BANGUI, 25 April 2013 (IRIN) - Sporadic armed clashes, looting of orphanages, recruitment into armed groups, and widespread school closures have made life perilous for children in the Central African Republic (CAR) in the wake of a 24 March rebel coup by the Séléka alliance.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), some 2.3 million children are directly affected by the breakdown of law and order and the interruption of basic services.

(BBC) The M23 rebel group has threatened to pull out of peace talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo government unless President Joseph Kabila signs a ceasefire agreement. Talks are due to start in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Friday. A Congo government spokesman told the Reuters news agency it rejected a rebel demand he described as "pointless".

(IRIN) - For Zimbabwe’s gay community, voting season is a time of dread. As political temperatures rise ahead of expected elections next year, gays and lesbians are being targeted by police in an apparent strategy to win over voters.

(IRIN) - Kenya’s ailing cashew sector, which provides a livelihoods of sorts to 60,000 farmers, is set for a boost.

(IRIN) - Five weeks after the Marikana mine massacre in South Africa's North West Province claimed the lives of 34 protesting workers and shocked the world, the strike that prompted the violence has been declared over. But the incident has morphed into a symbol of the growing chasm between those in the government, the mining companies, and the unions leaders on the one hand and mineworkers on the other, say the local community in Marikana, a platinum mining town northwest of Johannesburg.

(IRIN) - Recent deadly clashes in Kenya stem from widespread economic frustration, chronic impunity and the ambitions of politicians seeking office, according to analysts and activists.

(IRIN) - At the height of Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis in 2002, seven million people were in need of food aid. A decade later, the numbers of people in need has climbed down to a million, though it could go up by another 600,000 in 2013.

(IRIN) - Boys learning new ideas of masculinity around campfires in rural Africa and “sisterhoods” formed to provide a common voice to women are starting to change attitudes about African women farmers, say the authors of a forthcoming book about gender and agriculture. But it will take many more such efforts to support women food producers, who make up 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. In some countries, that number rises to 70 to 80 percent.

LOME, Togo (AP) — The female wing of a civil rights group is urging women in Togo to stage a week-long sex strike to demand the resignation of the country's president.

(IRIN) Making sure expectant mothers eat enough remains the main concern of health workers, especially in poorer rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, but this concentration has masked the fact that some pregnant women are dangerously overweight. Swaziland, the fattest country in Africa, now has a maternal obesity rate of 27 percent, and an additional 32 percent are overweight - levels comparable to those in Europe.

(IRIN) - Dishes and cups scorched brown by flames, and ragged tarpaulin clinging to charred wooden frames litter Nahibly camp for the displaced in Duékoué, western Côte d’Ivoire, after an attack that highlighted persistent tensions in the region. There are worries that the violence - which see-saws depending on which community has the political upper hand and thus more fighting power - could turn into a cycle of killings. “These killings trigger reaction, awaken old rancour. Those who suffer now will one day react,” said René Hokou Legré, the head of the Ivorian Human Rights League (LIDHO).

(BBC) More than one million children are at risk of severe malnutrition in the Sahel region of West Africa, according to two leading charities. They say the main reason is not drought or food deficit, but a lack of protection against shock price rises.

(BBC) A couple who had sex outside marriage has been stoned to death at the weekend by Islamists in the town of Aguelhok in northern Mali, officials say.

(BBC) Islamist militants in Mali have attacked one of the most famous mosques in the historic city of Timbuktu, residents say.

(BBC) Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is to be sentenced for war crimes by a UN court in The Hague.

(Magharebia) Touareg rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Islamist group Ansar al-Din signed an agreement Saturday (May 26th) in Gao, establishing a breakaway Islamic state in northern Mali.

(The New York Times) Millions of Tunisians cast votes on Sunday for an assembly to draft a constitution and shape a new government, in a burst of pride and hope that after inspiring uprisings across the Arab world, their small country could now lead the way to democracy.

(Channel 4 News) The British Somali journalist Jamal Osman is the first reporter to film inside some of the worst hit areas - held by fighters loyal to the Islamist group al-Shabab. They told him there was no famine - describing the desperate conditions as a drought.

(Guardian) Local farmers lose out as increased flooding rerouts Semliki river and robs them of their land.