The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) say they have opened an investigation into homophobic comments made by Nigerian football coach Eucharia Uche.

With the highest rate of human trafficking in East and Central Africa, several non-governmental organisations in Kenya are now under investigation by INTERPOL. The trail of corruption may also reveal human trafficker’s collusion with Kenyan authorities including the police and intelligence, as well as the judiciary.

Bisi Alimi contributes to a series by The Guardian on voices of people from around the world who have found themselves stigmatised for their sexuality. While at university in Nigeria and standing for election, a magazine wrote about him and exposed him as being gay. This led the university to set up a disciplinary committee.

This past June, the National Popular Assembly (ANP) of Guinea-Bissau approved a law prohibiting female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) nationwide. The controversial law had been on the table for discussion for 16 years, before it was ultimately approved by 64 votes in favour to 1 vote against.

This study by Diana E. H. Russell and Roberta A. Harmes (Eds) finds that the lethal impact of AIDS on many women and girls must be recognised as a form of mass femicide that is devastating women throughout the world. These femicides are occurring as a result of the overlap of four gender-related problems: AIDS, male sexism and domination, genital mutilation, and rape.

In Africa, access to positions of political responsibility remains an exception for female politicians. But this is changing. In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first woman elected at the head of a country: Liberia. Today, women candidates are increasing and the next African elections will open new perspectives to all who have pledged to stir things up in Africa.

An international pressure group is to be launched in Britain to tackle the rise in homophobic violence around the world, with a focus on Africa and the Middle East. The UK's three main political parties have declared their support for Kaleidoscope, an independent group campaigning for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, after a series of high-profile attacks on sexual minorities in developing countries.

In a blog post, Peter Kenworthy explores how many African leaders in particular see homosexuality as 'un-natural' and 'un-African' and do not believe that homosexuals should have any rights at all. Homophobia is therefore not only illegal and punishable in many African countries, but also legitimised by the leaders of these countries, and African homosexuals are frequently assaulted, expelled from their jobs, or chased from their homes. The cultural claims that homosexuality is alien to Africa are rarely if ever substantiated, however, and homophobic laws and opinions could alternatively be seen as colonial imports based on European 18th or 19th century Puritanism.

Women are our best hope for the continent, says Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah in her introduction to The Africa Report's list of the 50 women shaping Africa. Porgress has been slow, but many women are showing the art of the possible, inspiring a new generation to take control of their destiny.

The Inaugural OUT Film Festival will be the first public showing of cinema that reflects the life of sexual minorities. The film festival wants to make known a community that Kenyan society deems to be secret. The festival aims to entertain, educate and celebrate. There will be a variety of films and documentaries from within and outside the continent that will alter the way you look at the way the Queer community lives and loves.

In response to an article entitled by Andrey Mbugua, Mia Nikasimo takes great exception to Mbugua’s assumptions, language and presentations of LBGTI and transsexual people.

In the second and final part of an article on LGBT rights in Sudan, Ghareeb writes that South Sudan has a long way to go before it becomes a society tolerant of homosexuality. Part one of the article is available here:

Even as Kenyan LGBTI activists fight for legal recognition they are confronted by the spectre of violence against community members based upon their sexual orientation. Many members of the LGBTI community have faced violence in the course of their lives and as a result are psychologically affected by this. Behind the Mask’s Melissa Wainaina interviewed two LGBTI individuals about such violence and the effect it had on them.

Brian Moonga reports for Radio Netherlands Worldwide that widows in Zambia are increasingly experiencing theft, alienation and sexual exploitation. According to Ruth Mwewa, president of Zambia Widows Association, the privatisation of numerous industries over the past two decades, which resulted in the liquidation of over 2,000 companies, saw many families become destitute and desperate.

Two men who are currently being tried for alleged homosexuality in Yaounde were recently denied bail. Police said the men - aged 19 and 20 - were caught having oral sex in a car after visiting a nightclub in the capital, Yaounde. Their bail application was refused and they are to remain in custody at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde until the case is over.

Friday August 26, 2011 saw the Coalition of African Lesbians, CAL, launch its LGBT Human Rights Defenders, HRD project in Lagos, Nigeria. Participants in the HRD workshop, which was held in collaboration with The Initiative for Equal Rights, TIER, a Nigerian-based LGBT human rights organization, attended the launch alongside some members of the Lagos LGBT community.

The objective of the Africa Business Women Connect Summit is to enhance economic performance on the continent in the three largest export sectors for women: craft/textiles, agribusiness and services. ABW intends to unite successful African businesswomen from 53 countries in Africa. The initiative will be launched at a summit in Ethiopia in 2013, reaching 530 African Business Women, followed by in-country activities reaching an additional 5300 women supported by a Wisdom Exchange TV.

A number of jobs and business opportunities will arise as the South African government continues to design implementation programmes that favour renewable energy and energy efficiency. This information was made available at a workshop for women organised by the national Department of Energy. The aim of the day-long meeting was to help women understand this sector and the potential it holds for them in terms of job creation and business ventures.

An Afrographique infographic depicting the percentage share of formal firms that are owned by women in Africa.

As South Africa commemorates Women’s Month, it is important to look at one of the most dangerous – and seldom discussed – issues affecting women in the country today, says this article from Gender Links. 'In South Africa, drug and alcohol abuse should be an issue of national concern. Yet, while production, sale and use of a number of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and crystal meth is illegal in South Africa, it has done little to curb the use of drugs, which remains very high.'