Attacks by the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) rebel faction led by Pierre Nkurunziza have increased in several areas in Burundi, the latest being the abduction on Monday of a local official in Kayanza Province to the north of the country.

At least ten Bushmen from Molapo, in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), Botswana, have been charged with entering a game reserve without a permit, according to Survival International. Botswana police issued the charges on June 16.

The goal of this mission is to address acute and chronic humanitarian crises within Ethiopia where the inability of the health system to cope fully with the needs of an increasingly vulnerable population experiencing a food crisis has combined with the destabilizing effects of systemic changes in the health system and limited capacity and resources. Merlin proposes to address the most immediate problems facing the health sector. Project activities will provide immediate relief to the population in the short term but will also affect medium and longer term issues surrounding the identified gaps within the health sector.

President Yoweri Museveni, on a state visit to the US, has accused Sudan of secretly arming Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army and fuelling the insurgency in northern Uganda in a bid to expand her borders.

The international community provides protection and assistance to 350 000 Burundian refugees in 10 camps in western Tanzania. With 10 000 Burundian refugees entering adulthood in the camps each year and the prospect for return uncertain, there is much scope for boredom, apathy and crime. What form of education is relevant and stimulating for such refugee populations? A paper from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) entitled ‘Vocational training for refugees: a case study from Tanzania’ evaluates ongoing skills training programmes for Burundian refugees.

Is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) succeeding in moving beyond the traditional role of supplier of food, water and shelter, towards an inclusive, community development approach? Is commitment to a rights-based approach to provision of refugee needs simply rhetorical? Are refugees enthusiastic about the new approach and seeing concrete benefits?

Is the impact of refugees always negative? Are governments that accept refugees justified in depicting them as a burden? Or are refugees potential agents of development? Could support of livelihood activities enable refugees to lessen their dependence on aid and reduce tension with their hosts? Could locals benefit from refugee camp infrastructure when refugees go home? A working paper entitled ‘The role and impact of humanitarian assets in refugee-hosting countries’ from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees series ‘New issues in Refugee Research’ focuses on the humanitarian assets and infrastructure provided to refugee hosting countries in order to better understand the consequences of refugee and humanitarian assistance.

The Liberian capital Monrovia remained quiet last Thursday for the second day running, but relief workers said nearly 50,000 people displaced by a rebel push into the city's western suburbs were living in extremely difficult conditions at a sports stadium and several schools.

Education is a key weapon in preventing girls from falling victim to child trafficking, Bjorn Ljungqvist, the head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ethiopia, said last Thursday.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reached an agreement with the governments of Eritrea and Sudan on where to open a humanitarian corridor between the two countries to facilitate the repatriation of thousands of Eritrean refugees, the UNHCR has said.

A total of 8,700 Eritreans expelled from Ethiopia in 1998, and who have been homeless ever since, have been given farmland by the Eritrean government. The 2,870 families have each been given one hectare of land.

Of the 47 AU Member States which have ratified the 1969 OAU Convention on Refugees, only 28 had enacted legislation to give effect at the national level to the international obligations they have undertaken, said Ilunga Ngandu, UNHCR Regional Liaison Representative for Africa. "In many instances, the legislation enacted falls short of the standards laid down in the international instruments. Some laws are formulated and applied as instruments of control, focusing on the obligations of refugees, while remaining silent on their civil, social and economic rights, or severely curtailing these rights," he said in an address to the 33rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights held in Niamey, Niger between 15 and 29 May.

The South African Human Rights Commission (HURISA), in a statement to the 33RD session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights held in late May, urged the commission to consider the impact that privatisation was having on the implementation of socio-economic rights enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights not only in South Africa but in countries throughout the continent.

In late April 2001, lethal provocations by elements of Algeria’s National Gendarmerie triggered protracted and deadly rioting in Kabylia. That the unrest from Kabylia’s Black Spring continues to this day reflects the political system’s nation-wide failure to adopt reforms that address its deficit of democratic representation, says the International Crisis Group. Neither the regime, nor the Kabyle political parties nor the so-called “Coordinations” that lead the protest movement in the region has to date proposed a serious formula for ending the impasse.

While angry and reluctant members of the UN Security Council voted last Thursday to extend its exemption of U.S. soldiers and officials from the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court (ICC) for a second year, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld threatened to block funding for NATO's new headquarters in Brussels unless Belgium amended or withdrew a controversial law permitting its courts to try foreigners for war crimes and genocide.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) says it has received disturbing reports of the harassment of lawyers at police stations throughout the country. "This is a very serious issue and is of grave concern to ZLHR," the organisation said in a press statement.

Angola's ruling MPLA has started preparations for a landmark congress in December that will see the most comprehensive cleaning out of a revolutionary movement in Africa. President José Eduardo dos Santos said 45% of the party's leadership would be swept out to make way for new blood. He is insisting that every position, including that of leader, be contested at what will be the MPLA's fifth congress.

There are an estimated 100 million small arms in the hands of individuals, or militia groups, in Africa, according to various reports. The proliferation of such weapons was the major factor in the ethnic and religious strife, political instability and violent crime on the continent, the reports say. A Kalashnikov, or an AK-47 rifle, costs as little as 15 U.S. dollars in Bunia, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The district of Ituri in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing spiralling violence bordering on genocide. The crisis urgently needs to be stopped. However the French-led Interim Emergency Multinational Force (IEMF) being deployed to Bunia, the administrative centre, is totally insufficient. A much bigger UN intervention force is needed, that operates over a greater geographic area and stays much longer than the few months currently envisaged. There must also be sustained pressure on Rwanda, Uganda and Congo's leaders - and their proxy militias - to support the local pacification process in the area and finalise negotiations towards the establishment of a legitimate transitional Congo government. This is according to a new report from the International Crisis Group.

The UN refugee agency has evacuated its international staff from Monrovia amid weekend fighting near the Liberian capital and reports of violence and looting in the nearby refugee camps. UNHCR has expressed concern for 33 national staff who stayed behind, as well as some 15,000 Sierra Leonean refugees previously hosted in camps near Monrovia.