The Government is going to appoint a special team to investigate reports of employees' rights violations within Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in Changamwe area of Mombasa. Coast Provincial Commissioner, Cyrus Maina, said he would set up the team, after being informed by officials of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) that the lives of hundreds of employees in three EPZs were in danger, as they were forced to work overnight under lock and key.

Amnesty International has reiterated the importance of effective international oversight of the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through the UN Commission on Human Rights. "Barely a week ago UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned continuing atrocities in DRC and expressed concern over rising factionalism within the DRC's government of national unity. In Amnesty International's view, it therefore staggers belief that the Commission would consider removing such an essential mechanism for the effective international scrutiny of human rights in that country."

Ongoing crimes against humanity and acts of genocide are being perpetrated by the Ethiopian Armed Forces and "highlander" militias against the Anuak (or Anywaa) indigenous ethnic group, which comprises around 100 000 persons, in rural areas of Gambella, Ethiopia, according to information received by The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). Since December 2003, there have been numerous reports of attacks leading to massacres of civilians, mass rapes, forced disappearances, torture, illegal arrests and detentions, burning of homes and crops, and the forced displacement of thousands of persons. These acts have caused a humanitarian crisis which may lead to a significant number of additional casualties if steps are not taken immediately by the Government of Ethiopia and the international community, says OMCT.

The ceasefire in Darfur, western Sudan, is a welcome first step but requires immediate and rigorous international monitoring to avert a humanitarian disaster and continued civilian displacement, Human Rights Watch said this week. The humanitarian ceasefire is aimed at halting a 15-month conflict between the government of Sudan and two rebel groups known as the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement. The 45-day, automatically renewing agreement was brokered by the Chadian government and signed in N’djamena, Chad, on April 8, 2004, under international observation. The parties also agreed to try to reach a political agreement at a later date.

To bring security and democracy to northern Uganda, the government needs a new strategy, argues the International Crisis Group in a new report. The situation demands a comprehensive approach, in which greater political action and intensified humanitarian relief complement military measures against the murky and murderous Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The UN calls the eighteen-year civil war, which has displaced 1.5 million people, one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

The foiled coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in March 2004 provided an urgent reminder of the destabilising consequences when two of Africa's most troubling unsolved problems intersect: poor governance and the platoons of former soldiers and guerrilla fighters left scattered and idling across the continent's former battlefields. The one creates a job market for the opportunistic other. “I used to command these guys,” said Johann Smith, a former South African Defence Force commander, referring to the 80 suspected mercenaries now awaiting trial in Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe, where many were arrested allegedly en route to topple the government of President Obiang Nguema. “There are 2,500 to 3,000 of them in South Africa. This will definitely happen again, given their current economic realities. One former soldier lamented that he had missed the Equatorial Guinea ‘recruitment drive’ by 30 minutes.”

Ivory Coast's parliament has amended a controversial law on the status of foreigners that the opposition has said was one of the sparks that ignited a rebellion and civil war two years ago. The amended law, passed late Wednesday, outlines five different types of residents' permits in Ivory Coast, including a "free movement permit" for nationals of member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who do not hold a passport and are staying in Ivory Coast for less than three months. A free movement permit will also be accorded to nationals of non-ECOWAS countries, provided their country has a reciprocal agreement for Ivorians.

This year UNHCR plans to repatriate 150,000 out of 300,000 Burundian refugees who fled to Tanzania in the past decade. The UNHCR facilitated repatriation process is moving at a rapid pace, perhaps too rapid. Refugees International (RI) is concerned that the pace of the repatriation threatens the security of the returning refugees for two reasons. First, UNHCR Burundi lacks the capacity to protect the returnees at the current levels of repatriation. Second, conditions inside Burundi are unstable, with continued violence in rural areas and fundamental issues, such as land rights, unresolved.

The Federal Government has directed all tertiary institutions in Nigeria to start the teaching of peace studies as part of courses for their students commencing from the next academic session. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Ayodele Falase dropped this hint at the closing of the first foundation course in peace practice organised by the peace and conflict studies programme of the university. The Vice-Chancellor, in an address read on his behalf by one of his deputies, Prof. Olusoji Offi, stated that violent conflicts rank amongst the most potent factors stifling the objectives of sustainable development in Nigeria today. He said: “This ugly situation can be reversed through both formal and informal peace education."

Somalia’s break-up in the early 1990s led to some 120 000 Somalis living in three refugee camps around the remote north-eastern Kenyan town of Dadaab. Many survive the harsh conditions due to money they receive from relatives across the globe. The strength of these remittance networks, and refugees’ traditional strategies for dealing with instability, suggests the need to rethink stereotypes of refugees as passive or keen to return to a single home locality.

