A human rights group has called for the immediate release of nine human rights activists arrested for protesting school fees in the city of Lubumbashi, southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Association Africaine de Defense des Droits de l'Homme (ASADHO/Katanga) said the nine men and women were arrested by the Police Nationale Congolaise on 8 September after organising a peaceful protest against what they believed to be unreasonable school tuition fees. They were demanding that the state assume its responsibilities in supporting education, as many children had been forced to leave school, unable to pay the fees.

At least 25,000 Angolan refugees have been returned to their home country since the start of the voluntary repatriation programme run by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The returns have been organised by UNHCR in cooperation with the governments of Angola and countries of asylum.

President Laurent Gbagbo appointed new ministers of defence and internal security on Saturday, filling key portfolios that had been vacant for six months. The long-awaited move should allow Cote d'Ivoire's derailed peace process to get back on track. Gbagbo named law professor and human rights activist Martin Bleou Minister of Internal Security. Rene Amani, a political independent with close personal links to Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, was named Minister of Defence.

The World Health Organisation warned its members Friday that they are losing the battle against child mortality and may fail to meet a target to reduce it by two-thirds by 2015. WHO data analysis shows no significant strides in the past decade, with mortality rates no longer decreasing in many countries and even rising in some.

Amnesty International has urged President Paul Kgame to guarantee basic human rights for all Rwandese. "President Kagame should exercise the mandate he has won to guarantee the freedom for all Rwandese and for all sectors of society to express their views, in particular with respect to the ongoing campaign for parliamentary elections scheduled for 29 September through 2 October, " the organisation urged.

Things have taken an ugly turn in Burundi, with the two major rebel movements exchanging fire outside the capital, Bujumbura, this week. The larger of the two, Pierre Nkurunziza’s Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), has yet again reneged on the eight-month peace deal it struck with the transitional government.

A national human rights NGO in the Republic of Congo launched a programme on Friday, supported by the US and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), to fight the exploitation and trafficking of children in the country. The project, led by the Association panafricaine Thomas Sankara (Apts), will focus on the dissemination of information to, and the training of, government officials, journalists and civil society organisations. They, in turn, would then be responsible for disseminating this information to the public.

Like most South African teenagers, Koketso Mogongoa loves traditional “pap-en-vleis” and kwaito, but she’s been indulging in curry and “Bollywood” musicals in preparation for a three-year stint in India. Seventeen-year-old Mogongoa, from Lebowakgomo near Polokwane, is one of six Limpopo students awarded a bursary to study engineering, computer programming, and business administration at Punjab University in Punjab, India.

At least 100 000 people have been displaced and farmland, houses and property destroyed by flooding in northern Nigeria. The area governor's spokesperson, Murtala Surajo, said on Monday: "It is too early to estimate the extent of damage but it won't be out of place to say at least 100 000 people are now homeless."

The head of Burundi's power-sharing government and the leader of its largest Hutu rebel group were in Kampala on Tuesday for talks aimed at reviving a moribund truce, days ahead of a regional summit on ending a decade-old civil war in the central African country.

Ivory Coast created a commission made up of members of the army and rebel movements Wednesday to chart the course of disarmament and reunification of the West African nation after a 9-month civil war. The commission must present a timetable for its ambitious task within 48 hours, Prime Minister Seydou Diarra said in the commercial capital, Abidjan.

The Ethiopia-Eritrea peace process is at a “critical” juncture with demarcation of the contested 1,000-kilometre border between the two countries just weeks away, the United Nations stated on Thursday.

The government of Chad has denied claims by the main rebel group to have captured the airport at the northern town of Bardai. The rebel Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJT) said earlier its forces had taken the airport, surrounded the town and killed at least 35 government troops.

West African peacekeepers from Guinea Bissau Wednesday said they were now in full control of the Liberian city of Kakata after days of sporadic battles between government forces and the main rebel group, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development (LURD). “We had to get the rebels out of Kakata in order to ensure security for the civilians who have been caught in days of crossfire,” a spokesperson for the peacekeepers said Wednesday.

International pressure is mounting on the government of Sudan and the main rebel movement, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), to make peace or risk sanctions. Yielding to the pressure, SPLA leader John Garang and Sudan's first vice-president Ali Osman Mohamed Taha began consultations Thursday evening in Naivasha, a town 85 kilometres northwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, to salvage the talks which have already collapsed seven times since last year.

The president of Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG), Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, and four prominent faction leaders met on Tuesday in Mogadishu to discuss the Somali peace talks currently underway in Kenya, one of the leaders told IRIN on Wednesday.

The majority of evidence seems to indicate that the Zimbabwe Government has failed to abide by Commonwealth Principles enshrined in the Harare Declaration, the Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme on the Harare Declaration, the Abuja Agreement itself and subsequent communiqués in the form of the Marlborough House Statement on Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Mid-Term Review Statement. This is according to a background paper from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, entitled “Zimbabwe, the Abuja Agreement and Commonwealth Principles: Compliance or Disregard?”

Relations between Botswana and Zimbabwe are reported to be deteriorating as the Botswana government continues to construct an electric fence along the two countries' border. Botswana is fencing out the increasing numbers of Zimbabweans fleeing their country's economic and political collapse.

Thousands of Eritreans, many of them second- or third-generation exiles, live in refugee camps in the northeast of Sudan. Millions of southern Sudanese have fled to the north where IDP settlements are scattered around urban outskirts. Both groups of displaced people lack adequate education provision. Refugees and IDPs alike are excluded from formal education and employment opportunities due to language barriers, gender/ethnic prejudice and lack of basic skills. Read the full article from the latest edition of Forced Migration Review by clicking on the link provided.

The inquiry led by retired judge Edwin King into alleged racism in South African rugby has been postponed until early next year to allow the Springboks to prepare unburdened for the Rugby World Cup in Australia next month. This was revealed at a special media conference in Durban on Tuesday night attended by Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour in which Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli and manager Gideon Sam apologised for an error in judgement in the manner in which they handled the Geo Cronje and Quinton Davids race issue.