In Case You Missed It 6/29/15 — 7/5/15

The most impor­tant in this week’s head­lines out of and con­cern­ing Africa, for those who need help catch­ing up. In the past week, a con­tro­ver­sial vote was made in Burun­di, anoth­er case of Ebo­la con­firmed in Liberia and a vic­to­ry for LGBT rights in Mozambique. 

1. While the U.S. cel­e­brates a vic­to­ry for LGBTQ cou­ples in a land­mark Supreme Court deci­sion that legal­ized gay mar­riage nation­wide, Mozam­bique made its own steps for­ward. A new penal code decrim­i­nal­ized same-sex rela­tion­ships, over­throw­ing colo­nial-era laws. While the change shows move­ment in a pos­i­tive direc­tion, many coun­tries in sub-Saha­ran Africa, includ­ing Nige­ria and Ugan­da, con­tin­ue to sup­port laws crim­i­nal­iz­ing LGBT relationships.

2. Liberia, which was declared Ebo­la-free on May 9th, con­firmed its sec­ond Ebo­la case and sparked fear that the dis­ease may be start­ing a resur­gence in the coun­try. Liberia was one of three states, includ­ing Sier­ra Leone and Guinea, to suf­fer the worst of the fall and win­ter 2014 outbreak.

3. Al Jazeera takes a deep look at Marikana, where women are lead­ing the charge in a fight against the exploita­tion of shan­ty­town con­di­tions near a mine employ­ing thou­sands. After years of “absolute­ly hor­rid” con­di­tions, the women are push­ing for the mid­dle class lives they have long been promised by the World Bank.

4. Burun­di remains locked in civ­il con­flict after Mon­day’s par­lia­men­tary elec­tion, which thou­sands boy­cotted in response to pres­i­dent Pierre Nkrun­z­iza­’s bid for a third term. Six have been killed in the vio­lence, while the coun­try con­tin­ues to wait to hear the results of the elec­tion. Mean­while, African lead­ers have encour­aged Burun­di to delay the pres­i­den­tial vote, sched­uled for July 15, in the face of the violence.