A Rwandan opposition group on Monday accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of sending troops into the east of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to kill Rwandans "refugees" there. "The Kigali government sent thousands of troops disguised as field workers to wipe out Rwandan refugees still living in this region and Congolese who refused to collaborate with the regime," the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) said in a statement. "Kigali authorities are once again preparing to take war to the east of the DRC," said the statement signed by spokesman Augustin Dukuze. Rwanda and the DRC are only now in the process of restoring diplomatic relations that were broken off in 1998 when Rwanda was one of six countries drawn into the DRC's bloody civil war.

The Sudanese government and two rebel movements in the country’s western Darfur region have agreed to a 45-day ceasefire to allow humanitarian assistance to reach several hundred thousand people affected by the fighting. The ceasefire was due to come into force on Sunday. It was agreed last Thursday night after two days of talks in N’djamena, the capital of neighbouring Chad.

An umbrella group representing various Christian churches in Nigeria said on Friday it had pulled out of peace talks with Muslims in the volatile northern Nigerian state of Kaduna after accusing Islamic militants of mounting a new spate of attacks on Christians across the north. For three years, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has been in government-backed talks with its Muslim counterpart, Jamatu’ul Nasir Islam (JNI) in Kaduna State in a bid to end the sectarian violence. More than 3,000 people have died in clashes in the state capital of Kaduna, since 2000.

In this brilliant look at the rise of political Islam, the distinguished political scientist and anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani brings his expertise and insight to bear on a question many Americans have been asking since 9/11: how did this happen? Mamdani dispels the idea of "good" (secular, westernized) and "bad" (premodern, fanatical) Muslims, pointing out that these judgments refer to political rather than cultural or religious identities. The presumption that there are "good" Muslims readily available to be split off from "bad" Muslims masks a failure to make a political analysis of our times. A longer review of this book will appear in a forthcoming issue of Pambazuka News.

Fighting last week near Burundi's capital of Bujumbura has prompted nearly 30,000 Burundians to flee their homes, officials said Saturday. On Friday, fighting between the government and the National Liberation Forces, the only rebel group still actively fighting in Burundi, left one soldier and six rebels dead, a military source said. The violence began on Tuesday about 15 kilometres southeast of Bujumbura.

Events to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide peaked on Wednesday, with President Paul Kagame saying the nation had learnt its lessons from the killings. "We are prepared that what happened here should never happen again not only in Rwanda but anywhere in the world," he said. "Our never again means never again." Referring to the alleged role of France in the 1994 killings, Kagame said: "Their persistent role is self-evident. They knowingly trained armed government soldiers and militias who were going to commit genocide."

Wednesday, 7 April, was declared by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly as the International Day of Reflection to commemorate the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. As such, the University for Peace joined with the Permanent Mission of Rwanda in Geneva to commemorate the genocide by co-hosting two events. The first was a silent remembrance march through Geneva entitled "La Marche du Souvenir". Immediately following the march there was a commemorative evening at the International Conference Centre of Geneva (CICG) In the continuing commemorative events, the University for Peace and the Permanent Mission of Rwanda will also be hosting a Public Dialogue on the 23rd of April.

As the 10th commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda approaches, African Rights has written to his Holiness Pope John Paul II to urge him to act in support of his sentiment that this tragedy “never be repeated again”, proposing that the Catholic Church mark the occasion by launching a study of institutional failings in relation to the genocide. Click on the link below for the full letter.

Some 250,000 perished on the streets and in the houses, churches and hospitals of Kigali alone. After the genocide, the Kigali City Council decided to dedicate a site for the burial of its people in a single place. Many mass graves were exhumed from around the city and the remains interred at the Kigali Memorial Centre in Gisozi district. This is now their final resting place. It is a poignant symbol of the devastation that genocide brought to families across the city and the country as a whole. The cemetery has been developed into a centre and place of reflection and learning for the families of victims, for schools and visitors to Rwanda.

On the eve of 10th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, educational software company 23YYZee launched their website. Their new Interactive Documentary Pax Warrior begins pilot programs in schools in May. The web-based multimedia narrative combines text, images, and sound to tell the story of the United Nation’s intervention in one of the worst atrocities of the late 20th century. The immersive narrative briefs students with the information that would have been available to Roméo Dallaire, the Canadian general who oversaw the UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda. The software also provides access to archival news documents and primary sources, along with original background articles.