After one of his neighbours attacked him with an axe leaving a deep wound in his head, Mustapha fled and applied for asylum in Malawi, the first country he reached. Persecution relating to an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity is increasingly recognized by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and in refugee law as grounds for claiming asylum. Most such claims are based on the 1951 Refugee Convention's definition of a refugee as someone having a well-founded fear of persecution because of 'membership of a particular social group'. However, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals fail to gain asylum on this basis.

Fifty four people trying to reach Italy from Libya died of thirst after a 15-day voyage in which their rubber boat gradually deflated, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday 10 July, citing the sole survivor. It said the man, an Eritrean national, was rescued by Tunisian coastguards in a state of advanced dehydration clinging to the remains of the boat after being spotted by fishermen the previous night, the agency said.

The world needs more doctors, nurses and other health care workers - 3.5 million of them, to be exact. The poor state of human resources in the health care system came under the spotlight at a session at the People’s Health Assembly, a five-day international meeting currently underway at the University of the Western Cape campus in Bellville. 'Human resources are at the heart of a good health system,' said Bridget Lloyd from the People’s Health Movement (PHM), who chaired the meeting. 'But in Africa we face great challenges with human resources in the health sector.'

The Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), the Arab Human Rights Organization (Egypt) and the Libyan Human Rights League, among several organizations and activists, signed on Sunday an international Pact of Honour against torture in Tunis, reported TAP news agency. LTDH President Abdessatar Ben Moussa said that 'the pact commits the signing parties to defend and campaign for the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties', stressing that the league will spare no effort to include the principle of criminalising torture in the future Tunisian Constitution.

The United Nations is increasingly hiring Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) for its missions across the world, raising concerns over the use of firms known for participation in human rights abuses, as well as an overall lack of accountability structures governing these contractors within the UN system. Between 2009 and 2010 alone, the UN increased its use of private security services by 73 per cent (from 44 million to 76 million dollars), according to a new report by the independent policy watchdog Global Policy Forum (GFP).

The Rio+20 summit from 13 to 22 June was disappointing to many, but it could still succeed through the mandated follow-up actions on a high-level political forum, sustainable development goals, finance and technology, says The South Centre, which gives an in-depth assessment in its latest bulletin. Individual articles include:
- The Rio+20 Summit and its Follow Up
- Rio+20: Summit Adopts Text, Ends With Positive Speeches
- Rio+20: An Inside View on the Tough Fight Over Means of Implementation (Finance and Technology)
- Sustainable Development As An Answer To Economic And Financial Crises
- Food Issues in the Rio+20 Spotlight
- 'It's Not Fair to Require Emerging Countries to Contribute As Much As Rich Countries,' Says South Centre
- Indian PM’s Speech at Rio+20
- Chinese PM’s Speech at Rio+20
- South Centre Seminar in Rio on World Economy

Kenyan women match men almost coin for coin in the now vibrant mobile money transfer market, surveys published by an international polling firm show. According to three studies on payments and money transfer behaviour carried out in Kenya and another 10 sub-Saharan African countries carried out by Gallup and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, both genders are involved in mobile money transfers in equal measure.

Gunmen killed several people in an attack on two Christian villages in central Nigeria's Plateau State early Saturday, officials said. Although police and army spokesmen could not give an exact toll, one politician said at least 23 people had been killed and blamed Muslim herdsmen for the attacks.

The battle for supremacy between Nigeria and South Africa and an attempt by France to play a bigger role in African issues, are likely to influence who becomes the next head of the African Union Commission in this week’s polls. There is a growing competition between Nigeria and South Africa for the control of the continent’s economic and political scene after South Africa offered the candidature of Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, contrary to the unwritten rule that big economies should stay away from the leadership.

A large tract of near-pristine Afromontane forest has been found in Angola's Namba Mountains, tripling the amount of this habitat that was thought to survive in Angola. The site meets the criteria for a new Important Bird Area (IBA), holding one globally threatened species, and assemblages of restricted range and biome-restricted bird species. Afromontane forest is the most localised and threatened habitat type in Angola. By the early 1970s, only 200 hectares was estimated to remain, mainly at the Mount Moco IBA, and perhaps in the Namba Mountains, where most forest was thought to be degraded by logging.

A former Zimbabwean diplomat has warned that the country’s massive international debt is a 'ticking time bomb', which threatens to destroy any hope of economic recovery. The country’s bill is believed to be hovering between 8 and 10 billion dollars, which Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono warned in May was 'a serious developmental constraint for the economy'. According to former diplomat Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, the lack of agreement on solutions to the staggering debt 'could trigger civil strife and instability in the not so distant future'.

While Botswana’s government has never officially admitted to forcibly relocating the G/wi and G//ana communities of the Basarwa indigenous group to make way for diamond-mining operations in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), critics have long suspected this to be the main motivation for the removals. When it became known in late 2010 that Gem Diamonds would begin mining operations in the CKGR, suspicions seem to have been confirmed. Basarwa were granted the rights to occupy land within the CKGR, as a result of a court ruling in 2006, after years of attempted negotiations, struggle and litigation. There is concern over monitoring and ensuring that the needs of the communities in the CKGR are met, says this article from

The United Nations has in a new report expressed grave doubts about the widespread practice of detaining migrants. States use a variety of reasons to justify this practice and some see irregular migration as a national security problem or a criminal issue, notes the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau, in his latest report to the Human Rights Council. However, he warns, there are a number of human rights issues at stake. Different categories of migrants are subjected to detention, including migrants who are undocumented or in an irregular situation, asylum-seekers awaiting the outcome of their asylum application and failed asylum-seekers awaiting removal.

A new report from Global Witness reveals that Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) appears to have received off budget financing from a Hong Kong-based businessman as the CIO and other security agencies continue to prepare to influence elections due to take place sometime in 2013, reports the latest issue of the AfricaFocus Bulletin, which contains a press release on the report from Global Witness, the Executive Summary of the report, and selected additional excerpts.

HIV care and treatment has come a long way in the past decade, write Brian Honermann and Mark Heywood in this opinion piece marking 10 years since South Africa's Constitutional Court upheld the constitutional right of all HIV positive pregnant women to access health care services to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). 'In 2002, an HIV positive mother would pass on HIV to her baby about 30% of the time. With access to Nevirapine the transmission rate was cut in half. Now, with better drug regimens being used, transmission of HIV from mothers to babies happens in only about 4% of cases during or shortly after birth.'

A prominent Sudanese opposition politician has been arrested, amid growing unrest over economic hardship. Kamel Omar was taken from his home by unknown men who showed no warrant, a spokesman of his party said. A government official said he was held for alleged links to Darfur rebels, as well as to the recent protests.

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas on Sunday after demonstrations broke out at the University of Khartoum, where nationwide protests against high prices began last month, a witness said. The university is where an unprecedented three weeks of national protests began on June 16, when students first voiced their opposition to high food prices.