Senegalese Human Rights League (LSDH) and the Senegalese section of Amnesty International (AI) have again denounced the practice of torture in the country, following the death of another student. Both organisations accused the police of having 'inflicted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment on the student Ousseynou Seck until death'. The statement said the student, who was reportedly arrested and taken to a police station, during protests against the candidacy of President Abdoulaye Wade ahead of Sunday's election, reportedly died a few hours after his release.

Britain is involved in a secret high-stakes dash for oil in Somalia, with the government offering humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in the beleaguered country's future energy industry. Riven by two decades of conflict that have seen the emergence of a dangerous Islamic insurgency, Somalia is routinely described as the world's most comprehensively 'failed' state, as well as one of its poorest. Its coastline has become a haven for pirates preying on international shipping in the Indian Ocean.

Authorities in and around Misrata are preventing thousands of people from returning to the villages of Tomina and Kararim and have failed to stop local militias from looting and burning homes there, Human Rights Watch has said. The abuse mirrors the treatment of roughly 30,000 displaced people from the nearby town of Tawergha, who have also been blocked from returning home for at least five months, Human Rights Watch said.

A Burundian anti-graft activist detained two weeks ago for criticising the justice minister over alleged corruption was freed Tuesday 21 February. 'I am happy to be freed from prison where I spent two weeks for no reason, because all that I said is true and has been spoken about by several senior officials in the country,' said Faustin Ndikumana. Ndikumana had written in a complaint letter that candidates had been obliged to pay $1,450 for jobs at the judiciary.

Two strong explosions rocked the strategic Somali city of Baidoa hours after Ethiopian and pro-government forces wrested it from Al-Qaeda-backed insurgents, officials and witnesses said Thursday 23 February. Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab claimed responsibility for the blasts, saying they had inflicted 'heavy losses' on pro-government forces. News of the blasts came as world powers met with the fragile Somali Government at a conference in London Thursday, designed to build on progress in the years-long struggle against the Islamist militants who have allied themselves to Al-Qaeda.

Saharawis are becoming increasingly impatient with the UN and many are willing to break the ceasefire between Western Sahara’s liberation front, Polisario, and Morocco, which has been in place since 1991, and return to war.

Liberia's Independent National Human Rights Commission has said it would from next month begin implementing the recommendations of the defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which included prosecuting key warlords. The Truth Commission had also recommended that President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf be barred from holding public office for a period of 30 years, which analysts say would be near-impossible to implement. The sanctions carry financial, political and legal ramifications, sources said.

The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa is seeking an order against the executive mayor of eThekwini (Durban), together with two other senior officials in their personal capacities, to take all the steps necessary to implement a court order requiring housing to be provided to 37 occupants of the Richmond Farm Transit Camp in KwaMashu. The occupiers were evicted from the Siyanda informal settlement in March 2009 in order to allow the construction of a road. One of the conditions of the eviction order was that the occupiers would be provided with permanent housing within a year. The deadline for doing so expired almost two years ago and nothing has been done to comply with the order. This case, if argued, will be important because it will establish whether individual office bearers can be held personally responsible for the state’s failure to perform on specific obligations.

The Kenyan government has denied it is planning to close the world's largest refugee camp, playing down suggestions that President Mwai Kibaki might do so during his visit to London. Kibaki is currently in the UK for a three-day conference with David Cameron. Almost half a million Somalis live in the Dadaab camp, 60 miles from the Somalian border. Numbers in the camp grew steadily last year as famine gripped the region.

A top military official says that US troops are now deployed in four central African countries as part of US efforts against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army. Brian L Losey, the top US special operations commander for Africa, said that US troops are now stationed in bases in Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

An Ethiopian politician standing trial for terrorism is said to be injured and in fear for his life after being attacked in his prison cell by a convicted murderer. The leader of the largest opposition party is appealing to Ethiopia's human rights body to intervene in the case. Former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada sent an urgent appeal to Human Rights Commission chief Teruneh Zenna asking protection for opposition leaders being held at Addis Ababa's Kaliti prison.

A Belgian court has rejected an application to ban a colonial-era book about the Congolese adventures of the cartoon character Tintin for breaching racism laws. Documents from the court of first instance in Brussels show that it did not believe the 1946 edition of Tintin in the Congo was intended to incite racial hatred, a criteria when deciding if something breaks Belgium's racism laws. In 2007, Congolese campaigner Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo launched legal proceedings to ban the book, arguing its portrayal of Africans was racist.

A proliferation of small arms is fueling conflict and instability in East Africa.

The perpetrators, of what were unquestionably crimes against humanity appear to have got off free. The consequences of the Igbo genocide for Africa have been catastrophic.

An American reconnaissance plane crashed six miles (10 kilometers) from the only US base in Africa, killing four service members on board, after returning from a mission in support of the war in Afghanistan, the military said Monday 20 February. The statement said that the crash occurred at about 8pm Saturday in Djibouti.

A map on the blog of the LA Times newspaper shows patterns of global civilian gun ownership. Guns are much more common in North America than in Africa and most of Asia and South America than in India, according to the most recent data available from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The statistics include handguns, rifles and other small firearms.

South Africa served as a transit point for a shipment of crowd-control weapons to Madagascar's former president, a Johannesburg-based newspaper reported. The Sunday Independent cited a cable from the United States embassy in Antananarivo saying Chinese-made riot control equipment - including grenades, rubber bullets and teargas - were unloaded in South Africa and then collected by then-president Marc Ravalomanana's private jet.

This BBC page examines why the UK government, at a time when it has made drastic cuts in domestic expenditure, is maintaining it's foreign aid budget and taking a greater interest in Somalia. It has useful infographics on areas of political control, piracy, refugees and food aid.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has said that he reserves the right to disregard efforts by South African President Jacob Zuma to mediate disputes in the nation’s troubled coalition government. Mugabe also repeated his pledge to hold elections this year, even if it means defying Zuma and other regional leaders who say new polls should be held only after a new democratic constitution is in place. 'This year we must have elections, they must take place with or without a new constitution,' Mugabe said in interviews aired by the state broadcaster on the eve of his 88th birthday.

On 14 February, police pre-emptively dispersed a planned demonstration in central Maputo by the Forum of Mozambican Demobilised Soldiers. The police response and lack of progress in negotiations between the demobilised fighters and the government is likely to drive further protests in Maputo in the next weeks, says Think Africa Press. There are over 13,000 demobilised fighters in Mozambique. While former combatants of the anti-colonial struggle have received pensions, demobilised fighters from the 1975-1992 civil war have not received the same benefits. The civil war soldiers demand equality of status and a monthly pension of $460.