Congolese villagers are forming self-defence groups to protect homes and families from Ugandan LRA rebels. LRA rebels have killed 567 people and displaced 115,000 in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo's Oriental province since September, U.N. refugee agency UNHCR says. Attacks surged after Ugandan forces spearheaded an anti-LRA offensive in December.

The Zimbabwe authorities should immediately free 32 opposition party members and rights activists unlawfully detained and disclose the whereabouts of 11 others, Human Rights Watch said today. Many among those whose status has been revealed by the government have reported being tortured in detention.

The sentencing in Dakar on January 6, 2009 of nine men who were involved in HIV-prevention work, on charges of "indecent and unnatural acts" and "forming associations of criminals," shows how laws against homosexual conduct damage HIV- and AIDS-prevention efforts as well as the work of human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch has said.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have gathered at the football stadium in Mogadishu to celebrate the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from the city. The stadium was a former Ethiopian base and Islamist and clan elders called for Somalis to solve their own problems and not resort to more violence.

An influential Sudanese opposition leader is being held in solitary confinement after calling on the president to hand himself in to the International Criminal Court, family members said on Friday. Hassan al-Turabi was arrested on Wednesday days after urging President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to surrender to the Hague-based global court, whose judges are considering whether to indict him on charges of orchestrating war crimes in Darfur.

China has had a number of dealings with South African weapons manufacturers over the past decade, most of which have not resulted in actual weapons purchases. However, several recent Chinese-made military technologies bear suspicious resemblances to their South African counterparts.

This latest International Crisis Group report, says despite real progress since the civil war ended in 2003, much more is required to counter public dissatisfaction with the police that has resulted in increasing resort to mob justice. The lack of an agreed strategic concept for use of the new security structures, including the army, means no one knows who would defend the country if a new insurgency broke out or instability spilled over its borders from neighbours.

The Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University is announcing the vacancy of volunteer counsellor in its Legal Aid and Counselling Department.

The Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University is announcing the vacancy of volunteer Social worker in its Legal Aid and Counselling Department.

The Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University is announcing the vacancy of SGBV Counsellor in its Legal Aid and Counselling Department.

The Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University is announcing the vacancy of Legal volunteer in its Legal Aid and Counselling Department.

The Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University is announcing the vacancy of Legal officer in its Legal Aid and Counselling Department.

Former African leaders will attend a peace conference in Nairobi, Kenya under the theme ‘The Kenya we want’ to discuss the political transformation of the country from an ‘ethnic-divisions-ridden state’ into a more tolerant democracy in the region as well as to learn from other countries’ experiences in order to strengthen on-going efforts in national reconciliation and inter-group harmony. Elsewhere, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is holding a three-day seminar on reforming the security sector by initiating dialogue between the policy makers, civil society organisations and international stakeholders and identifying the role of ECCAS in promoting security in the region. Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, following a similar move by the African Union (AU), has suspended Guinea’s membership to the regional body, in accordance with the provision of the 2001 regional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, until the return to constitutional order in the country following a military takeover in December 2008. Still in peace and security related news, United States President elect Barack Obama is likely to face challenges in dealing with the United States African Command (Africom) because many African leaders perceive the command as an instrument meant to benefit the United States rather than being a ‘diplomatic, economic and humanitarian aid, aimed at the prevention of conflict’ as touted by U.S military and diplomatic officials.

With the aim of strengthening their effective participation in the AU, UNIFEM organised a consultative and planning forum for regional and sub-regional women’s networks and organisations to increase, among others, knowledge of AU policy and institutional frameworks and to enhance effective participation in policy formulation and implementation by these stakeholders. Meanwhile, the Women’s World Summit Foundation is calling for submission of nominations for its 16th annual edition of the prize for women’s creativity in rural life.

Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, will host the 12th ordinary session of the AU heads of State and Government under the theme ‘Infrastructure Development in Africa’. As African ministers adopted the continent’s Mining Vision 2050, regional economic communities have realised that well managed mineral and mining resources are essential for the continent’s economic growth and have begun to harmonise their mining regulations frameworks.

Parents, police and even judges are hesitant to press charges against human-traffickers because of fear of punishment, concern for the community and confusion about Togo’s 2005 anti-trafficking law, according to an NGO analysis of the law. Any abuse of power that leads to a child’s migration and exploitation constitutes trafficking, according to the 2000 UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.

In 2003, two journalists from Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines were convicted of war crimes in the Rwanda genocide -- illustrating the dangerous role media can play by relaying hate speech or rumours during times of violent conflict. RTLM, which broadcast from July 1993 to July 1994, was found to have "fanned the flames of hate and genocide in Rwanda". It was the first such conviction since that of Julius Streicher at Nuremberg for his anti-Semitic publication Der Stürmer.

The warming climate is likely to put stress on crops and livestock alike and could cause serious food shortages for half the world's population, U.S. researchers predicted on Thursday. The worst effects will be in the regions where the poorest people already live -- the tropics and subtropics, the researchers wrote in the journal Science. But temperate regions will see very warm average temperatures, they added.

More than 50,000 people fleeing chaotic conditions in Somalia and neighbouring countries crossed the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden to Yemen in 2008, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday. At least 590 drowned and 359 were reported missing among the 50,091 known to have made the perilous voyage in Somalia-based smugglers' boats last year, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said.

There were 9.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Central and Eastern Africa region as of December 2008, according to a United Nations report, 400,000 less than at the end of June, but because of the fluidity of the situation officials advised against laying too much store on the reduction. They noted that IDPs are sometimes continually moving, either returning home or being uprooted a second time.

The latest round of United Nations-supported Government-rebel political negotiations seeking to quell the violence engulfing the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continued today, with the co-chair reporting slow but steady progress.

Egyptian authorities have almost fully sealed the border with Gaza, preventing delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid. "The government has expressly forbidden the entry of aid convoys laden with food into the Gaza Strip," Emmad al-Din Moustafa, member of the Popular Committee for Aiding Gaza told IPS. "The continued border closure -- like the Israeli assault itself -- constitutes a crime against humanity."