Of all the culprits for the crimes in the Congo, the Congolese elite are the most responsible, asserts George Bakaly Sembe. Since independence, but for a few years during Mobutu’s heydays, they have been unable to conjure up doctrines and policies in line with the status the Congo ought to hold in world affairs.

Over the past few months a lot of ink has flowed in mainstream publications about the situation in the Congo. In almost all of the articles, the underlying reason for the crisis in the Congo - the scramble for Congo’s spectacular natural wealth- has been consistently omitted or underplayed, write Maurice Carney and Carrie Crawford, of Friends of the Congo (FOTC).

The decade from 1998 to 2007 has been the warmest on record, said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in Bali, where a UN meeting on climate change is underway. "The global mean surface temperature for 2007 is currently estimated at 0.41 degrees Celsius more than the 1961-1990 annual average of 14 degrees Celsius," Jarraud announced.

At least six people have been killed and 30 critically injured since clashes between Muslim and Christian communities in the north-central Nigerian city of Bauchi broke out on 11 December, Red Cross workers and residents said. Some 3,000 people have fled their homes in the area of the fighting, witnesses said. The government has ordered a 9pm to 6am curfew and closed the local university, which has often been the site of violent clashes.

The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children has produced a new field-friendly publication, "Your Right to Education: A Handbook for Refugees and Displaced Communities", which is available online. The brightly illustrated book, which is aimed at refugee children, young people and adults, raises awareness of the universal right to education, especially in areas of conflict.

Thousands of civilians displaced by violence related to land disputes in Mt Elgon, western Kenya, need urgent assistance, according to local leaders. “About 50 houses were destroyed today [10 December] in three villages in Cheptais division,” Wycliffe Chongin, a local church leader, told IRIN at Kapsokwony, the Mt Elgon District headquarters, after local officials met UN representatives.

In a welcome centre in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, a small finger traces the words of an English text book; a young voice struggles to pronounce the words. Ruth is 13 years old and only in grade 3. But for her, this is a major achievement. At the age of five, Ruth was trafficked from her village in southern Nigeria to Gabon, further south on the Gulf of Guinea. For years of her life, she never attended school.

Insurgents loyal to dissident general Laurent Nkunda, fighting government troops in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are still recruiting children into their ranks, even as serious human rights violations, including some committed by agents of the state, are rife in the region, according to the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC).

The governments of both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have lost patience over the failure of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader and founder to consent to lasting peace process, with the DRC giving Joseph Kony notice to leave its Eastern Garamba Park on or before 31 January 2008. Senior government officials of both countries had taken the decision at the recent Great Lakes Summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Niger has admitted that the army killed seven Tuareg civilians at the weekend. Niger's defence minister said the civilians were caught in a firefight between the army and rebels of the Niger Movement for Justice. A statement on state radio said the incident occurred on Sunday in the region of Tiguidit, some 80km from the regional capital Agadez.

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo loyal to General Laurent Nkunda have called for peace talks with the government to resolve the crisis. The rebels have pushed back army forces, regaining the territory lost in last week's government offensive. Up to now President Joseph Kabila has ruled out negotiations with Gen Nkunda.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has lauded the abolition of the death penalty in Rwanda. Along with Gabon, which also recently decided to ban the practice, Rwanda joins "the vast majority of UN Member States that have already done so," Louise Arbour told the Human Rights Council, currently in its sixth session in Geneva.

Tens of thousands of Burundian refugees staying in Tanzania returned home this year; however, the Tanzanian government will miss its target to empty all camps by mid-2008, the United Nations has said. Authorities had indicated they wanted to pick up the pace, and set a deadline for voluntary repatriation for the end of this year -- or Jun. 30, 2008 at the very latest.

Grandmother Laurencia Nyirabanzi has been a tower of strength to her family since they fled to Uganda after her three sons were killed just across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by fighters loyal to a renegade military commander. The, her three widowed daughters-in-law and her eight grandchildren are all victims of the latest outbreak of conflict in DRC's volatile North Kivu province, which pits government troops against forces loyal to renegade commander, General Laurent Nkunda.

Two car bombs detonated Tuesday morning (December 11th) outside an Algiers court building and a UN facility, leaving over 60 people dead, scores injured and others still missing in the rubble of collapsed buildings. When the first car bomb exploded at 9:50 a.m. outside the Constitutional Council in the downtown district of Ben Aknoun, it was heard up to 15 kilometres away.

Kampala City Council has put in place several measures, including the spraying of buses from western Uganda, in a bid to curb the spread of the Ebola virus. At the same time, the death toll of the Ebola fever has risen to 30 whereas the cumulative number of people suspected to be suffering from the fever has also risen to 116.

Since April 2002, most of the four million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Angola have resettled, integrated or gone home following the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the governing MPLA and UNITA, which marked the end of 27 years of civil war. In November 2005 the government estimated that there were still some 62,000 IDPs in Angola. Since then, population movements and the level of integration of the displaced have not been monitored.

RESPECT is a growing institution that aims both to deliver educational opportunities and at raising awareness of refugees’ desperate need for higher education in the global south.

The disarmament deal signed by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda on 9 November 2007 is a landmark step in the peace process between both countries. But to finally cool tensions in Africa's turbulent Great Lakes region, all parties are going to have to now tackle the collapsing eastern Congolese province of North Kivu, writes David Mugnier.

The basis of this policy-paper is a combination of qualitative analysis of interviews with stakeholders in 2004-2005 completed with a critical review and analysis of available literature on human trafficking, especially of women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is intended to serve as a tool for advocacy and awareness-raising to fight human trafficking in Mozambique, with concrete recommendations to be implemented by a wide range of actors working to fight human trafficking in Mozambique (including the government, international and local organizations).