War in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) did not end when fighting ceased in 2003 in most parts of the country, according to Gen Laurent Nkunda, a Congolese army officer who led dissident troops in June to capture Bukavu, the capital of the eastern province of South Kivu. IRIN interviewed Nkunda on 21 August, in the eastern town of Goma, on his rebellion against the transitional government, his views on the integration of the national army and whether or not he would he would make real his threat to seize Bukavu.

"Things have changed in Africa over the past few years," said a friend of Simon Mann, the old Etonian now awaiting sentence in Zimbabwe for attempting to buy arms illegally. "The days are gone when you could recruit a bunch of moustaches, load up some ammunition and take over a country - especially if you are a white man." In Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Nick du Toit, Mr Mann's associate, is on trial for his life. And under house arrest behind heavy iron gates in Constantia, one of Cape Town's smartest suburbs, Sir Mark Thatcher is contemplating his future.

"In the ultimate analysis, not only is the Bill in flagrant violation of international and regional human rights standards and norms, it also represents a decisive rejection of the terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which provide for the right to freedom of expression, association and assembly. That attitude can only be described as contemptuous of the rule of law and of regional and international standards of governance and of the protection of human rights." This is according to an analysis of the controversial Zimbabwean Non-Governmental Organisations Bill, 2004, conducted by the International Bar Association.

A team from the International Criminal Court (ICC) is in Uganda to investigate alleged atrocities committed in the war between government troops and the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), UN officials said on Wednesday. "A team of nine ICC people is in Uganda," Andrew Timpson, who works for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was quoted by AFP as saying. "They have started soliciting for interpreters for the local Luo language and Swahili and have also met human rights groups and non-governmental organisations," Timpson added.

Judges in the newly restored court in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must intensify efforts to prosecute serious human rights crimes, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released this week. Since 1999, armed conflict among rebel factions, local ethnic groups, and foreign fighters in the northeastern region has resulted in numerous atrocities that have gone unpunished. On August 17, the court in Bunia, Ituri's capital, handed down its most serious conviction so far. Human Rights Watch welcomed the court's prosecution of Commander Rafiki Saba Aimaible, the former security chief of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an armed group in Ituri responsible for serious crimes. Commander Rafiki was found guilty of arbitrary arrests aggravated by torture, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

SaferAfrica and Saferworld have assisted Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya with the development of National Action Plans for Arms Management and Disarmament (NAPs) to control the proliferation of small arms. This report describes the process and environment that has led to the development by SaferAfrica and Saferworld of the small arms mapping methodology; outlines the methodology; presents some of the practical experiences gained through its implementation; and reflects upon some of the key lessons that we have learnt.

The Director-General of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution, Dr Sunday Ochoche, has said that political corruption is the main cause of major conflicts in Nigeria. Speaking during a two-day seminar entitled "Peace in Ebonyi State - I am a Stakeholder", Ochoche said that in order to actualize their ambition, politicians have stimulated many conflicts that have caused so much havoc in the country.

Africa faces huge political and humanitarian challenges. Sixteen countries are stricken by war or serious instability; the shadow of genocide looms over central Africa; while natural and man-made disasters threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of Africans. International structures for peace and security and the delivery of humanitarian assistance have so far failed to prevent enduring crisis across the continent. Hopes of new models for ‘African solutions to African problems’ have suffered severe setbacks in the last few years.

Ghana's Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has identified forced marriage as the major human rights abuse in the country's Northern Region. Speaking on a visit to the region, the acting Commissioner of the CHRAJ said that "Saboba District alone reported 84 human rights abuse cases, of which 51 were based on forced marriages."

The Government of Sudan is permitting abusive Janjaweed militia to maintain at least 16 camps in the western region of Darfur, Human Rights Watch says. Despite repeated government pledges to neutralize and disarm the militia, HRW investigators report witnesses which claim that five of the camps are shared between the militia and the government and that the Sudanese army have incorporated Janjaweed members into its leadership.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and scientists have warned against the use of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) without improving the nutrition of patients. Delegates from 14 eastern and southern African countries are meeting in Entebbe to discuss the regional nutritional needs of women, children and the implications of HIV on nutrition. The delegates want their respective governments to institute nutrition policies and provide nutrition supplementation to improve health. The commissioner in charge of children’s health, Jessica Nsungwa, said 10% of Ugandan women have chronic energy deficiency while 41% of pregnant women were anaemic.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has congratulated Mauritania for becoming the first country in North Africa to adopt a national refugee law. In a letter sent to the Mauritanian President, Maaouye Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said the law would "pave the way for the establishment of a national legal framework for the protection of refugees and returnees, and national asylum structures that can assume responsibility for managing refugee affairs in Mauritania."

Orphaned youngsters, they fled their villages in Sudan in the 1980s, afraid they would be slaughtered as many of their families were by government troops. The lost boys - so called because they had to fend for themselves without parents or elders - set out on an extraordinary journey across Africa that took them to Ethiopia, back to Sudan and to refugee camps in Kenya. Three years ago, the United States government agreed to allow 3,600 of them to begin new lives in America.

Save the Children, UK

In response to the current humanitarian emergency, you will be responsible for ensuring that health and nutrition systems are implemented and standardised in the region of Eddaein and for supporting SC UK's emergency preparedness and response. To fulfil the role you will have at least three years of international experience in health and nutrition, preferably gained within the context of an emergency programme.

Two weeks have passed since 160 Banyamulenge refugees were killed in this desolate transit camp, which lies under the shadow of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Kivu mountains. They had come here to the Burundian border seeking respite from the war that continues to ravage the DRC, hoping if not for peace, then at least for a temporary rest from the horrors they have grown up with. They found instead that war cannot be outrun.

TRANSCEND Peace University is the world's first global peace university for policy makers, practitioners, scholars, students, UN staff and others working in peacebuilding, conflict transformation, post-war reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation, development, human rights, and other related fields. The link below contains information about the university's September Semester 2004.

The displaced inhabitants of the Sudanese region of Darfur are traumatized and humiliated, and remain at constant risk of rape, violence and pressure to return to their homes, a United Nations humanitarian official told reporters after visiting the war-torn area. Dennis McNamara, the Director of the UN's Internal Displacement Division, told a press conference that rape and sexual violence against women and girls in Darfur was an immense problem.

Almost 200,000 refugees have found a safe haven in Guinea as the wars in West Africa were at their worst, mostly from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire. Now, almost all Sierra Leoneans have been repatriated and those few remaining will be offered Guinean citizenship. The repatriation of 73,000 Liberians is to start in October this year. Guinea has been the West African country that hosted most refugees during the end-1990s.

In the aftermath of this month's massacre of 160 Congolese refugees in a temporary camp in Burundi, some advocacy groups say too little is being done to ensure the rights of refugees as outlined in the U.N.'s 1951 convention. "The massacre is the latest in the region's history of refugee camp disasters," says the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR). "It highlights yet again one of the dangers of refugee warehousing, the practice of confining refugees to camps or segregated settlements or otherwise depriving them of basic human rights."

An estimated 3,000 civilians were displaced on Saturday following fighting between rebels and government troops in the northwestern province of Bujumbura Rural. The displaced sought refuge in the commune of Kabezi in an area under the control of UN peacekeepers. Kabezi already hosts some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of persistent insecurity due to fighting between the army and the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) led by Agathon Rwasa.