Hundreds of families are fleeing their homes in Mogadishu's southwestern Medina district after fierce clashes broke out in the Somali capital last week. Many families had lost relatives "to indiscriminate shelling by both sides", a local journalist told IRIN. Residents began fleeing Medina after fighting between rival factions broke out on 26 February. "They are basically leaving so as to keep what is left of their families alive," he said.

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) resumed in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday. The negotiations will focus on the administration of the three disputed areas of Southern Blue Nile, the Nuba Mountains (Southern Kordofan State) and Abyei (also Southern Kordofan).

Fewer than 1,000 Rwandan refugees remain in Tanzania - roughly 700 in Ngara and 300 in Kibondo - with returns continuing, according to Ivana Unluova, the spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The United States and Rwanda have agreed to exempt each other's citizens from prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the US State Department said. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, and Charles Murigande, the Rwandan Foreign Minister, will sign the accord, known as an Article 98 agreement, at the State Department.

At the conclusion of a week-long visit to Sierra Leone Under-Secretary-General Olara A. Otunnu, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, has called upon the international community to continue to support the country in the peace-building period so that the impressive gains made so far in the rehabilitation and protection of war-affected children can be strengthened and sustained.

When the leaders of the Boeremag were tracked down and arrested last year, investigators came across a document describing how the organisation planned to take over SA. Among the institutions the plotters wanted to seize in the first stage of the coup were television and radio channels, power stations and abattoirs. Why abattoirs?The plotters wanted to trick blacks into abandoning the interior of the country for the east coast. So they planned to line all eastbound highways with raw meat. The blacks would follow the trail, the plotters believed, and once they were all in KwaZuluNatal, the borders of the province would be closed. Trapped in the eastern lowlands, they would be herded northwards, at gunpoint, into Mozambique. Think about it. And once you have gotten over how staggeringly stupid the plotters were, think about it again. How on earth did a group of men, most of whom grew up in rural SA, cheek-byjowl with black communities, learn so little about their fellow human beings during the course of their lives?

Burundi's transitional government and the country's main rebel movement, Pierre Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), recommitted themselves on Sunday to implementing past agreements to end nearly 10 years of civil war.

Uganda's rebel leader, Joseph Kony, has declared a ceasefire in northern Uganda to pave the way for talks to end the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in the region, but his gesture has been greeted with a mixture of hope and scepticism.

At least 44 people, including seven policemen, have been killed in clashes between nomads and farmers in north-eastern Nigeria. Police were sent to quell the unrest on Saturday, but according to police spokesman Chris Olakpe "were killed in cold blood by the warring factions".

Poets Against the War provides a venue for poets to voice their conscience against impending war, and to encourage peaceful means of resolving conflict in company with the world community. To this end, Poets Against the War will facilitate the outcry of poets in various ways, including publishing poetry via its website and other print media, through newspaper ads and the broadcast media, encouraging public readings, and supporting the production of a documentary that chronicles a movement that has given rise to the largest chorus of poets in history.

A warrant of arrest has been issued against former Daily News editor Geoff Nyarota, reports MISA-Zimbabwe. The warrant was issued after Nyarota failed to appear in court for a hearing in which he is charged with publishing falsehoods. Nyarota is jointly charged with Lloyd Mudiwa, a Daily News reporter. The two are being prosecuted under section 80 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

We are seeking applicants with significant experience in the management of emergency programmes involving food aid, a high level of competence in the area of proposal and report writing, sound knowledge of logistical, administration and financial systems, and the ability to work under pressure. This post requires strong representational and communication skills as well as proven team management and team building skills.

The first part of the formal inquiry conducted by the Ombudsman into over 100 complaints regarding compensation of communities affected by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) ended at the National Convention Centre (NCC) on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 with compensation for communal assets, threshold payment and resettlement in general dominating the discussions. Most of the complaints put forward by the communities affected by the mammoth Project were similar to those presented in the first day of the inquiry and included delayed payment of compensation for communal assets, gardens, threshold payment and the poor and shoddy workmanship on the houses built for them by the Project, and lack of basic household equipment such as stoves supposed to have been provided by the Project.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel 2002/2003 budget has been likened to “sweet fruits” when he dished out goodies in his annual speech. Manuel has been praised for his pre-election year budget, which boosts social spending and grants to the poor. It puts money into the taxpayer’s pocket without compromising fiscal discipline.

An association of theatre groups in Burundi has developed innovative ways of sensitising internally displaced persons (IDPs) about their rights. The latest issue of Forced Migration Review, published by the Refugee Studies Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council, details how the association, known as Tubiyage, stages plays in IDP camps to tell the people about their rights.

Thousands of West Africans who fled Cote d'Ivoire are stuck in Liberia and Guinea, unable to return to their home countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Togo - Refugees International reported. "An estimated 43,000 people fled Cote d'Ivoire and entered Liberia and Guinea. Thousands more continue to arrive. In addition to 20,000 Ivorian refugees and 45,000 returnees, Liberia has received at least 12,000 nationals of third countries, with the majority from Burkina Faso," RI said on Thursday.

One of Togo's oldest opposition parties, the Union des Forces du Changement (UFC-Union of the Forces for Change), has announced its withdrawal for the opposition coalition, which groups all of the country's opposition parties. The UFC said it would withdraw because the coalition had agreed to sit on the National Independent Electoral Commission ahead of presidential elections, news sources reported.

Cote d'Ivoire's main rebel group, the Mouvement patriotique de Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI), executed dozens of gendarmes (paramilitary policemen) and some of their children in the central town of Bouake in October 2002, Amnesty International reported this week. The report was denied by the MPCI, which called it a political diversion.
Related Link:
* Gbagbo lashes out at critics
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32612

President Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea has said the electoral process is ongoing and will be "seriously implemented". Speaking at the opening session of National Union of Eritrean Women's (NUEW) congress on Thursday, he said the process had been delayed "because of Ethiopia's war, the disruption caused by internal defeatists and external intervention". But, he said, it was "firmly on the agenda and would be seriously implemented".

The signing of a ceasefire for the Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will take place on 10 March, Thomas Lubanga, leader of the Bunia-based Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) rebel movement, told IRIN last Friday. He was accused by the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, of blocking the signing of the ceasefire that was to have taken place on 19 February. Lubanga, in turn, accused MONUC of favouring the DRC and Ugandan governments, which, he alleged, supported the creation of a rival militia to the UPC, namely the Front pour l'integration et la pacification de l'Ituri.