Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in Niger to protest President Mamadou Tandja's plan for a new constitution that would abolish term limits and give him more power after 10 years as president. Tandja has also dissolved a high court that ruled against his bid to remain in office, dismissed a fractious Parliament, shut down a critical radio and TV station, and arrested opposition leaders. Opposition leader Mohamadou Issoufou calls the plan "a coup d’état in its first phase." (NYT, July 13)

Police arrested 13 women in a raid on a cafe in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and flogged 10 of them in public for wearing trousers. The women were detained July 10 by officers of the public order police, who enforce Sudan's strict Islamic law in public places. One of those arrested, Lubna Hussein, a journalist, said she is challenging the charges, which can be punishable by up to 40 lashes. "I didn't do anything wrong," she said. (AP, July 13)

The Nigerian government freed militant leader Henry Okah July 13, meeting a demand by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who have been attacking the country's oil installations and kidnapping oil workers. The insurgents have said that his release would not lead them to end their attacks. On July 12, rebels set fire to an oil depot and loading tankers in Lagos, killing five—MEND's first attack outside the Delta region. (AP, July 13)

International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said July 7 that he has filed an appeal to have Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir charged with genocide in the Darfur conflict. In March, the court indicted Bashir on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity—including murder, rape and torture—but ruled that it had insufficient grounds for a charge of genocide. Bashir has dismissed the allegations as part of a Western conspiracy.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on July 6 blew up a Chevron platform in Okan that accounts for 80% of the company's offshore operations Nigeria's south. A MEND statement said the attack was carried out by the militant group's "Hurricane Moses" team "in retaliation" for the "abduction of a traditional chief" by Nigeria's Joint Task Force. MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said, "as long as the government and the JTF choose to carry out kidnappings and arson against innocent communities and individuals, Moses will fight for them."

David Montero blogs for the Christian Science Monitor June 24 that "as in Pakistan, many are looking to armed tribes in Somalia who adhere to Sufism—a mystical, moderate interpretation of Islam—as the best chance for peace." The post, entitled "Is promoting Sufi Islam the best chance for peace in Somalia?", quotes a Somali writer—identifying himself only as Muthuma—who writes on the Bartamaha news portal that (as we've noted) a "new axis" of conflict is emerging in Somalia, in which fighters are battling one another along religious lines:

A sharia court run by Somalia's Shabab insurgents in Mogadishu sentenced four teenagers to each have a hand and a leg amputated as punishment for robbery June 22. A sharia judge in an insurgent-controlled area of the capital said the defendants had "robbed mobile phones and people's belongings." The Shabab have instated a strict interpretation of Islamic law in territory they control, and have carried out stonings, floggings and amputations before. Amnesty International condemned the sentence, saying the defendants had no lawyer and had not been allowed to appeal. (Reuters, June 22)

Three attacks were made on Royal Dutch Shell oil facilities in a remote area of Nigeria's Niger Delta June 21. A company spokesman refused to speculate on who was behind the attacks, but the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it had attacked an offshore facility earlier that day and that "the structure is...engulfed in fire." MEND claimed June 19 that it destroyed a pipeline owned by the Italian gas company Agip, and earlier in the week claimed to have destroyed Shell's main trunk line in Bayelsa state as well as a Chevron oil installation in the Delta region. Shell confirmed an attack on that pipeline. Chevron, which halted its onshore operations in the region last month, said it was investigating. Last month, MEND declared an "all-out war" on the government after what it said was a deadly bombing raid on civilians. (CNN, June 21)