Although the modern world has extensive experience with people migrating for political and economic reasons, we are now seeing a swelling flow of refugees driven from their homes by environmental pressures. And with most of the nearly 3 billion people to be added to the world's population by 2050 living in countries where water tables are already falling and where population growth swells the ranks of those sinking into hydrological poverty, water refugees are likely to become commonplace. They will be most common in arid and semiarid regions where populations are outgrowing the water supply.

A pregnant woman must visit a maternity facility for medical check-ups at least three times in her nine months of pregnancy, and one or two times after delivery. Not so for the woman in the congested displaced people's camp in northern Uganda with few health centres nearby. At Unyama camp there is only one Grade II health centre that serves 16,000 people. About six miles outside Gulu town, there is a Grade II health centre but no maternity ward.

Armed police officers allowed over 200 Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) cadres to beat up several people at the Supreme Court buildings, in Lusaka, Zambia during the hearing of The Post columnist Roy Clarke's judicial review case in the Lusaka High Court. This is in a case in which Clarke was given the deportation order for allegedly insulting president Mwanawasa in his weekly column.

Mediators at the Somali peace talks say that a "breakthrough" has been achieved, with all factions agreeing to set up a new parliament. They also agreed that Somalia, which has been wracked by 13 years of fighting between rival warlords, would have a federal system of government. A group of warlords returned to the talks on Monday and agreed to the deal.

Sudanese rebels have reacted angrily to the decision to adjourn the peace talks in Kenya for three weeks. Mediators say the postponement until 17 February will allow Muslim negotiators like Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha to go on the Hajj pilgrimage. Sudan Peoples Liberation Army spokesman Samson Kwaje has told the BBC the adjournment is a delaying tactic by the government. Both parties have signed a deal on a 50-50 split of the country's wealth.

The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in Namibia has deplored alleged indiscriminate, inhuman and degrading treatment as well as blatant disregard for the rights of asylum seekers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. In a show of solidarity following recent claims of abuse against Nepalese asylum seekers, NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh said: "Although these very ugly allegations are no surprise to us, such allegations are an embarrassment to human rights organisations on the African continent, such as NSHR…”

Government should banish certain human rights organisations from Botswana because they encourage crime by speaking for and defending criminals. Residents of Monarch in the Francistown East constituency made the call in a kgotla meeting with their MP, Phandu Skelemani. They said such organisations did not serve any purpose in society.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Human Rights Week’s keynote speaker Nontombi Naomi Tutu gave a speech on the importance of honesty when dealing with racial differences. She phrased America’s suppressed prejudice as “internalized racism” and addressed South Africa’s current racial status by claiming that in twenty years, it would be “better than America’s,” because the nation was formerly under apartheid but now the citizens were able to be open and expressive about their differences, thus exploring shared ground.

The latest U.S. State Department call for progress in the stalled Ethiopia-Eritrea peace accord - issued this week and coming on the heels of similar expressions of concern by European diplomats last week - is welcome news for those fearing the renewal of war. But it doesn't go nearly far enough. The absence of even the barest suggestion of consequences to either party for blocking the accord renders the statement toothless, charges a briefing from the think-tank Foreign Policy in Focus. Four years ago, Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to put the border dispute that triggered what became one of the most costly conflicts in African history to binding arbitration. “Today, with Ethiopia balking at the results, the two states are on the verge of going back to war, as the U.S. twiddles its political thumbs in the hope that the problem will somehow go away,” says the briefing.

Liberia's interim justice minister has rejected the idea of a war-crimes court for the West African nation, saying it would do nothing to promote reconciliation after 14 years of bloodletting. Justice Minister Kabinah Janneh's refusal is significant in part because Nigeria has indicated it might turn over ousted Liberian President Charles Taylor, now living there in exile, if Liberia had such a court. A war-crimes court "will not help peace in the country; it will not foster the kind of reconciliation we need," Janneh, a former rebel leader, told The Associated Press.

