How many civil wars and massacres can the world deal with, at one time? The situation in Ivory Coast now threatens to rival Libya for bloodshed, mayhem and human-rights abuses. Descriptions of the situation in Abidjan, once one of Africa’s most cosmopolitan cities, sound desperate. There are also reports of massacres and mass atrocities in fighting outside the capital. All this raises the obvious question. If the UN and western military forces are prepared to intervene so forcefully in Libya, why has the response to Ivory Coast been so relatively feeble?

The news from Sudan sounds almost too good to be true. The referendum is taking place on time and without violence. The Sudanese government appears ready to accept the partition of the country when – as everybody expects – the South votes to secede. There seems to be a real possibility that this will be a peaceful separation. This sort of thing is hard enough to pull off in Europe. (Think of the Balkan wars.) But, in Africa, it was meant to be impossible.

In California they are debating whether gays should be allowed to marry; in Uganda they are debating whether gays should be allowed to live. Meanwhile, in China they have just banned the country’s first ever gay pageant - which had been hoping to select a Chinese contestant for the Mr Gay competition in Norway next month.

The campaign for gay rights is now a global movement – but it is making progress at very different rates in different parts of the world. Homosexuality was illegal in China until 1997 and was defined as a mental illness until 2001. Meanwhile, there seems to be a pretty vicious backlash against gays in parts of Africa. Uganda is one example; Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is another.

The very different nature of national debates about homosexuality is now threatening to impinge on foreign policy. President Museveni of Uganda has acknowledged that he has come under huge international pressure to block the bill that would allow the execution of people charged with “aggravated” homosexuality. The issue of gay rights is already threatening to split the Church of England – as it pits conservative Africans against liberal Americans. I suspect there will be many more such disputes in future.