The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has transferred 16 former commanders of Ituri armed groups to Kinshasa, calling it a major step in consolidating peace in the northeastern part of the country. The transfer, which took place on Saturday by a special UN flight, was the result of 18 months of intense negotiations with the de facto leaders of the three remaining Ituri Armed Groups, according to the mission, known as MONUC.

This latest briefing from the International Crisis Group warns of the real risk of renewed conflict and calls on the international community to move fast to stop it. The UN Security Council and the U.S. in particular must give both sides the clearest message that no destabilising unilateral action will be tolerated, and that the parties must comply with their obligations under international law, disengage on the ground and restore the demilitarised Temporary Security Zone (TSZ).

Landmines have long been recognized internationally as indiscriminate weapons of war. The impact of their use in human and socio-economic terms has received considerable attention, generated studies, contributed to policies and, in the end, led to one of the most successful international instruments and a process for monitoring states' compliance with their Mine Ban Treaty commitments.

As America and Europe diversify oil and gas supplies away from the volatile Persian Gulf, West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea is set to become its counterweight: “The Next Gulf”. This book is written by Andy Rowell, James Marriott & Lorne Stockman and published by Constable.

About 10,000 children are severely malnourished and at risk of death in the Lower and Middle Shabelle regions of Somalia as food prices experienced a sharp increase and the ongoing conflict hindered access to those affected, early warning agencies said.

For the first time since taking up arms almost 20 years ago, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has sent a peace delegation to Kampala. But the rebels and Ugandan government remain poles apart on the key issue of International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against top LRA leaders.

MONUC, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has called on the army to demobilise all child soldiers in its ranks and hand over any minors held by military tribunals to civilian jurisdiction. "We believe there are almost 200 minors still present in various FARDC [regular army] brigades currently deployed in North Kivu," MONUC spokesman Kemal Saiki told reporters on 31 October.

Top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón has ordered the opening of an inquiry into allegations of genocide in the Moroccan-occupied territory of Western Sahara. The Western Saharan plaintiffs are also looking for accountability for the 542 Sahrawis that Morocco made "disappear" during the war with the Sahrawi pro-independence movement Polisario Front from 1975-1991, according to the group "Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State" (ASVDH).

Battles broke out again in the Somali capital on Friday killing at least one, wounding four and stoking the nation's humanitarian crisis after nearly 90,000 people fled days of fighting earlier this week. Ethiopian forces supporting Somalia's interim government are trying to crush Islamist-led rebels. A Reuters witness said clashes resumed before dawn in the heart of the coastal capital.

Shocking new details have emerged of the torture and beating of a group of Bushmen in Kaudwane resettlement camp, Botswana. Fifteen men were arrested in late September for hunting, and at least ten of them were tortured. The incidents bring the total number of Bushmen arrested for hunting this year to 53. During this time the government has not issued them with a single permit to hunt on their land, despite Botswana’s High Court ruling in December that its refusal to issue permits was unlawful.

The UN refugee agency and two key partners have been busy over the past week responding to the urgent needs of 103 young children caught up in an abduction scandal in the eastern Chad town of Abéché. The Chad authorities have detained and charged several Europeans, including members of the French aid agency Children Rescue/Zoe's Ark, in connection with the alleged abduction of the children, who are currently being looked after in Abéché's orphanage

Talk your way out of tensions, that's the message the UN refugee agency conveyed in a recent workshop for community leaders and local authorities in strife-torn eastern Chad. Conflict resolution and peaceful co-existence were the key words in a three-day workshop supported by UNHCR, its partner Eirine and the Association Chefs Traditionnels du Tchad (ACTT) and held in Abéché University earlier this month.

Still hale and hearty at 75, David Olanya takes a break from digging in his garden to explain his joy at getting a new home and plot of land, more than a decade after he was forced on the run by fighting between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government. "We needed to move out and farm in our lands and produce our own food. That's why we are here," said Olanya, a father of five. It was the news that it's now safe to move around Gulu and Amuru districts in northern Uganda that prompted Olanya to leave Anaka camp for internally displaced people (IDP), a haven his family had called home for so long.

A cholera outbreak in Congo's eastern city of Goma is raising fears of an epidemic among tens of thousands of refugees in camps, aid workers said on Thursday. Fighting between government soldiers, Tutsi insurgents, Rwandan Hutu rebels and local Mai Mai militia has forced more than 370,000 to flee villages in North Kivu province this year.

Amnesty International has urged governments not to send anyone suspected of crimes during Rwanda's 1994 genocide to be tried in the country, saying it had serious concerns over the justice system. The central African country wants suspects in the 100-day slaughter of 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus to be transferred to its custody.

At a mass rally held in Makeni in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone, Amnesty International members and hundreds of other local activists called on the newly elected government of Sierra Leone to commit to ensuring justice and full reparations for the tens of thousands of Sierra Leonean women who have been the victims of sexual violence.

Eighteen-year-old Beatrice Kouado is bent over her paper pattern in concentration, painstakingly guiding the yellow thread back and forth in regular, even stitches as she learns the art of tailoring. Beatrice was one of the lucky ones selected for the training programme, after her father heard it on the radio.

North Kivu is again a crucible of conflict in Congo. Since fighting resumed between the insurgents of Laurent Nkunda and the national army in December 2006, over 370,000 civilians have been displaced in the province. Due to the failure of the latest attempt to integrate Nkunda’s troops into the army, the crisis has become much worse since May 2007. UN attempts to impose a ceasefire and appoint a special envoy to mediate have failed.

The *Working Papers on Women and International features article-length manuscripts by scholars from a broad range of disciplines. It disseminates materials that are at a late stage of formulation and that contribute new understandings of women\'s economic, social, and political position amidst change. The series focuses on the relationships between gender and global transformation and publishes reports of empirical studies and projects, theoretical analyses, and policy discussions that illuminate the processes of change in the broadest sense.

AMERA is now recruiting for a new Country Director to head up its operations in Egypt.Interviews are expected to take place in Cairo on November 26-27. Deadline for applications is November 10 2007.