A group of Liberian refugees given sanctuary in Israel five years ago now face deportation and fear their lives will be in danger if they are repatriated. Liberia's on-off civil war from 1989 to 2003 devastated the once prosperous West African state and killed more than 200,000 people.

The United Nations has condemned the killing of a prominent Somali human rights activist, Isse Abdi Isse, chairman of the Kasima Peace and Development Organisation (KISIMA), calling his death a loss for all Somalis and warning aid workers they were increasingly the target of violence in the chaotic country.

Egyptian security forces broke up a demonstration by an anti-government group on Thursday, beating activists protesting against planned constitutional amendments they see as ushering in a police state.

An estimated 10,000 civilians have fled the village of Burumba in North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after violence erupted between the national army and a Rwandan Hutu rebel group, officials said on Tuesday.

A royal birth followed immediately by an amnesty for more than a dozen death-row prisoners, among others, is being interpreted in Morocco as a signal that the country is on the verge of making history in the Arab world by being the first to abolish the death penalty.

The rebel administration of Uganda's brutal Lord Resistance Army (LRA) has agreed to resume peace talks with the government aimed at burying the 20-year-old war provided certain conditions are met. The key condition has to do with the involvement of many African countries in the mediation team. These countries include South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and the Congo Kinshasa (DRC).

Michael Clemens looks at the recent surge in international labour migration and explores whether the loss of skilled professionals will stymie development in Africa and elsewhere. Conventional wisdom says that, because low-income countries need skilled professionals to develop, their migration to better-paying countries is unequivocally bad--when they leave, poor countries lose engineers' ideas, lawyers' contracts, and physicians' care.

Rights activists in Kenya have intensified their campaign against a proposed anti-terrorism law, this after a travel advisory issued by the United States warned of possible terrorist attacks in the East African country during the upcoming World Cross Country Championships (WCCC).

While Australia magnanimously accepted large numbers of young Sudanese, who survived one of the most vicious wars of the last century, many have serious adjustment problems in their new home.

Interim Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi has appealed for some 42 million dollars to secure his country's capital, Mogadishu, and to fund a reconciliation conference in the war-torn state.

Fleeing war-ravaged Somalia for the relative peace and security of South Africa is not paying dividends for the many refugees who find themselves singled out for xenophobic attacks, which the Somali Association of South Africa claims have left more than 400 people dead in the past decade.

The Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, OSSREA is organizing a workshop, whose prime objective is to develop and in some instances upgrade the skills of participants in peace research so as to enhance teaching and research capacity of UPEACE Africa Programme partners in Africa. Letters of application and supporting documents should reach UPEACE Africa Programme no later than Friday, March 30 2007.

The Darfur conflict, which has already left 400,000 dead, has destabilised Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic. At a summit in Cannes last month, all three countries agreed to respect each other’s territorial integrity, but the diplomatic activity conceals an international political deadlock over potential oil wealth.

It has come to our attention that on Sunday 11 March 2007, Mr. Gift Tandare, a Zimbabwean citizen was shot and killed by police in Highfields, a suburb in the capital city of Harare. He was on his way to a prayer meeting. Zimbabweans from different walks of life had agreed to spend their Sunday, the traditional day of Christian worship, in collective fellowship as comfort to each other.

Reuters reports that a rising number of unaccompanied Zimbabwean children are entering South Africa, according to a nongovernmental organisation that provides assistance to refugees and displaced people.

Hundreds of Arab militia in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region recently surrounded a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) after abducting two civilians from inside the camp, forcing the temporary suspension of humanitarian work there, the United Nations mission to the impoverished country has reported.

European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels on 5 March failed to follow the lead of the European Parliament by imposing tougher measures against the genocidal regime in Khartoum.

The standoff between the Zanzibar government and the Union parliament over the operations of the Tanzania Human Rights and Good Governance Commission has ended. Commission vice chairman Mohamed Ramia last week said it will start operations on the Isles this month.

A Nigerian human rights activist has been attacked by thugs and received death threats after accusing government officials in the nation's top oil-producing state of corruption, he said on Thursday.

About 43,400 Congolese expelled from diamond mines in northern Angola are living in precarious conditions near the Congolese border, humanitarian officials said. Angolan authorities began expelling the Congolese in 2006, accusing them of being illegal diamond miners.