The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced that it will be forced to cancel its 11th funding round, supposed to provide money for 2011 to 2013. The news could have devastating consequences for public health in Africa. By REBECCA DAVIS.

We knew that the African Union supported Kenya’s invasion of Somalia, even though this was only confirmed on Wednesday. But despite their cheerleading, the AU has also emphasised that the door is not closed to negotiations with al-Shabaab. This might just be one of their smartest policy pronouncements this year. By SIMON ALLISON.

After weeks of delays and negotiation, Libya’s National Transitional Council finally announced a cabinet to run the country. But the real story is not the appointments themselves, but what they say about how power is apportioned in the post-Gaddafi Libya; and how Islamists aren’t getting any of it. By SIMON ALLISON.

On Monday the United Nations Food Security Nutrition Analysis Unit lifted its "famine" designation for three regions in Somalia, but there was little to celebrate. The humanitarian situation remains dire. The Southern African response may be late, but it is certainly not in vain. By KHADIJA PATEL.

In the next week, three African countries - Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt - are going to the polls in the busiest electoral period of the year. In theory, they’ll vote for new leaders - an exercise representing how far Africa has come, but how far it still needs to go. By SIMON ALLISON.

Nigerian security forces delighted on Monday in a putting a Boko Haram spokesman they captured earlier this month on public display. This spokesman made the sensational claim that funding for the militant group came from none other than politicians aligned to Nigeria’s ruling party. SIMON ALLISON explains why, in the crazy, complex world of Nigerian politics, this makes perfect sense.

Egyptians have returned to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and other cities, in the kind of sustained numbers that eventually toppled Hosni Mubarak. This time their target is the military government which replaced him, and they’ve found that the revolutionary fervour is just as effective this time round. By SIMON ALLISON.

Ethiopia’s first invasion of Somalia was the major contributing factor in causing the complete breakdown of government in Somalia. It also helped to create Al Shabaab. Five years later, Ethiopian troops are back over the border, in force, hoping to make amends and make sure that Kenya doesn’t get all the glory. Chances are, there won’t be much glory to go round. By SIMON ALLISON.

A day after capturing fugitive from the International Criminal Court, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Libyan officials announced that Gaddafi’s spy chief Abdullah Senussi, had been arrested. By KHADIJA PATEL.

The trouble in Tahrir had its roots earlier last week, when, after much humming and hawing, the military government finally announced how a new constitution would be created. Do whatever you want, they told Egypt’s revolutionaries. Except for these small, insignificant conditions. Nothing to fuss about. But the revolutionaries, of all stripes, were most certainly fussed. With reason. By SIMON ALLISON.

We didn’t see this one coming. South Sudan has offered billions of dollars that it doesn’t really have to resolve its many outstanding issues with Sudan proper, its belligerent northern neighbour. Tempting, perhaps, for the cash-strapped regime in Khartoum, but a once-off payment won’t make the problems go away. By SIMON ALLISON.

The Pope was in Africa this weekend, visiting the little West African country of Benin which is producing priests a lot faster than anywhere in Europe. It seems the future of the Catholic Church is in Africa, and it looks like the Pope knows it. By SIMON ALLISON.

A special report in The Guardian exposes the “vulture funds” which prey on the world’s poorest economies, almost always African. Their practices aren’t technically illegal, and it’s easy money; as long as you don’t mind profiting from poverty. By SIMON ALLISON.

Libya’s National Transitional Council announced liberation on 23 October, but almost a month later the European Union warned the situation in Gaddafi’s last strongholds, Sirte and Bani Walid, remains critical. By KHADIJA PATEL.

It’s been a busy week for Kenya’s diplomats as they’ve flown around the world trying to secure international support for their country’s incursion into Somalia, where the Kenyan military is in the middle of an audacious (if overambitious) attempt to get rid of the threat posed by Islamic militants Al Shabaab. So far, Kenya’s shuttle diplomacy is paying off. By SIMON ALLISON.

