Few humanitarian crises have occasioned as much media and activist attention in the US as the conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Major politicians routinely pay homage to suffering Darfurians in their speeches, well-heeled Darfur advocacy groups take out full-page ads in the New York Times, and commentators regularly fill op-ed ledgers around the country with righteous, indignant calls for the West to act to end the suffering.

The Mauritanian government is guilty of routine and systematic torture, according to a new Amnesty International report. Mauritania: torture at the heart of the state says that the country's security forces have adopted torture as the preferred method of investigation and repression. The report details the methods of torture and lists the exact locations of some torture centres.

Over the last five years, the global campaign to stop the use of child soldiers has garnered an impressive series of successes, including new international legal standards, action by the UN Security Council and regional bodies, and pledges from various armed groups and governments to end the use of child soldiers. Despite gains in awareness and better understanding of practical policies that can help reduce the use of children in war, the practice persists in at least twenty countries, and globally, the number of child soldiers - about 300,000 - is believed to have remained fairly constant.

Kanungu resident district commissioner Can. Ben Rullonga has warned residents against using Congolese refugees as house maids or wives. Anybody found using the refugees will be taken to the courts of law, Rullonga said. Rullonga was on Friday addressing residents at Kihiihi in Kanungu district at a ceremony where 2,362 out of 13,000 Congolese refugees were transferred to Nakivale refugee camp in Isingiro district.

In this paper, Azad Essa explores the extent to which Africa’s military has been affected by HIV/AIDS. He outlines the varied responses from Africa’s armed forces, with a specific focus on recruitment, care and precarious human rights issues pertaining to HIV-positive personnel. While the scarcity of statistical data forces analysts to continue speculating the challenges, effects and extent of the crisis, it is crucial that African militaries finally assume more responsibility in addressing the pandemic, if not for their own self preservation, then at the very least, towards eliminating the spread of the disease in communities itself.

While albinos in West Africa are not facing the violent attacks seen in recent weeks in other parts of the continent, people with albinism in countries like Senegal face grave and even life-threatening discrimination. In Senegal a lack of adequate health care, difficulties accessing education and employment, and social marginalisation mean many albinos are dying unnecessarily or are living in destituti

As Aunesi Omari and her children cowered in her room in Philippi, a low-income section of the South African city of Cape Town, in Western Cape Province, she heard the armed men outside shout: "We're going to kill you because you don't want to listen." Omari's crime was that she had returned to her home after being run out of the community in May, along with thousands of other foreigners. The men outside made their point by firing two shots into the house she had lived in for five years.

Thousands of people are fleeing parts of the northeastern region of Mandera and neighbouring Somali border areas after Kenya beefed up its security presence to counter possible threats from Somali armed groups. "At least 1,500 families [9,000 people] have left Elwak [an area in Mandera] and its environs," Titus Mung’ou, Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) public relations officer, told IRIN.

There is a ‘secret-cult’ silence on the issue of abuse of the elderly in Nigeria, argues the author of this paper. The victims of abuse and others are reluctant to talk about it, and there is constant denial by victims and abusers. Acts of abuse are usually regarded as normal behaviour within society. What can ordinary Nigerians, the government, families and communities do to assist the abused and abusers in prevention and intervention strategies that will benefit the elderly in Nigeria?

Mauritanian refugees considering whether to return home with UNHCR help received positive news at the weekend when the Mauritanian authorities gave birth certificates to two returnee children, paving the way for them to receive national ID papers. The documents were handed to the young boy and girl during an official ceremony on Sunday in the border town of Rosso.

Ethiopia said on Friday it would withdraw its troops from Somalia by the end of this year, piling pressure on Somalia's feuding government and African nations that had promised to send peacekeepers. Addis Ababa has sent thousands of soldiers to support Somalia's Western-backed interim administration, whose divisions have hindered its battle against Islamist militants waging an Iraq-style insurgency.

Delegates meeting at Sixth African Development Forum which closed last Friday have called for urgent and standardised laws to address human trafficking - the newest form of gender violence that, according to UNICEF, afflicts more than four-fifth of African countries.

The leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army Joseph Kony is expected to sign the peace deal on Saturday after several months of unfulfilled promises. He was earlier expected to sign the peace agreement in April this year but failed because he was unsure of the status of his arrest warrant from the ICC.

Rebels in the strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) launched new military attacks today under the cover of a so-called police and pacification operation, breaking the ceasefire and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis, the United Nations mission has reported.

Internally displaced children in the Central African Republic face severe protection problems from ongoing insecurity and violence. They have witnessed extreme levels of violence such as the killing of family members when their villages were attacked by road bandits known as Zaraguina or coupeurs de route. Their basic needs remain largely unmet, and many displaced children have also suffered from economic exploitation, ethnic discrimination and recruitment into armed groups.

10 million people could be forced to leave their homes due to the UK's contribution to climate change according to a new report released today by the anti-poverty group, the World Development Movement. The report also reveals that 30,000 new climate refugees could be created if Kingsnorth coal power station goes ahead.

Human rights groups have expressed fears for the safety of a Sudanese activist in detention in Khartoum. Osman Hummaida was taken into custody along with two other activists and freed after eight hours of questioning. But they were brought in twice more. After the third session on Wednesday, Mr Hummaida, who also has UK nationality, was not released.

While Chevron is defending themselves in US court for aiding and abetting the Nigerian military to shoot and kill unarmed protesters in Nigeria in May of 1998 they continue to do the same thing as recently as last week according to the Vanguard a large Nigerian Newspaper. The following excerpt is from Friday November 21, 2008: “In Warri, a woman and a young boy were shot, yesterday, by men of the Joint Task Force on the Niger Delta at Escravos in Delta State following a peaceful protest by Ugborodo youths against the Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) over job slots and contracts.

After spirited closing arguments yesterday by both attorneys for the plaintiffs and the defendants in the case of Bowoto v Chevron being tried in San Francisco, the 9-member jury for the Northern California District Court began deliberations late in the day. As of Wednesday afternoon at 1pm (when court closed for the holiday weekend) a verdict is still to be determined.

At the conclusion of its 41st session in Geneva, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has issued a comprehensive set of recommendations to the Government of Kenya with a view to promoting the enjoyment of these rights among the Kenyan population. Many of these recommendations are also crucial for reducing levels of violence in Kenya and for healing the wounds left after the post-election unrest that swept the country in early 2008.