On October 21, a violent incident occurred at an airbase outside Bissau, the capital of the small west African nation of Guinea-Bissau. Six people were reported killed, and gruesome images of bodies of accused assailants circulated on the internet. The day after two politicians critical of the country's transitional government and military were kidnapped and beaten. The violence took place against a backdrop of simmering doubts about the transition negotiated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), reports Global Voices Online.

A new book finds that the Nile river, together with its associated tributaries and rainfall, could provide 11 countries - including a new country, South Sudan, and the drought-plagued countries of the Horn of Africa - with enough water to support a vibrant agriculture sector, but that the poor in the region who rely on the river for their food and incomes risk missing out on these benefits without effective and inclusive water management policies. 'The Nile River Basin: Water, Agriculture, Governance and Livelihoods', published by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), incorporates new research and analysis to provide the most comprehensive analysis yet of the water, agriculture, governance and poverty challenges facing policymakers.

Nigeria’s perplexing ‘quiet diplomacy’ in the pursuit of precious pieces of art looted by the colonialists over a century ago has not resulted in the return of the artefacts. It is time to make loud, firm and vigorous demands.

'To restore Afrikan power, Africans must reassert themselves. We have riches of all kinds. We must control our raw materials. We must acquire technology to process these raw materials in Africa and export them as finished goods. We must break free from exploitative relationships with the West'.

As part of the growing global movement for universal health coverage (UHC), civil society groups met with World Bank president Jim Yong Kim at the World Bank annual meetings in Tokyo earlier this month asking that he support developing countries to achieve universal health coverage. Health was a theme of this year’s meetings. They presented Dr. Kim with an open letter signed by 110 organizations from 40 countries, including the Ghana Universal Healthcare Campaign, World Vision, and Oxfam asking him to ensure the World Bank assists all people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, to access quality health services.

It seems likely that more South Africans who really care about the future of the country will move beyond the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and start the difficult, protracted affair of building political alternatives. Some already are.

Adèle Kirsten, Local Government Action, and Tshepo Madlingozi, Khulumani Support Group, talk about the massacre of Marikana, their ambivalent relationship to the ANC, white capital and the revolt of the poor in today’s South Africa.

A significant increase in salaries for Ghana's president, ministers and other top officials has been criticised by anti-corruption campaigners. Parliament agreed to the pay rise earlier this week in a session that was not televised. Last month President John Dramani Mahama authorised an increase in MPs' pay.

The US$2 billion pledged by donors on 30 October to support Burundi’s development sounds like a ringing endorsement of the central African country’s progress from civil war to peace and democracy. But memories are still fresh of the 1993-2005 conflict that killed more than 200,000 people, and analysts, human rights experts, and civil society and political opposition members - while they agree significant gains have been made - worry about a range of security and governance issues that could derail them ahead of the 2015 elections.

South Sudan said on Sunday it had expelled a UN human rights investigator, accusing her of writing false reports, a move the UN mission said broke the country's legal obligations to the United Nations. UN sources, who named the officer as Sandra Beidas, said the expulsion may have been related to an August report accusing the army of torturing, raping, killing and abducting civilians.

The brutal assault on an MDC-T official and his wife, which happened in Kadoma, has fuelled anger among Zimbabweans and sparked fears that political violence is intensifying ahead of elections due next year. The attack has also focused attention on Robert Mugabe, who on several occasions recently said publicly that he wants peace and tolerance between party supporters. Critics are now questioning the ZANU PF leader’s sincerity.

Between 50 to 90 per cent of logging in key tropical countries of the Amazon basin, central Africa and south east Asia is being carried out by organised crime, thus threatening efforts to combat climate change, deforestation, conserve wildlife and eradicate poverty. This rapid response report estimates that the illegal logging trade is worth between USD 30 to 100 billion annually.

Efforts to tackle the silent emergency of acute and chronic malnutrition in Africa will receive additional traction this week when the African Union and partners join forces in Addis Ababa to celebrate the Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security. The high-level event on 31 October which will be opened by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. More than 30 percent of all children under five in sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from stunted growth due to chronic malnutrition.

Police and soldiers have deployed in large numbers in the Tunisian capital after deadly clashes with radical Islamists during the night, according to the interior ministry. The deployment came a day after Tunisia's state news agency said one protester was killed and three security officers injured in clashes near Tunis. Wielding sharp tools and swords, the protesters went on the attack in the Tunis suburb of Manouba after police arrested a Salafist suspected of assaulting the head of the suburb's public-security brigade, Khaled Tarrouche, interior ministry spokesman, said.

Four years ago Africa greeted Barack Obama's election with rapture, predicting America's first black president would smother the continent with attention. But instead of warm hand-holding, Africa got hard-headed, security-first policies. 'Obama to my mind is more engaged in Africa, but the nature of how the United States is engaging has changed. It is mostly security related,' said Jason Warner, a Harvard-based expert on African security. According to Mr Warner, President Obama has helped 'normalise' Africa policy. 'There is no other region in the world that the US engages on simply humanitarian grounds.'

If Cameroon is to avoid catastrophes of possibly greater dimensions than so far witnessed, the citizens must take a hard and unsentimental look at the crucial question of leadership and the manner in which political power is exercised.

Villagers in Gokwe, Mashonaland West, have reported that uniformed soldiers are forcing them to attend political rallies, where they are being warned that more soldiers with guns will be deployed to punish them if they do not support ZANU PF policies on the constitution and in elections due next year. The report comes just a day after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, told reporters that Robert Mugabe met with Tsvangirai on Monday and agreed to call a meeting with the country's army generals, to discuss the issue of political violence and elections.

A recent academic study has identified a range of mental health disorders suffered by shack dwellers in South Africa's Western Cape Province, from chronic insomnia to low self-esteem. The study, 'The Impact of Living in Transitional Communities; The Experiences of People in Blikkiesdorp and Happy Valley', was conducted by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Because of budget considerations, the study was constrained to two settlements.

A new IMF delegation has arrived in Cairo for negotiations about a renewed loan to Egypt. But the real agenda of Western international financial institutions is to consolidate and expand their control of the country.

If anyone should seek the real definition of courage, let them not look for it in philosophical discourses or the annals of military history. Let them read the words of Reeyot and apply them to their cause.