The General Assembly suspended Libya from the United Nations Human Rights Council on 1 March for 'gross and systematic' human rights violations because of President Muammar Al-Qadhafi’s violent repression of peaceful protesters demanding his ouster. The vote by the 192-member Assembly, for which a two-thirds majority was required, followed a request from the Geneva-based Council itself that it suspend the North African country – one of the top UN right’s body’s 47 elected members – and was passed by acclamation.

Dreams of a decent living as well as good paying jobs and working conditions have gripped the lives of many young people from Somalia, Ethiopia as well as northern Kenya. Youth aged between 20 to 40 years are being lured with promises of relocation to the developed world and other countries within the region like South Africa. However, while many youth leave home dreaming big, the dreams have ended up turning into nightmares and harrowing tales for the young men and women as they travel from various destinations to the capital city of Nairobi and Mombasa. This article from the African Woman and Child Feature Service examines the issue.

An offensive by pro-Somali government troops and Ethiopian forces against Al-Shabab militants in the western Somali town of Bulo Hawo has forced thousands of people to flee their homes there and in the nearby Kenyan town of Mandera, say witnesses and officials. One resident of Bulo Hawo, normally home to some 60,000 people, and also close to the Ethiopian border, said much of the now nearly deserted town had been destroyed 'after days of shelling'.

Government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi on Wednesday said he would not comment on an open letter by Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel in which he was labelled a 'racist'. In the open letter, which was published in the Mercury newspaper, Manuel hit out at Manyi over his comments on coloured people. 'I want to draw your attention to the fact that your statements about "an over-concentration of coloureds" are against the letter and spirit of the South African Constitution, as well as being against the values espoused by the Black Management Forum since its inception,' Manuel wrote in the letter.

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have arrested more than 30 people after an attempted coup in the country over the weekend. According to Lambert Mende, the country's information minister, seven people were killed in fighting that followed Sunday's attack on the Kinshasa residence of President Joseph Kabila.

The UN refugee agency has said it is 'increasingly concerned' about the dangers for civilians inadvertently caught up in the mounting violence in Libya, especially asylum-seekers and refugees. 'We have no access at this time to the refugee community. Over the past months we have been trying to regularise our presence in Libya, and this has constrained our work,' Melissa Fleming, UNHCR's chief spokesperson, told journalists in Geneva.

Anti-government protesters, who have taken to the streets of Khartoum and other Sudanese cities over recent weeks, run the risk of sexual assault, torture and detention, say human rights workers and demonstrators. 'We confirmed five cases of women who were sexually assaulted during or after the protests,' said Rania Rajji, Amnesty International’s Sudan researcher, adding that there had also been cases of torture, and injured people being denied medical care while in detention. According to Amnesty, some 60 people who took part in protests are in the custody of security forces.

Unversed in Burundi's official languages of French and Kirundi, children of refugees returning after decades spent in Anglophone countries, such as neighbouring Tanzania, often find it difficult to continue their studies and some drop out. To ensure such students continue learning, a group of returnee teachers has set up an education centre in the commune of Mabanda in Makamba Province, near Tanzania. The teachers work without pay.

Anti-government protesters, who have taken to the streets of Khartoum and other Sudanese cities over recent weeks, run the risk of sexual assault, torture and detention, say human rights workers and demonstrators. 'We confirmed five cases of women who were sexually assaulted during or after the protests,' said Rania Rajji, Amnesty International’s Sudan researcher, adding that there had also been cases of torture, and injured people being denied medical care while in detention. According to Amnesty, some 60 people who took part in protests are in the custody of security forces.

Hundreds of families have fled their homes in parts of Abidjan amidst clashes between armed groups supporting Côte d’Ivoire’s two rival leaders, Alassane Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo. The fresh violence in the commercial capital's Abobo District comes as fighting hits parts of the interior, particularly around the political capital, Yamoussoukro, which is held by forces loyal to Gbagbo but lies directly south of territory held by former rebels.

Libya's opposition movement has seized control of territory close to the capital, Tripoli, as anti-government protesters gear up for what could be a final battle for leader Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold. Three areas in the east were reported to be under the control of protesters on Monday, a day after pro-democracy demonstrators took control of the city of Az-Zawiyah, just 50km west of Tripoli.

Opposition groups in Cameroon organised protests on Wednesday, 23 February 2011 to call for President Paul Biya to leave office. President Paul Biya, who is running for re-election later this year, has been in power for 28 years. Paul Biya's Special Intervention Brigade crushed the protest with brute force. Global Voices issues this report on how the police responded.

The police have paraded a Tanzanian national; a key suspect in last year’s twin bomb blasts that killed more than 70 people in Kampala. Hijar Seleman Nyamadondo, 31, was paraded at the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) headquarters in Kireka amid tight security hours after he was extradited to Uganda by the Tanzanian authorities.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should impose immediate measures on the Libyan government to end the massive human rights abuses occurring throughout the country, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Human Rights Watch, and INTERIGHTS have said. The three human rights organisations submitted a joint request to the commission on 24 February 2011, asking it to act on Libya during its meeting in Banjul, Gambia, which began on 23 February.

Fahamu’s Refugee Programme is pleased to announce the March issue of the , a monthly publication that aims to provide a forum for providers of refugee legal aid. With a focus on the global South, it aims to serve the needs of legal aid providers as well as raise awareness of refugee concerns among the wider readership of Pambazuka News.

Kenyan mercenaries are among foreign soldiers helping the besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fight off an uprising, the Daily Nation reports. This was confirmed by Col Gaddafi’s former Chief of Protocol Nouri Al Misrahi in an interview with the Al Jazeera broadcasting network. Mr Misrahi was detailing how Gaddafi had resorted to using mercenaries against his own people after losing control of the Libyan armed forces.

The UN refugee agency has said it welcomes the positive indications it has received over the past two days from Tunisia and Egypt that they will maintain open borders for people fleeing the continuing violence in Libya. 'Given the continued reports of violence and human rights abuses inside Libya, it is imperative that people fleeing the country are able to reach safety,' the refugee agency added in a press release. Several hundred people have been killed in the violence that followed anti-government protests last week.

The Radio for Peacebuilding Africa Awards 2011 are now open for submissions. The RFPA Awards recognise radio programs that contribute to peace in Africa. The awards particularly celebrate programs that help to reduce group and community tensions, that enhance and give value to shared interests, that break down listener stereotypes, and/or that provide positive role models.

Amina Ahmed Barre, 29, a mother of two, has lived in refugee camps most of her life. She is one of nearly 14,000 Somali refugees in Djibouti. Barre fled Somalia with her parents in 1991 when civil war broke out; she was only eight years old. 'I do not recall much about my life in Somalia because I left there when I was very young. My parents took us away when the fighting started in Mogadishu in 1991.'

Algeria's government has adopted a draft order to lift the country's 19-year-old state of emergency, the official APS news agency reports. It says the measure will come into force after its publication in the official gazette, which is expected 'imminently'. It did not elaborate.