"The past two or three years have witnessed a number of optimistic developments in West Africa: the destructive war in Sierra Leone ended in 2002, a UN-backed War Crimes tribunal was set up in Freetown, intervention by thousands of UN troops have succeeded in disarming Liberia's neurotic militias, and other countries conducted successful elections. Ivory Coast, alas, has now become the new the festering sour on the region. This must not be allowed to continue," writes Lansana Gberie in a commentary for the website http://www.zmag.org

The recent spate of attacks on civilians in northern and eastern Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has raised fears that the brutal 19-year old conflict is "not yet over", a top religious leader in the region said. "We have in the past been hoodwinked that rebel activities were on the wane, only [for such activities] to resurface with renewed vigour and brutality. Widespread attacks in many areas are not the signs of a group weakened," Archbishop John Baptist Odama said on Wednesday.

Three Nigerians have died in clashes in Lagos as soldiers fought running battles with police.
The dead were civilians caught in the crossfire of a battle that began when a soldier and policeman argued over who had the right to a free ride on a bus. The police officer hit out at the soldier, who raised the alarm at a nearby barracks, sparking violence.

In Malawi's drought-hit southern district of Bangwe, people begin queuing as early as 3.00 a.m. outside the depot of the state grain marketer Admarc for subsidised maize-meal. The demand is such, after the worst harvest in a decade, ADMARC has been forced to introduce rationing. "We are aware that ADMARC, depending on the maize supply in its depots, has been forced to ration sales to between five to 25 kg per person," said Evance Chavasuka of the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network.

After two weeks of peace talks and amid signs that world patience is running thin, rival parties in Sudan's Darfur conflict finally entered face-to-face negotiations this week on the key issues that need to be resolved before reaching a deal. African Union (AU) chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim brought delegates representing the Sudan government and Darfur's two main rebel groups together on Monday, saying continued violations of truce agreements in Sudan's western Darfur region were unacceptable at a time when peace seemed within reach.

Sierra Leone faces a spectrum of challenges, from explosive youth unemployment to taking legitimate control of its rich mineral resources, as the United Nations peacekeeping mission winds down and the next phase of the West African country's development begins, the mission chief has said. "We were there to keep the peace. We've kept it. So we want the peace-builders to come now and work with the people on such challenges as 70 per cent of the 5 million population living on less than $1 a day and 70 per cent illiteracy," the Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Daudi Mwakawago, told a news conference at UN Headquarters.

The UN Security Council has expressed its concern over the presence of foreign armed groups in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, deplored the failure of the Forces démocratiques pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) to proceed with the disarmament and repatriation of their combatants and exhorted them to do so without further delay, in accordance with the declaration they signed in Rome on 31 March.

"The essence of conflicts and killings is the emphasis of "otherness," enabling us to consider others as "different" from us, or inferior to us. Thus in Rwanda, the Tutsi were so often and publicly called "inyenzi" or cockroaches that killing them was like killing bugs and easy to do." Kenya National Commission on Human Rights chairman Maina Kiai recounts his experience in Rwanda, where he traveled with a group of Kenyan MPs to see first hand the effects of the 1994 genocide which left more than a million people dead.

A Belgian judge has issued an international arrest warrant charging Chad’s exiled former president, Hissène Habré, with human rights crimes committed during his 1982-1990 rule. Habré lives in exile in Senegal, where he was indicted over five years ago before courts ruled that he could not be tried there. The Belgian warrant marks a turning point in the long effort to bring Habré to justice, and should lead to his extradition from Senegal to Belgium to stand trial.

The Ugandan military and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army continue to kill, rape and uproot civilians in northern Uganda with brazen impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released in September. A brutal rebel group responsible for countless atrocities, the Lord's Resistance Army continues to wage war against the Ugandan government, whose undisciplined army has committed crimes against civilians, the very people they are supposed to protect, with near-total impunity.

