In a cyclone-prone country like Madagascar, being prepared for disaster makes all the difference. The Malagasy National Disaster Office organizes annual simulation exercises in vulnerable areas to test the preparedness of local authorities and communities. However, in Brickaville, on the east coast of Madagascar, power lines had been down for two weeks and news that the town lay directly in the path of Cyclone Giovanna. The cyclone destroyed and damaged thousands of homes and killed at least 23 people, but this number is expected to rise as more remote locations are reached.

The Ogaden Somali Community in South Africa says it has filed a complaint with the country's top prosecutor and the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging an investigation into the actions of the Ethiopian government against the Ogaden people. In a statement released on behalf of the community, a South African media advocacy group, Media Review Network, called on ICC authorities to probe complaints of alleged crimes in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. The crimes include extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, rape, torture, disappearances, the destruction of livelihood, the burning of villages and the destroying of life stock, the statement said.

An outspoken opponent of Malawi's president who once served as his attorney general says the administration sent thugs to petrol bomb his law office - and the government critic ended up in jail. Ralph Kasambara was arrested last week, accused of kidnapping and torturing three men he told reporters confessed to his bodyguards that they had been sent after him by the government.

The detention without charge of Dr. Wenceslao Mansogo Alo, a medical doctor who is also a prominent human rights defender and opposition member in Equatorial Guinea, for more than five days following the death of a patient during surgery is a source of serious concern, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. Both organizations are calling for his immediate release. Mansogo is a member of the leadership of the opposition Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) party and serves as its secretary for international relations and human rights. He is a medical doctor and owns and runs a private clinic in the city of Bata. He is also a member of the local city council.

The Conservative government's new plan to reform the refugee system will prevent legitimate claimants from telling their stories and will damage the Immigration and Refugee Board's ability to review those claims, says one immigration expert. The reforms were announced by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who said Canada is being preyed upon by 'bogus' refugees from democratic countries with strong human rights records.

At least five people have been wounded in a bomb explosion near a church in the Nigerian town of Suleja, on the edge of the capital Abuja, authorities and witnesses said. The blast went off near Christ Embassy Church on Sunday and shattered glass of five vehicles, nearly destroying them, according to the Reuters news agency. Grey ash was cast across the ground.

Sudanese police have raided student dormitories at the main university in the capital Khartoum, arresting and beating hundreds of students, activists say. The youth activist group Change Now said Friday's raid took place before dawn, adding that more than 350 students had been arrested at the University of Khartoum. The university has been the scene of student protests since late December. The students have previously staged a sit-in to demand the right to form a student union and to protest against police violence in earlier raids there.

The Journal of Peace Research has published a special issue on climate change and conflict that constitutes the largest collection of peer-reviewed writings on the topic to date. The research covered in the journal includes:
- The publics' concern for global warming: A cross-national study of 47 countries
- African range wars: Climate, conflict, and property rights
- Climate change, rainfall, and social conflict in Africa
- Come rain or shine: An analysis of conflict and climate variability in East Africa
- Climate change, violent conflict and local institutions in Kenya's drylands
- Climate clashes? Weather variability, land pressure, and organized violence in Kenya, 1989-2004
- Does climate change drive land-use conflicts in the Sahel?
- Climate variability, economic growth, and civil conflict
- Civil war, climate change, and development: A scenario study for sub-Saharan Africa
- Climate-related natural disasters, economic growth, and armed civil conflict
- Don't blame the weather! Climate-related natural disasters and civil conflict
- Could climate change precipitate peace?
- Climate change and the institutional resilience of international river basins
- Weathering climate change: Can institutions mitigate international water conflict?
- Climate change and international water conflict in Central Asia
- Climate change and security in the Israeli-Palestinian context.

The Refugee Law Project (RLP) is an outreach project of the School of Law, Makerere University. Our Mission is to empower asylum seekers, refugees, deportees, IDPs and host communities to enjoy their human rights and lead dignified lives. RLP is currently seeking to appoint a number of staff, including the following: Human Resources Manager, Research Analyst, Volunteer English For Adults (EFA) Instructor, Volunteer Lawyer – Durable Solutions, Volunteer Lawyer – Gender & Sexuality, Volunteer Assessment Assistants, Finance Assistant and Volunteer Finance Assistant, Office Assistant, Community Interpreters.

