"Over the past month, the FXI has been supporting the Shack Dwellers' Movement in Durban, called Abahlali Base Mjondolo, in their attempts to hold a march in the city. This was the second time that the organisation has wanted to hold a march. On the first occasion, in November 2005, the march was banned by the municipality and protestors were attacked and fired upon by police."

Life for some Zimbabweans can only be described as hell on earth. As the world celebrated International Women's Day, 33-year-old Fungai Katsande finds herself worse off than ever. Waking up everyday to face the challenges of life makes her want to break down in tears. "My husband is sick, my child is sick, I am sick and I do not know who is going to help me", she says quietly. Visit Zimbabwe's civic and human rights web site incorporating an online directory for the non-profit sector, to read the full story.

The producer of a new film about the 1994 Rwandan genocide has responded to criticisms that the BBC-funded drama traumatised survivors of the massacre. Shooting Dogs dramatises events that took place between 6 and 11 April 1994 at the Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO) school complex in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. Part of the recreation saw hundreds of Rwandan extras play members of the Interahamwe militia, the Hutu extremists held responsible for the 1994 genocide. According to Mr Belton, 15 students attending lessons at the school required hospital treatment after becoming distressed by the pretend mob's chanting and whistling.

A revised Humanitarian Appeal for Somalia was launched in Nairobi by the Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mr Christian Balslev-Olesen, to seek additional funding to respond to the critical needs of 2.1 million people whose already chronically food insecure and dire humanitarian situation has been further aggravated by the worst drought in a decade.

The people of southern Sudan nickname them "tong tong", referring to their notorious tactic of chopping off ears, lips and arms. Top UN officials in Sudan call them an international terrorist group whose actions are "brutal and absolutely unforgivable". And commanders of the SPLA, the former rebels of southern Sudan, call them the deadliest and most dangerous of all militias supported by the Sudan government. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has effectively extended its reign of terror from Uganda into the deepest jungles of Southern Sudan, causing death and destruction, disrupting relief operations, cutting off trade routes and preventing the return of refugees.
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Zimbabwe State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa has warned opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his supporters that the government will crush any mass protests against President Robert Mugabe. "We are watching them closely. We heard his [Tsvangirai's] threats and we hope they will just end as threats, but if they start destroying things then they will see us," Mutasa told independent news service ZimOnline, adding that if Tsvangirai and the MDC want war with the government, then it is more than ready for them, reports the Mail and Guardian.

On Saturday March 18, the USS Cape St. George and USS Gonzales opened fire on Somali vessels inside the Somali coastline, killing one while taking others into custody. The office of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center received calls from Somalia, and therefore asks the US government to release those in detention and offer an accurate explanation about the details of the incident.

The world's estimated 17 million international refugees are not seen as likely to send remittances, or money, to families back home. However, refugees resident in developed countries do send money, not only to their countries of origin but also to neighbouring countries where family members are at earlier stages of the asylum-seeking process.

Fighting between Guinea Bissau troops and Senegalese separatists has forced more than 4,500 people to flee their homes in the past several days, humanitarian officials have said. Since Thursday last week, the Guinea Bissau military have been bombarding rebels from Movement of the Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) in the area of Sao Domingo, a city just inside the Guinea Bissau border whose entire civilian population has fled. Entire towns and villages on in the border region are deserted after internal fighting within the MFDC spilled into Guinea Bissau last week.

This report presents the results of 41 site-surveys reporting mortality and nutrition data in refugee settings over 2005 and contained in the Complex Emergency Database (CEDAT). CEDAT is a global, shared searchable database on complex humanitarian emergencies.

In recent years, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regional offices in Cairo, has referred approximately 4,000 recognised refugees per year for resettlement to the United States, Canada, Australia and a number of other smaller receiving countries, making it the largest such programme in the world. But despite this, there has been little research conducted into the expectations and experiences of the refugees themselves on this process. This study aims to investigate Sudanese refugees' expectations of life in resettlement while in Egypt, and upon arrival in the US, Canada and Australia, and hopes to facilitate these findings with governmental, non-governmental and intergovernmental agencies.

Wilson Akera hates living in Padibe camp for internally displaced persons because life is generally unbearable but he is even more scared of the prospect of returning home soon as he believes insecurity is still rife in the villages. "We are willing to go home and end this cycle of despair, but we are uncertain of our security," Akera said. "The area a few kilometres out of here is a den of the unknown. Groups of rebels still loiter there." Akera is one of the 1.6 million-plus people who have been displaced by two decades of war between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda.

In August 2003, the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (RSG) on internally displaced persons (IDPs) undertook an official visit to Uganda in order to "gain a better understanding of the situation of internal displacement in Uganda, with a particular focus on persons displaced by the conflict with the LRA and to explore ways of enhancing the response of the Government of Uganda, UN agencies, NGOs and other actors." The RSG made 26 individual recommendations. This report seeks to follow up on these recommendations and discern the extent to which changes have taken place, whether positively or negatively.

The European Union wants Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) members to sign a treaty that would usher in stability, security and development in the Horn of Africa. The EU also said it was willing to give Igad Sh344 million to deal with migration and refugees. European Commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, Louis Michel, said such a regional pact would complement programmes to address cross-border issues.

Seven countries have agreed to deploy security forces to Somalia to help find lasting peace in the country. Under the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, the countries also agreed to establish a regional emergency fund involving the private sector to fight ravaging famine in the Horn of Africa. In a 56-point communiqué released after a one-day Summit in Nairobi, Presidents Kibaki, Omar El Bashir (Sudan), Abdullahi Yusuf (Somalia), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Ismael Omar Guelleh (Djibouti) further welcomed the progress made in the implementation of peace deal for Sudan.

House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) delivered an emotional account of the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, which she called "a challenge to the conscience of the world," in an address hosted by the Center for National Policy last Friday. Pelosi visited refugee camps in Chad in February. She recounted the deplorable conditions that the people of Darfur are forced to live in, where refugees - including children and pregnant women -have to walk several miles for water and firewood and live in "inhuman" sanitary conditions.

Zimbabwe's local authorities and health experts have warned that the erection of ventilated pit latrines by the small number of beneficiaries of the country's urban renewal housing project could pose a serious health hazard. Government has encouraged the occupants of the 150 new houses hastily constructed after the controversial Operation Murambatsvina (Clean out Garbage), which affected hundreds of thousands of people last year, to build the toilets while they await the installation of formal ablution facilities.

The European Parliament today (March 16) called on Senegal to bring Hissène Habré to trial or extradite the former dictator of Chad to Belgium, where he is wanted to stand trial. Habré's victims and their supporters cheered the European Parliament's decision. Habré, who fled to Senegal in 1990 after an eight-year rule marked by widespread atrocities, was first indicted in 2000 in Senegal.

The International Criminal Court, which has a Congolese rebel leader in jail as its first defendant, will have speedier proceedings than the U.N. special tribunal for Yugoslavia, the court's chief prosecutor said Saturday (March 18). The Criminal Court's first prisoner, Thomas Lubanga, was flown to the Netherlands just before midnight Friday and taken into custody at the court's newly opened detention unit - the only inmate there so far. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the arrest warrant covered crimes committed after July 1, 2002, when the world's first permanent war crimes court came into existence.

Moves to try former Liberian President Charles Taylor for crimes against humanity in a Sierra Leone court are a warning to the world's warlords that they cannot escape justice, the court's chief prosecutor said. Newly-elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Friday (March 17) she had asked Nigeria, where Taylor lives in exile, to consider handing him to a UN-backed Special Court in Freetown, which has indicted him for his part in Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.