Long queues of women and children at water distribution points are a frequent sight in the Abou Shouk displaced persons camp of North Darfur.

Semivumbi Ntawiheba never used to be interested in politics. Growing up on a mountain farm close to Masisi town in the Democratic Republic of Congo's restive North Kivu, Ntawiheba lived only for his cattle.

The people of Somalia are enduring yet another round of suffering as Ethiopian forces wreck havoc in the capital, Mogadishu.

One cannot sum up developments in Africa in a single article, report or even book. Africa is an enormous continent, the second largest both geographically and by population, being home to nearly 900 million people.

Durante toda su historia la región de Darfur ha sido caracterizada por oleadas de migración debido a los movimientos de tribus Árabes y Africanas.

Protesting the New Scramble for Africa

Protesting the New Scramble for Africa

In the print edition...

Africa Today, by Libero Della Piana
Tactics: A Marxist Guide, by Daniel Rubin
Darfur: Crisis y tragedia, por Fathi M. El Fadl

Rev Maxwell Kapachawo is the only known pastor in Zimbabwe who publicly admits to being HIV-positive; he is also encouraging any of his peers infected and affected by the disease to speak openly about HIV/AIDS from the pulpit.

Not content with beefing up its economic assets across the continent, the US is about to set up a military command on African soil.

Concern is mounting about the humanitarian situation and human rights in Ethiopia’s Somali region, which threatens to affect 1.8 million people unless remedial action is taken soon.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has taken a stand against US plans to establish a permanent military presence in the region, after having been already snubbed by North and West Africa.

A recent op/ed on human mortality in Darfur, which appeared in the New York Times (“An Atrocity That Needs No Exaggeration,” Sunday, August 12, 2007), has garnered considerable attention, indeed notoriety.

In February 2007, George W. Bush announced the creation of a new unified combatant command for Africa. After several years of deliberation, the Pentagon finally agreed to create AFRICOM (African Command).

The Ethiopian government has denied blocking aid and trade to parts of its southeastern Somali region but analysts and aid agencies say humanitarian access is limited and rising prices of food are evidence of security-related restrictions.

The UN Secretary-General has apparently assumed as his primary responsibilities in responding to the Darfur crisis a contrivance of meaningless optimism, a whitewashing of deteriorating security conditions in the greater humanitarian theater, and a purveying of absurd faith in the genocidal regime in Khartoum.

The leader of the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) has called on the Sudanese government to acknowledge crimes committed in Darfur and to assume its responsibility.

On May 5, 2006, in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, the government of Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Movement (Mani Arko Manawi’s faction) signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), also known as the Abuja Agreement.

Darfur has almost become a household word and with good reason. It is the first human made catastrophe of the 21st century; its death count combined with the huge humanitarian crisis staggers the imagination.

Throughout its history, the region of Darfur has been characterized by waves of migration due to the movement of Arab and African tribes. These waves of migration have significantly influenced Darfur’s history as well as its social norms, traditions and customs.

At the Gleneagles summit, in the stated interests of addressing the challenges faced by Africa, the G8 committed to provide debt cancellation to a select group of countries and to work towards making universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment available by 2010, among other targets.

I stand at the southernmost corner of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. The grand mountains underneath and behind infuse a moment of spiritual reflection unmatched in its depth and meaning.