The cessation of hostilities agreement between the government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was renewed on Monday until the end of September. Originally signed in October 2002, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been extended every three months since.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday to protest against continuing violence and abductions in the city, according to one of the organisers.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that lasting peace in Eritrea and Ethiopia cannot be based on "temporary arrangements". In his latest report to the Security Council, issued on Monday, he said the peace process was still at a critical stage.

The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the country's two main opposition factions have signed an agreement on military and security arrangements, a major step towards the formation of a two-year national transitional government, according to the United Nations mission in the country.

A United Nations Security Council delegation hoping to deepen the partnership between the international community and the countries of West Africa, has met with top officials and regional players in Nigeria to discuss the problems facing Guinea-Bissau, Côte' d'Ivoire and Liberia. According to a UN spokesman in New York, the Security Council to West Africa mission travelled to Nigeria's capital Abuja to meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas and other ECOWAS officials.

This year's World Refugee Day, commemorated under the theme “Refugee Youth, Building the Future”, was dedicated to millions of young people whose futures have been jeopardised by war, persecution and self-exile. But young girls in refugee camps claim their rights have been ignored. They cite lack of access to education at the refugee camps, accusing donors of misplaced priorities.

Transparency International has lauded the Government's efforts to fight corruption in the judiciary. Transparency International deputy director Mwalimu Mati said their last index ranked the judiciary as the sixth most corrupt institution. Speaking on phone to the East African Standard, he said there was a need to eradicate corruption in the judiciary to bring back public confidence.

ZOA Refugee Care is a Christian relief and rehabilitation organisation providing assistance to refugees, IDP's, returnees and host populations in some ten countries in Africa, Asia and the Balkans. This is a pioneering position with the aim to establish a ZOA country programme in Eastern DRC.

Raised temperatures due to climate change have been found to reduce the productivity of plants in the depths of Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. Combined with fewer nutrients in shallower areas and less oxygen penetration, this has led to changes in the lake ecosystem. For example, the number of phytoplankton has decreased.

Some 150 Angolan refugees in Namibia are expected to return home next week in the first phase of a voluntary repatriation programme, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last Friday.

Isaias Samakuva last Friday won a landslide victory to become the new leader of Angola's former rebel movement UNITA. Samakuva, formerly UNITA's representative in London and Paris, was elected with 78 percent of the vote at a party congress held in Viana on the outskirts of the capital, Luanda.
Related Link:
BBC profile of new leader
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3031752.stm

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said last Wednesday there was a need for people involved with refugees and asylum seekers to be equipped with necessary skills that can help them spot terrorists wishing to enter Malawi under the guise of asylum seeking. Speaking in an interview in Mzuzu at a stakeholders meeting on the asylum seeking process in Malawi, UNHCR resident chief of mission Michael Owor said there was a need to train immigration officers, the police, religious and traditional leaders.

Amnesty International is gravely concerned at the persistent reports of torture by members of Uganda's Violent Crime Crack Unit (VCCU). "The recent death of Nsangi Murisidi as a result of torture at the hands of VCCU officers is further confirmation of an entrenched pattern of torture of detainees while in custody," the organisation said. Nsangi Murisidi, a small business holder, was picked up by the VCCU officers from his place of work in Owino Market in Kampala on 14 June 2003, the last day he was seen alive.

The Ugandan opposition party, the Ugandan People’s Congress (UPC) – headed by exiled twice-former Ugandan president Milton Obote – has confirmed that it plans to hold a demonstration against US President George W. Bush’s visit to the country, scheduled for mid-July.

Ugandan officials accuse Islamic fundamentalist forces in the Sudan government of trying to scuttle an agreement Khartoum and Kampala signed three years ago and a protocol that improved relations between the two countries. Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi said that the country was seeking clarification from Sudan about reports that elements in the Sudanese army, possibly those allied to Bashir's political opponents, had resumed arms supplies to rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighting the Ugandan government in the north of the country.

South Africa will maintain its policies on Zimbabwe despite a strong appeal by US Secretary of State Colin Powell for President Thabo Mbeki's government to play a "stronger and more sustained role" to achieve change in Zimbabwe.

Key evidence produced in the treason trial of Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was "inaudible," a government recording expert told the court Wednesday. Constantine Musango, a court official tasked with making transcripts of recorded evidence, was appearing as a state witness in the ongoing treason trial of Tsvangirai and two other senior Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials accused of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe.
Related Link:
* WITNESS SAID TAPE NOT DOCTORED
http://zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=7082

In a speech to Parliament this week, Opposition leader Tony Leon accused President Thabo Mbeki of using racism as an argument to silence his opponents. The following day, Mbeki responded by saying that transformation of society was the only way that national reconciliation could be achieved. Read Leon's speech by visiting http://allafrica.com/stories/200306220019.html and Mbeki's by visiting http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2003/06/22/insight/in02.asp. What do you think of this issue? Send your comments to [email protected]

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) stands accused of subjecting refugees within its African camps to illegal collective punishment by withdrawing food rations for weeks at a time. The organisation is also accused of allowing refugee elites to administer their own forms of 'traditional' justice, which typically see women locked up for adultery and 'criminals' flogged. These allegations and others were made by a distinguished refugee scholar who claims she has witnessed such human rights abuses during her research at several UNHCR refugee camps in Africa.

An unknown number of rebels have been killed in fighting against government troops in northern Burundi, forcing up to 65,000 civilians to flee their homes, army and local authority officials told IRIN on Tuesday.