Next week, President Obama will visit US client state Ethiopia, ruled by a despotic regime that locks up anyone who dares to speak out against its mass atrocities. Mr. Okello Akway Ochalla, the former governor of Gambella, is one such. His son now appeals to Obama to secure Ochalla’s release from jail.

With the decision by parliament to remove constitutional term limits to allow Kagame to rule for life, Rwanda has now entered a dangerous period of escalation. Anger, frustration, miscalculation, another wrong decision or unforeseen event could easily trigger another round of devastation.

Governments around the world are increasing their hostility towards civil society organisations, but at the same time enacting laws and policies that promote business investment. While CSO and profit-driven groups operate differently, and should be treated as such, they play important political and economic roles. Both need government support.

Global Campaign On Military Spending, GCOMS-Nigeria, welcomes the decision of the President Muhammad Buhari government to sack the country's Service Chiefs.

The original owners in Africa that were supposed to keep the skulls and bones of their Ancestors may not even be aware of the whereabouts of the kota. Does it not matter that what is part of a people’s belief may be decorating the rooms of non-believers elsewhere in the world for aesthetic pleasure?

What is important for the Kenyan politician today is the economic resources of the state and the ease with which they can be used by them and their accomplices. The Kenyan state provides endless opportunities for this kind of exploitation.

Kenya’s constitution guarantees freedom of the media, but President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee coalition has introduced several bills that undermine rather than enforce that principle. Journalists are vulnerable to legal harassment, threats, or attack, while news outlets are manipulated by advertisers or politician-­owners. The deteriorating climate comes at a crucial time for Kenya’s democracy, security, and economy. A CPJ special report by Sue Valentine and Tom Rhodes.

As we mark the 12th anniversary of the adoption of the , Sierra Leone gives us a reason to celebrate. Earlier this month, following years of prolonged advocacy from local and regional groups, it became the 37th African Union State

The Igbo genocide was primarily about the protection of strategic British interests in Nigeria. The departing colonialists had secured the collaboration of the northern region, which was vehemently opposed to African independence. Thus Fulani-Hausa elites played a key role in the perpetration of the genocide.

After three days of high-level summit deliberations, the BRICS group of countries of the world’s five leading emerging nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), have laid out the strategic road map that will tackle challenging development and infrastructure projects, and will seek close economic cooperation under the plan termed "the Strategy of Economic Partnership" that will run till 2020.

Rafael Marques de Morais is currently on trial in Angola. His crime? To write a book that detailed the corruption of Angolan military generals. It is now clear that he is not getting a fair trial in a country that has yet to experience genuine democratisation. His experience reveals the dark side of the Angolan oil boom, and the incredible risks that some people take for the love of their country.

The Igbo genocide was primarily about the protection of strategic British interests in Nigeria. The departing colonialists had secured the collaboration of the northern region, which was vehemently opposed to African independence. Thus Fulani-Hausa elites played a key role in the perpetration of the genocide.

While some improvements spelled out in the UN’s Millennium Development Goals have been reached, the majority of humanity in developing countries will not benefit from goals set within the global capitalist system. They remain prone to widening economic inequality, declining oil and commodity prices, and imperialist wars for resource extraction.

Glebelands with its neatly constructed family units is one of the very few hostels that the government proudly parades as proof of its commitment to the eradication of apartheid’s social engineering. It is therefore shameful that this same government has permitted the persistent and excessive violence which has left over 30 people dead.

World’s largest palm oil trading company, Wilmar International Ltd., under scrutiny as communities in Borneo, Sumatra, Uganda and accuse its suppliers of harassment, deception and rights abuses.

State authorities and their allies all over the world are conspiring to suppress the freedoms and rights of citizens and communities, achieved after struggles of centuries. Because almost all states are implicated in acts of brutality in the name of fighting terrorism, no state is criticised by another, or by UN agencies, much less brought to answer charges.

If the 1994 genocide against Tutsis stands out as the most depraved and tragic chapter in Rwanda’s history, its corollary is certainly the three years that followed in which a slower, largely hidden campaign of abject cruelty was meted out against Hutus in Rwanda and the DRC. Rwanda's spy chief Emmanuel Karake, arrested on 20 June in the UK, was the mastermind of this unacknowledged genocide against Hutus.

President Paul Kagame threw a mighty tantrum following the arrest in the UK of his spy chief, Gen. Emmanuel Karenzi Karake. But the exiled opposition party Rwanda National Congress has welcomed the arrest, applauding the new efforts by some Western nations to demand accountability from the brutal tyranny in Kigali.