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Two additional crossing points on the Tanzania-Burundi border will be opened in coming months to facilitate the return of Burundian refugees living in Tanzania, according to officials. More concerted steps would also be taken to prepare for the return of Burundians living outside Tanzanian camps and those who have been living in Tanzania since the 1970s, known as the "old caseload", the Tripartite Commission on Voluntary Repatriation of Burundian Refugees from Tanzania concluded on Wednesday at the end of its seventh meeting in Arusha, northern Tanzania.

The first group of 255 people displaced by war in the Pool region of the Republic of Congo returned home on Sunday in a government led effort supported by UN agencies and NGOs. A special train carrying the group arrived in Matoumbou, 45 km southwest of Brazzaville, for onward transport by truck to Kinkala, the largest town in the Department of Pool, then to their homes.

The battle to uphold the rights and well-being of children exposed to armed conflict "has reached a watershed moment," the Secretary-General's Special Representative on the issue told the Security Council. During the annual Council debate on children and armed conflict, Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu said that while there has been significant progress on many fronts for children, too many parties go unpunished despite continuing to violate their rights. "The general situation for children remains grave and unacceptable," Mr. Otunnu said, citing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Indonesian province of Aceh, Iraq, Liberia, the occupied Palestinian territories and Uganda as areas where children have particularly suffered over the past year.

Interventions by the African Union in Africa's worst conflicts must include a stronger human rights component fully integrated into all aspects of peacekeeping operations, says the Africa section of the Human Rights Watch World Report for 2004. The report notes that peacekeeping is a limited remedy which can save lives and bring about significant improvements in short-term security, but do not in themselves necessarily address the underlying structural causes of conflict, including ensuring respect for human rights, accountable government, and the rule of law. NEPAD, notes the report, proposes four key areas for building Africa’s capacity to manage all aspects of conflict, including the need to strengthen regional institutions for conflict prevention, management, and resolution; for peacekeeping; for post conflict reconstruction; and for “combating the illicit proliferation of small arms, light weapons and landmines.” "Nobody could argue that these are not urgent matters, but in the absence of a strategy to deal with deeper causes they are unlikely to be successful," notes the report, citing deeper causes such as widespread impunity not only for the worst atrocities but also for the more mundane large-scale theft of public funds; the illegal extraction and sale of Africa’s primary resources; and systematic discrimination on ethnic or regional grounds.

A further 18,000 Sudanese refugees flooded into eastern Chad over the past week following continued heavy fighting in Sudan's western Darfur region. This brings the number of refugees flowing into Chad to over 110,000 since two rebel groups seeking autonomy for Darfur launched a guerrilla war against the Sudanese government early last year. In addition, the UN estimates that over 600,000 have been internally displaced within Darfur.

An immigrant from the Ivory Coast is to get damages from the Home Office in the United Kingdom after a High Court judge ruled last week that her detention for six months with her young daughter while they fought for asylum was unlawful. UK policy states that detention involving families should be a last resort and for a short a time as possible. Miss Konan, 29, arrived in the UK using a false French passport in February 2001 and claimed asylum five days later.

When a student-led Islamic sect launched an armed uprising last month with the aim of setting up a Taliban-style Muslim state in northern Nigeria, the authorities were swift to quell the insurrection. However, political analysts and security officials fear the emergence of the Al Sunna Wal Jamma (Followers of the Prophet) group may be an indication that extremist Islamic groups have found enough foothold in Nigeria to make Africa's most populous country a theatre for worse sectarian violence than it has seen in recent years and acts of terrorism.

One year after the signing of a French-brokered peace agreement, the fighting has stopped, but Cote d’Ivoire remains a country deeply divided and reconciliation remains an elusive ideal yet to be achieved. Nobody is starving and people and goods move relatively freely between the rebel-controlled north and the rebel-controlled south. That in itself represents considerable progress. However, President Laurent Gbagbo has been slow to implement political reforms demanded by the peace agreement ahead of general elections in October 2005 and the rebels have so far refused to disarm and allow the government to re-establish a civilian administration in the north of the country.

Jeremy Corbyn MP is hosting a meeting on the British reaction to the Congolese conflict. Three million people have died in five years. What is Britain's role in the Democratic Republic of Congo? And how do we react to the Congolese survivors in Britain? Click on the link for more information.