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Conflicts between African lions and human communities threaten the lion's survival throughout its range. A new study by Earthwatch Institute-supported scientists working in the Tsavo region of Kenya investigates the annual toll on livestock and provides a hopeful model for coexistence through compensation and seasonal livestock management. The study, published online in the journal Biological Conservation, concludes that $8,749 would be needed annually to offset the economic damage of a vigorous population of 26 adult lions inhabiting two ranches in Kenya totalling 160,000 acres.

If some writers in the Nigerian media are to be believed, a group of six white farmers from Zimbabwe have the power to destabilise their country of about 130-million people. Racist diatribes, in the mould of President Robert Mugabe's own thundering speeches, have suggested the farmers invited by the Kwara State government will only steal Nigerians' land, dupe innocent Nigerians with dangerous genetically modified crops and spread HIV/AIDS in order to get rid of black people. Others feel the invitation is tantamount to sabotaging Mugabe's land reform programme.

Over thirteen years after the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, Somalia remains the only country in the world without a government, a classic example of the humanitarian, economic and political repercussions of state collapse, including a governance vacuum that terrorist groups can take advantage of for safe haven and logistical purposes. The International Crisis Group warns in its latest report that if peace is to be attainable, the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) must end its own internal divisions. "The U.S. and EU need to provide more active support to heal the regional rivalries or they will continue to fuel a low-intensity conflict and ensure that no functioning government comes to power," said the ICG.

Sudan has been re-elected as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, a controversial move that was protested by the United States and human rights groups after the African group of U.N. member states late last week presented a list of four candidates for four open seats, guaranteeing the election of Sudan, Kenya, Guinea and Togo. At the Economic and Social Council at U.N. headquarters in New York, where voting took place, the U.S. delegation walked out following remarks by U.S. Ambassador to ECOSOC Sichan Siv, who said Sudan's candidacy was "entirely inappropriate" given reports of "ethnic cleansing" in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Refugees often see the education of their children as a principal way of ensuring a better future for their family, regardless of whether that future holds a return to the home country, local integration in the country of first asylum, or resettlement to a third country. Just as importantly, education often plays a critical role in creating stability in the lives of refugee children. However, the current model of international assistance in countries of first asylum - that is, the first nation in which people find refuge outside their homeland - focuses on meeting immediate and important basic needs. Refugees are therefore increasingly seeking alternative ways to educate their children.
by Sarah Dryden-Peterson

Europeans, North Americans, or Australians who rely on the tabloid press might well believe that their countries were under siege by asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Sensationalist journalists and right-wing politicians map out dire consequences like rocketing crime rates, fundamentalist terrorism, collapsing welfare systems, and mass unemployment. But who are the forced migrants whose efforts to escape personal disaster provoke such debate? And can their flight really be said to constitute a worldwide crisis? An examination of migration history, as well as a careful categorization of forced migrants and their motivations, is key to understanding the reality behind the rhetoric and headlines.
by Stephen Castles

Congolese refugees living in Uganda are now returning home voluntarily after an improvement in the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). According to an April 1 situation report by the Makerere University-based Refugee Law Project (RLP), repatriation had been informal with no involvement of the Ugandan authorities. In March, the RLP team visited Karugutu, Rwebisengo and Ntoroko sub-counties in Bundibugyo district, which are epicentres of the refugee influx. RLP reported that the refugees who wanted to go back to their country packed their belonging and left without informing the authorities in the area.

Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye has dismissed as insincere a recent declaration of a ceasefire by one of the country's rebel factions but said that continuing insecurity would not delay the country's programme for a peaceful transition to democracy. Speaking on Friday at the private home of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in the capital, Kampala, Ndayizeye told reporters that the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) led by Agathon Rwasa was "not serious about this truce offer because they bombed Bujumbura the next day".

