Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has urged rights groups to call off nationwide vigils planned for Wednesday 17 August in order to 'save lives and destruction of property'. Civil society groups announced the vigils, to be held across the country, after Mutharika’s government failed to immediately address their concerns over the economy. Last month 19 people were killed in the poor southern African country when police opened fire on those taking part in anti-government protests that lasted for two days.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has urged his supporters to fight for the country 'inch by inch' as opposition forces launched a two-pronged offensive in western Libya that threatens to isolate the capital of Tripoli. Facing the sternest challenge of his decades-long rule, Gaddafi on Monday called on Libyans to arm themselves to liberate the country from 'traitors and from NATO' in a broadcast on state television. The speech, which was broadcast in audio only with no images, was the first time Gaddafi had spoken in public since rebel fighters launched their biggest offensive in months.

An estimated 18 million children worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes because of conflict; a third of those are refugees whose families have fled across international borders, research shows. To explain the consequences on their mental health, the authors of a study published in the UK journal, The Lancet, undertook a review of all the work on this subject, to see what lessons can be learned for the best way to support refugee and displaced children and their families.

Somalia’s in flames again, but what’s new? asks this paper from the Enough Project. 'The answer is that much is new this time, and it would be a dangerous error of judgment to brush off Somalia’s current crisis as more of the same. It would be equally dangerous to call for the same tired formulas for UN peacekeeping, state-building, and counterterrorism operations that have achieved little since 1990. Seismic political, social, and security changes are occurring in the country, and none bode well for the people of Somalia or the international community.'

South Sudanese civil society organisations met in Juba, from 26 to 29 of July 2011 to discuss social, political and economic issues in the new country. Resolutions to citizens included embracing unity in diversity and overtly rejecting ethnicity, nepotism and corruption. The new government should enhance and promote social justice and declare zero tolerance for sexual and gender based violence - and develop a national strategy to address gender concerns, says a communique from the meeting.

A new white paper on international relations reaffirms that SA’s foreign policy should be based on human rights and development in Africa but also warns that SA’s regional leadership position could soon be challenged. In the past SA has been criticised for having lost its focus on human rights, particularly when it supported positions that failed to take strong action on the crisis in Zimbabwe. A decision to deny a visitor’s visa to the Dalai Lama for fear of alienating China was also strongly criticised.

WHO WOULD DARE BELIEVE IN THE WITHDRAWAL OF FRENCH COLONIAL TROOPS FROM CHAD?
Ley-Ngardigal Djimadoum

When Idriss Déby was being installed for a fourth term of five as president, France's vague attempts to put an end to its military presence in Chad sounded like a mere bluff. The context of regional geopolitical issues do not favour such an eventuality, not for Paris or the Chadian president. In this regard, Ley-Ngardigal Djimadoum underlines that the requirements of francophone Africa as well as the ‘culture of colonial serfdom’ are still perennial occurrences on both sides.

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JUSTICE FOR SANKARA: HOMAGE AND TRIBUTE

On 10 June 2011, some 21 French parliamentarians lodged an inquiry into the assassination of Thomas Sankara. Twenty-four years after the assassination of the former president of Burkina Faso, this move in search of truth fosters a long-lived symbol in the minds of resistance fighters in Africa and in the world. On 1 July, a dinner with the theme ‘Justice for Sankara, Justice for Africa’ was organised in Paris. Pambazuka brings to you a few short speeches that were made on the occasion of this ceremony which brought together more than a hundred personalities, celebrities, trade unionists, intellectuals and politicians.

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SENEGAL: THE ORIGINS OF IRRENDENTISM IN CASAMANCE
Amady Aly Dieng

Here is a book which immerses the reader into the heart of the Casamance drama. In this publication, which is a result of several years of investigations and research, Oumar Diatta, a specialist educationalist and journalist, tackles the Casamance question on the triple plan – political, institutional and administrative – since the colonial era and in the light of the conflict borne of the freedom fighter demands of the Movement of Democratic Forces in Casamance (Mfdc).

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SEEING SOCIAL MEDIA PROCESSES AS A MEDIUM FOR COMMUNICATION
Pierre Georges

This contribution relates to the connection between the alternatives, media citizens and the process of social forums which have developed during the last ten last years all over the planet. Pierre Georges presents the worldwide social forum as a ‘potentially powerful medium’ and presents the articulations which can help make it a ‘collective media’.

The West African coastline has seen increasing attacks on chemical and oil tankers. London-based Lloyd's Market Association, an umbrella group of insurers, recently listed Nigeria, Benin and surrounding waters in the same category as Somalia, where two decades of war and anarchy have allowed piracy to flourish.

