Moroccan authorities should drop charges and release a rapper who has spent three weeks in pretrial detention on charges that he insulted the police in his songs and a video set to his music, Human Rights Watch said. Police arrested Mouad Belghouat, known as 'al-Haqed' (the sullen one), on March 29, 2012, because of a YouTube video with a photo of a policeman whose head has been replaced with a donkey’s. The lyrics denounce police corruption.

The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) in the Netherlands stands accused of being responsible for the suicide of a man who died trying to protect his children from deportation. Alain Hatungimana (36), an asylum seeker from Burundi, took his own life the day before he and his two children were due to be sent back to their homeland. According to friends in the Dutch town of Culemborg, Hatungimana had become very depressed as the deportation date drew near and he had told them his life would be in ruins if he returned to Burundi.

While many Capetownians were running through leafy suburbs from one ocean to another and while others drank and/or sang themselves to stupor in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a unique group of about fifty people staged their second annual Welcome to Hell 'Crucession' from Gugulethu to Khayelitsha. Drenched by the pouring rain despite wearing black garbage bags, we walked, sang and danced a full 16.3 kilometres without even a peep of attention from the local newspapers. I participated in the march, which was organised by the controversial Way of Life Church based in Mandela Park in Khayelitsha because of its message that reminds all of us that 18 years since the fall of the National Party, the ghettoised townships where the poor majority are forced to live, remain a living hell.

Swazi riot police detained at least seven activists Saturday on their way to a pro-democracy church service in the central city of Manzini, one of the activists said. Wandile Dludlu from the Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) and head of the banned Pudemo opposition Mario Masuku were among those held, Dludlu told AFP.

Mozambique is addressing its chronic skills shortages with a campaign to lure back more than 25,000 nationals living abroad, who fled the country during its deadly civil war. The country is also expanding its skills-training programmes, while hundreds of Mozambican students are in China attending technical training programmes.

Launched in March 2012, the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) supports independent African research on conflict-affected countries and neighboring regions of the continent and the integration of African knowledge into global policy communities. The APN promotes the visibility of African peacebuilding knowledge among global and regional centers of scholarly analysis and practical action and makes it accessible to key policymakers at the United Nations and multilateral, regional, and national policymaking institutions by facilitating the transformation of the quality and scale of African research, consolidating the contributions of African researchers and analysts, and connecting African researchers, policy analysts, practitioners, and networks with each other and with policymaking communities around the world.

The murder of Trayvon Martin is no isolated tragedy. The murder of Black men and women by police and other state officials and by self-appointed 'keepers of the peace' is standard practice in the United States, and essential to the very fabric of the society. Please join us is pressing these demands to hold the United States government accountable for its failure to fully address the systemic problem of institutionalized racism. You can help by endorsing these demands and raising them to the Obama administration and state and local governments in every venue possible.

The April edition of the Peace and Security Council Report from the Institute of Security Studies has an article which focuses on the situation in Madagascar. 'Against the backdrop of serious obstacles in the process of implementing the Roadmap, the Malagasy military staged protests in March 2012 to air their grievances about poor living and working conditions,' notes the report. 'SADC’s failure to resolutely monitor and guarantee the implementation of the fragile Roadmap risks a relapse into violence in Madagascar,' it says later.

The detention and deportation of immigrants has reached an all-time high under the Obama administration. Al Jazeera's Fault Lines investigates the business of immigrant detention and finds out how a few companies are shaping US immigration laws.

The April 2012 issue of the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter is now available on our .

In this issue:

- ‘We are in hell’: Legal aid needed for detained asylum seekers in Romania
- Legal aid battles in the Lords: a report from the United Kingdom
- Country of Origin specialists: engaging at what cost?
- ‘Experts’ in the asylum process: are good intentions good enough?
- Court injunction forbids Israel from deporting South Sudanese
- Update: Syrian refugees in Turkey
- Syrian men barred from leaving country without military approval
- More resettlement places in Europe?
- Court rules conditions in Dadaab to be ‘inhuman and degrading’
- Canadian government to include Mexico on ‘Safe Country of Origin’ list
- Mock trial for Europe aims to shed light on human rights
- Petition: Support Refugee Action’s ‘Access to Justice’ initiative
- Petition: Campaign to save North Korean refugees in China from refoulement

Also in this issue: Announcements; Country of Origin and legal news; Deportation news; Requests; Resources; Publications; Vacancies & Opportunities; Calls for papers; Conferences and courses.

