Around 170,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Chad and living in 38 camps in mid-2010, as a result of internal armed conflict, inter-ethnic violence over land and natural resources, and attacks by bandits against civilians. The majority of internally displaced people (IDPs) had little or no means of sustaining themselves, making humanitarian assistance vital. Chad also hosts 270,000 Sudanese refugees in 12 camps along the eastern border with Sudan, and 81,000 Central African refugees in 11 camps along the southern border with CAR.

Sudan has released Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi. Mr Turabi has spent a month and a half in detention after authorities arrested him in May and closed his party's newspaper. His wife alleged he had been apprehended after he repeated an allegation that the country's elections had been rigged.

The Egyptian authorities have charged two plain-clothed police officers in connection with the death of a 28-year-old man in Alexandria a month ago. Witnesses say Khaled Said died after he was dragged out of an internet cafe and beaten up. The government says he swallowed a packet of drugs and choked.

At least 220 people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo when an overturned oil tanker exploded and set fire to parts of a village. Scores more were injured in the accident in Sange, near the border with Burundi. Some of those who died were trying to collect leaking fuel, but others were trapped inside buildings, including a cinema, by the fire.

As the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) transforms into a stabilization force, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed that the world body’s main priority of protecting civilians will continue. Last month, the Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the withdrawal of up to 2,000 UN military personnel – from an existing strength of 19,815 – by today from areas where security has improved enough to allow their removal.

The Together We Can End Human Trafficking radio spots and presenter's guide are designed to help radio stations join in the fight against human trafficking leading up to, during, and after the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. 3 radio spots were produced to address various aspects of human trafficking, and provide information on resources of where to go to report cases of trafficking.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has received credible reports that in the last two days 250 Eritrean refugees were forced into trucks “like cattle” and transported from Misrata prison in Libya to Sabha detention centre, situated on the edge of the Sahara. CSW has spoken directly to some of the refugees, who report that prior to being relocated, the group endured beatings, electric shocks and other mistreatment administered by members of the Libyan military, who had suddenly descended on the prison.

Although initially encouraged by a book promising to discuss the important issue of ‘how the imperialist media has double standards’ in reporting oppression, genocide and terror depending on whether it is carried out by allies or enemies of the West, Michael Karadjis finds instead that Ed Herman and David Peterson’s 'The Politics of Genocide' is a ‘betrayal of everything it means to be of the left’.

Added to the raft of problems soccer-loving cynics have predicted will plague South Africa as a result of the World Cup is the threat of 'another dose of xenophobia' from both state and society, writes Patrick Bond. Allowing immigrants to be blamed for crime and joblessness, says Bond, is a ‘scapegoat’ strategy for the government’s failure to address root causes of the social stress, from mass unemployment and housing shortages, to ‘South Africa’s regional geopolitical interests which create more refugees than prosperity.’

Proposals to increase biomass electricity generation in Energy [R]evolution, Greenpeace’s new scenario to wean the world off fossil fuels, are totally out of step with common ecological sense, writes Jim Thomas.

Stressing the importance of the geopolitical context behind the ongoing struggle over the status of Western Sahara, Yahia H. Zoubir discusses the role of international relations in shaping the evolution of the dispute.

Sahrawi refugee Fetim Salam Hamdi has been portrayed as a slave in a poorly translated documentary film. But Ms Hamdi insists she is a free woman and now goes to court to stop the film's screening. The Australian documentary film "Stolen", shot in the Algeria-based refugee camps housing over 100,000 Sahrawi refugees last year, portrays the Ms Hamdi as a slave.

The first study to quantify the effects of human migration on malaria incidence on a global scale has been published — and could lead to more effective strategies for eliminating the disease, say scientists. Prompted by evidence that eliminating malaria in a single country is not possible if there is a steady influx of infected people from neighbouring countries, researchers mapped rates of migration and malaria transmission within and between global regions.

Potential Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei led thousands of people on Friday in an anti-torture protest that analysts said was significant for joining disparate groups in a common cause. Around 4,000 people, representing varied political views, and many ordinary citizens greeted ElBaradei, 68, the former nuclear inspector, as he visited the port city of Alexandria to offer condolences to the family of Khaled Mohammed Said, an Egyptian who rights groups say was beaten to death by police.

South African police were investigating a possible conspiracy yesterday after making six arrests in connection with the attempted assassination of an exiled former Rwandan army chief of staff. Lt-General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a dissident Rwandan military commander who fled the country earlier this year, is recovering in a Johannesburg hospital after an attempt on his life that his wife has blamed on the president of Rwanda. The authorities in Kigali have denied any knowledge of a plot to kill General Nyamwasa.

A son of Congo's first democratically-elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, is to seek the prosecution for war crimes of 12 Belgian officials suspected of aiding his father's assassination in 1961. Lawyers for Francois Lumumba said on Tuesday that they planned to file the complaint at a Brussels court in October – a week before the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrates 50 years of independence from its former colonial master, Belgium.

The Security Council has joined the chorus of United Nations condemnation of the ambush by unknown assailants in Darfur in which three soldiers serving with the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force were killed and a fourth was seriously wounded. More than 20 gunmen opened fire without warning on the blue helmets as they were providing security to civilian engineers working near the West Darfur village of Nertiti, according to the peacekeeping mission, known as UNAMID.

The Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, has been ruthlessly attacking civilians in the Central African Republic, or CAR, since February 2008. Attacks continued unabated in the country's isolated southeastern Haut Mbomou and Mbomou prefectures, and surged during the first three months of 2010. Despite this deadly track record, LRA violence in CAR, one of the world's poorest countries, has been badly under-reported and gone largely unnoticed. T

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Nigerian Bar Association Human Rights Institute and other Nigerian human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are deeply concerned by reports of a decision by the Nigerian government to resume the execution of prison inmates. The reason given by the authorities for the resumption is to ease prison congestion.

A court to mainly try suspected pirates has opened in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, funded by international donors. Pirates based in neighbouring Somalia have made the Gulf of Aden one of the world's most dangerous shipping lanes.