The return of over 4,000 Mauritanian refugees who have been living in exile in Senegal for almost two decades has been smooth on the whole, but in some cases tensions are arising as refugees complain about their new living conditions and come up against difficulties in reclaiming their land.

A Darfur rebel faction that has a pact with Sudan's government accused the army on Friday of bombing a village this week even while President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was in the region making a call for peace. Tension has grown in Darfur since the International Criminal Court's prosecutor said on July 14 he would seek an arrest warrant for Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni says that his government will not hold further negotiations with the Lord Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony. The President made the remarks shortly after meeting the First Vice President of Sudan General Salva Kiir who is in Uganda on an official visit. What remains is for him to sign the peace agreement,” Mr. Museveni stresses.

The National Congress for the Defense of the Congolese People (CNDP) rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda (photo) is reportedly provoking fights against other militia groups and causing instability in the restive North Kivu province. Meanwhile, President Joseph Kabila's government has accused the rebel group of going on rampage and executing civilians whom they claim to be members of other militias in the area.

Displaced people this week began returning to their homes in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with the help of the United Nations refugee agency. Five boats chartered by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ferried the first group of 712 people – from a settlement for internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Tchomia – across Lake Albert to the town of Gobu in the Ituri district of DRC's Orientale province.

Tens of thousands of civilians are still unable to return to the contested town of Abyei, two months after half of the town was destroyed in fighting, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. A Human Rights Watch investigation in June 2008 documented the deaths of at least 18 civilians in the fighting in mid-May, most of them deliberately killed by Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) or allied militia.

We are writing to urge you to take decisive action on the problem of violence against children, and specifically corporal punishment in schools and in other settings. We believe that in your new role as Minister of Education, you will have a crucial function in improving the future of young Kenyans and protecting their rights.

The Rwandan government has made notable progress in reforming its judicial system since 2004, but fair trial is still not assured, said Human Rights Watch in a newly released report. The 113-page report,“Law and Reality: Progress in Judicial Reform in Rwanda,” examines changes to the judicial system adopted over the past four years. The report documents reforms including the abolition of capital punishment, but identifies continuing areas of concern.

The application by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a warrant of arrest for Sudanese President Omar Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur creates both big opportunities and big risks for peace in Sudan.

These are the first charges of genocide and the first charges against a head of state to be brought before the ICC. The judges will now have to weigh the Prosecutor’s evidence and decide – a process that could take some months– whether to issue the arrest warrant.

On 11 May of this year, representatives of 18 African Human Rights NGOs meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, to participate in the World Organisation Against Torture
(OMCT) African regional seminar on the economic, social and cultural root causes of torture drafted and adopted the Maputo Declaration Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In this document, the seminar participants - representing organisations from various countries in Africa - express their extreme concern at the erosion of the absolute prohibition against torture and urge concerted action at both national and international levels to bring an end to this practice.

Human Rights Watch is pleased to invite you to a news conference to be held in Nairobi on July 28, 2008. Researcher Ben Rawlence will present the findings and recommendations of a new Human Rights Watch report on Kenya: “All the Men Have Gone: War Crimes in Kenya’s Mt. Elgon District.”

Following the announcement by International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Ocampo-Moreno of the application to the Court for an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, the African Union (AU) chair, Tanzania, has said that any attempt to arrest the Sudanese President would derail efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict. The AU added that ‘the move would also affect the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in the Southern Sudan and the efforts to solve Sudan-Chad crisis’. A special report of the Executive Council of the AU states that "African states can lodge diplomatic protests objecting to the abuse of universal jurisdiction by some states, especially where a right of diplomatic protection may be more appropriate to proceed in cases concerning nationals of the states concerned". The Ugandan government has suggested that the AU Peace and Security Council investigate the alleged crimes against humanity committed by Sudanese President. Furthermore, the AU has urged the United Nations (UN) Security Council to defer the ICC process. Arab League criticisms and almost daily demonstrations in Sudan against the ICC have added weight to that call. ‘While transitional justice may be necessary and important, judicial approaches have been accused of endangering fragile peace processes by threatening the perpetrators, while some fear that non-judicial means let murderers get away.’ Lessons from other African countries remain invaluable to countries seeking peace with justice, in this vein, former representative of the UN high commissioner for human rights in Liberia, Dorota Gierycz, shares her experiences of transitional justice mechanisms in Liberia in an interview with IRIN. Meanwhile, the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) forces, which was expected to be 26,000 strong, now totals 8,000. The announcement came as UNAMID welcomed 172 Chinese military engineers.

The UPEACE Africa Programme has secured funding from The Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC). This funding will be strictly allocated to African students studying at African institutions and in particular for those, who are in the final stage of their PhD studies. The award is intended to support PhD candidates in their field research, data analysis, associated travel and production costs.

When post-election violence erupted in Kenya at the end of December, U.S. media quickly settled into a familiar story: African tribes were savagely tearing each other apart. Journalists described the events as “savage tribal killings” (L.A. Times, 1/2/08), “gruesome ethnic killings” (Washington Post, 1/6/08) and “tribal riots” (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 1/3/08). “This is a tribal situation,” explained CBS (Early Show, 1/2/08). “And what is terrifying is that the veneer of this country is so thin, that there’s so much tension and hatred that’s been here all along.”

A series of tragedies involving migrants off the coast of Spain has raised fears that the summer could see a record-breaking death toll in the region, as refugees embark on increasingly perilous routes in smaller boats to avoid detection. According to human rights agencies, there has been a sharp increase in the numbers of people trying to make the sea crossing from North Africa to southern Europe, many of them from sub-Saharan conflict zones such as Eritrea and Somalia.

Seventy-two people were killed in clashes between supporters of a radical Islamic preacher and police who went to arrest him in Chad, Interior Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said on Wednesday. The fighting broke out on Sunday night at Kouno, 300km south-east of Ndjamena, when officials tried to stop the inflammatory sermons of the preacher on holy war and the end of the world.

On 10 July 2008 immigration authorities raided Joy Radio premises, searching for foreigners allegedly employed by the station. The incident happened barely a day after State House Press Officer Chikumbutso Mtumodzi warned the station against what he termed "embarking on a disinformation crusade, airing libellous and slanderous programmes and playing derogatory songs" against President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Fears of major clashes in the town of Beletweyne in central Somalia's Hiiraan Region have sparked a mass exodus from the town, sources there told IRIN on 14 July. "Thousands of people have already left the town and many others are still leaving," Ga'al Hirsi Hooshow, the chairman of the Beletweyne Elders' Council, said.

The trafficking of girls from villages to cities in Nigeria is increasing and the state is powerless to stop the trade, officials told IRIN. “The business of recruiting teenage girls as domestic help in rich and middle-class homes is booming despite our efforts to put a stop to it”, Bello Ahmed, head of the Kano office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), told IRIN.

Armed conflict, poverty, alcohol abuse and cultural attitudes are responsible for the high incidence of domestic violence in Ugandan communities, according to a report presented to parliament by jurists. Some 92 percent of 6,000 people surveyed by the Uganda Law Reform Commission reported some form of domestic violence was taking place in their communities.