Swaziland and Lesotho have the highest HIV prevalence in the world. They also share another distinct feature: during the last century, they sent a large numbers of migrant workers to South African mines. This paper examines whether participation in mining in a bordering country affects HIV infection rate.

Over 100,000 people in Mozambique are still recovering from losing their homes and crops, and from being cut off from schools and shops after a tropical storm and cyclone hit the southern African country in January. But the worst may not be over as another dangerous cyclone is expected to make landfall as emergency stocks run low.

An alleged police hit squad exposed by the Sunday Times is being investigated for at least 51 suspicious murders - including one in its offices and another in its toilets. The body count is higher than initially thought - and 18 KwaZulu-Natal police officers are now suspects. They include two from the National Intervention Unit and 16 from the notorious Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit. The Sunday Times initially investigated seven cases involving the Cato Manor unit and 16 suspicious deaths.

As the body count rises from the conflict between members of the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) and the Senegalese army, Casamancais are starting to lose hope that they will ever see a path to peace. The latest in a string of killings by rebels took place on 14 and 15 February in Sindian (near the Gambian border 100km north of the Casamance capital Ziguinchor), when four Senegalese soldiers were killed and nine wounded in clashes with the MFDC during a Senegalese army search mission for MFDC fighters and bases. Casualty numbers on the MFDC side are unknown.

Armed militias operating across Libya commit widespread human rights abuses with impunity, fuelling insecurity and hindering the rebuilding of state institutions, warned Amnesty International in a new report released a year on from the start of the February 2011 uprising. The report 'Militias threaten hopes for new Libya', documents widespread and serious abuses, including war crimes, by a multitude of militias against suspected al-Gaddafi loyalists, with cases of people being unlawfully detained and tortured - sometimes to death.

At least 10 people have died after Cyclone Giovanna struck Madagascar but details of its impact on the regions which bore the brunt of the category-four tropical storm remain sketchy, as communications and electricity supplies have been cut. The cyclone made landfall in the early hours of 14 February south of the port town of Toamasina and then carved a path through heavily populated areas towards the capital, Antananarivo, reportedly uprooting trees, damaging infrastructure, causing landslides and flooding as it moved inland.

Hundreds of people have been displaced and six killed in a fresh wave of ethnic clashes in the central Kenyan region of Isiolo where a spate of attacks and counter-attacks since late 2011 have left dozens dead. In the first attack on 13 February in Gambella, near Isiolo town [but in neighbouring Meru County], three farmers were killed on their farms 'as they harvested tomatoes'; three more were killed on [14 February] at Kampi ya juu, Isaiah Nakoru, the provincial commissioner told IRIN.

‘Is it possible to believe for a moment that a government, whatever it is, could commit such a massacre on the day its case is brought before the Security Council?’

What is happening in Syria is a NATO-led regime change plot. It is not a popular uprising, as the West and its Gulf allies would like the world to believe. Syria is battling heavily armed foreign mercenaries.

This video recording of two speeches by Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein, made to Harvard Law School students, details the constitutional violations of successive US presidents in perpetrating war, with the speakers arguing that this has essentially resulted in an authoritarian and expanded security state. Violations include assassinations, indefinite detentions, war crimes, secret courts, immunity from judiciary review, monitoring of citizens and extraordinary renditions.

Swaziland’s Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini who was at the centre of controversy last year (2011) when it was revealed he bought Swazi nation land for himself at a price massively below its true value, has a personal fortune of E12 million (US$1.56 million) it has been revealed. Among his assets are E392,000 worth of shares in Swazi Empowerment (Pty) Limited (SEL), a company that in turn has a 19 per cent shareholding with MTN Swaziland, the monopoly mobile phone operator in the kingdom. Details of Dlamini’s fortune are contained in a statement of assets and liabilities that was submitted by the Prime Minister to the Swazi Integrity Commission last week, leaked to the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, reports Swazi Media Commentary.