More than 150 Marxists met in Johannesburg to ponder some 70 papers at the World Association for Political Economy forum, where 82-year-old Egyptian Marxist Samir Amin was named winner of WAPE’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Despite the diversity of viewpoints, there seemed to be concurrence that a convincing, unifying intellectual critique of both local and world-scale capital is needed.

President Obama sang “Amazing Grace” and lulled into a stupefying silence black voices that should have demanded answers as to why the Charleston attack was not considered a terrorist attack, even though it fits the definition. Because of this depraved indifference to black life by the U.S. government, African Americans critically need international solidarity.

Are you a fantastic accountant or office manager with a love of social justice? Then we want to hear from you! We are looking or talented individuals who share our passion for human rights and our desire to see positive change in Nigeria, to help grow our new office in Abuja.

Photos have surfaced of the gunman Dylann Roof wearing White supremacist iconography and reportedly telling his Black victims: ‘I have to do it. ... You rape our women and you’re taking over our country, and you have to go.’

This draft framework was the subject of a high-level meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, this week. The Protocol erodes farmers rights as it outlaws centuries-old practices of farmers freely using, exchanging and selling seeds/propagating material.

Corporate media, humanitarian agencies and NGOs evoke the imagery of helpless, passive victims when describing refugees to appeal to Western societies for compassion while demonstrating self-affirmation to guard the status quo, rather than depicting them as people with abilities, agency and knowledge facing extraordinary circumstances that need to be addressed.

Like many trade agreements, the draft Protocol is more about protecting and consolidating corporate profits than it is about trade or development. The process has systematically excluded farmers from the deliberations.

Promises to fund and deliver decent education, nutrition and boost agriculture have often been made. Africa’s people have been made so many promises. The challenge has been in the delivery.

The twin struggle to end gender-based violence and achieve equal rights for women cannot be won without the efforts of men. Gwain Colbert, co-founder of A Common Future, challenges men to work toward a more just society by challenging their own problematic views on women.

In the Al-Bashir case, South Africa was caught between two conflicting arms of international law: the obligation to execute a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court and the obligation to respect the protocols governing mutual diplomatic relations between South Africa and Sudan.

Most people oppose dual citizenship because they think that people in the Diaspora already enjoy life there. As such, the addition of dual citizenship is seen as a bloated advantage. This is not correct.

Without the support of America's top women Smith, Sherman and Rice, many African dictators would not remain in power for a single day. Smith's appointment to head USAID is a boon to the despots.

As South Africa celebrates 39 years since the June 1976 Soweto Uprising, more needs to be done to ensure that young people are educated, employed and empowered.

South African democracy spans two very different worlds. In one, people complain loudly but enjoy full democratic rights – in the other, most remain unheard and battle for the right to speak. In both, life is difficult for those who do not conform.

Why is the American government constantly at war with one enemy or another abroad and at the same time failing to foster peace and stability inside the country? It has everything to do with US imperialist militarism around the world and systemic racism at home.

Despite having clear policies to protect whistleblowers, the UN’s internal system of justice hardly implements those policies. Some whistleblowers have been fired or demoted; others have been subjected to subtle forms of abuse like non-renewal of contracts or sudden transfer to distant duty stations. Many others have been forced to leave the world body to save their livelihoods, health and reputations.

Schools are places where girls should feel safe, supported and nurtured, rather than at risk of violence – particularly by teachers or school administrators, who owe them a particular duty of care.

Umi communicates a straightforward political message: People have the right, even the duty, to defend themselves and their communities against racist terrorist violence. And white people should not sit by idly, but instead, join this struggle.

Sexual violence remains one of the most pressing problems faced by the IDPs who live in insecure areas controlled by armed militias in the Somali capital. The rainy season has already started and those forcefully evicted by the government are once again suffering from the cold weather.

More than 130 civil society organisations have written to the African Union urging the continental body to call upon the South African government to take concrete steps to end attacks against foreigners, prosecute perpetrators and protect migrants and refugees living in the country from violations of their human rights.

The election of Muhammadu Buhari is an overwhelming expression of the will of Nigerians. Sometimes depicted by his critics as a dour, rustic disciplinarian with poor oratorical skill, the new president’s message of change and his personal commitment will transform the country.

After years of suffering under the carding regime, the Afrikan-Canadian community and other affected peoples should initiate a mass campaign aimed at refusing to share their personal information with the cops when they are stopped in non-criminal encounters.