Amid the chaos and lawlessness of Eastern Congo, a local organization has developed an innovative approach to settling disputes and promoting justice, one community at a time. , a partner of The Advocacy Project (AP) in Uvira, has created Comites de Mediation et Conciliation (CMCs), or conflict resolution committees, in 24 communities across South Kivu.

The refugees are arriving at an overwhelming average rate of 6,400 a month, adding more pressure on the already overstretched facilities and resources in Dadaab camps in northern Kenya, which currently host three times the population they were designed to hold.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), expresses its deepest concerns following the accusations against human rights organisations voiced by Dr. Abdel Aziz Hegazi, Chairperson of the General Federation of Civil Associations, an institution likely to become the prime means for the Executive to regulate NGOs in Egypt.

The Gambian leader, President Yayha Jammeh has vowed to enforce death penalty so as to prevent or discourage escalating rate of murder incidents in the country. “The death penalty is there to ensure that nobody kills anybody. We are going to implement the death penalty to the letter”. If you kill and the law says you must die, you will die,” President Jammeh said.

The drought crisis in war-torn Somalia is turning increasingly acute and spreading to regions previously spared, with half the country’s 7 million people in need of aid, an increasing risk of deaths, and insufficient international donor response, a senior United Nations official has said.“Somalia needs to be seen as a priority case,” UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Bowden told a news briefing in New York.

The UK government should not rely on unreliable "diplomatic assurances" against torture to deport national security suspects to Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to the UK government. In December 2008, the United Kingdom and Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), similar to those the UK has signed with Jordan, Lebanon and Libya. Under these MoUs, the receiving governments provide "diplomatic assurances" that they will not mistreat persons whom the other country transfers to their territory.

The United States has sent warning letters to 15 prominent Kenyans it says are blocking reform in east Africa's biggest economy following last year's post-election violence, the U.S. ambassador has said. Michael Ranneberger, the U.S. envoy to Kenya, declined to name the individuals. But he said they included sitting government ministers, members of parliament and other senior officials on both sides of the country's coalition government.

Sudanese army and government militias attacked this week twice rebel positions in Korma near Jebel Marra, said a commander from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel Wahid Al Nur. Fighters of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) sit on top of a truck outside the north Darfur town of Kutum, December 15, 2007. The SLM/A rebel commander Ibrahim Al-Hillu said the air and ground attack began on Thursday and continued on Friday adding that the thousands of civilians fled their villages to take shelter from the assailant troops near Jebel Marra.

President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia on September 21, 2009 issued a stern warning to Gambians in a television broadcast not to have anything to do with international human rights advocates, who he described as “saboteurs” bent on “destabilizing” the country.

A newly-formed Black coalition has announced a rally and march on the White House to take place November 7, 2009 beginning in Washington, D.C.’s historic Malcolm X Park. The rally and march are to protest the expanding U.S. wars and other policy initiatives that unfairly target the well-being of the world's peoples and the entire African diaspora.

In this week's edition of Pambazuka News, Jared Ficklin reviews Peter Stalker's book , which uses clearly structured facts and figures to dispel common myths and misperceptions about migrants and migration around the world.

The four-decade situation in the Niger Delta is a ‘crisis that will not go away,’ Sabella Abidde writes in Pambazuka News, which ‘if not properly addressed may reverberate across international systems.’ Given that the Nigerian government has proven itself 'incapable' of solving the problem, Abidde argues the case that ‘the time is now for the international community – especially the United States of America – to step in.'

Ugandan police have used excessive force during clashes with rioting supporters of a local monarch in which at least 10 people died, according to a human rights watchdog. The clashes erupted on 10 September in the capital, Kampala, sparked off by a planned visit by King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi of Buganda kingdom to the central district of Kayunga on 12 September.

In Tanzania albinos are still living in fear of being attacked or killed after nearly 50 were murdered in the past two years. It is thought that they are being killed because of the belief that certain body parts of albinistic people transmit magical powers. Witch doctors are willing to pay a lot of money for the body parts to create potions and tinctures for their clients. So far this year at least 12 albinos have been murdered in neighbouring Burundi. Al-Jazeera has reported that one of the murderers received $240 for the body, in a region where the annual wage can be as little as $10.

Nigeria's armed group fighting for a greater share of oil wealth has decided to extend a two-month-old ceasefire in the Niger Delta by 30 days but warned a government amnesty programme had not yet addressed key issues. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), with an estimated 10,000-strong force, has been behind deadly attacks on oil installations in Nigeria that have disrupted production.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres visited Sahrawi refugees in the Algerian governorate of Tindouf last week as part of an effort to reunite families separated by the Western Sahara conflict. Guterres, whose five-day tour of Algeria and Morocco ended Saturday (September 12th), said the UNHCR's proposal for a direct, straight-line land corridor between Tindouf and Laâyoune had been accepted as the best solution by all parties.

The number of incidents against humanitarian workers operating in the volatile North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surged by 26 per cent in the first six months this year, and the attacks are becoming increasingly violent, according to a United Nations report.

Evidence indicates that the dumping of toxic wastes caused over one dozen deaths and dozens of illnesses in Côte d’Ivoire in 2006, an independent United Nations human rights expert have said.In August of that year, the cargo ship “Probo Koala” dumped 500 tonnes of toxic wastes, belonging to the Dutch commodity trading company Trafigura, at sites around the city of Abidjan, the West African nation’s largest city.

The former head of Rwanda's tea industry has pleaded guilty to complicity in the 1994 genocide. Michel Bagaragaza admitted playing a role in the massacre at the international Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) which sits in Tanzania. He said he allowed a militia to use tea factory vehicles on their rampages.

Sixteen people died and 49 others are missing and presumed dead in three separate incidents involving smuggling boats in the Gulf of Aden over the last 48 hours, the UN refugee agency has said. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that the first incident took place early Sunday morning off the coast of Radfan, some 150 kilometres east of the Mayfa'a reception centre.