Nairobi recently hosted around 200 agricultural stakeholders from over 20 African countries to audit the progress of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program Partnership Platform (CAADP PP). Organized by the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) the meeting themed “Accelerating CAADP implementation and impact” highlighted policy reforms and institutional development instituted at country level to aid agricultural growth.

In this 8th CAADP held from May 3rd to 4th , meeting stakeholders both in private and public agricultural institutions sought to evaluate if African countries are on track to deliver on annual 6 percent increase in annual agricultural productivity target set in previous meetings. The growth according to CAADP report will go a long way in enhancing continental food and nutritional security as well as creating jobs to counter poverty through agriculture.

During the meeting Her Excellency Rhoda Tumusiime the Commissioner of African Union emphasized on the need for African Governments to honor a CAADP target of allocating at least 10 percent of each country's budget to agriculture. She lauded African governments that have exceeding that target in Africa. So far in Africa, around 7 countries have exceeded the target being Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mali, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria according to a report published by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Speaking on behalf of African farmers Elizabeth Atangana the President of Pan African Farmers Organization (PAFO) said “Africa can develop itself through agriculture and farmers are key agents of development in Africa.” She spoke on the key role youth; women and marginalized groups can have if they opted to go into farming. She was optimistic this 8th meeting would catalyze countries not implementing CAADP processes to engage in it.

African Governments were also challenged to meet their funding commitments to agriculture and supervise the funds usage to ensure they achieve desired results at the grassroots. That way, interventions during food crisis according to Tumusiime food are minimized. She cited the East African Community where a population of 70 million is food insecure. Climate change was cited as a key factor in Africa being food insecure due to land degradation and dry weather.

Though Africa as discussed doesn't emit over 4 percent of the world greenhouse gases it the continent most affected by their effects. That is why one of the CAADP Pillars advocates for fighting against the effects of climate change through Climate Smart Agriculture. Here investment is put to multiply seeds tolerant to harsh weather conditions present. There was also a call to Africans to better manage their farmlands to ward off desertification and water stress.

Speaking on behalf of Dr Ibrahim Mayaki NEPAD's Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Estherine Fotabong the agency's Director of Programmes said Africa would need to match Asia's agricultural productivity if it hopes to address problems posed by rapid urbanisation, unemployment and massive population growth. According to her, Africa's agricultural production doubled in the last 50 years while Asia's output tripled in the same period. “But with the right policies and support for the agriculture sector, the Asian success story could be replicated in Africa,” she said.

Development partners, in an address delivered by USAID's Jeff Hill, commended African countries and regional economic communities for raising their agriculture and food security agendas through the CAADP process. He assured African countries of partners' collective political, technical and financial resources provided the CAADP initiative continues to impact positively on agricultural growth, poverty reduction and improved food and nutrition security.

The event also paid tribute to recently deceased Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika who emphasized played a role to ensure more funding is directed to the agricultural sector.

TRIPOLI (AFP) - Seven people were killed and more than 20 others wounded as gunmen on Wednesday raided the oasis town of Ghadames on the border with Algeria, Libya's government spokesman said.

"There were clashes in the city of Ghadames," Nasser al-Manaa said.

"The number of people killed is seven," Manaa said, adding that more than 20 people were wounded in clashes that erupted in the early morning and centred on the airport.

Six of the raiders were killed along with a resident of Ghadames, which lies 600 kilometres (373 miles) southwest of Tripoli.

Manaa, who did not identify the assailants, said military forces had entered the city and brought the situation under control. The health ministry, for its part, was providing emergency assistance.

Ghadames officials said the attackers belonged to the Tawargha community.

Saraj al-Din Bubaker, head of the local council, told AFP that "a Tawargha group shelled the city with rocket-propelled grenades, forcing some families to flee."

The Tawargha are dark-skinned Libyans violently displaced from several towns, including Ghadames, after the fall of strongman Moamer Kadhafi in an uprising last year with whose forces they were accused of having sided.

Ghadames, which is also known as the "Pearl of the Desert," is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to Roman ruins close to Libya's borders with Algeria and Tunisia.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Moamer Kadhafi's son is refusing to name a defense lawyer, a top Libyan diplomat said Wednesday amid growing questions over the conditions in which Seif al-Islam is being held.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) must decide in coming months whether to agree to Libya's request to try Islam in a domestic court.

The dictator's son is being held by a militia in the town of Zintan and international rights groups have raised concerns because Islam has not had access to a defense team.

Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy UN ambassador, told the Security Council that Islam could have a lawyer if he wanted and that Libyan law dictates that he could not be tried without an attorney.

"This matter is mainly because of Seif al-Islam who till now refuses to appoint an attorney to defend himself," Dabbashi said.

"The matter is not in the hands of the Libyan authorities but the defendant himself. There are no obstacles to hiring an attorney to defend him," the envoy added.

The ICC has appointed a lawyer for Islam in The Hague but the attorney has not had contact with Kadhafi's son who was detained after the dictator was killed in October last year.

The lawyer, Xavier-Jean Keita, has called on the ICC to disqualify chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo from the case, alleging possible bias.

Moreno-Ocampo, whose term ends in June, told the council that his office will express any "reservations" about Libya's capability to the international tribunal on June 4. The judges could then ask for more evidence from Libya or other parties.

"We are reviewing the conditions," Moreno-Ocampo told reporters when asked about the Islam case.

He said Islam wants to be tried in Libya and has asked authorities to let his family find a lawyer he can trust, the chief prosecutor said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Human Rights Watch (HRW) group have been able to visit Islam in recent months.

HRW has "serious concerns" about the conditions in which Islam might be tried in Libya, said the group's justice director Richard Dicker.

"We did see him, months ago. We do not know if he's been afforded access to a lawyer since," Dicker said.

"So we have real concerns about the situation conditions in Libya and whether that will lead to a fair and impartial trial.

"I think it would be a loss for the Libyan people, first and foremost, to have a kind of rerun of the proceedings meted out for Saddam Hussein in Iraq, where no accountability is fairly established."

Moreno-Ocampo also said he has asked NATO for more information about five incidents in which civilians were killed during air-strikes last year as part of the campaign which helped bring down Kadhafi.

A UN commission of inquiry found that about 60 civilians were killed in the NATO airstrikes.

Security Council members Russia, China, India and South Africa have said the Western nations went beyond the mandate given by the council in conducting the strikes. The United States, Britain and France all say the strikes were legal.

Moreno-Ocampo said he could not investigate NATO's mandate. "But we are still collecting information about these five incidents," the chief prosecutor said. NATO was among those asked to provide information.

Libya's government has strongly defended NATO's action.

ABIDJAN (AFP) - Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traore on Wednesday rejected a proposal by a former junta which staged a coup in March for a national convention to choose a caretaker head of state.

"It's a proposal but I don't think this is a solution, in any case, not a solution that has been agreed to in a deal signed by the former putchists and the Economic Community of West African States," regional bloc, he said after talks with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, who also heads ECOWAS.

Mali, once considered one of Africa's democratic success stories, was thrown into turmoil on March 22 when mid-level army officers staged a coup and ousted president Amadou Toumani Toure whose government they charged was not doing enough to fight a Tuareg rebellion in the north of the country.

The Tuareg separatists and their Islamist allies took advantage of the ensuing chaos to seize the country's vast north, including its three main towns, Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu.

Mali coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo on Monday urged interim leaders to hold talks to choose a transition president.

Sanogo is sticking to a constitutional point stating that the interim government should last only for 40 days, allowing the soldiers to lobby for a new leader to lead the country to elections.

ECOWAS wants Traore to continue leading the interim government for a period of 12 months.