West African bloc Ecowas on Monday 28 May rejected a rebel declaration of an independent Islamic state in northern Mali and repeated an earlier threat to take 'all necessary measures' to keep the country intact. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States 'denounces in the strongest possible terms this opportunistic act', said a statement signed by Ecowas head Desire Kadre Ouedraogo.

Thousands of infants born in remote northern parts of Kenya in the past six weeks risk contracting tuberculosis (TB) due to a vaccine shortage, with medics warning that the effects could be severe in areas where there is already little access to maternity and vaccination services. In the north-central Isiolo region, for example, stocks of the TB Bacillus Camille Guérin (BCG) vaccine ran out at the main Isiolo District Hospital in early April, leaving hundreds of babies unimmunized.

Parts of the developing world, particularly India and countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, will suffer food shortages if their planned biofuels targets are implemented by 2020, a study has warned. The study, which looked at 25 countries and geographical regions, including Latin American and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States, found that the targets will also affect national wealth.

Q-zine is a pan-African, bilingual (English/French), quarterly electronic magazine by, for and about sexual minority groups in Africa. The fifth issue of Q-zine is proud to showcase LGBTI and queer African innovators and creators who are making their visions a reality. Q-Zine is looking for young LGBTI and queer people in Africa and the Diaspora who are moving, shaking, setting trends and making a difference in their lives and in their communities.

As Sudan and South Sudan sit down to peace talks they must make it a priority to sort out citizenship problems which have left hundreds of thousands of people in a 'stateless' limbo, rights activists say. People from South Sudan were left without any official nationality last year after the south became independent and the government in the northern capital of Khartoum stripped them of their Sudanese citizenship. Refugees International (RI) said as many as 500,000 southerners were still living in Sudan and warned that violence against them was on the rise. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs.

The Moroccan government’s announcement that it would issue new public media guidelines at the end of May has reignited a stormy debate around independent media in the kingdom. The debate began nearly two months ago when the Islamist government, led by Abdelilah Benkirane, forced public television channels and radio stations to broadcast the five daily calls to prayer, which put many citizens on the defensive against what they saw as a deliberate attempt to Islamise an otherwise moderate sector of society.

Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo has labelled rumours circulating about Rwanda's involvement in the eastern DRC as 'categorically false and dangerous'. She was responding to reports on the BBC of a UN report alleging that solders had been recruited and trained in Rwanda and then transferred to the eastern DRC to take part in the conflict between the Congolese government and rebel forces.

On 29 May, The New York Times published an extraordinarily in-depth look at the intimate role President Obama has played in authorizing US drone attacks overseas, particularly in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. 'While purporting to represent the world’s greatest democracy, US leaders are putting people on a hit list who are as young as 17, people who are given no chance to surrender, and certainly no chance to be tried in a court of law.'

Christine Lagarde's crass comments on Greece have caused an understandable furore in that country. But in Niger, there must be just as much contempt for the IMF director. For in dismissing the plight of mothers in Greece, Lagarde also said she felt more sympathy for 'the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger'. If 'sympathy' is what characterises the IMF's approach to Niger, then Greece would do better to avoid it. Niger comes into news headlines on a fairly regular basis – associated as it is with cycles of famine and constantly high levels of malnutrition. Less reported is the role of the IMF, along with sister organisation the World Bank, in fuelling this suffering, writes Nick Dearden in the London Guardian.

In contrast with Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, Islamists in Algeria refused to join the incoming government. Furthermore, the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), which has four ministers in the current government, decided to withdraw them altogether. The Islamist party, which until now had been a partner in the governing coalition, on Saturday (May 19th), decided to return to the ranks of the opposition after a resounding 134 to 35 vote by the consultative committee.

Most of those displaced by post-election violence mainly in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province five years ago have been resettled, but those whose relatives were killed or who lost their property are seeking justice and further compensation. With few perpetrators of the violence having been bought to book, 'the compensation they need is not only in monetary terms, but also in accessing justice for lost lives', said Collins Omondi, an official with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

Tens of thousands of Moroccans have taken to the streets of Casablanca in protests against the government’s failure to tackle unemployment and other social woes. Sunday’s rally, which is believed to be the largest opposition protest since a new government took office, was organised by trade unions. They accuse Abdelilah Benkirane, the prime minister of failing to deliver on the pledges of social justice that brought his party to power in November.

The first ever Global African Diaspora Summit was held in Sandton, South Africa, on Africa Day, 25 May 2012. The meeting was attended by Heads of States or representative of the 54 Member States of the Union, the Government of the Caribbean Community, South and Latin America. The Summit began with welcome remarks by the Host, President Jacob Zuma which was followed by the remarks of Dr. Jean Ping, the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Honorable David Dikins, former Mayor of New York , as Eminent person from the Diaspora, Honorable Arnold Joseph Nicholson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable Samuel Hins, Prime Minister of the Republic of Guyana, on behalf of CARICOM, Mr. Esteban Lasto, the Vice President of the Republic of Cuba and President Nguema of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. The opening session was concluded with the opening remarks of President Boni Yayi, President of the Republic of Benin and Chairperson of the Union.

The governments of Puntland and Galmudug have withdrawn from a planned trip to the Republic of Turkey, where the Istanbul Conference Il on Somalia is supposed to take place 31 May 2012 - 1 June 2012. A press release said the event was not a Somali-owned process and the purpose and agenda of the conference was ambiguous.

Assailants in Mogadishu have gunned down the host of a critical radio program, further punctuating what has already been a deadly year for the Somali press corps and for the journalist's employer, the Shabelle Media Network. Four unidentified men fired repeatedly at Ahmed Addow Anshur while he was in Bo'le Market, in Dharkenley District, local journalists said.

This fact sheet highlights the progress of rural women against key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicators, pointing to some of the advancements made and gaps that still exist. It suggests that globally, and with only a few exceptions, rural women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men for every MDG indicator for which data are available.

Africa's newest sovereign state, South Sudan, is the highest riser in this year's internationally acclaimed global ranking Peoples Under Threat, indicating that the risk of further ethnic killings in the country remains critical, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) says. In South Sudan, a new entrant in the top ten, a history of cattle raiding between the Lou Nuer and the Murle, as well as other groups, has developed into inter-communal violence on a highly organised scale in Jonglei state, affecting some 120,000 people. Tens of thousands of refugees have also fled across the border into South Sudan in recent months, escaping Sudanese government shelling of communities in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile state.

South Sudan is losing its forests. And with no unified policy to deal with the situation the government is at odds, with one ministry saying that the loss of forests is a necessity for farming and another warning of the dire environmental consequences if this continues unchecked. While there is no information on the exact number of forests in the country, according to 2009 figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, forests and woodlands cover an estimated 29 per cent of the land area in South Sudan or 191,667 square kilometres.

Hundreds of Salafists have attacked bars and shops and clashed with security forces in a Tunisian town in the latest incident to raise religious tensions in the home of the Arab Spring uprisings. Police and witnesses in the northwestern town of Jendouba said on Saturday that hundreds of the ultra-conservative Muslims began rioting to protest the arrest of four men in connection with previous attacks on alcohol vendors.

Tunisia's justice ministry has sacked 81 magistrates over suspicions of graft and their links to ousted president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's regime. The magistrates, whose identities were not revealed, are accused of having 'obeyed orders and dabbled in embezzlements, while handing down rulings in violation of the law to protect personal interests', said Justice Minister Nourredine Bhiri in an interview on Sunday with newspaper Achourouk.