A pilot version of an online mapping tool has been launched in Africa which enables researchers and policymakers to identify how climate change vulnerability, conflict, and aid intersect. Researchers from the Strauss Center's Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) programme, United States, integrated data from areas of climate change vulnerability and active aid-funded projects in Malawi, and mapped this information onto the locations of Malawian conflicts up to 2010.

Health workers manning five health centres in two refugee camps in the southwestern Ugandan district of Isingiro say they are overwhelmed by the high number of refugees and local residents in need of HIV services. Severe personnel shortages in Nakivale and Oruchinga refugee settlements have led to long queues at the clinics and placed a heavy burden on the few health workers available, many of whom often have to take double shifts to meet demand.

Opposition candidate Macky Sall defeats Abdoulaye Wade, Sénégal’s president, in the country’s second round, election. Once again, the Sénégalese electorate, arguably Africa’s most sophisticated and resilient, has shown that it can be done! A salute to this beacon! This electorate has not only stopped Wade from his attempt to unconstitutionally extend his maximum two-term duration in office, implicitly supported by Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo (the AU and ECOWAS so-called mediating envoy to Sénégal), it has, also, resoundingly voted against the president despite that much bandied, seeming armour of certitude so beloved by Africa’s dictators – ‘incumbency’.

Human rights groups and political entities are calling on Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly to enshrine human rights treaties in the new constitution. Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the assembly March 19th urging it to solidify international rights treaties in the constitution. The group also urged parliamentarians to avoid vague wording, such as 'must exercise the rights as required by law', as well as providing mechanisms for the application of human rights, which could include establishment of a constitutional court and imposition of the obligation of all courts and state institutions to respect the human rights enshrined by the Constitution.

With hundreds of thousands fleeing the conflict in northern Mali, civil society groups in Mauritania are working to ensure the refugee community integrates peacefully with local residents. 'Solidarity for all in Mauritania', a conglomerate of civil society organisations, held a Nouakchott seminar March 20th on activities to support the local population in the border towns of Fassala and Bassiknou. The forum discussed how best to reduce the repercussions of the poor living conditions in areas in light of the dual crises.

Mali is facing its 'worst humanitarian crisis for 20 years', brought on by a combination of food insecurity affecting around three million, some 93,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Mali, whose whereabouts and status is uncertain, and 113,000 refugees who have fled conflict in the north to neighbouring countries. Between 175,000 and 220,000 children will be acutely malnourished this year and access to northern Mali and the refugee destinations across the borders is problematic, all of which is topped off by a perennial lack of real interest in the Sahel.

Residents in Khayelitsha came to the defence of Somali traders when local business owners threatened to burn down the Somali-owned shops. In an attempt to enforce a 2008 agreement between Zanokhanyo Retailers Association and Somalian shopkeepers following that year’s xenophobic attacks that no new Somali-owned shops would open, local business owners in Harare threatened to burn down Somali shops to force their closure. But local residents stood in front of the nine shops under threat, preventing the local business owners from taking action.

Post-election violence victims living in Uganda want the government to help them return home. The more than 1,500 Kenyans at Kiryandogo camp, about 300km from Kampala, however, want assurances of safety and that they will be given land. 'We have been in Uganda for four years and we believe there can never be peace and reconciliation when some of the affected people are languishing in poverty outside Kenya,' the group said in a memorandum to Special Programmes minister Esther Murugi.

Court has given bail to Forum for Democratic Change leader, Dr Kizza Besigye on charges of unlawful assembly in connection with the death of Assistant Inspector of Police John Michael Ariong. Dr Besigye appeared in court with only three of his co accused who are; FDC women league leader Ingrid Turinawe and Kampala Woman MP Nabilah Naggayi and Kawempe Division chairperson Mubarak Munyagwa. The four have been given bail after pleading not guilty to the charges and submitting their substantial sureties to court.

Dr. Wenceslao Mansogo, a medical doctor, prominent human rights defender and opposition party leader, has been detained since February 9 over allegations of professional negligence and mutilation of a body. Amnesty International considers Dr. Mansogo a prisoner of conscience. Dr. Mansogo has not been ill-treated and he is allowed to receive visitors.