Leaders in the regional grouping SADC have been called upon to urgently deal with the 'worrying' human rights situations in several member countries, and to strengthen the mandate of the regional tribunal in Namibia instead of weakening it. Writing to SADC’s executive secretary, Dr. Tomaz Salomao, of the global rights group Human Rights Watch said the leaders should address the situations in Malawi, Swaziland, Angola and Zimbabwe, when they meet at a summit in Luanda, Angola.

The Independent newspaper in the United Kingdom reports on how the United Nations and the Kenyan government have come in for a fresh round of criticism for the continued closure of a multimillion-pound refugee camp that has been left empty despite the deepening humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. 'The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been accused of misdirecting the media by renaming scrubland adjacent to empty facilities, rather than sealing a deal with Kenya to open up a camp that cost international donors $60m (£37m) to build and has been left locked since November last year.'

The thrust of this brief report by the International Commission on Eritrean Refugees is to bring to the attention of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Council (UNOHCHR) the problem of Eritrean refugees all over the world, in particular those found in North Africa. 'Professor Tricia R. Redeker reports that, in 2008 refugees seeking asylum from Eritrea surpassed that of Iraq and the number is increasing. It is reported that an estimated 2,000 Eritreans per month leave clandestinely to Ethiopia and Sudan. There are also those who crossed the Red Sea to request asylum in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.'

In a statement issued 10 August, Amnesty International urged NATO to conduct a full investigation of a recent attack near Zlitan, which the Libyan government reported killed 85 civilians. NATO denied seeing any evidence of civilian casualties. But did it look? asks this article on 'Its not clear. Officials reported the attack and independent journalists confirmed seeing large numbers of dead civilian bodies in the morgue, including a number of civilians.'

The New York Times profiles the use of private US military contractors in the war in Somalia, introducing the story with Richard Rouget, whom they describe as 'a gun for hire over two decades of bloody African conflict'. The story goes on: 'Rouget, 51, commanded a group of foreign fighters during Ivory Coast’s civil war in 2003, was convicted by a South African court of selling his military services and did a stint in the presidential guard of the Comoros Islands, an archipelago plagued by political tumult and coup attempts. Now Mr. Rouget works for Bancroft Global Development, an American private security company that the State Department has indirectly financed to train African troops who have fought a pitched urban battle in the ruins of this city against the Shabab, the Somali militant group allied with Al Qaeda.'

The Institute for Race Relations in the United Kingdom reports on prisoner transfer agreements between the UK and other countries. 'For the past few years, under pressure from right-wing Tories, the government has made strenuous attempts to reach agreements with countries such as Nigeria to enable prisoners serving sentences here to be compulsorily repatriated to complete their sentences in their home countries, so as to save costs, reduce the foreign national prisoner (FNP) population and make space for British prisoners.'

Every year thousands of West Africans migrate to Europe in search of a better life. But for some, that search will end in tragedy as they fall victim to organised crime gangs. In one area of southern Italy, thousands of women from Nigeria are trapped in a nightmare world of prostitution. Many are trafficked illegally by Nigerian criminals, who deceive them with promises of regular jobs.

Crimes under international law, including rape and murder, continue to be committed by the Congolese army and armed groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo following decades of similar crimes across the country, Amnesty International has said. A new Amnesty International report 'The time for justice is now; new strategy needed in the Democratic Republic of Congo' calls for the reform and strengthening of the country's national justice system to combat impunity that has been fostering a cycle of violence and human rights violations for decades.

There is no bi-lateral agreement between South Africa and Zimbabwe to prevent refugees from the famine-wracked Horn of Africa entering South Africa, said state officials last week. The statements from the South African department of Home Affairs and the Zimbabwean Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week are in direct contrast to statements appearing on the South African Home Affairs website, and Zimbabwean news reports on Zimbabwe’s decision to bar entry to Somali and Ethiopian refugees.

Somalia's government has offered an open amnesty to al-Shabab fighters after the rebels made a surprise withdrawal from the capital, Mogadishu, over the weekend. 'We offer an amnesty - put down your weapons and your guns, and come and join the people and your society,' Abdirahman Osman, a government spokesman, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency on Tuesday. Al-Shabab, who still govern over much of southern Somalia, have waged a bloody war since 2007 to topple the Western-backed transitional government.

Journalists and civil society members in West Africa analysed a 'counter-terrorism plan' drawn up by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at a 4-5 August meeting in the Senegalese capital Dakar. Main issues that emerged were the need to strengthen regional cooperation and to address root causes of terrorism - poverty and lack of education, said Biram Diop, director of the African Institute for Security Sector Transformation, who facilitated discussions.

Indigenous peoples in the Congo - minorities who are often marginalized and experience discrimination - are calling for the application of a law on the promotion and protection of the rights of autochthonous peoples passed in February. Potential beneficiaries say the authorities should implement the law as soon as possible to stop discrimination. 'As an aboriginal person, I stand to gain from this law; but we want it to be applied immediately,' Ngouélé Ibara, who heads the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the Congo, told IRIN.