The UN refugee agency has signed an agreement with the government of Sierra Leone and various non–governmental organisations (NGOs) to combat the deadly Lassa fever that has so far infected 80 people in the country's refugee camps and nearby host communities.

Refugee reception centres in South Africa are critically understaffed and cannot meet their obligations, Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Wednesday. He was replying to a written question in the National Assembly on whether his department has sufficient capacity to process applications for refugee status.

Justice Paddington Garwe, the Judge President, this week threw out an application for the alteration of bail conditions imposed on Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president, and two of that opposition party's top officials facing high treason charges. The court also refused to grant an application for the temporary release of Welshman Ncube's passport.

Gibson Sibanda, deputy president of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was due to find out on Thursday if his bail application had succeeded. He was arrested on Monday on charges of contravening the Public Order and Security Act. A packed Bulawayo courtroom, surrounded by troops and police, heard the state tell the court why it should deny Sibanda bail.

"In short, the most recent wave of violence, like other acts of political violence in Zimbabwe, are part of an organised, coordinated and targeted campaign meant to terrorise and intimidate any voices of dissent into silence by brutally retaliating against perceived dissidents," says the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition in a report highlighting just a few of the hundreds of cases of victimisation by state agents against individuals who were believed to have organised the recent stay away.

Scores of people were feared killed at the weekend in clashes over land rights near the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt in the troubled Niger delta, according to police. Fighting broke out on Saturday between two rival groups seeking control of Bakana, said state police spokesperson Barasua Ireju.

Congolese representatives have hailed the historic signing of a peace agreement and said it paved the way for the reconstruction of the country. But delegates also noted that tough times lie ahead as they seek to implement the peace deal. All the sides in the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a peace deal that will pave the way for elections in two years' time. Forty-four groups - including armed factions, exiled political parties and civil society groups - signed the Final Act at Sun City. The signing ceremony signalled the end of the South African-sponsored Inter-Congolese Dialogue (ICD) which began 14 months ago in the same venue.

The president of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which borders Eritrea, has warned of local clashes following a recent announcement that the controversial village of Badme is in Eritrea. Tsirgay Berhe, who heads the regional government in Tigray, said the local population might not accept the decision. On Friday, the independent Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) categorically stated that the symbolic village of Badme - where the two countries' border war flared up in 1998 - was in Eritrea. The EEBC rejected attempts by Ethiopia to "vary" the delimited border line, ahead of physical demarcation due to start in July.

More than 1.7 million internally displaced persons (IDP) have returned home since peace was achieved in the country in April last year. This was announced on Tuesday in Luanda by social welfare Minister Joao Baptista Kussumua, who pointed out the provinces of Bie, Huambo, Huila, Kwanza-Sul and Malange as the largest recipients.

Amnesty International and the Nigerian Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEPAD) on Monday expressed deep concern about human rights violations and an increase in political violence in the run-up to Nigeria's federal and state elections, scheduled for April and May 2003. In a joint statement, the organisations said that reports of political violence, including the assassination of political leaders, clashes between supporters of different political persuasions - both within political parties and between rival parties - and the intimidation and harassment of candidates and sympathisers had risen considerably in recent months.

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, denounced on Tuesday the capture of two towns in eastern DRC by a Rwandan-backed rebel group, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma (RCD-Goma). "The attacks caused large displacement of people and a report, yet to be confirmed, suggests that RCD[-Goma] has the intention of carrying on with territorial conquests in Kasuo, Bingi and Lubero, where MONUC opened a reception centre for the purpose of its disarmament, demobilization and repatriation (DDR) operations," MONUC said.
Related Link:
* New stand-off threatens peace deal
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=37&o=17869

In Burundi the first period of a three-year transitional government is drawing to an end. Under the terms of the peace agreement to end the civil war, presidential powers are to be transfered from a Tutsi to a Hutu on 1 May. But speculation among analysts and commentators over what the future holds for Burundi is rife. Aid agencies in western Tanzania and some Burundians are not relying on a smooth transition of power. They believe that waiting till the day will be too risky. The result is that refugee numbers have been mounting steadily and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has put in place a contingency plan to deal with a fresh influx.

Rwandan children still suffer the devastating consequences of the 1994 genocide and the war that preceded and followed it, Human Rights Watch says in a 80-page report, “Lasting Wounds: Consequences of Genocide and War for Rwanda’s Children”. In the report, Human Rights Watch documents the widespread abuse and exploitation of children in 1994 and since. In the violence nine years ago, hundreds of thousands of children were killed and maimed, physically and psychologically. Hundreds of thousands of children were orphaned and many now try to cope on their own. Families all over the country have opened their homes to needy children but, themselves living in poverty, they have not always respected foster children’s rights.

Africa Action is circulating the statement available through the link to a worldwide audience. They are seeking endorsements from organisations around the world and will release the statement publicly on or around April 15. Please register your organisational endorsement on their website at http://php.africaaction.org/action/moneyaids.php and please circulate the statement to other organisations and networks.

Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi is to step down next year, abandoning attempts to change the constitution to allow him to run for a third five-year term. In an address to the nation Muluzi said he had endorsed a cabinet proposal for the economic planning minister, Bingu Wa Mutharika, to run as the ruling United Democratic Front candidate.

West African governments are failing to address a rampant traffic in child labor that is growing worse because of the AIDS crisis, Human Rights Watch charges in a new report. The 79-page report, "Borderline Slavery: Child Trafficking in Togo,"
highlights Togo as a case study of trafficking in the region. The report documents how children as young as three years old are exploited as domestic and agricultural workers in several countries.

A coalition of political parties in Enugu State has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun alleging a plot to foment violence by the state government at the April elections using 135 senior and junior police officers aided by thugs.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has comfortably retained two parliamentary seats in the Zimbabwean capital after by-elections at the weekend. The weekend polls were described as largely peaceful by diplomats and the police, but marked by strong opposition claims of voter intimidation and ballot fixing.

A spokesman for TNG Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah said on Monday that Somalia's Transitional National Government was not planning to leave peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya, despite a meeting in Mogadishu at the weekend between the TNG and faction leaders. Ahmed Isse Awad, head of the prime minister's office, told IRIN the meeting was not an alternative to the Kenya conference. He described it as a consultative meeting to discuss ways of bringing stability to the Somali capital.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says the voluntary repatriation of Eritreans from Sudan is set to resume soon. The convoys, returning Eritrean refugees to their homeland, stopped last October due to military activity in the Kassala area of Sudan and the closure of the Eritrea-Sudan border.