Barely two months after being removed from Killarney and Ngozi mine squatter camps by police during the internationally condemned government exercise, Murambatsvina, close to 200 people have returned to these shanty towns in the periphery of the city. Those interviewed say they were dumped by government in the ‘middle of no where’ in rural settings alien to them as most of them are of foreign origin and the only place they call home are the shacks that were razed by government agents.

Several hundred refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) have crossed the border in the last few days. UNHCR believes that 150 to 200 persons are currently present in Komba village. The local authorities, however, are reporting that a total of 467 people crossed the border last week following an attack on Markounda in northern CAR on 27 September. Other inhabitants from Markounda apparently fled elsewhere in northern CAR.

Over the second half of the 20th century, Morocco has evolved into one of the world's leading emigration countries. Moroccans form one of the largest and most dispersed non-Western migrant communities in Western Europe. Although Moroccan policymakers and the media stress the temporary, transitory character of sub-Saharan migration, an increasing proportion of these officially "temporary" migrants might become permanent settlers. These African migrants to Morocco face substantial xenophobia and social and economic marginalization. At the same time, their presence confronts Moroccan society with an entirely new set of social and legal issues typical for immigration countries, issues that do not yet resonate with Morocco's self-image as an emigration country.

When a huge country is littered with mines and has seen its roads disappear during decades of war, getting refugees back to their homes is not an easy task. The 236 Angolans are the last of the 2,500 who returned in August and September in an organised manner from settlements in Kasangulu, in the western part of the DRC. They come from 15 of the 18 Angolan provinces – excluding only Zaire, Cabinda and Luanda provinces – and are headed to the south, east and west of country that is 1,246,700 square km.

SOAT deplores the failure of the international community to impress upon all parties to the conflict in the Darfur the urgency of a resolution to the conflict and the immediate need for an end to the violence in the region. SOAT whilst acknowledging the right of the armed groups, Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to defend themselves, notes that these groups cannot commit gross human rights violations with impunity.

The Soul Buddyz series is a television programme under Soul City Institute for Health and Development in South Africa and is aimed at young people (school going age) in South Africa. It explores critical topics and aims to educate and inform youngsters on issues such as peer pressure, sexuality, health, rights, discrimination and racism. Due to its success in reaching the youth, Soul City commissioned Jonathan Jansen to write a paper on Racism and Xenophobia in South African schools.

Ugandan army soldiers fighting a 19-year insurgency by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north of the country torture civilians as a method of enforcing discipline and extracting information from suspected criminals during interrogations, the Ugandan government human rights watchdog has said. "In 2004, the commission received 108 complaints alleging torture by soldiers of the UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces, the national army]," the Uganda Human Rights Commission said in its annual report for 2004, released on Tuesday.

A group of unidentified armed men in military uniform crossed into Chad from Sudan early on Monday, killing 36 herders and stealing livestock, the Chadian government said. In a statement on Tuesday, the government said the attack took place in the village of Madayouna in the Ouaddai region of eastern Chad. "The riposte by the armed forces stationed in the region was rapid," the statement said. Seven of the assailants were killed and eight detained, one of whom later died in detention, it added. Two Chadian soldiers were killed and five injured.

Since the end of the Cold War, international efforts to end civil conflict in Africa, Latin America and Asia have included efforts on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants. Successful DDR programs have been seen as an important component of peace-building to reestablish legitimate governance and to prevent the recurrence of future conflict. In this working paper, CGD Non-Resident Fellow Jeremy Weinstein, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, analyzes for the first time what determines the success of post-conflict demobilization and reintegration.

The 2004 Uganda Human Rights Commission report is out and its major recommendation is that torture should be criminalised. According to the report, torture in the country is very serious and is not even declining significantly. While calling upon the state to ensure that all acts of torture falls under criminal law, the report also urges that they should be punished by appropriate penalties. Operatives of security agencies are viewed as major offenders in this regard.