With less than a year to go to Tanzania's parliamentary and presidential elections, the people have started to give vent to their frustration with the performance of the present government in tackling rampant corruption, local newspapers reported this week.

COPA will for the period 15th to 25th February 2010 hold 10 day peace building training in Nairobi for peace and development practitioners from from Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. The training is ideal for persons wishing to build their skills in different thematic areas related to peace matters.

Over 5 million people, mostly civilians, have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since its conflict began in 1996. In this week’s Pambazuka News Phumlani Majavu looks at why peace is so elusive, with reference to a recent report from human rights group Global Witness on the role the illegal trade in minerals plays in fuelling violence in the DRC.

War on Want is a dynamic organisation working in partnership with people across the developing world. War on Want’s International Programmes Department works to change people’s lives in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. We are seeking two programme officers with extensive practical experience in international development programmes, one to lead our Informal Economy programme and the other our Conflict Zones programme.

The effects of climate change are likely to lead to increased levels of conflict across Africa, a new study has suggested. Cyril Mychalejko takes a closer look at responses to the report’s conclusions.

As global awareness grows around conflict in Congo, a myriad of Western-based prescriptions are being proffered, Kambale Musavuli writes in this week’s Pambuzuka News, including the ‘conflict minerals’ approach. But this approach, devoid of social, political, economic and historical context, argues Musavuli, will simply perpetuate the root causes of the region’s challenges rather than resolve them.

Burundi's government should immediately reverse a new policy of deporting Rwandan asylum seekers without considering their cases, Human Rights Watch has said.

The Soccer World Cup represents major economic opportunities for South Africa. It represents the possibility of showcasing South Africa to the world, and everything it is possible of accomplishing. However, the less glamorous side is the possible increase in sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

Qaabata Boru, the editor of KANERE Refugee Free Press, writes of a recent assault he suffered and his loss of important personal property.

Islamist hardliners in Somalia have taken over the control of strategic town, Dobley, a southern border between Somalia and Kenya, after clashes with a rival group, reports say on Thursday. Al-shabaab fighters attacked and took over the town in the early hours of Wednesday from rival group Hizbul Islam.

The trial against two former Congolese rebel leaders for crimes allegedly committed by their militias in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2003 is set to begin in The Hague at the International Criminal Court.

More than 300 former combatants in Darfur, including women and disabled persons, have participated in a three-day discharge programme organized by the Government of Sudan with support from the joint African Union-United Nations mission in Darfur.

Internal displacement caused by both communal violence and internal armed conflict is a recurrent phenomenon in most states in Nigeria. The parties to the fighting have sought political, economic and social advantages in a country with endemic poverty, low levels of education and a huge and alienated youth population.

The Nigerian government has not brought a single prosecution or even begun investigations a year after Nigerian policemen and soldiers killed more than 130 civilians in responding to deadly sectarian clashes in the central Nigerian city of Jos, Human Rights Watch has said.

Kenya has had a deplorable record of honoring the rights of its Indigenous citizens, both during colonization and after. For most of 2009 the government’s treatment of its Indigenous populations has been especially egregious, with massive and well-organized attacks on Samburu villages by combined police and military forces and the use of government-funded mercenaries from Somalia.

Most residents have fled Ndele town in northern Central African Republic after clashes between rebels and the army. The CPJP rebels attacked at dawn on Thursday but the army is now in control. Casualty numbers are unclear.

Thomas ‘Mukanya’ Mapfumo, the legendary king of Chimurenga music will address a gathering in Bristol this Saturday where he is expected to highlight the plight of people seeking sanctuary in particular those from Zimbabwe, his homeland.

Guinean soldiers raped at least 100 women during a crackdown on protesters in September, a human rights group has said. The findings were released as United Nations experts began to investigate the repression, in which about 160 people were killed. The crackdown has drawn widespread condemnation and brought sanctions against the ruling military junta.

Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar has declined an offer by Madrid to grant her refugee status following her expulsion from the territory by Morocco, a representative said Saturday. Jose Morales Brum, a trade union leader in Spain's Canary Islands, said that Haidar, a winner of several human rights awards, was continuing the hunger strike she began at midnight on Sunday.

South Africa has deported an Israeli airline official following allegations that Israel's secret police, the Shin Bet, had infiltrated Johannesburg international airport in an effort to gather information on South African citizens, particularly black and Muslim travelers.