Language experts are worried about the "genocide" of certain African indigenous languages in South Africa. This follows recent case study findings that some schools are reluctant to include African indigenous languages as part of their curriculum. The Dean of Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Professor Renuka Vithal, said the State needed to promote indigenous languages.

If the tearful pleas of the man who pulled the trigger are to be believed, it was no more than a tragic accident. When Marcel Nel, a white South African farmer, shot at a dark shape rustling in the long grass at dusk on his neighbour's plot, he thought that he had at last caught the dog that had been terrorising his animals. In another stark example of the racial tensions that still haunt South Africa, many are convinced that it was a deliberate, racist murder.

President Thabo Mbeki's speech at the ceremony unveiling the emblem for South Africa's 2010 Fifa World Cup, in Berlin on 7 July 2006 spoke of the importance of the tournament to the continent. He said 'the 2010 Soccer World Cup belongs to the many Africans who in many parts of the world engage in a continuous struggle against racism and xenophobia'.

In a step aimed at ending years of political hostilities, most of Togo’s feuding politicians have agreed on the general lines of a framework for holding free and fair elections. After several months of talks in the divided country, seven of the nine groups taking part signed a deal that aims to steer Togo onto a peaceful path to elections expected at the end of next year.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has extended a deadline for a peace deal with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. Talks due to begin on Wednesday 12 July were to conclude at the end of July, but Mr Museveni has now given until mid-September for an agreement. The government has also appealed for rebel leader Joseph Kony to participate so progress is as swift as possible.

The Refugee Law Project (RLP) conducted over 100 in-depth interviews in Gulu and Kitgum districts in early June 2006. In a context where nearly all residents of Gulu and Kitgum are displaced, government and humanitarian actors have increasingly sought to target those with the greatest need through the identification of 'vulnerable groups'. This amorphous population has typically included women, children, the sick, disabled and elderly. Taken together, these groups in fact form the majority of the internally displaced population of Northern Uganda, making the term 'vulnerable' almost meaningless.

Within the past two weeks the New York Times ran two front page stories on the Congo and the Washington Post ran a feature story. Both papers ought to be commended for addressing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and the deadliest conflict since World War Two. However, once again major media outlets fall short in articulating the source of the conflict and the role that foreign governments and multinational corporations play in fueling the conflict.

Humanitarian actors in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern district of Ituri are finding it difficult to reach thousands of civilians displaced by recent militia attacks, a United Nations official has said. At least 7,000 displaced people have arrived in Bunia, the main town in the district.

Fifteen years ago in Bor in southern Sudan, militia allied to the government in far-off Khartoum carried out a massacre killing an estimated 2,000 people, mostly ethnic Dinkas. Now the people who fled the massacre are returning, hoping to reclaim the land of their ancestors.

In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, an analyst said the security situation in nearby Kalma camp had worsened since the signing of the Darfur peace deal on 5 May, adding that the worst attacks were taking place at night. A nighttime presence of African Union (AU) soldiers inside the camp was urgently needed, a regional observer said, but so far the cash-strapped peacekeepers were only undertaking daytime patrols.

Chad's former President Hissene Habre will be tried in Senegal over alleged human rights abuses committed during his eight years in office. Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade made the announcement at an African Union summit in the Gambian capital, Banjul.

Long-term humanitarian ‘care and maintenance’ programmes have a reputation for ignoring human and social needs. A new strategy designed for Sudanese refugees in Uganda was meant to address these failings by applying a more developmental approach. However, political security, refugee participation and respect for human rights have been lacking.

Refugees should take care not to come across as ungrateful to their host nation. This was the clear message from the department of home affairs and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at an imbizo held for refugee youth in Gauteng. The imbizo was convened to discuss the rights and responsibilities of young refugees and the daily challenges they face.

Civil war and genocide in 1990s Rwanda saw not only millions of lives lost, but a population left behind to establish a livelihood when facing serious obstacles. This study examines the impact of the conflict on household income and poverty dynamics, particularly the transitory nature of poverty.

Research about children's lives conducted in the volatile setting of armed conflict places particular demands upon researchers. The suggestion that researchers should, whenever possible and appropriate, involve children as meaningful participants in that research may seem unreasonable or inappropriate. However, this paper argues that participatory research for children in conflict situations is especially valuable because of the emergency context.

Nearly two months after the signing of a peace accord between Sudan and a rebel group in Darfur, the humanitarian situation there appears to have worsened, while Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia continue to attack towns and villages in neighbouring Chad. Human rights groups and others are calling for urgent action by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations to prevent the violence from further destabilising the entire sub-region along Sudan's lengthy western border.

For Aaliya Omar Alas, Mar. 20, 2006 is a source of bitter memories. Her husband and son were killed on this day in Somalia, during violence that also dispersed the remaining members of the family. "I am sad because I lost both my husband and son -I do not know where the rest of my family members, four daughters and one son, are. We scattered as we were fleeing the violence," she told IPS at Ifo refugee camp, where she arrived in April. The camp is one of three set up in the vicinity of a town called Dadaab in the arid north-east of Kenya. Alas now waits for news of her surviving children.

A variety of ailments can affect people with albinism, an inherited genetic condition characterised by the absence of melanin in skin, eyes and hair. But, the challenges confronting albinos do not end there: all too often, they are shunned and discriminated against as well, in Southern Africa and elsewhere.

The failure of the Darfur Peace Agreement to improve conditions on the ground will jeopardise the lives of already displaced and hungry people, writes Simon Roughneen from Fata Borno camp in northern Darfur.

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has legally recognized that genocide occurred in Rwanda in 1994, a long overdue ruling, according to the UN-backed tribunal's Acting Prosecutor, General Martin Ngoga. Ngoga says that having to prove in each case that genocide took place wasted time and resources. The Appeals Chamber's landmark decision will relieve the prosecution of this burden and hopefully speed up the pace of proceedings.