Preparations for the third and final phase of the Somali peace talks were proceeding smoothly on Friday, according to an Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) source involved in the proceedings. He told IRIN that the organisers of the talks, which are being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, under the auspices of IGAD, were pleased with "the way things were moving". "We have already started bringing in traditional elders from Somalia," he said.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has condemned the continued rising wave of arbitrary arrest and detention of activists and human rights defenders in Zimbabwe. ZimRights' Deputy National Chairperson, Sheba Phiri was arbitrarily arrested by plain clothes police on 28 April, 2004 and detained at Bulawayo Central Police station together with other activists Mr Felix Mafa of PIFT, Goden Moyo of National Constitutional Assembly, Reggie Moyo of Bulawayo Agenda and two others. They were detained, interrogated and released two hours later.

On 10th December, 2002, the Parliament enacted the Tanzania Prevention of Terrorism Act. According to its provisions, it overrides any human rights instruments including the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The Act states ‘the provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent with this Act contained in any enactment other that this Act or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any enactment other than this Act’.

Nigerian authorities detained an opposition leader last Thursday ahead of a mass anti-government protest. "They think that by arresting and detaining him they will stop the mass action, but they will not be able to," Balarabe Musa, chairman of the opposition-dominated Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, told Reuters. The group's mobilisation committee chairman Buba Galadima was detained by intelligence officers of the State Security Services in the capital Abuja, he said.

The new edition of CrisisWatch, the International Crisis Group's monthly bulletin on the world's conflicts, identifies deteriorating situations in 17 countries in April 2004. There is rising international concern for Sudan's western region of Darfur, but the government-supported Arab militias' "reign of terror" against black civilians continues. Over one million people have been displaced by the conflict, and over 100,000 people have fled to neighbouring Chad, where Chadian troops were deployed on the border at the end of April to protect refugees and Chadian citizens from marauding militias. Other African countries where deteriorating situations were recorded include Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC and Nigeria.

The strong prospect for peace in Sudan has been dealt a severe blow by the devastating conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, says Christian Aid. Whilst these attacks continue, government leaders and the main southern rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), have been negotiating a peace settlement in Kenya and are expected to reach agreement in the summer. However, as the devastating conflict in Darfur indicates, the war in Sudan is much more complex than north versus south - there are numerous conflicts which must be resolved if peace is to become a reality for all the Sudanese people.

The Landless People's Movement (LPM) is accusing police of assaulting and torturing its members while in police custody. The allegations came out at a joint media briefing this week by the Freedom of Expression Institute and the LPM on alleged incidents during which the State "repressed" the LPM over the election period in Johannesburg.

Given the high levels of conflict in Africa, issues surrounding peace-building are among the most crucial challenges facing new multilateral institutions on the continent, including the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In the conventional view, peace-building has largely been accomplished once the formal peace agreements have been signed. However, building sustainable peace is in fact a long-term and multidimensional process which ultimately requires accountable and democratic governance, argues Chris Landsberg in Synopsis, a publication of the Centre for Policy Studies.

The Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) has condemned the Sudanese Government for sanctioning ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region, and in so doing, grossly violating international principles of human rights and committing crimes against humanity. RCK has also denounced the passive resolution tabled by the UNHCHR and adopted by member States "which fails to propose any definitive action to resolve the situation in Darfur before it degenerates into a complete humanitarian crisis". Meanwhile the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) has released information about attacks of villages in violation of a recent ceasefire and the detention and torture of 14 people in Darfur. Read the press releases from both organisations by clicking on the links below.

Amnesty International has released a new report, 'Libya: Time to make human rights a reality', detailing the findings of the organisation's first visit to Libya in 15 years. The report - released on the day of Libyan leader Colonel Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi's visit to the European Commission in Brussels, his first to Europe in 15 years - reveals a pattern of on-going human rights violations, a continuing failure to investigate and resolve past abuses, and a climate of fear in which most Libyans are afraid to raise concerns over current and past violations. While welcoming some positive developments, Amnesty International said that a comprehensive program of reform is needed to address these human rights concerns.

The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned that UN peacekeepers will be pulled out of the Western Sahara next February unless the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front can come to some agreement on how to bring peace to the troubled desert territory. According to Annan, the international body is left with two options - the ending of the UN presence in the Western Sahara or a continuation of the push for a peaceful settlement. While the peace has held in Western Sahara for more than a decade, there has been no real rapprochement between Morocco and Polisario.