Pain, agony, anguish, torment described the recently concluded photo exhibition at the AU Summit and Nommo gallery. If there were ever any observers with misgivings about the ability of a picture to speak a thousand words, as the age-old adage goes, their doubts were assuaged by the power of the black and white pictures that carried heavy emotive messages.

Political parties must constantly identify and groom more women to take up political appointment in their organisations as their commitment to the cause of women.

As reports of nearly 200 women raped in a systematic attack emerge from Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Medical Foundation reflects on the use of rape as a weapon of war.

When students return to the classroom at Bopolu Central High School this year, there will be something not seen at the school since it reopened after Liberia's long civil war.

Senior-class women.

Meriam Dukumue, like the majority of women in her country, cannot read and write. Having suffered through years of conflict and now the breadwinner of her family, she is giving her children and husband what she never had – an education.

The United Nations special envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday condemned the recent incident of gang rape by members of armed groups in the east of the country, saying that the UN mission there was reviewing its procedures so that it can offer better protection to civilians.

A recent graduate from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Amy was volunteering as a rape crisis counselor in Chicago when she learned about the alarming levels of sexual violence in Congo. When Amy told family and friends that she wanted to relocate to the Democratic Republic of Congo, her cousin gave her the email address of Father Charles, a Catholic priest from the war-torn province of North Kivu.

Women's groups in Khartoum are working together to push for reform of north Sudan's criminal laws on rape and adultery. Despite all of the difficulties that they face, they are taking positive steps forward and using the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence to launch their campaign.

'THE KAMPALA TRAGEDY HAS HEIGHTENED INTERNATIONAL
ATTENTION AND CONCERN. THE CURRENT POLITICAL AND SECURITY IMPASSE DEMANDS URGENT ACTION' SAYS U.N. ENVOY
Nairobi, Kenya, August 14, 2010 – UN top envoy for Somalia has called on all Somali Diaspora to join him as he embarked on the difficult task of reconciliation in the Horn of Africa nation which will see him focus on peace and security.

The mass rape of women in Congo (Report, 25 August) illustrates the difficulty the UN faces in trying to fulfil its mandate to prioritise the protection of civilians. Civilians now account for 70% of casualties in wars and most are women and children. Sexual violence against women and girls has been part of conflicts from Rwanda and Bosnia, to Sierra Leone, Haiti, Congo and Afghanistan.