The health of President Robert Mugabe is failing and he is positioning his favourite, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to take over, according to sources in Zimbabwe.

Displaced people (IDPs) at Railway division camp in Lira municipality have complained about the extortion of money from them in exchange for registration and food. They told the state minister for youth and children's affairs, Felix Okot Ogong, that some people were masquerading as IDPs simply to get relief assistance. Okot advised IDPs to expose corrupt officials and warned corrupt officials to stop the practice.

Mali has rejected a demand by France that it crack down on people trafficking organisations that help illegal immigrants to reach Europe and North America, arguing that such immigrants send home 40 billion CFA (US $65 million) a year in remittances.

"The dichotomy of how refugees were treated in say, Guinea, versus how those from Kosovo were treated was totally unacceptable; unacceptable to spend less than US$ 20 million on 500,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and then ask for US$ 240 million for an equivalent number in Kosovo." These were words of a former US Secretary of State, complaining about double standards employed against African refugees.

Burundi's Parliament has approved the power sharing agreement signed on 8 October between the transitional government and the country's largest rebel group, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces de defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) led by Pierre Nkurunziza, the Burundian news agency, ABP, reported.
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* Opposition leader released
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37473

Central African Republic leader Francois Bozize has lifted a curfew that has been in force since 15 March, when he seized power from President Ange-Felix Patasse, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported.

Conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, has displaced over half a million people since March, in addition to 70,000 who have fled across the border to eastern Chad, according to the UN. Figures remain uncertain due to access constraints and poor road conditions, but the latest estimates document at least 300,000 IDPs in northern Darfur, and 126,000 in western Darfur. In southern Darfur 76,000 have been displaced this year, on top of 200,000 who fled north from Bahr el Ghazal between 1988 and 2001.

An Ethiopian camp for Somali refugees - once the largest of its kind in the world - will close by the end of the year, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It said in a statement on Friday that the closure of Hartishek camp, located in a semiarid area near the border with Somalia – would bring to an end "one of world's most tragic refugee cases".

Liberia's transitional leader, Gyude Bryant, has agreed to review some of the nominees for senior government appointments that he rejected last week, the speaker of Parliament, George Dweh, said. This follows a threat by LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) to pull out of Bryant's broad-based government, in protest at Bryant's rejection of three LURD nominees.

Nigeria's trade unions have announced that they would call for mass action to protest government's refusal to revert to the old price of fuel. They said they would resume the suspended mass protests scheduled to have started on Oct. 9, but which were called off after governors of Nigeria's 36 states hammered a deal with the trade union leaders.

It's now official: A severe famine will hit Northern Kenya in the next few weeks sparking off a food crisis of unprecedented proportions in the region. The disaster is likely to displace thousands and trigger mass migration into urban centres. Unless Government and relief organisations step in to forestall the disaster, thousands of livestock will die and hundreds of pastoralist families will stare starvation in the face.

Participants at the Zimbabwe Social Forum which was held in Harare from 9-11 October have called on the working class communities the world over to enhance global solidarity and roll back the advance of neo-liberalism by working for and marching towards Socialism. The forum adopted a charter of principles that basically said "Say no to capitalism, no to Globalisation, No to any form of domination!"

Pressure is mounting in the country against the anti-terrorism bill officially known as The Suppression of Terrorism Bill 2003. In addition to the public campaign against the bill, the human rights network is collecting signatures from Kenyans, and using these to pressurise the government to withdraw the bill. The Law Society of Kenya (LSK), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) Kenya chapter, and religious organisations have also voiced their concern. Indeed, the LSK has offered to write a bill for the government if such a law is badly needed in the country. However, the government, through the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, has indicated that the bill will not be withdrawn. Talking to members of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM) recently the Minister, Mr. Kiraitu Murungi, said that the bill would be amended and not withdrawn. SUPKEM has led the campaign against the bill, which apparently discriminates against the Muslim community.

As Parliament readied itself for business after re-opening last week, one of the major issues that may likely generate hot debate touches on the sovereignty of the country, with the NPP Government trying to get the House to ratify a Bilateral Non-Surrender Agreement (BNSA) Ghana is said to have signed with the United States (US).

South African Justice Minister Penuell Maduna was instructed by the US government to oppose lawsuits brought in the US against multi-national corporations which allegedly benefited from apartheid, lawyer Michael Hausfeld has alleged. Professor Hausfeld told the Cape Town Press Club he had been told by Khulumani victims who attended a reparations meeting last month that Maduna had been given the instruction by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

South African Justice Minister Penuell Maduna was instructed by the US government to oppose lawsuits brought in the US against multi-national corporations which allegedly benefited from apartheid, lawyer Michael Hausfeld has alleged. Professor Hausfeld told the Cape Town Press Club he had been told by Khulumani victims who attended a reparations meeting last month that Maduna had been given the instruction by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has condemned the pervasive levels of inter-party political violence that continue to be recorded in Zimbabwe. "Inter-party violence, sustained by lack of political tolerance and at times encouraged by statements made by party officials, has been prevalent in Zimbabwe since early 2000," said the Forum in its latest political violence report for the month of September. The report records 18 assaults, 16 cases of political discrimination and two cases of torture for the month of September.

In a hilly neighbourhood of Kigali, Rwanda's capital, beneath a makeshift tent bathed in mid-morning sunlight, a pivotal social experiment unfolds. Across this deeply traumatised central African country, the victims of a state-sponsored genocide are starting to confront their alleged attackers in community courts convened in open fields and school yards.

Recently, the Cabinet proposed that the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), be abolished and its duties transferred to the Inspectorate of Government (IGG). Although this was just a proposal to the Constitutional Review Commission, it should never have even been suggested because such a move would be anti-people, a betrayal to the United Nations and against the Constitution, argues Nathan Byamukama, head of department monitoring and treatise at UHRC. Byamukama was writing in The Monitor newspaper.

Branch and regional structures of the African National Congress (ANC) are questioning the decision of their president, Thabo Mbeki, to use a legal route to resolve a party problem. Some members and leaders say the appointment of a commission of inquiry into allegations that national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was a spy was shortsighted and ill-advised. They are concerned that Mbeki failed to provide leadership or seek "a political solution to a political problem" which threatens to divide the party.