NATO jets have struck a military storage facility and other targets in the eastern outskirts of the capital, Tripoli. Sunday's attacks came two days after major international players recognised Libya's opposition leadership as the country's legitimate representative. From Tripoli, bright flashes could be seen on the eastern horizon just after midnight, followed by a steady rumbling that went on for an hour.

About 1,300 Somalis are arriving at the Dadaab refugee camps in northeast Kenya every day. The nutritional state of older children, as well as under fives, is of concern, but the local Kenyan population is faring little better. Outside the camp, the host population is not faring much better. An MSF nutrition assessment showed that the local community was suffering from malnutrition at the same rates as the refugees living in camp outskirts, and people had stopped feeding their animals in order to have enough food for themselves.

The Economic Community of West African States says that the region has a big chunk of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees in Africa. The regional bloc commissioner for human development and gender Adrienne Diop said this at a news conference on the ministerial conference on the implementation of the African Convention on Internally Displaced Persons in West Africa. Out of the 27.5 million people, who were displaced in 2010 in Africa, 11.1 million were from the West African sub-region, Diop said.

South Africa has set the stage for the mass deportation of more than one million Zimbabwean immigrants later this month in a move that could alter its status as the world's largest country of refuge. South Africa has been a beacon for asylum seekers due to liberal immigration laws, proximity to African trouble spots and massive economy compared to the rest of the continent that has attracted millions seeking wealth they cannot find at home. About one in five of the 845 800 asylum seekers globally in 2010 sought refuge in South Africa, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

'East Africa has two post-colonial traditions of citizenship', writes Mahmood Mamdani: territorial and ethnic. If the region is to have a political federation, it will need to be based on a common citizenship, he argues: 'Which one will it be?'

The Somalia Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) estimates that 2.85 million people - a third of the population - are now in humanitarian crisis and in need of urgent assistance, an increase of 42.5 per cent over the figure in December 2010. 'We are no longer on the verge of a humanitarian disaster; we are in the middle of it now,' Isaq Ahmed, the chairman of the Mubarak Relief and Development Organisation, a local NGO working in the south of the country, told IRIN on June 28. 'It is happening and no one is helping.'

Following years of discussion, representatives from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are now testing joint disaster responses in light of increased flooding and more severe droughts in West Africa over the past decade, according to the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD). 'Major efforts' are under way for 'south-south cooperation between member states', according to Andrea Diop, disaster focal point at ECOWAS, including setting up an Emergency Flood Fund for disaster response which individual countries can tap into; a natural disaster reduction task force; and an Emergency Response team.

The situation in Sudan ‘demands solidarity and action from all peace-loving people and human right activists,’ writes Explo Nani-Kofi, in a call for readers everywhere to take whatever action they can to stop the government’s genocidal actions.

Thousands of Nigerians are fleeing the north-eastern city of Maiduguri following a spate of recent attacks, which have killed at least 40 people. Some of those leaving are students after the university was closed. The attacks have been carried out by the radical Islamist group, Boko Haram, which opposes Western education and fights for Islamic rule.

The government wants new refugees settled outside Kenya to ease congestion in existing camps. Internal Security assistant minister Orwa Ojode said Kenya is overwhelmed by the number of people fleeing Somalia, which has escalated in recent months. 'It’s a very heavy burden which we did not budget for. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) can feed them in Somalia since the latest arrivals are not fleeing due to insecurity but lack of food,' he said.

Senegal has suspended its plans to forcefully send home Chad's former President Hissene Habre, who has been sentenced to death in his home country, Senegal's foreign minister has said. The move followed an appeal by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay. Ms Pillay had expressed concern that Mr Habre could be tortured in Chad. Mr Habre is blamed for killing and torturing tens of thousands of opponents between 1982 and 1990, charges he denies.

Uganda opened its first war crimes trial Monday, 11 July charging a commander of the Lord's Resistance Army rebellion blamed for brutal civilian murders during a 20-year war in the north of the country. Thomas Kwoyelo was charged before the International Crimes Division court in the northern town of Gulu with 53 counts of wilful killing, hostage taking, destruction of property and causing injury.

A United Nations agency wants Kenya to open up a new settlement to accommodate refugees who have flocked to the Daadab camp. The head of the UN refugee agency Antonio Guterres was taken aback by the pathetic state of affairs at the camp, one of the word’s largest, when he visited at the weekend. According to UNHCR, the camp initially set up to cater for only 90,000 refugees, has now exceeded the number by nearly five times.

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela anticipates she will have some tough questions for the government once her probe into missing apartheid billions gets under way. This week Madonsela announced she had reversed her initial decision not to investigate allegations that upwards of R26 billion was looted from state coffers via various schemes under apartheid. The allegations originate from a report compiled by a UK-based investigation and asset recovery firm, Ciex, which alleges it was contracted by the government to track billions which were siphoned from the government in the dying years of apartheid.

Four communities that Shell Petroleum Development Company operates in recently issued a 14 day ultimatum to the company, demanding implementation of an agreement reached with the communities in 1999. The communities include: Oruma, Otuasega, Elebele and Imiringi. Following the ultimatum to Shell, leaders of the community had appeared before the Joint Military Task Force [JTF] at the expiration of the time with a view to settle the matter amicably. Unfortunately, Shell could not convince the aggrieved communities that are demanding that the company honour the agreement it reached with them in 1999, and they decided to stage a peaceful protest at the heavily guarded Shell facility, the Kolo Creek Logistic Base.

The Center for Migration and Refugee Studies Database (CMRS) has announced the launching of its newly constructed information system. The CMRS information system aims at becoming a comprehensive location where migration and refugee research material especially, but not exclusively, on the Middle East region is compiled. The system is divided into three main components: legal, demographic and socio-economic. It contains material in both Arabic and English and it is possible to search in both languages.

When Libyan rebels requested NATO air support to help them in their fight against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, they might have gotten more than they bargained for, and might be paying for it for a long time to come. Several scattered reports released since the conflict began claim that some of the missiles NATO jets are using to disable Gaddafi's army are tipped with depleted uranium, a toxic heavy metal that could have long-term negative health effects on populations exposed to it.

An appeals court in The Netherlands on Thursday 7 July sentenced a Rwandan citizen living in the country to life in prison for crimes committed during the genocide in 1994. Joseph Mpambara, 43, was found guilty by the appeals court of torture causing the deaths of two Tutsi mothers and their four children on 13 April 1994, upholding a previous lower court conviction.

With just weeks to go before a 27-month moratorium on deporting Zimbabweans living illegally in South Africa expires, the authorities are scrambling to complete a documentation process that will still leave hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans lacking the necessary permits to avoid arrest. The number of Zimbabweans who have fled the political and economic crisis in their country and moved to South Africa is unknown but estimates from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) range from one to 1.5 million. Before the government introduced the moratorium in April 2009, the authorities were deporting Zimbabweans who had entered the country illegally at a rate of about 200,000 a year.

An Angolan human rights activist arbitrarily detained without charge in the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than two weeks must be released immediately, Amnesty International has said. Agostinho Chicaia, an environmentalist and former president of the banned Angolan human rights organisation Mpalabanda, was arrested in Kinshasa on 20 June, apparently in connection with an attack on the Togolese football team last year.