American magazine Forbes is famous for its Rich Lists, profiling the world’s wealthiest individuals. Now it’s finally wised up to the fact that some Africans have serious bucks too. By REBECCA DAVIS.

The International Monetary Fund has been visiting Swaziland over the last couple of weeks, conducting a regular annual check-up on the health of the economy. Its diagnosis makes grim reading: this patient might be terminal. By SIMON ALLISON.

Events are spiralling out of the usually tight control of Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir and his regime. Letting go of the troublesome South has caused more problems than it has solved, the various rebel movements are uniting against the government and even Bashir’s normally placid northern subjects are getting jittery as the economy collapses. But Bashir’s biggest problem is that his default method of conflict resolution – sending in the guns – can only hasten his downfall this time. By SIMON ALLISON.

It was an act of hubris, really. When Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan chose to award novelist Chinua Achebe, perhaps Nigeria’s most famous son, one of the country’s top honours, he thought it would be a glowing endorsement of his government. But like most acts of hubris, it backfired – badly. By SIMON ALLISON.

Kenya’s not doing much to help itself. It’s Somali adventure is stuck in the mud, tensions are increasing at home and now the country has gone and made its biggest foreign policy blunder to date – allying with Israel, a move that will only make Somalis hate them more. By SIMON ALLISON.

Last weekend, President Jacob Zuma signed an energy deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Before your roll your eyes you should know that isn’t just any energy deal. It’s the one that’s going to save Africa. By SIMON ALLISON.

Rumours of Bingu wa Mutharika’s death have been greatly exaggerated, apparently. He’s just on holiday in Hong Kong and Portugal. For a month. In the middle of a political crisis. Without telling anyone. Not the Malawian president’s best move. By SIMON ALLISON.

A huge arms shipment has arrived in Zimbabwe, courtesy of Beijing. Good news for one of the factions jostling to succeed Mugabe, but bad news for anyone who hoped Zimbabwe could peacefully negotiate the exceedingly difficult challenges facing it in the coming months. By SIMON ALLISON.

Terrorism is going pan-African as more and more reports emerge that two of the continent’s major terrorist organisations are cooperating with each other. But focussing on the international threat posed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram might obscure their very local motivations. By SIMON ALLISON.

Sudan made good on all its war-talk by bombing a refugee camp last week. Nothing unusual there, except for the fact that the camp is in another country – the newly independent South Sudan. Not that Khartoum particularly respects South Sudanese sovereignty. By SIMON ALLISON.

A rather extraordinary meeting in Zimbabwe ended with both Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe calling for peace in their troubled country. Bob might have been crying crocodile tears, but Morgan was very serious and not afraid to tell the world – and Zanu-PF – how he sees things. By SIMON ALLISON.

Malaria kills about 800,000 people a year, most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. And, while researchers haven’t found a cure, they’ve made a huge leap in our understanding of how the disease works - one that could finally lead to an effective vaccine. By SIMON ALLISON.

Pirates are nothing if not canny businessmen. According Kenya’s Business Daily, Somali pirates have dropped their ransom demands by as much as 50% in the wake of the Kenyan military incursion into Somalia. It’s a bit like a shopping mall sale, with the pirates trying to get rid of their stock before they’re forced to release it for nothing. By SIMON ALLISON.

After a decades-long civil war was finally resolved with the secession of the south, you’d think Sudan would be ready for a little peace and quiet. Instead, Khartoum is threatening to re-ignite the conflict over an increasingly violent border dispute. By SIMON ALLISON (@simonallison).

Who needs an election when you’ve got plenty of confidence and a bit of bravado? DRC presidential candidate Etienne Tshisekedi pre-empted the polls by virtually anointing himself as head of state on national TV. What hope is there for Congo’s democracy when even the opposition favour the autocratic approach? By SIMON ALLISON (@simonallison).